title: Enhancing rigor and practice of scoping reviews in social policy research: considerations from a worked example on the Americans with disabilities act.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is increasing theoretical consideration about the use of systematic and scoping reviews of evidence in informing disability and rehabilitation research and practice. Indicative of this trend, this journal published a piece by Rumrill, Fitzgerald and Merchant in 2010 explaining the utility 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.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This article explores the challenges, benefits, and procedures for conducting rigorous exploratory scoping reviews of diverse evidence.
  
  
  METHODS
  The article expands upon Rumrill, Fitzgerald and Merchant's framework and considers its application to more heterogeneous evidence on the impact of social policy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois-Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah Parker
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.affiliation: Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois-Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gould
authors.affiliation: Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois-Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Glenn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fujiura
mesh_terms: D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D012106:Research / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States; D000098584:Scoping Reviews as Topic
keywords: ADA; Policy analysis; exploratory review; systematic review