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01.07.2022

Criminological scoping reviews as part of a student assignment: methodological considerations

verfasst von: Yinthe Feys

Erschienen in: Quality & Quantity | Ausgabe 3/2023

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Abstract

In this article we reflect on the use of a scoping review method in the course of a student assignment. In total, 24 scoping reviews were conducted on police research topics, following the same procedure with similar yet topic-specific review protocols. We discuss each of the eight phases of the scoping review method and provide examples and good practices on how to conduct these steps. We also focus on difficulties that were experienced and how to overcome them in future scoping reviews. The aim of this article is twofold: providing criminological examples of scoping reviews that can help define new scoping review protocols and avoid difficulties experienced in these reviews on the one hand, and reflecting on students’ participation in the assignment on the other hand to stimulate involving students in scoping review projects more often.

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In literature, several terms have been used to refer to scoping reviews (e.g. scoping studies and scoping exercises). In this article, we consistently use ‘scoping review’ because Pham and colleagues (2014) have found that this term is most frequently used in literature. Moreover, the term clearly indicates that it entails a type of literature review, rather than a ‘study’ or ‘exercise’.

The scoping reviews concerning police careers were supervised by Anse Stevens, PhD researcher and assistant at Ghent University. The results of these scoping reviews will be published in another article.

The lecturers include both supervisors and the professor responsible for the overall course, Prof. Antoinette Verhage.

The scoping reviews were carried out by 68 students that followed the course. Each group consisted of two to three students. The only exception was topic 16 (see later): a student combining the course with a full-time job was allowed to perform the review on his own.

Sharp et al. (2002) pointed out that according to students, the following can have beneficial effects on the outcome of the project: attending conferences, own level of motivation, quality of supervision, writing papers and the subject chosen.

Students were able to ask questions anonymously on the fora of Ghent University, potentially lowering the threshold to ask questions.

These were usually individual questions for feedback, for instance questions about the application of the search strings in the respective databases or about checking if the research was well-executed.

Only one group, which was supervised by the author of this article, took part in a personal Microsoft Teams-meeting. This meeting was initiated after the assignment was submitted because there were some issues regarding the division of tasks (or more specifically: workload). This was reported to the supervisor only after the assignment was handed in. The supervisor organised a meeting with all the group’s students to discuss the problems, identify what went wrong and give some tips on how to improve cooperation in the future (e.g. transparent communication).

We acknowledge that a couple of important manuals were not used to develop the initial method for the student assignment. This is because the lecturers were, at that time, not acquainted with these instruments and developed the scoping review method for the assignment based on their own experiences. Once such manual that could be taken into consideration by other researchers is the JBI manual for evidence synthesis (see Aromataris & Munn 2020).

Before the start of the assignment, the supervisor explored the extent of available Belgian research on these topics and whether scoping reviews on these topics would be feasible. For some topics, however, this exploratory assessment was not entirely correct as no Belgian studies were found based on the initial scoping review protocols. For two topics, the scoping reviews did not yield any publications that were based on Belgian, empirical research (i.e. bodycams and (social) media). Two other topics originally also did not yield any Belgian results, but Belgian research was ultimately found after expanding the scope to Europe (i.e. integrity violations and predictive policing). More information on this can be found in Feys et al. (2022).

When providing feedback, the supervisors made sure that all three components of the PCC-framework were included in the research question: population (i.e. the police), concept (i.e. the topics summarised in Table 1) and context (i.e. geographical demarcation).

Although the JBI manual (Aromataris & Munn 2020) advises to develop the search strategy in consultation with a research librarian or information specialist, that was not possible for the student assignments.

The latter keyword is not a correct term as it is called ‘Algemene Inspectie van de federale politie en van de lokale politie’, generally abbreviated as ‘Algemene Inspectie’.

We chose this journal for a number of reasons: it publishes both theoretical and practice-oriented research, there are no geographical restrictions, and the journal explicitly aims to focus on quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research. Furthermore, Ghent University (including its students) has full access to this journal.

This choice is partly dependent on feasibility considerations. If researchers decide that the keywords should be included in the title, less studies will be found, increasing the chances of missing out on relevant literature. If researchers decide that the keywords should be included somewhere in the running text, you will find more interesting studies but it will also take more effort to screen all the literature found. We recommend to choose for a compromise by looking for the keywords in the abstracts. Studies that do not refer to the keywords in their abstracts will probably have another focus and might be less relevant for the scoping review. This allows for a balance between thoroughness, accuracy and feasibility.

The scoping reviews were conducted between February and June 2021. The actual dates of searching the databases, journal and websites differ between the groups.

We consider research as empirical when the researchers have gathered primary or secondary data themselves.

We did not include additional languages as not all students involved in the assignments have sufficient knowledge of French, for example, which is an official language in Belgium. To safeguard the consistency among the scoping reviews and for feasibility’s sake, all students were asked to limit themselves to Dutch and English.

In total, 96 publications remained on the shortlists of the fourteen scoping reviews. However, the author of this article removed duplicates that were found in different scoping reviews to get a more accurate picture of all the available literature. This resulted in 79 individual publications (see Feys et al. 2022).

A few groups in the domain of police careers first gained feedback from the supervisor and then performed the Google Scholar test. It is difficult to assess if the scoping review had been different should it have been in the opposite direction.

In the domain of health studies, an ACTIVE framework has been developed for stakeholder involvement in systematic reviews (Pollock et al. 2019). This could be worth exploring further for criminological scoping reviews as well.

This decision is based on two sensitivity analyses reported by Feys and Verhage (2018), which explored whether excluding articles that reported less on methodology impacts the findings. The authors concluded that excluding such articles impacts the findings and may lead to biased results.

These reporting criteria were based on the scoping review of the author of this article (Feys et al. 2018), which in turn was based on the scoping review of Verhage and Boels (2017) who also used those reporting criteria. For the student assignment, two criteria were added: the limitations of the study and triangulation of the findings. Other critical appraisal instruments (e.g. CASP 2022; Oklahoma State University 2022) could also be taken into consideration in future scoping reviews.

As it is difficult to assess a study’s methodological quality when the authors do not transparently report their methodology, we focused on reproducibility and rigour in reporting during this limited methodological assessment, rather than drawing conclusions on the study’s quality itself.

Some articles were included in different shortlists but categorised differently in terms of methodological reporting. For instance, the publication of Verhage et al. (2018) was considered ‘sufficient’ in terms of reporting by one group but ‘well-reported’ by another group. The groups differed in the interpretation of triangulation of the findings. The supervisor checked all duplicate publications to verify the assessments.

The COREQ-checklist of Tong et al. (2007) provides clear guidance – in the form of a 32-item checklist – on what to report concerning qualitative research. This broad framework can be useful for students and researchers.

The papers entail many similarities with PRISMA-ScR, the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA, 2022b). We advise readers to consult the PRISMA-ScR for the reporting of their scoping reviews as the assignments discussed in this article solely focused on those elements that were defined as part of the student assignment. For example, the checklist also provides valuable guidance on the different aspects to report, what should be included in the structured summary and title, what needs to be described in terms of the review protocol, eligibility criteria, search strategy, synthesis of the results, etc.

Here again, we advise readers to consult the preferred PRISMA flow diagram (PRISMA, 2022a) for the reporting of their search decision flowchart. The template provided to students (see Fig. 1) is simplified because of its application to the student assignments.

Because of the COVID-19-regulations that were in place at that time, both presentation sessions were organized online by means of Microsoft Teams.

The assignments took place during a period in which the lecturers and students were mostly unable to go the university because of the COVID-19-regulations. In person lectures, feedback moments and guidance might have improved the quality of the support.

The Algemene Inspectie van de federale politie en van de lokale politie is a Belgian police oversight body that also publishes research reports.

The Comité P is a Belgian police oversight body that also publishes research reports.

The Centre for Policing and Security is a Belgian independent organisation that stimulates collaboration between academic partners and police partners, organises seminars and trainings, and publishes an academic policing journal.

Statistiek Vlaanderen is a service of the Flemish government (i.e. decentralised government in Belgium) providing independent research and statistics.

Sander Flight is a Dutch research consultant focusing on safety and criminality issues. He specialises in camera surveillance.

Cahiers Politiestudies is a Dutch-Belgian policing journal, focusing on a Dutch-speaking audience.

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Titel: Criminological scoping reviews as part of a student assignment: methodological considerations
verfasst von: Yinthe Feys
Publikationsdatum: 01.07.2022
Verlag: Springer Netherlands
Erschienen in: Quality & Quantity / Ausgabe 3/2023
Print ISSN: 0033-5177
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-7845
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-022-01425-6

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