Systematic Maps are overviews of the distribution and abundance of evidence in relation to multifaceted elements of a broad question of policy or management relevance. The process and rigour of the mapping exercise is the same as for systematic review except that no evidence synthesis is attempted to seek an answer to the question. Some critical appraisal of the quality of the evidence is encouraged but may be limited when the quantity of articles is very large (and even absent in some circumstances). Authors should note that all systematic maps published in Environmental Evidence will have been conducted according to the CEE process, including registration and publication of a protocol. Please contact the Editors at an early stage of planning your review. Full guidelines and standards can be accessed here and should have been read carefully at the protocol stage.

Note that Environmental Evidence now considers it mandatory for all submitting authors to complete the relevant ROSES forms as part of their submission to demonstrate that they have included all relevant methodological details in their documents. The ROSES forms should be uploaded along with the submitted manuscript as a supplementary file. Failure to do so could result in your manuscript being returned before review. Authors should also use the ROSES template for a flow diagram to report inclusion/exclusion process and included literature sources. Templates for ROSES forms can be accessed here and for flow diagram here. ROSES forms and the flow diagram should always be downloaded from the ROSES website as it contains most up-to-date templates.

For systematic maps to be relevant to policy and practice they need to be as up-to-date as possible. Consequently, at the time of acceptance for publication, the search should normally be less than two years old. We therefore recommend that systematic maps should be submitted no later than 18 months after the search was conducted. We will consider publication of updates of existing systematic maps, typically from three years since the original search, but earlier if the development of the evidence base justifies the update.

Systematic maps should normally be no longer than 20000 words (including references but excluding appendices and additional files).

Please note that your manuscript must include a 'Declarations' section including all of the subheadings (please see below for more information).

Title page

This should list the title of the article. The title should include the review question, for example: What is the effectiveness of intervention A in producing change in subject B? What is the impact of factor X on subject Y?

The title should also indicate that it is a systematic map, for example:

• What is the effectiveness of intervention A in producing change in subject B? A systematic map.
• What is the impact of factor X on subject Y? A systematic map.

The full names, institutional addresses, and email addresses for all authors must be included on the title page. The corresponding author should also be indicated.

Abstract

The Abstract of the manuscript should not exceed 500 words and must be structured into the following separate sections: Background, the context and purpose of the review, including the review question; Methods, how the review was performed including brief overview of all methodological steps; Review findings, the main findings, including results of search and assessment of evidence base; Conclusions, brief summary and potential implications for policy/management and research.

Keywords

Three to ten keywords representing the main content of the article should be given. Please avoid repeating words that are already in the title.

Background

The Background section should be written in a way that is accessible to readers without specialist knowledge in that area and must clearly state - and, if helpful, illustrate - the background to the review and its aims. Reports should indicate why this study was necessary and what it aimed to contribute to the field. A theory of change and/or conceptual model should be presented that links the intervention or exposure to the outcome. The role of commissioners and other stakeholders in the formulation of the question should be described and explained. The section should end with a brief statement of what is being reported in the article. A clear reference should be made to the protocol and any differences between what was planned and what was conducted.

Objective of the Review

This section should describe the primary question and secondary questions when applicable. The primary question is the main question of the review. The secondary questions are usually linked to possible subgroup analyses. This section may also present definitions of the primary question components (e.g. the subject, intervention and outcome measure) but see ‘study eligibility criteria’ below.

Methods

This section should include the design and conduct of the review. This section may be repetitive of the protocol but should be given in full with reference to any deviations from the protocol. A clear description of all review stages should typically follow the format;

Search for articles

Here the searches are described in sufficient detail so as to be repeatable. The following subsections are a guide to the detail required on what was searched and how the search was conducted.

• Search terms and languages. How were decision made on the keywords and languages to be used?
• Search strings for each of the search conducted provided in a supplementary file (search strings refer to combinations of terms using Boolean characters). Trial development of search strings may be included as an Additional File.
• Estimating the comprehensiveness of the search. How did you test how your search performs in terms of identifying all relevant studies?
• Publication Databases and services searched (including details of institutional subscriptions (or date ranges subscribed for each database searched), search options (e.g. ‘topic words’ or ‘full text’ search facility))
• Internet searches conducted. Give details of how you coped with limitations to use of search strings and limiting number of hits considered.
• Specialist searches - Searches for grey literature: stakeholder contacts, searches of organisational websites. Describe use of specific search terms or strings, filtering or limitations.
• Supplementary searches such as Bibliographical searches, hand searches and literature provided directly by experts or stakeholders

Article screening and study eligibility criteria

Screening process

Confirm or state deviations in the screening process and test(s) for consistency of decision regarding inclusion/exclusion, at title, abstract, full-text level. Describe the role of systematic reviewers (who have also authored articles considered within the review) in decisions regarding inclusion or study validity assessment of their own work.

Eligibility criteria

Here confirm (or state deviations) definitions followed to include eligible articles based on the following aspects, so that this stage is transparent and replicable by any external reader.

• Eligible population(s) or subject(s)
• Eligible intervention(s) or exposure(s)
• Eligible comparator(s) (if appropriate)
• Eligible outcomes
• Eligible types of study design

Study validity assessment

Describe how you attempted a preliminary assessment of the quality of included studies. This may be a report of the design of each study or an assessment of internal validity (risk of bias). Report any checklists used and how they deviated from the protocol. Describe how the information from this assessment was used in synthesis and how repeatability of critical appraisal of study validity was tested.

Data coding strategy

Describe here the meta-data that you extracted from each study and how meta-data were recorded as an element of the map. How was the repeatability of this process tested? Report any checklists used and how they deviated from the protocol. Describe any process for obtaining and confirming missing or unclear information or data from authors.

Data mapping method

Describe here how you collated studies in order to present them as a map. Describe the methods used to identify and/or prioritise key knowledge gaps (unrepresented or underrepresented subtopics that warrant further primary research) and knowledge clusters (well-represented subtopics that are amenable to full synthesis via systematic review).

Results

Results of each stage of the map (e.g. search statistics, inclusion, critical appraisal) should be clearly reported. A flow diagram reporting the inclusion/exclusion process should be presented. A narrative synthesis of included studies (usually in tabular form) may be presented (can be as additional material when appropriate). Subsections should follow the format:

Review descriptive statistics (sub-headings as applicable)

Report here the date of the search, number of articles and subsequent studies found in the search and included at each inclusion/exclusion level.

Mapping the quantity of studies relevant to the question

Present here a figure or a database, showing how the relevant literature is organised (categories, coding...) according to transparent, replicable criteria. This map should be readily updatable.

Mapping the quality of studies relevant to the question

The map should provide some preliminary estimate of the quality of the available evidence. This may involve providing a description of the design of each study (or of a representative sample of studies).

The results should include observation on the distribution of articles and relative quantity and quality of available evidence with respect to the broad question and how the question might be broken down to enable full systematic review(s) to be conducted in future. Describe knowledge gaps (unrepresented or underrepresented subtopics that warrant further primary research) and knowledge clusters (well-represented subtopics that are amenable to full synthesis via systematic review)

Limitations of the map

A consideration of the limitation of the map, including limitations due to the search strategy and bias in pool of articles found, should be provided.

Conclusions

This section should be divided into:

Implication for Policy/Management

This section summarises the state of the evidence base in terms of the distribution and abundance of studies captured in the map in relation to different elements of the question. Potential for unpacking the broad question and enabling more detailed evidence synthesis should be highlighted. The intention is to inform and any form of advocacy should be excluded.

Implication for Research

This section summarises the shortcomings of the current evidence base in terms of knowledge gaps and the need for primary research. In this section some advocacy for research is permissible provided it is clearly justified by the review outcome. This should take the form of recommendations for future study designs that would improve the evidence base. 

All manuscripts must contain the following sections under the heading 'Declarations':

• Ethics approval and consent to participate
• Consent for publication
• Availability of data and material
• Competing interests
• Funding
• Authors' contributions
• Acknowledgements
• Authors' information (optional)

Please see below for details on the information to be included in these sections.

If any of the sections are not relevant to your manuscript, please include the heading and write 'Not applicable' for that section. 

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must:

• include a statement on ethics approval and consent (even where the need for approval was waived)
• include the name of the ethics committee that approved the study and the committee’s reference number if appropriate

Studies involving animals must include a statement on ethics approval.

See our editorial policies for more information.

If your manuscript does not report on or involve the use of any animal or human data or tissue, please state “Not applicable” in this section.

Consent for publication

If your manuscript contains any individual person’s data in any form (including any individual details, images or videos), consent for publication must be obtained from that person, or in the case of children, their parent or legal guardian. All presentations of case reports must have consent for publication.

You can use your institutional consent form or our consent form if you prefer. You should not send the form to us on submission, but we may request to see a copy at any stage (including after publication).

See our editorial policies for more information on consent for publication.

If your manuscript does not contain data from any individual person, please state “Not applicable” in this section.

Availability of data and materials

All manuscripts must include an ‘Availability of data and materials’ statement. Data availability statements should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be found including, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. By data we mean the minimal dataset that would be necessary to interpret, replicate and build upon the findings reported in the article. We recognise it is not always possible to share research data publicly, for instance when individual privacy could be compromised, and in such instances data availability should still be stated in the manuscript along with any conditions for access.

Data availability statements can take one of the following forms (or a combination of more than one if required for multiple datasets):

• The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS]
• The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
• All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files].
• The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLIC] but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
• Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
• The data that support the findings of this study are available from [third party name] but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of [third party name].
• Not applicable. If your manuscript does not contain any data, please state 'Not applicable' in this section.

More examples of template data availability statements, which include examples of openly available and restricted access datasets, are available here.

BioMed Central also requires that authors cite any publicly available data on which the conclusions of the paper rely in the manuscript. Data citations should include a persistent identifier (such as a DOI) and should ideally be included in the reference list. Citations of datasets, when they appear in the reference list, should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite and follow journal style. Dataset identifiers including DOIs should be expressed as full URLs. For example:

Hao Z, AghaKouchak A, Nakhjiri N, Farahmand A. Global integrated drought monitoring and prediction system (GIDMaPS) data sets. figshare. 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.853801

With the corresponding text in the Availability of data and materials statement:

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS].^{[Reference number]} 

Competing interests

All financial and non-financial competing interests must be declared in this section.

See our editorial policies for a full explanation of competing interests. If you are unsure whether you or any of your co-authors have a competing interest please contact the editorial office.

Please use the authors initials to refer to each authors' competing interests int his section.

If you do not have any competing interests, please state "The authors declare that they have no competing interests" in this section.

Funding

All sources of funding for the research reported should be declared. The role of the funding body in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript should be declared.

Authors' contributions

The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section. Guidance and criteria for authorship can be found in our editorial policies.

Please use initials to refer to each author's contribution in this section, for example: "FC analyzed and interpreted the patient data regarding the hematological disease and the transplant. RH performed the histological examination of the kidney, and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript."

Acknowledgements

Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the article who does not meet the criteria for authorship including anyone who provided professional writing services or materials.

Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements section.

See our editorial policies for a full explanation of acknowledgements and authorship criteria.

If you do not have anyone to acknowledge, please write "Not applicable" in this section.

Group authorship (for manuscripts involving a collaboration group): if you would like the names of the individual members of a collaboration Group to be searchable through their individual PubMed records, please ensure that the title of the collaboration Group is included on the title page and in the submission system and also include collaborating author names as the last paragraph of the “Acknowledgements” section. Please add authors in the format First Name, Middle initial(s) (optional), Last Name. You can add institution or country information for each author if you wish, but this should be consistent across all authors.

Please note that individual names may not be present in the PubMed record at the time a published article is initially included in PubMed as it takes PubMed additional time to code this information.

Authors' information

This section is optional.

You may choose to use this section to include any relevant information about the author(s) that may aid the reader's interpretation of the article, and understand the standpoint of the author(s). This may include details about the authors' qualifications, current positions they hold at institutions or societies, or any other relevant background information. Please refer to authors using their initials. Note this section should not be used to describe any competing interests.

Endnotes

Endnotes should be designated within the text using a superscript lowercase letter and all notes (along with their corresponding letter) should be included in the Endnotes section. Please format this section in a paragraph rather than a list.