The author's reply to N.R. Haddaway

In this reply we respond to the commentary of Dr. Haddaway addressed in searching for pitfalls in our systematic mapping exercise “Collating science-based evidence to inform public opinion on the environmental effects of marine drilling platforms in the Mediterranean Sea” recently published in Journal of Environmental Management (Mangano, M.C. and Sarà, G. 2017. Journal of Environmental Management 188: 195–202). We discussed each so called “pitfalls” and, in our opinion, the main cornerstones of systematic map – SM (repeatability, comprehensiveness, transparency, traceability, quality, generalizability) are safe guaranteeing the “gold standard” required by this technique. Where needed we explain our position in doing a “tailoring” of some steps, and we stressed the differences among our approach and a SM protocol. We also stressed the importance of our main message, to select the most rigorous approach (evidence-based), to create a credible, salient and effective knowledge baseline to inform end users and guarantee the creation of a solid science-policy nexus (here specifically we provided a final review product, an easy to follow up graphical evidence).