Types of Literature Reviews

Systematic Review

A systematic review is incredibly important to health care and medical trials, as well in other subjects where methodology and data are important. Through rigorous review and analysis of literature that meets a specific criterion, the systematic review identifies and compares answers to health care related questions. The systematic review may include meta-analysis and meta-synthesis when presenting their results.

How do you know if a journal article you find during your search process is a systematic review? There might be a few ways to identify them, such as:

Titles, Abstracts, and Introductions

It will include terms such as “systematic” or “systematically” in these sections:

Materials and Methods

It will include a methods section where they define their search strategy (e.g. what databases were searched, terms/keywords used, kinds of articles they included and excluded, search logs, etc.):

Systematic reviews are a great secondary source to use in your research, but make sure you have a critical eye to the methods and authors of the review, and what types of sources you need in your work or assignment!

Quantitative or Qualitative Meta-analysis Review

A quantitative or qualitative meta-analysis review can both make up the whole or part of systematic review(s). Both are thorough and comprehensive in condensing and making sense of a large body of research.

An example of a quantitative meta-analysis:

An example of a qualitative meta-analysis:

Literature Review

A literature review or narrative review often appears as a chapter in a thesis or dissertation. It describes what related research has already been conducted, how it informs the thesis, and how the thesis fits into the research in the field.

Check out our literature review chapter for more in-depth information about this review type!

Critical Review

A critical review is like a literature review, but it requires a more detailed examination of the literature to compare and evaluate multiple perspectives on the research topic.

An example of a critical review:

Scoping Review

A scoping review is often used at the beginning of an article, dissertation, or research proposal. It is conducted before the research begins and sets the stage for this research by highlighting gaps in the literature. It also helps explain the need for the research that is conducted, with analysis of the research in the remainder of the article.

An example of a scoping review:

Conceptual Review

A conceptual review groups scholarly articles according to concepts, or categories, or themes. It identifies the current ‘understanding’ of the given research topic, discusses how this understanding was reached, and attempts to determine whether a greater understanding can be suggested. It provides a snapshot of where things are with this particular field of research.

An example of a conceptual review:

State-of-the-Art Review

A state-of-the-art review is conducted periodically, with a focus on the most recent research. It describes what is currently known, understood, or agreed upon regarding the research topic, and highlights where there are still disagreements. They differ from other types of knowledge synthesis in that they can present a broader historical overview of knowledge development, as well as offer interpretations of the progression and shifts related to the studied phenomenon.

An example of a state-of-the-art review:

Using the Different Literature Review Types

In research as a source

Always ask yourself questions when you are considering including a literature review as a source. Some things you want to think about could be:

• What dates were examined in this review?
• Have more studies been published since the review was written?
• What articles were pulled to build this review?
• Did they exclude any studies, perspectives, or voices that should be considered?
• Is there any bias in the review from the authors I should be careful of?
• Is my search strategy effective in capturing literature reviews relevant to my research question?

In research as a methodology

If you want to pursue conducting a specific literature review methodology, you may want to TREAD Lightly and Consider.^[1] This means prior to committing to using a review type, you should think about:

1. The available Time for conducting your review
2. Any Resource constraints you might encounter
3. Any requirements for specialist Expertise to help complete the review
4. The requirements of the Audience for your review and its intended purpose
5. The richness, thickness and availability of Data within included studies
   

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Other Helpful Resources

• LitR-Ex: Eight* Literature Review Methodologies
• Right Review: Knowledge Synthesis Decision Tool 
• UCLA Library Research Guides: Types of Literature Reviews