Cultural Adaptation of Promising, Evidence-Based, and Best Practices: a Scoping Literature Review

This scoping literature review of nearly 5,000 peer-reviewed articles from myriad disciplines examines usage of two sets of terms that are common to many researchers, but arcane to many practitioners. Aiming to inform researchers about how scholarly literature that invokes these terms might speak to practitioners, and resulting implications for practice, we review scholarly use of three practice designations (promising, evidence-based, best) and five cultural considerations for those practices (adaptation, competence, modification, responsiveness, specificity). In addition to scoping review methods, we apply social cartography and definitional traces. Findings drive our contention that "promising practice" is the designation that might provide practitioners with the most utility, rather than the frequent-often-unarticulated-uses of best and evidence-based. Likewise, we find copious evidence of cultural considerations being invoked without operationalization. Social cartography reveals few international partnerships and limited domestic leadership among 'leading' research institutions regarding the intersection of practice designations and cultural considerations. Themes from the definitional trace prompt us to invite scholarly debate about a ladder from 'promising' to 'evidence-based' to 'best' and to prompt researchers' efforts to transfer knowledge to practitioners.