Scoping Reviews

Your protocol should include a plan for how you will present your results synthesis and your inclusion criteria will help you decide how the data should be mapped most appropriately. However, you can refine this inclusion/exclusion criteria toward the end of the review if you prefer, when you have a better picture of the sort of data that is available in your included studies.

The results of a scoping review may be presented in your final manuscript in a number of ways, such as by using:

• tables and charts, featuring distribution of studies by year or period of publication, countries of origin, area of intervention (clinical, policy, educational, etc.) and research methods; and/or
• in a descriptive format that aligns with the review objective(s) and scope

Note: If you present your data in a table or in a chart, you should also consider including a narrative summary that explains how the results relate to your review objective(s) and research question(s). 

The JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis (Section 11.3.8.1) also states that the results can be classified into main conceptual categories, such as:

• aims
• duration of the intervention
• intervention type
• study population and sample size
• methodology adopted
• key findings 
• gaps in the research

For each category that is reported, a clear explanation should be provided.

Below are some of the requirements for your final manuscript according to  the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis (Section 11.3.) These requirements align with the PRISMA extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). However, if you're planning to publish your review you should also check for any specific journal author guidelines which may differ from those listed below.

• abstract
• introduction
• statement of the primary research question(s)
• inclusion criteria 
• methods 
• tabulated and/or narrated description of the results, with a PRISMA-ScR flow chart
• discussion 
• conclusions and recommendations for future research
• references
• conflicts of interest, acknowledgements, and any sources of funding
• appendixes - including the search strategies for each database and the data extraction instrument