What is the meaning of Scoping Review?
There is a lot of similarity between scoping reviews and systematic reviews but the key difference is that they are conducted for different reasons. The focus of scoping reviews is on the nature, volume an characteristics of the study more than on the analysis and synthesis of the published data. The inception of scoping reviews happened in the early 2000. The gap found by the researchers was to have a review type that was not as detailed as the systematic review but at the same time had more detailing than the usual narrative or summary review that was in use earlier. Few more uses and applications of scoping review can be, identifying or scoping a research area in order to highlight new research directions. It also offers a platform for new researchers to position them as “ thought leaders” within the specific areas. To summarise this, we can say that, researchers may conduct scoping reviews instead of systematic reviews where the purpose of the review is to identify knowledge gaps, scope a body of literature, clarify concepts or to investigate research conduct.
Till now, there isn’t a set methodology for scoping reviews. There are a few general guidelines to be followed. Though no firm established rules are there, scoping reviews must contain valid, transparent research methods and the methods such be such that they can be reproduced by other authors.
Though, scoping review is relatively a new strategy, but it has the capacity to contribute significantly to research if it’s it used correctly.
The purpose and application of Scoping Review:
The application of scoping reviews is more in examining emerging evidence when there is ambiguity about what other questions can be raised and addressed by a systematic review. It helps to report on the type of evidences that address and inform practice in the field and the way research has been undertaken. In contrast to systematic reviews, scoping reviews tend to focus on the nature, volume, characteristics of studies, gaps in knowledge. Whereas the systematics reviews thrust upon synthesizing the data on a particular subject or question.
Another very important application of scoping review is that it can be performed prior to a systematic review in a particular field or topic where the available data is limited or heterogeneous in nature. The Pandemic Covid -19 has seen a lot of scoping reviews because of the emerging nature of the disease and that the data is still being collected because it is a relatively new disease.
Scoping Literature Reviews are the preliminary assessment of the potential size and the scope in the existing literature. The purpose of scoping literature review is to identify the nature and extent of research evidence. It also usually includes the ongoing research.
Scoping Literature review usually requires fewer data sources and does not need the assessment of individual studies. This is to avoid the risk of bias.
A lot of novice researchers often confuse scoping Literature review with mapping reviews. The methodology for scoping is similar to systematic literature review but they are not similar. The application and usage of both is different. There are certain situations where the scoping literature review gives the best results:
- When the scope of conducting systematic literature review is minimal because the body of literature has not been reviewed comprehensively and the nature of the existing literature is large, complex and heterogeneous not allowing precise review of studies
- Scoping literature review is best when it comes to mapping the existing literature in terms of nature, features and volume
- It helps in clarifying and laying out working definitions and conceptual boundaries of a topic or field.
- It works very well to identify gaps in existing literature.
For all those who confuse scoping Literature Review with Systematic Literature Review, here are a few prominent differences between the two:
- Scoping Literature Review answers broader questions. Those with larger application and scope. It involves multiple structured searches rather than a single structured search. A scoping literature review search produces more results as compared to a systematic review.
- It requires to put in more time screening the articles as it is based on inclusion/exclusion criteria and large volume of results are there from broader questions. Because Scoping Literature Review is iterative in nature, some changes become mandatory.
- The extraction of data for scoping review includes charting tables or form. The results include logical diagram or table. What is important here is that it should align with the objectives of the review. It can also include a numerical summary along with a qualitative thematic analysis.
Is a scoping review substantive review:
The highest level of evidence is for systematic reviews, amongst all. Sopping reviews are relatively less detailed as compared to systematic reviews. The risk of bias is also higher due to higher rate of heterogeneity. Consequently, the reliability and level of evidence of scoping reviews is somehow considered to be moderate in nature. However they do have a very strong advantage that sets them apart and that is, they help to map the literature on a specific topic. In addition to that, they can inform future research and help to create systematic reviews on the topic. This makes them become more popular in the field of research in the past few years.
Framework for conducting Scoping Review:
The proposed six stage iterative framework for scoping reviews that has gone through a couple of modifications but largely remains the same is:
- Identification of the research question
- Noting down the relevant studies
- Selecting the specific studies
- Charting the data
- Collecting, briefing or summarizing and reporting the results
- Undertaking a consultation exercise
Different researchers have laid different opinions on the length of a scoping review, but they should be long enough to present the results clearly and at the same time shouldn’t contain redundant or irrelevant information.
Drawbacks of Scoping Review
Scoping review has many applications and advantages, however there are a few disadvantages associated with it.
- The primary disadvantage of scoping review is that due to its vast nature and because it caters to a broad spectrum, the findings are also similarly broad. This may require additional steps at the end of the author to synthesise and draw some useful conclusion
- Scoping reviews are broad in nature, so they compromise on depth. Breadth comes at the expense of depth
- The conclusion of scoping review is towards the research that needs to be conducted. it by itself does not do any contribution to essential research.
Definition of Integrative Review:
An integrative review is a specific method that is used to summarize the literature of the past, both empirical and theoretical in nature. It helps to provide a greater and larger understanding of a specific phenomenon. They have a huge scope in policy making , information search, building practices etc. It helps in the inclusion of diverse practices and methodologies, which are both experimental and non-experimental in nature and has a great role to play in evidence based practice.
The integrative technique has multiple benefits to the scholarly review of data. Some ways that make it exclusively beneficial are evaluating the strength of scientific evidence, finding out the gaps in the current research, bringing forth the need for future research, generating specific research questions, identifying a conceptual framework, to name a few prominent ones.
The integrative process can be split into 5 stages namely,
- Problem identification/formulation
- data collection and Review of Literature
- Evaluation of data
- Data Analysis
- Interpretation of results
Application and Scope of Integrative Review:
Some specific application of integrative review are:
- It is more focused on a phenomenon of interest and gives the freedom for diverse research unlike systematic review. It includes, both theoretical as well as methodological literature as long as it is addressing the aim of the review
- The scope of integrative review is quite wide, it supports a wide range of enquiry, defining concepts, reviewing of conceptual as well as methodological theories
- Examining the different kind of complexities in practice by applying data sources that are diverse in nature.
Significant Characteristics of Integrative Review:
- It is a review method that summarizes past empirical or theoretical Literature to give a comprehensive understanding of a specific issue or phenomenon
- Its application is found to be most productive in nursing practices
- The problem needs to be defined clearly
- The purpose of integrative review has its aim towards the analysis of both, experimental as well as non-experimental research parallelly in order to define new concepts, review existing theories, identify point of gaps in the literature
- Analyse methodological issues
- Its application is best suited for nursing research and it helps in creating nursing practice and clinical practice guidelines. This makes its application domain quite limited and consequently it is not seen getting applied in other areas of research as much.
Drawbacks of Integrative Review:
- Integrative review gives the freedom if incorporating diverse methodologies and thus can lead to inaccuracy and bias
- The review guidelines are not precisely framed thus the method of analysis, synthesis and conclusion is vague and sometimes even confusing
- It is impractical and difficult to combine empirical and theoretical reports
Guidelines for integrative review reporting are missing thus adding a lot of subjectivity in the hands of the researcher.
How to choose the best fit of review for your research
If you are in a fix, wondering whether to perform scoping , integrative or systematic review for your research, the following comparison might help you to determine which review type is best suited for your research.
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Systematic Review |
Scoping Review |
Integrative Review |
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Conclusion
Each research is unique and is undertaken with a purpose that is novel. It is up to the researcher to define the purpose of his research and then on the basis of the field of study, the availability of existing literature, the type of contribution intended to make in the domain of study, the existing resources and other few considerations, the review method can be selected.