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Scoping Reviews

This guide provides a step by step breakdown of how to conduct a scoping review and how librarians can assist in the process.

Team Members Roles

To ensure valid and unbiased methodology of a scoping review, it is important that a minimum of 2 team members perform blinded independent screening at each stage of the process (Title & Abstract screening, Full text screening). A third team member is recommended to break any ties. 

The Covidence platform provides blinded independent screening at each stage. 

Title & Abstract Screening vs. Full-text Screening

Title & Abstract Screening Full-text Screening
  • The first stage of screening.
  • Fast and efficient way to narrow down a list of potentially relevant articles.
  • Often, a large percentage of retrieved articles are excluded at this stage due to being off-topic or not meeting the review’s inclusion criteria.
  • Two reviewers should be screening the title and abstract independently to minimize bias
  • Will only read the abstract of the article
  • Second stage of screening.
  • Involves a thorough review of the full text of the potentially relevant articles
  • It’s used to confirm that the selected studies meet all eligibility criteria.
  • Two reviewers should be screening the title and abstract independently to minimize bias.
  • Allows for a more comprehensive assessment of methodological quality and outcomes.
  • At this stage, you will read the whole contents of the article.

Screening Phases

PRISMA Flow Diagram

The PRISMA Flow Diagram provides transparency and allows for reproducibility of the scoping review. 

The PRISMA flow diagram visually summarizes the screening process. It initially records the number of articles found in each resource and then makes the selection process transparent by reporting on decisions made at various stages of the review. The number of articles is recorded at each step of the screening process. When you're excluding articles at the full-text stage, it is important to include the reasons for exclusion.