Jurisdictional scans: methodological considerations for systematically analyzing and comparing policy approaches...

Area of Science:

• Public Policy
• Health Services Research
• Comparative Policy Analysis

Background:

• Jurisdictional scans systematically compare policies across regions to inform decision-making.
• These scans offer insights into policy options, implementation, and preparedness gaps.
• Currently, established methodological standards for conducting jurisdictional scans are lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide an overview of methodological considerations for conducting jurisdictional scans.
• To offer practical guidance based on authors' experience and evidence synthesis principles.
• To highlight challenges and support future methodological development in the field.

Main Methods:

• Outlined methodological issues based on experience from a public health preparedness scan.
• Adapted evidence synthesis principles to the unique features of jurisdictional scans.
• Illustrated key stages with a worked example: defining scope, searching, screening, data extraction, and synthesis.

Main Results:

• Systematic approaches enhance transparency, reproducibility, and credibility in jurisdictional scans.
• Challenges include policy document variability and unclear evidence use.
• Iterative refinement, piloting, keyword searching, and structured data extraction frameworks are essential for consistency.

Conclusions:

• There is an urgent need for robust methodological standards and reporting guidelines for jurisdictional scans.
• This paper offers practical guidance and clarifies the value and limitations of these scans.
• Future research should refine standards while maintaining flexibility for diverse policy contexts.