Hi Rachel
I haven't thought about this before but my instinct would be that you shouldn't try to do an RRR in order to refine your topic.  Two reasons - firstly, a RRR is too much work for that purpose.  My advice when doing a realist review as PART of a PhD, as distinct from AS a PhD, is that one should only attempt a RRR (or a very specific and limited RR - which in my book is roughly equivalent to a RRR anyway).  

Secondly, RRR is not really 'fit for purpose' for scoping and topic refinement.  You can look at this either from both sides.  From the perspective of 'purpose of RRR':  The purpose of a RRR is the same as a RR (only smaller/faster) but what makes it 'rapid' is delimiting the amount of literature you look at by having a narrow focus that is determined in advance.  I.E. - the process for RRR is "define tightly then search", rather than "find out what's out there and then define".  From the perspective of 'scoping'  - you can really only find out how much literature is available/relevant to a topic once you know what the topic is (so again you need some clarity about the topic before you begin). 

I think the process for determining the focus for your review should relate to the focus of your PhD.  What exactly are you trying to investigate?  What exactly are you trying to understand?  Once you have a bit more clarity about the question, you can then start a scoping review in relation to your question.   

That said - I suspect one can use a scoping review to help develop initial rough theory for a realist review - just by keeping a record of key ideas that are relevant to your question as you come across them.  It might be that you refine the question/topic for your RR once you've finished that process - but that's OK.  One is supposed to iterate and refine through the stages of a realist review. 

Cheers
Gill 

-----Original Message-----
From: Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving Standards [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Catherine Waldron
Sent: Friday, 29 May 2015 5:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Rapid Realist Review or Scoping exercise

As part of my PhD looking at oral heath interventions for children and adolescents with disabilities, I am planning a Realist Synthesis.  This is a very wide topic and I would value your thoughts on how to determine the focus of the synthesis. I was considering doing a Rapid Realist Review of the wider topic to find out what is known about the topic and how much information is out there relative to the different types of interventions and different disabilities and based on the findings determine a much more focused topic for the realist synthesis.
My question is: Is a RRR a suitable way to determine the focus or would a scoping exercise pretty much do the same thing? My feeling is the RRR would allow me to find the studies of more relevance and serve as a useful “practice run” in developing the skills required for a realist synthesis.
Is a RRR a scoping exercise by another name?
I would very much welcome any advice or comments.
Many thanks
Catherine
Catherine Waldron RDH, MSc, MA(Health Promotion) PhD Student, Special Care Dentistry, Dublin Dental University Hospital, Trinity College, Dublin.