Deploying elements of scoping review methods for adverse outcome pathway development: a space travel case example

Area of Science:

• Toxicology
• Regulatory Science
• Data Science

Background:

• Health protection agencies need scientific evidence for decision-making.
• Vetting research for guideline development is challenging.
• Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs) provide a framework for toxicological knowledge assembly.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create a protocol for AOP weight of evidence gathering.
• To integrate scoping review methods and AI tools.
• To enhance transparency and reduce workload in evidence synthesis.

Main Methods:

• A space-health AOP was used as a case example.
• A study protocol with screening and search strategies was developed.
• Three reference collection workflows were tested for efficiency.

Main Results:

• Over 34,000 references were screened across 59 searches.
• The most effective workflow used targeted searches, SWIFT Review, and DistillerSR.
• This method efficiently retrieved relevant studies, ensuring transparency.

Conclusions:

• The developed workflow supports AOP development with a transparent and documented approach.
• It balances efficiency and transparency for evidence synthesis.
• Future iterations may include quality assessment and risk of bias analysis.