Scoping Reviews in Social Work

The Joanna Briggs Institute's Reviews Manual, Arksey & O'Malley (2005), and Cochrane Institute guidelines collectively suggest a general 5-step process for conducting a scoping review. These steps are:

1. Developing & registering a protocol
   • State a clear research question
   • Define eligibility criteria
2. Searching the literature
   • Database searching (at least 3 databases, including one multi-disciplinary)
   • Supplementary searching
3. Studying the Selection (2 or more reviewers)
   • Title and abstract screening
   • Full text screening
4. Charting included sources (2 or more reviewers)
   • Chart characteristics of studies (form established a priori)
   • Code sheet
5. Reporting results, implications, and recommendations

For reviews in the social sciences and social work, I highly recommend familiarizing yourself with Arksey and O'Malley's scoping protocol.

Core resources:

• PRISMA for Scoping Reviews: The PRISMA extension for scoping reviews was published in 2018. They offer a checklist which contains 20 essential reporting items and 2 optional items to include when completing a scoping review. Scoping reviews serve to synthesize evidence and assess the scope of literature on a topic. Among other objectives, scoping reviews help determine whether a systematic review of the literature is warranted.
• Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewer's Manual, Chapter 11: Scoping Reviews: JBI, formerly known as the Joanna Briggs Institute, is an international research organisation which develops and delivers evidence-based information, software, education and training.

Several articles provide concise guidance for doing scoping reviews:

• Lockwood, C., Dos Santos, K. B., & Pap, R. (2019). Practical Guidance for Knowledge Synthesis: Scoping Review Methods. Asian nursing research, 13(5), 287–294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anr.2019.11.002

• McKinstry, C., Brown, T., & Gustafsson, L. (2014). Scoping reviews in occupational therapy: the what, why, and how to. Australian occupational therapy journal, 61(2), 58–66. https://doi.org/10.1111/1440-1630.12080

• Peters, M. D., Godfrey, C. M., Khalil, H., McInerney, P., Parker, D., & Soares, C. B. (2015). Guidance for conducting systematic scoping reviews. International journal of evidence-based healthcare, 13(3), 141–146. https://doi.org/10.1097/XEB.0000000000000050

Other recommended resources:

• PRISMA for Scoping Reviews
• JBI Manual for Evidence-Synthesis