A Scoping Review of Misinformation Research: Definitions, Conceptualizations, and Measurement Approaches

The spread of misinformation poses unprecedented challenges to democratic societies, underscoring the need for scientific inquiry across multiple disciplinary perspectives. This paper presents a comprehensive scoping review on the topic, analyzing 410 studies published between 1933 and 2022. We provide an in-depth examination of how misinformation is conceptualized and measured, while addressing the limitations and challenges inherent in its empirical study. Our analysis encompasses subject areas, terminology, conceptual and operational definitions, research purposes, methods, datasets, timespan, and geographical scope, offering valuable insights into recurring themes and gaps in the literature. Notably, a significant portion of the studies (39%) fail to provide a clear definition of misinformation, and nearly 45% do not specify their geographical or temporal scope, resulting in inconsistencies that undermine the comparability and practical application of research findings. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research and offer recommendations to inform both scholarly inquiry and policy development.