Exploring Scoping and Mapping Reviews

This book chapter discusses the methods and applications of scoping and mapping reviews in medical research, explaining their distinct roles and how they relate to each other. Scoping and mapping reviews are both important exploratory tools designed to address broad research questions by summarizing a wide range of evidence. Scoping reviews are useful for providing an initial overview of the available literature, helping to clarify research questions and identify gaps in knowledge, especially for complex topics. In contrast, mapping reviews are effective for visually summarizing and categorizing existing literature, which helps identify themes and gaps in research. The chapter outlines the step-by-step processes necessary for conducting these reviews, from defining the research question to extracting data and presenting results. It also covers the advantages and challenges associated with each type of review, highlights the importance of involving stakeholders, and discusses the strategic use of different data extraction tools to improve the accuracy and relevance of the results.