Interactive platform for the exploration of large-scale ‘living’ systematic maps

AbstractResearch syntheses, such as systematic maps or evidence and gap maps, provide valuable overviews of the coverage of research in a particular field.They serve as pointers for funders and researchers to identify important gaps in the literature where more research is needed but also to find relevant work for more in-depth systematic reviews or meta-analyses.However, systematic maps become outdated quickly, sometimes even after they are released due to the time it takes to screen and code the available literature and long publication processes.Furthermore, the write-up of the synthesis (in form of a peer-reviewed article) can only serve as a high-level summary—for detailed questions one would need full access to the underlying data.To this end, we developed an interactive web-based platform to share annotated datasets.For some datasets, where automated categorisation passes the necessary scientific quality standards, we also update the data as new research becomes available and thus make them ‘living’.