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The critical part of any research project is a Literature review. It assists the scholars in summarising, synthesising, and even analysing the past studies. Knowing the types of literature review in research is paramount for PhD students, postgraduates, and academic researchers, as the choice of literature type determines the level of publication acceptance, research credibility, and the overall quality of the research paper.
An effective literature review will create a framework of the methodology that will underpin the theoretical frameworks and enhance the scholarly worth of the study. By reading this blog, you could learn something about adopting the appropriate type of literature review. The researchers will enhance the possibility of publication in high-impact journals, and this will assist us both regionally and internationally.
The literature review serves several major purposes in research in academia. Getting the knowledge of types of research in literature review helps you in understanding the importance of reviews in research.
The summary of the existing research: Reducing volumes of research to meaningful conclusions.
Research trend analysis: Identifying trends, research gaps and irregularities.
Supporting theory and methodology: Supporting the conceptual framework and research design.
Building credibility: Showing knowledge of high-quality and peer-reviewed materials.
Systematic reviews: As reported in PLOS One (2021), they were quoted 35% more often than narrative reviews, which is how systematic reviews improve the visibility of research.
The use of an appropriate type of literary review ensures that research is believable, repeatable and appropriate to its target audience. The various kinds of literature review in research are:
Narrative Review
Systematic Review
Semi-Systematic /Integrative Review
Theoretical Review
Methodological Review
Meta-Analysis / Meta-Synthesis
Scoping Review
Getting the idea of different types of literature review possesses distinct traits, fields and their usage that would be applicable to diverse research goals.
A narrative review is one of the types of literature review, which gives the general picture of the issue and summarises the knowledge that is available.
Purpose: Provides theoretical background and context of the novelties of the new studies.
Characteristic: Flexible, qualitative and thematic as opposed to methodology.
Use Cases: Best when used in exploratory research or theory building.
Example: The inspiration in Environmental Research Letters (2020) reviewed 50 studies about the impacts of climate change in agriculture and found trends and gaps in knowledge.
Advantage: Aids researchers to grasp general themes, points out research gaps and preconditions research.
A systematic review is one among the different types of literature review in research; it is a reproducible, systematic process of evaluating all the evidence that can be found in relation to a given research question.
Purpose: Minimise bias and give a synthetic overview of the results.
Methodology: This involves rigorous inclusion/exclusion criteria usually dictated by PRISMA guidelines.
Use Cases: Suggested in the case of evidence-based research and journals with high acceptance levels.
Example: In a study by The Lancet (2021), results of 150 clinical trials of COVID-19 therapies were combined in a systematic review, which guarantees reproducibility and reliability.
Advantage: Evidently marks out research gaps, trends and potential future studies.
Among the different types of literature review, the semi-systematic literature review incorporates both the formal and informal methods to intertwine the theory and the empirical data.
Purpose: Summarise both quantitative and qualitative data in interdisciplinary research.
Use Cases: Useful when the research is multifield or multimethodological.
Example: The Journal of Business Research (2019) has conducted an integrative review of consumer behaviour studies that incorporated both empirical data and conceptual frameworks.
Advantage: Provides a comprehensive view of complicated subjects of research, which promotes theory and practice.
Theoretical review is concerned with conceptual frameworks, models and theories, but not empirical findings. Theoretical literature review, among the different types of literature review, has a different purpose and application amidst to other types.
Purpose: Assess, compare, and criticise current theoretical points of view.
Applications: Suitable for PhD research or concept papers.
Example: In Educational Research Review (2020), one theoretical review of the cognitive load theory analysed previous research studies and offered new approaches to teaching.
Advantage: The ability to assess and combine theoretical knowledge.
Methodological review involves the assessment of research designs, research tools, and techniques that have been applied in past studies.
Purpose: Determine best practices and methods trends.
Use Cases: Helps in the selection of research methods, study design and reproducibility.
Example: A methodological review in Social Science and Medicine (2018) has compared survey tools in public health studies, thus assisting future researchers to use strong methods.
Advantage: Enhances the validity and reliability of new studies.
These reviews bring together findings of several studies to create more powerful evidence.
Meta-Analysis: A quantitative amalgamation of statistics.
Meta-Synthesis: Collaborative qualitative analysis.
Case Study: 20 clinical trials were included in a meta-analysis study by JAMA (2021) to evaluate the effectiveness of hypertension treatments.
Advantage: Produces impactful evidence and determines general trends among numerous studies.
The scoping review is a mapping of the research areas to find the coverage, trends and gaps.
Purpose: Research the depth of a topic, especially the new ones.
Applications: Well-suited to initial investigations or mapping of the research region.
Example: A scoping review in Frontiers in Psychology (2020) was able to map studies on AI in mental health, identifying gaps in the research.
Advantage: Assists researchers in strategising their future research and finding research gaps.
|
Type |
Purpose |
Methodology |
Best Use Case |
|
Narrative |
Broad overview |
Flexible, qualitative |
Theoretical/exploratory research |
|
Systematic |
Evidence synthesis |
Structured, reproducible |
High-impact journals, evidence-based research |
|
Semi-Systematic/ Integrative |
Theory+empirical data |
Mixed methods |
Interdisciplinary studies |
|
Theoretical |
Conceptual analysis |
Framework-based |
PhD/conceptual papers |
|
Methodological |
Evaluate tools/methods |
Analytical |
Method selection and study design |
|
Meta-Analysis/Meta-Synthesis |
Combine studies |
Quantitative/qualitative |
Policy/practice guidance |
|
Scoping |
Map research field |
Exploratory |
Emerging topics, regional research |
The application and selection of the types of literature review is determined by your objectives of research, scope and journal requirements of your research. The following are the key factors to be considered:
The purpose of your study will help to decide which type of review will be the most appropriate:
Theoretical studies: Dwelling on models, frameworks, or conceptual studies. Best would be narrative or integrative reviews.
Empirical study: Deploys experimental or observational data. Rigorous evidence synthesis is provided by systematic or meta-analytic reviews.
Mixed-methods research: A mix of qualitative and quantitative studies. Various types of reviews may be required, such as a systematic review of quantitative data and a narrative one of qualitative results.
Your review should be detailed enough and broad enough to make your decision:
General summary: Provides general trends in the discipline. Narrative or scoping reviews are effective.
Concentrated synthesis: Respond to targeted research questions. Meta-analyses and systematic reviews give accurate evidence-based findings.
Literature reviews are not expected in the same way in different journals:
Synthetic or meta-analytic reviews commonly feature in the high-impact journals due to their rigour in the methodological aspect.
It is suggested to use scoping reviews in journals dedicated to the new or region-specific research.
Some research involves the necessity to focus on regional or cultural particularity:
As an example, a PhD student studying renewable energy policy may have a combination of:
Systematic review for global studies.
Scoping review to identify gaps in regional implementation and policy adaptation.
Even seasoned researchers can make errors in the literature review. To avoid such traps and come up with a high-quality study, one should avoid the following.
Reports work that has been over-summarised, without applying any critical analysis or synthesis. Making references to outdated or bad sources can reduce credibility. An inadequately structured or unstructured study would not be easily tracked during the review.
Ignoring AI-assisted tools, including AI literature review, capable of reducing the efficiency of the process, improving its accuracy, and encompassing a greater part of the accessible studies.
It may be a giant leap in the direction of a more credible and thorough review to implement systems, e.g., PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items on Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) or use AI tools in the literature review.
PhD students, researchers can use professional help in preparing the best literature review:
Writing, structuring and formatting reviews in the format of an academic or journal.
PhD revision to increase clarity, coherence and methodological rigour.
Suggestion of local and international research work, relevance and applicability.
Our literature review writing service helps scholars to make the right kind of literature review in their research to increase the chances of publication and academic fame.
The other aspect of relevance in research is choosing the correct type of literature review that would result in the presentation of credible and publishable research. The purpose of all forms of reviews, including narrative reviews, systematic reviews, integrative reviews, theoretical reviews, methodology reviews, meta-analytic reviews, and scoping reviews, is different and establishes research gaps differently.
Apply these teachings to your following research project or get support from our writing experts, which will bring your literature review to a doctoral level and research intensity.
