A scoping review is exploratory in nature, designed to assess the characteristics and quality of evidence literature related to a specific topic.

Some things to consider:

• Your topic should be one that is focused on a specific issue or intervention that may not have not been widely explored.
• If it is too broad you won't be able to wrangle the literature to a manageable amount.
• If it is too narrow you won't be able to find sufficient literature to produce meaningful results.
• Consult the literature to be sure you are not duplicating existing scoping or systematic reviews.
• Make sure you the time and manpower to complete the review.

Assemble the team

• PI, 2+ reviewers, librarian
• Define roles, responsibilities and expectations at the start of the project

Formulate the question

• Use PCC or other appropriate framework to formulate the research question.
  • Population
  • Concept - Issues, Interventions, Phenomena, Outcomes
  • Context - Setting, Characteristics, External/Environmental Factors
• Explore the literature to see what studies have been done in your area of interest; tweak your question if needed based on what you find.

Develop a Plan/Protocol

• Research Question, objectives and rationale for the study
• Databases and terms/keywords for searching
• Eligibility criteria
  • Study population(s)
  • Study design/methodologies
  • Intervention of interest
  • Outcome(s) of interest
  • Setting
  • Publication type(s)
  • Date range
  • Language
• Define data elements for extraction (create spreadsheet)
• Identify methods for data assessment and synthesis
• Register the protocol (not required)

Conduct literature searches

• Consult/partner with a librarian
• Document process
• Select & search databases as appropriate
• Use results for further "hand" searching
• Find gray of unpublished literature

Collect/organize citations

• Select citation manager
  • Mendeley, Zotero, Endnote
• De-duplicate citations
• Upload citations to screening tool as needed
  • Covidence, Rayyan, Abstrackr, HAWC

Screen citations (two or more team members)

• Review titles & abstracts using protocol inclusions/exclusion criteria
• Locate full text and review second time using protocol inclusion/exclusion criteria
• Create PRISMA flow chart

Extract data

• Extract data elements that address objectives
  • study details - author(s), publication date, title, DOI, etc.)
  • demographics of study population
  • methodology
  • intervention(s)
  • outcome(s)
• Identify key concepts, types of evidence and themes that emerge from the data
• Create data tables that reflect results

Write the review

• Consult guidance documentation for writing/reporting standards
• Write the review
• Create supplementary materials