title: The benefits of systematic mapping to evidence-based environmental management.
abstract: Reviews of evidence are a vital means of summarising growing bodies of research. Systematic reviews (SRs) aim to reduce bias and increase reliability when summarising high priority and controversial topics. Similar to SRs, systematic maps (SMs) were developed in social sciences to reliably catalogue evidence on a specific subject. Rather than providing answers to specific questions of impacts, SMs aim to produce searchable databases of studies, along with detailed descriptive information. These maps (consisting of a report, a database, and sometimes a geographical information system) can prove highly useful for research, policy and practice communities, by providing assessments of knowledge gaps (subjects requiring additional research), knowledge gluts (subjects where full SR is possible), and patterns across the research literature that promote best practice and direct research resources towards the highest quality research. Here, we introduce SMs in detail using three recent case studies that demonstrate their utility for research and decision-making.
authors.affiliation: Mistra Council for Evidence-Based Environmental Management, Stockholm Environment Institute, Box 24218, 104 51, Stockholm, Sweden. neal.haddaway@eviem.se.
authors.forename: Neal R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Haddaway
authors.affiliation: Mistra Council for Evidence-Based Environmental Management, Stockholm Environment Institute, Box 24218, 104 51, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Claes
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bernes
authors.affiliation: Department of Natural Sciences, Mid-Sweden University, 851 70, Sundsvall, Sweden.
authors.forename: Bengt-Gunnar
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Jonsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Lund University, 223 62, Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Katarina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hedlund
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D012107:Research Design
keywords: Environmental policy; Evidence review; Evidence-informed policy; Forestry; Secondary synthesis; Soil carbon