10.3.4 Introduction

The introduction should be comprehensive and cover all of the main elements of the topic under review, as well as important information and why the topic or question of interest lends itself to a scoping review with a clear rationale for conducting the scoping review. The primary objective of the scoping review should be evident in this section as the introduction situates the justification and importance of the question/s posed.  While many of these details will already have been addressed in the “Introduction” section of the protocol, reviewers should find that the background information provided with the protocol needs modification or extension following the conduct of the scoping review which now introduces the results of the review project. The introduction should conclude with a statement that a preliminary search for previous scoping reviews (and ideally, systematic reviews) on the topic aligning to the same concept was conducted (state the sources searched e.g. JBI Evidence Synthesis, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Campbell Library, etc.).

The introduction should conclude with an overarching review objective that captures and aligns with the core elements/mnemonic of the inclusion criteria (e.g. PCC).