On October 9, Pablo Ariel Cabás (ICS-ULisboa) will be the guest speaker at the SPARC Research Group Seminar on Lifting the Veil on Political Scandals: A Systematic Review of Causes, Processes, and Consequences. The session will begin at 2:30 p.m, in Room 1 at ICS-ULisboa and online (ID: 332 523 942 447 6, Pass: z8NH7ED3) 

This article offers a systematic scoping review of research on political scandals, mapping five decades (1975–2025) and a corpus of 1,054 peer-reviewed studies. Using PRISMA guidelines, bibliometric techniques, and a structured coding scheme, the study categorizes scandals according to their causes, communicative processes, and political consequences (CPO framework). Bibliometric mapping and comparative coding yield seven cause clusters (led by accountability failures, institutional dynamics, and media factors), five process clusters (with mediatization, defense strategies, and narrative control most recurrent), and eight outcome clusters (centered on institutional trust, electoral dynamics, and public perceptions). Statistical tests show patterned links across CPO: accountability failures tend to produce institutional consequences—often via media dynamics—whereas cognitive-behavioral causes channel toward public-response outcomes. The review provides an integrated CPO map of political scandals and a replicable toolkit for anticipating scandal trajectories across political systems.