An open repository of COVID-19 vaccine mandate studies with a worked scoping review of quasi-experimental evidence

Vaccine mandates were widely implemented against COVID-19, and a large and multidisciplinary literature has emerged as a result, covering fields such as epidemiology, economics, ethics, and law. We compiled an openly available repository of this literature, including 503 studies on COVID-19 vaccine mandates. We identified them through a manual multi-database search and performed the data extraction using a large language model. The dataset stores information, for each study, on the scope and sanctions of the relevant mandate(s), the study design, target population, outcomes, and themes, allowing users to quickly navigate this complex literature. We use the dataset to present key statistical facts and insights about this literature, and we leave to other scholars the opportunity of interrogating it further. As a worked example, we conduct a narrative review of quasi-experimental studies on COVID-19 vaccine mandates. These consistently show short-run increases in first-dose uptake following mandate announcements, with limited evidence on long-run uptake and downstream social, health, and economic outcomes. We provide all data and code to support secondary analyses and future evidence syntheses.