Scoping opinions are a kind of data synthesis, which comply with a scientific strategy to map proof on a subject and establish predominant ideas, theories, sources, and information gaps. The Canadian Institutes of Well being Analysis (CIHR) defines a scoping assessment as:
‘exploratory initiatives that systematically map the literature accessible on a subject, figuring out key ideas, theories, sources of proof and gaps within the analysis’ and notes ‘They’re usually preliminary to full syntheses, undertaken when feasibility is a priority – both as a result of the doubtless related literature is considered particularly huge and numerous (various by technique, theoretical orientation or self-discipline) or there’s a suspicion that not sufficient literature exists.’
Why would somebody wish to do a scoping assessment in comparison with a scientific assessment?
Systematic opinions are helpful for answering clearly outlined questions (for instance, “Does this intervention enhance specified outcomes compared with a given comparator on this inhabitants?”), whereas scoping opinions are helpful for answering a lot broader questions (comparable to “What’s the nature of the proof for this intervention?” or “What is thought about this idea?”).
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M18-0850
Nonetheless, not sufficient researchers know the way to conduct a rigorous scoping assessment.
One well-known strategy for reporting the methodology utilized in a scoping assessment is the PRISMA-ScR (Most popular Reporting Gadgets for Systematic opinions and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Evaluations) methodology. This PRISMA-ScR (Tricco et al. 2018) has a reporting guidelines proven beneath.
PRISMA-ScR is targeted largely on reporting the methodology and outcomes of a scoping assessment. To truly discover ways to do a scoping assessment, I’d level you to the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). The JBI web site has numerous finest apply paperwork regarding scoping opinions. There’s a complete JBI Handbook for Proof Synthesis that was most not too long ago up to date in March 2024. Different useful paperwork embrace:
Cochrane Coaching has a useful video describing what scoping assessment is and gives some examples.