Narrative Review

A literature review is an overview of previously published works on a particular topic. The term can refer to a full scholarly paper or a section of a scholarly work such as books or articles. Either way, a literature review provides the researcher/author and the audiences with general information of an existing knowledge of a particular topic. A good literature review has a proper research question, a proper theoretical framework, and/or a chosen research methodology. It serves to situate the current study within the body of the relevant literature and provides context for the reader. In such cases, the review usually precedes the methodology and results sections of the work.

Producing a literature review is often part of a graduate and post-graduate requirement, included in the preparation of a thesis, dissertation, or a journal article. Literature reviews are also common in a research proposal or prospectus (the document approved before a student formally begins a dissertation or thesis).

A literature review can be a type of a review article. In this sense, it is a scholarly paper that presents the current knowledge including substantive findings as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic. Literature reviews are secondary sources and do not report new or original experimental work. Most often associated with academic-oriented literature, such reviews are found in academic journals and are not to be confused with book reviews, which may also appear in the same publication. Literature reviews are a basis for research in nearly every academic field.

Types

Since the concept of a systematic review was formalized in the 1970s, a basic division among types of reviews is the dichotomy of narrative reviews versus systematic reviews. The main types of narrative reviews are ''evaluative'', ''exploratory'', and ''instrumental''.

A fourth type of review of literature (the scientific literature) is the ''systematic review'' but it is not called a ''literature review'', which absent further specification, conventionally refers to narrative reviews. A systematic review focuses on a specific research question to identify, appraise, select, and synthesize all high-quality research evidence and arguments relevant to that question. A ''meta-analysis'' is typically a systematic review using statistical methods to effectively combine the data used on all selected studies to produce a more reliable result.

Torraco (2016) describes an integrative literature review. The purpose of an integrative literature review is to generate new knowledge on a topic through the process of review, critique, and synthesis of the literature under investigation.

George et al (2023) offer an extensive overview of review approaches. They also propose a model for selecting an approach by looking at the purpose, object, subject, community, and practices of the review. They describe six different types of review, each with their own unique purposes:

# ''Exploratory'' or ''scoping reviews'' focus on breadth as opposed to depth
# ''Systematic'' or ''integrative review''s integrate empirical studies on a topic
# ''Meta-narrative review''s are qualitative and use literature to compare research or practice communities
# ''Problematizing'' or ''critical review''s propose new perspectives on a concept by association with other literature
# ''Meta-analyses'' and ''meta-regression''s integrate quantitative studies and identify moderators
# ''Mixed research syntheses'' combine other review approaches in the same paper

Process and product

Shields and Rangarajan (2013) distinguish between the ''process'' of reviewing the literature and a finished work or ''product'' known as a literature review. The ''process'' of reviewing the literature is often ongoing and informs many aspects of the empirical research project.

The process of reviewing the literature requires different kinds of activities and ways of thinking. Shields and Rangarajan (2013) and Granello (2001) link the activities of doing a literature review with Benjamin Bloom's revised taxonomy of the cognitive domain (ways of thinking: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating).

Use of artificial intelligence in a literature review

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping traditional literature reviews across various disciplines. Generative pre-trained transformers, such as ChatGPT, are often used by students and academics for review purposes.

Nevertheless, the employment of ChatGPT in academic reviews is problematic due to ChatGPT's propensity to "hallucinate". In response, efforts are being made to mitigate these hallucinations through the integration of plugins. For instance, Rad et al. (2023) used ScholarAI for review in cardiothoracic surgery.

See also

*Empirical study of literature
*Living review
*Media monitoring
*Review journal

References

Further reading

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