Systematically reviewing the use of participatory methods in energy system modelling and planning literature

This article outlines the systematic review process undertaken to identify what progress has been made on the integration of participatory methods into energy system modelling and planning. As an emergent field that combines technical / social sciences, it presented a couple of interesting challenges. Firstly, the issue of language emerged as there is a wide range of different terms that may be used to refer to both the involvement of stakeholders in research and energy system modelling and planning tools. This required careful consideration of the research questions and search criteria during the initial scoping exercise. On from this, a conceptual framing of what a meaningful stakeholder participation involves was developed to help define the criteria for inclusion in this study and assess the literature to date. Finally, in synthesizing the literature reviewed to provide an overview of the field, several creative data visualizations were produced.•Systematic review process customized to identify literature covering the integration of participatory methods and energy system modelling and planning tools.•Conceptual framework developed to define criteria for inclusion in the compiled database.