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Reviewing the Literature

Differing Approaches & Purposes

There are many different types of literature reviews or knowledge syntheses, from the traditional narrative literature review to the rigorous meta-analysis, and each has its own methodology. It's important for you to make sure that your research question fits the type of review you are undertaking and that you follow the appropriate methodological guidelines (St. Michael's Library.  Types of Literature Reviews).
 

NOTE: This guide covers the most common forms of scholarly literature reviews apart from systematic reviews and meta-analyses.  Please see our Guide to Systematic Reviews to learn more about these specific review types.

 

What are your aims?

 

  • Do you want to answer a focussed research question by examining all the literature on a specific topic?  And do you have specific criteria for what you mean by "all the literature?" 
     
    • If yes, consult the Systematic Reviews guide to see if this type of review matches the project you have in mind.

       
  • Do you want to determine the validity of the hypotheses/conclusions from a large body of literature on a particular topic?  Are you prepared to conduct a comprehensive statistical analysis to do so?
     
    • If yes, consult the the Meta-Analyses section in this guide to see if this type of study suits your needs.  Note, this type of review is most usually conducted as an adjunct to a systematic review project.

       
  • Are you interested in examining a large body of qualitative research?  And is your aim to aggregate all the research results in order to discover new ways to interpret the findings? 
     
  • Do you primarily want to identify the types of evidence, knowledge gaps and/or key concepts that exist in a given field?
     
  • Do you want to review a large body of recent and current literature on a particular topic - but don't intend to search all the available literature nor to conduct a statistical analysis of all the findings?