Look at the representative fraction. If it is a large fraction, the map scale is large, and vice versa. For example, I open my National Geographic Atlas of the World and flip through it until I come to a map of the world. A few pages farther, I come to a map of the upper midwestern States of the United States. These very large-scale renderings are the domain of the architect or engineer rather than the cartographer.
Scale has implications for the interpretation and meaning of maps.
Implicit in the concept of scale is the now-familiar tradeoff between abstraction and detail. Small scale implies more abstraction, large scale less. Rules of Thumb for Map Scale Small-scale maps show large areas. Large-scale maps show small areas. Another implication of scale is that crime data will look different at different scales, such as citywide and beat levels.