Finding summaries of studies
The Department for Education and YEF’s Systems Evidence and Gap Map looks like a table. On the y-axis, it lists the themes and topics of the research study. On the x-axis, it shows which system that study focuses on (for example, education, health, social care). Each study is categorised under at least one theme and system box known as a ‘cell’. So in each cell, you can see how many studies are looking at a particular theme and system combination (for example, how many studies look at practitioners’ experience of education safeguarding).
The default Systems Evidence and Gap Map view is the ‘Mosaic’ style, where the proportion of ‘tiles’ in each cell represents how many studies have been found and the corresponding colour represents the quality of the studies (either ‘High and medium’ or ‘Low’ quality). You can see the exact number of studies when you hover the cursor over the chosen cell.
When you click on a cell, a text box appears that lists all the relevant studies for that particular theme and outcome combination. In the text box there is a brief description of each study (similar to, but not identical to the abstract) and a link that takes you to the website containing the full study.
Filtering your results
You can access the filters by clicking the ‘Filters’ tab in the top left-hand corner of the screen, then ticking your chosen options. You can also access ‘Filters’ when you click on a relevant column/row header on the map.
Filters help you to refine your search for different studies. You can search the studies in the Systems Evidence and Gap Map by:
- Voices
- Country
- Geographical level (of system, not study)
- Type of violence
- Study design
- Study population
- Critical appraisal
- Learning about CYP by gender
- Learning about ethnicity
- Learning about children and young people with other specific characteristics
- Learning about professionals
You can also search for studies by different outcomes and themes. To do this, click the ‘View Records’ tab at the top of the screen.