Volunteering for All: national framework - literature review
This report outlines a systematic review of the research literature on volunteering.
Appendix Three: Record of searches and downloads to EndNote
Volunteering Outcomes Framework literature review: priority scoring system
We used a scoring system to prioritise for full text review those 735 items which were considered high likely to be relevant to the current literature review after all search results had been subjected to individual examination for relevance by reviewers in a two-stage filtering process: first by title alone and then by title and abstract.
The scoring system incorporates five priority themes identified from content analysis of the Scottish Government’s specification for the literature review and a mechanism for prioritising research carried out in or using data from the UK, which we anticipate to be the most generalisable to the Scottish volunteering context.
The scoring system is set out in Table A3-1. Publications were awarded points for meeting either criteria 1.a) or 1.b) and for appearing to meet each of the other criteria on the basis of the publication title and abstract. The range of possible scores was thus 0-7.
Table A3-1. Scoring system for prioritisation of publications for full text acquisition and examination
| Criterion | Points awarded |
|---|---|
| 1.a) The publication relates to research on volunteering in a Scottish context or carries out analysis of data gathered from Scottish participants, OR | 2 |
| 1.b) The publication relates to research on volunteering in a UK-wide or English / Welsh / Northern Irish context or carries out analysis of data gathered from English / Welsh / Northern Irish participants | 1 |
| 2. The publication appears to discuss or relate to outcomes that highlight benefits of volunteering at a national, community and / or organisational level (i.e. beyond only individual benefits e.g. skills development) | 1 |
| 3. The publication appears to discuss or relate to or give insight to issues of diversity / equality / inequality / inclusion | 1 |
| 4. The publication discusses or gives insight to ‘Informal volunteering’ / helping out (for example, unpaid help given as an individual directly to people who are not relatives such as helping a friend or a neighbour helping with shopping or gardening etc.) | 1 |
| 5. The publication appears to discuss or relate to individual or organisational barriers to volunteering | 1 |
| 6. The publication appears to discuss or relate to individual or organisational motivations to start or to stay volunteering | 1 |
The 735 items were divided between four reviewers for scoring, with results collated. The results of the scoring exercise using this system are summarised in Table A3-2. The maximum score was 4 (12 papers), and the minimum score was 0 (57 papers).
Table A3-2. Summary of scores for publications assessed as relevant after examination of title and abstract (n=735)
| Score | Number of publications | As a proportion of all publications scored for priority |
|---|---|---|
| 4 points | 12 | 1.6% |
| 3 points | 64 | 8.7% |
| 2 points | 242 | 32.9% |
| 1 point | 360 | 49.0% |
| 0 points | 57 | 7.6% |
Table A3-3 provides a breakdown of the overall numbers of papers which were awarded a point in each category. Four papers related specifically to volunteering in Scotland or used data collected in Scotland, and a further 50 papers related to volunteering in other UK contexts or analysed data collected from within the UK.
Table A3-3. Summary by scoring criterion for publications assessed as relevant after examination of title and abstract (n=735 publications)
| Criterion |
Number* of publications |
As a proportion of all publications scored for priority* |
|---|---|---|
| Scottish context or Scottish data |
4 |
0.5% |
| UK or UK-constituent country context or data |
50 |
6.8% |
| Meso- or macro-level benefits of volunteering |
178 |
24.2% |
| Inequality or inclusion |
141 |
19.2% |
| Informal volunteering / helping out |
28 |
3.8% |
| Barriers to volunteering |
134 |
18.2% |
| Motivations for volunteering |
545 |
74.1% |
*Publications could score in multiple thematic categories
Prioritisation for fulltext consideration
Table A3-4 Details of batch-deletions
| Action | Identified and cut | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Remove identical duplicates | 6797 | Note that many duplicates remain – marginal differences in how authors are recorded, replacement of special characters, etc. |
| Remove if word in title: pharmacokinetic | 453 | |
| Remove if word in title: pharmacokinetics | 813 | |
| Remove if term in title: ‘healthy male volunteers’ | 298 | |
| Remove if term in title: ‘healthy young’ | 68 | |
| Remove if term in title: ‘healthy adult’ | 201 | |
| Remove if term in title: ‘healthy volunteers’ | 1043 | |
| Remove if word in title: ‘gene’ | 71 | |
| Remove patents | 501 | |
| Remove Audiovisual materials | 16 | |
| Remove Book and Book Section | 1480 | Saved to separate Library |
| Remove Conference proceedings | 136 | |
| Remove Magazine articles | 301 | Saved to separate Library |
| Remove Newspaper articles | 461 | To Magazine Library |
| Remove Thesis | 1401 | |
| Remove if author ‘Anonymous’ | 369 | To Magazine Library |
| Remove if item with no listed author | 1264 | To Magazine Library |
| Remove if term in title: ‘volunteer subjects’ | 23 | |
| Remove Web pages | 47 | |
| Remove if Journal: ‘Figshare’ | 224 | Generally repository for supplementary information |
| Remove if word in title: bioequivalence | 129 | |
| Remove if word in title: biological | 18 | |
| Remove if term in title: ‘carbon dioxide’ | 80 | Measures collected by Volunteer Observing Ship |
| Remove if word in title: bioavailability | 89 | |
| Remove if term in title: ‘normal volunteers’ | 195 | |
| Remove Journal: Gene Expression Omnibus | 511 | |
| Remove if word in title: Allele | 67 | |
| Remove if word in title: Pharmacodynamic | 14 | |
| Remove Shapefile | 148 | TIGER/Line Shapefiles are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the Census MAF/TIGER database. |
| Remove if author given in Korean characters | 428 | Sample of papers all in Korean full text |
Contact
Email: socialresearch@gov.scot
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