Background:

A range of organisations are engaged in the production of evidence on the effects of social and economic development interventions. The growth in the production of evidence also presents challenges. How can decision makers avoid information overload and access the best available evidence in a specific field? How can we present research in a format that is useful and accessible for a non-technical audience? And how can we ensure limited resources are spent efficiently and important evidence gaps are prioritised?

Objectives:

Evidence gap maps (EGMs) aim to respond to these challenges and present a new addition to the tools available to support evidence-informed policy making. The objective of this project was to develop a method for evidence mapping and visualisation to aid knowledge translation and strategic research prioritisation.

Methods:

We reviewed the methodological literature on evidence mapping and synthesis to identify existing methods to identify, appraise and present evidence from primary studies and systematic reviews. We designed a visual framework for presenting the evidence and worked with web developers to create an interactive and visual platform.
Results/

Conclusions:

EGMs provide a visual overview of what we know and don’t know about the effects of interventions in a sector or sub-sector. EGMs are based on systematic methods and are structured around a framework which schematically represents the types of interventions and outcomes of relevance to the thematic area. They enable policy-makers and practitioners to explore the findings and quality of the existing evidence to facilitate evidence informed decision-making. EGM also identify important 'gaps' where little or no evidence from impact evaluations and systematic reviews is available, and can inform a strategic approach to building the evidence base in a particular sector. The paper provides an introduction to the concept of evidence gap maps and their methodology, and a demonstration of the EGM tool using existing examples.