To introduce the definition, applicable scenarios, methodology and examples of mixed methods systematic reviews, aiming to promote the application of mixed methods in China and to help clinical decision-makers to select appropriate qualitative results from systematic reviews to guide clinical practice.
Informed-evidence decision-making (IEDM) has emerged as the predominant principle of providing guidance for policy-making and practice, however, the best available evidences requisite of performing successfully IEDM. Different forms of evidence and different kinds of review questions call for the development of new approaches that are designed to more effectively and rigorously identify and synthesize the evidence. Fourteen methods of reviewing literature have been recently used to identify and synthesize evidence, of which scoping reviews is increasing popular. This article introduces aspects such as background, purpose and methodological frame work and explains the process of it with an example so that facilitating the dissemination and utilization of scoping review in China.