The level of cellular organization bridging the mesoscale and whole-cell scale is coming into focus as a new frontier in cell biology. Great progress has been made in unraveling the complex physical and functional interconnectivity of organelles, but how the entire organelle network spatially arranges within the cytoplasm is only beginning to be explored. Drawing on cross-disciplinary research synthesis methods, we systematically curated the whole-cell volumetric imaging literature through 3 rounds of screening involving 3 independent reviewers, resulting in 89 top hits and 38 "borderline" studies. We describe the trajectory and current state of the field (2004-2024). A broad characterization, or "scoping review", of bibliometrics, study design, and reporting practices shows accelerating technological development and research output. We find high variability in study design and reporting practices, including imaging modality, model organism, cellular contexts, organelles imaged, and analyses. Due to the laborious, low-throughput nature of most volumetric imaging methods, we find trends toward small sample sizes (<
30 cells) and small cell types. We find common quantitative analyses across studies, including volumetric ratios of organelles and inter-organelle contact analyses. Our curated dataset now enables future aggregate and comparative analyses to potentially reveal larger patterns and generate more generalized hypotheses. This work establishes a growing dataset of whole-cell imaging literature and data, and motivates a call for standardized whole-cell imaging study design, reporting, and data sharing practices. More broadly, we showcase the potential of new rigorous secondary research methods to strengthen cell biology's literature review and reproducibility toolkit, create a new avenues for discovery, and promote open research practices that support secondary data-reuse and integration.