Evidence Gap Maps Shiny App

Evidence Gap Maps (EGMs) provide a structured visual framework designed to identify areas where research has been conducted, and where research has not been conducted. Traditional EGMs combine at least two characteristics—e.g., outcome measurement, research design—mapped onto x-axis and y-axis to form a grid. EGMs can be in table, graph, or chart format. The intersections of the axes on the grid, at minimum, contain information on the number of studies conducted for the combination of the levels of the characteristics.

The Methods of Synthesis and Integration Center (MOSAIC)(https://www.air.org/mosaic) at the American Institutes for Research created this Shiny app to ease the construction of EGMs, in the form of a graph. The app allows users to upload their dataset, and use point-and-click options to summarize data for combinations of factors, and then create an EGM using the ggplot2 package in R (Wickham, 2011). We also provide an example dataset for instructional purposes. Further, the app will output R syntax used to create the plot; users can download the syntax and customize the graph if needed. Please click on the “Instructions to Use the App” tab on the left for detailed instructions on how to use the app.