A literature review is a survey of material such as books and scholarly articles relevant to a certain topic, research area, or theory. It summarizes, offers a description, or a critical analysis of sources concerning the topic or research issue being studied ( Picardi & Masick, 2013 ). A literature review is designed to overview the materials explored when researching a specific topic to show readers that the research being conducted aligns with the wider area of study. The critical synthesis can be theoretical or empirical sources to evaluate evidence’s strength, create guidelines, make policies, or identify gaps for future research ( Picardi & Masick, 2013 ). A literature review is usually the first activity a researcher conducts before implementing other research-related activities.
A literature review can be a simple summary of key or important sources. However, a good literature review is systematic and organized. Besides, it applies both summaries and synthesis alongside particular conceptual aspects (Fang, 2021). There is a major difference between a mere summary and a synthesis. A summary gives a recap of the key information presented in an article or book, or any other source. In contrast, a synthesis re-organizes or reshuffles the information given in a source to inform how individuals plan to study a research problem. An analytical literature review can develop a new understanding of existing evidence or combine both past and new interpretations ( Picardi & Masick, 2013 ). Also, it can identify the intellectual development of a particular field and, in some cases, evaluate sources to give advice on relevant research. Moreover, analytical literature can identify gaps in the existing literature on the investigation or study of a particular problem.
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The purpose or aim of a literature review is to identify how different sources relate to one another based on aspects such as methodologies and findings and reveal new ways of interpreting existing evidence. A literature review places each source within the context of how it contributes to the comprehension of the research problem under study ( Picardi & Masick, 2013 ). Besides, a literature review resolves existing conflicts between contradictory studies and helps prevent duplication of research. It also guides in fulfilling the requirement for more research.
There are different types of literature reviews. They include systematic, methodological, argumentative, integrative, historical, and theoretical literature reviews. According to Picardi & Masick (2013 ), an argumentative literature review is selective as it seeks information to support or reject an argument. Its purpose is to identify literature that sets a contrarian perspective . An integrative literature review is critical and synthesizes a sample of existing literature on an issue or topic to generate new frameworks and points of view. It is rigorous and incorporates studies addressing a related or similar hypothesis. The historical literature review focuses on reviewing evidence within a particular period, in most cases the first time a particular issue emerged in literature and its evolution to a discipline ( Picardi & Masick, 2013 ). The purpose of this type of literature is to put a study in a historical context to demonstrate familiarity with the current developments and predict a possible direction in future studies.
A methodological literature review is focused on analyzing the methods applied by researchers in conducting studies about a particular research problem. A literature review of research methodology offers a framework for understanding how researchers acquire knowledge for application in the field. Areas such as data collection, sampling procedures, study implementation activities, and data analysis are reviewed ( Picardi & Masick, 2013 ). Shortcomings in methodologies can be identified through this type of literature review and ethical issues highlighted to avoid them in the study being conducted.
A systematic literature review uses standardized procedures to identify and conduct a critical appraisal of relevant research (Fang, 2021). Also, it applies pre-specified approaches to gather, report, and analyze information from relevant studies. The purpose of this type of review is to intentionally record, assess, and summarize research using scientific methods. The theoretical literature review focuses on the theory that builds up in relation to a particular research problem. It is vital in establishing factors such as the extent to which a theory has been examined and a hypothesis to test it. In most cases, this type of literature review is used to help reveal that existing theories are insufficient or limited in explaining a specific research problem.
An evidence table is developed to enable the reader to assess a summary of multiple research studies (Younas & Ali, 2021). In addition, an evidence table shows the similarities and differences that exist between different studies included in a literature review. A standard evidence table includes five sections. These fields are the study design, size of the sample used, study results including relevant statistics, studies’ limitations, and the level of evidence for each study and quality. In the study quality field, studies are usually assigned a numerical score which in most cases ranges between 0 and 5 (Younas & Ali, 2021). Each score indicates a rough estimate of the quality of a study’s reporting or methodology. A score of zero indicates poor quality, while five shows that study is of high quality. The level of evidence column is based on the type of research or study design used by researchers. For example, level I evidence includes systematic reviews and meta-analysis, Level II entails evidence derived from at least one randomized controlled trial, and Level III comprises controlled trials that are not randomized. The main advantage of evidence tables is that they are able to communicate more data clearly. Besides, they provide an organized and easy-to-understand summary.
References
Fang, Z. (2021). Writing a literature review. Demystifying Academic Writing , 126-145. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003131618-9
Picardi, C. A., & Masick, K. D. (2013). Research methods: Designing and conducting research with a real-world focus . SAGE Publications.
Younas, A., & Ali, P. (2021). Five tips for developing useful literature summary tables for writing review articles. Evidence Based Nursing , 24 (2), 32-34. https://doi.org/10.1136/ebnurs-2021-103417
