Enhancing rigor and practice of scoping reviews in social policy research: Considerations from a worked example on the American with Disabilities Act

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Article explores the challenges, benefits, and procedures for conducting rigorous exploratory scoping reviews of diverse evidence in informing disability and rehabilitation research and practice. This journal published an article by Rumrill, Fitzgerald, and Merchant in 2010 explaining the utility of and process for conducting reviews of intervention-based research. There is still need to consider how to apply such rigor when conducting more exploratory reviews of heterogeneous research. This article expands upon Rumrill, Fitzgerald and Merchant’s framework and considers its application to more heterogeneous evidence on the impact of social policy. A worked example of a scoping review of the Americans with Disabilities Act is provided with a procedural framework for conducting scoping reviews on the effects of a social policy. The need for more nuanced techniques for enhancing rigor became apparent during the review process. There are multiple methodological steps that can enhance the utility of exploratory scoping reviews. The potential of systematic consideration during the exploratory review process is shown as a viable method to enhance the rigor in reviewing diverse bodies of evidence.

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