A critical participatory and collaborative method for scoping the literature

The past decade has seen the development of an increasing number of techniques to appraise, summarize and assess published study findings. From systematic to synthesis to scoping reviews, these techniques have contributed to evidence-informed policy and practice. We outline a novel method developed to address the limitations of scoping review designs reported in the literature. A critical, participatory and collaborative method was designed to scope the literature on inequities in access to health care services for rural Aboriginal and African Canadians. Specifically, a community-university collaboration permitted a shared discussion and mapping of inequities in access to health care services and information. As a result of shared understandings from storytelling and discussion, bibliographic searches were better directed, taken-for-granted assumptions in the literature more easily located and questioned, and study findings verified by Aboriginal and African Canadian community representatives who also provided insight and oversight of the development of dissemination tools.