Scoping reviews are growing in popularity across nursing and midwifery research as well as beyond in other disciplines. Since Arksey and O’Malley’s initial framework in 2004, this approach to evidence synthesis, which answers different, broader questions about a body of literature than traditional systematic reviews, has undergone several evolutions and is now more rigorous and robust than ever.
Dr Micah Peters, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation’s (ANMF) National Policy Research Adviser (based in the Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre, School of Nursing and Midwifery) previously led the development of the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology for systematic scoping reviews in 2015 and 2017.
Working with a team of international experts including Andrea Tricco and Sharon Strauss, an extension of the ubiquitous Preferred Reporting Guidelines for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist for Scoping Reviews (the PRISMA-ScR) has recently been published in Annals of Internal Medicine (2017 impact factor 19.38), among the top five medical journals globally.
The free, open access article can be accessed here: http://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2700389/prisma-extension-scoping-reviews-prisma-scr-checklist-explanation
Micah will be leading a series of brief workshops on best practice in undertaking and reporting scoping reviews for higher-degree students and staff at the University of South Australia in the coming weeks, and has also collaborated with the UniSA Library team to develop the first library guide for scoping reviews which will be launched online soon.
Dr Micah D J Peters PhD is National Policy Research Adviser (ANMF) in the Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre, School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of South Australia and Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the Adelaide Nursing School at the University of Adelaide
