Evidence Gap Maps in Education Research

Abstract

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are important techniques because they synthesize results from multiple primary studies on a similar topic. To influence policy, practice, and research, however, synthesis researchers must translate the results for various audiences. Ideally, the translation drives future research agendas, informs policymaking, or assists in practical decision-making. An Evidence Gap Map (EGM), a graphical or tabular visualization of systematic review and meta-analysis results, is one ideal translation technique because it provides a structured framework to assess contexts for which primary evidence is available or to determine whether the effectiveness of an intervention or a program differs across populations, conditions, and settings. To bolster the field and promote the use of EGMs, we provide an overview of what constitutes an informative EGM, detail multiple examples of EGMs using extant meta-analytic results, and present a free R Shiny application we created to easily generate EGMs from typical meta-analytic datasets. We conclude by reviewing education-based systematic reviews that included an EGM to describe the current state of the field.