There are many types of reviews that can be performed on the literature.
This guide outlines the most common types and provides a process for systematic reviews in the non-health discipline areas.
The term Systematic Review is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to literature reviews that are conducted systematically, or incorrectly applied to describe a range of other types of reviews.
However, systematic reviews are part of Evidence Based Practice. They seek to identify best practice by identifying all the evidence answering a focused question and appraise and synthesise the evidence to arrive at greater certainty of what best practice is.
Thus, key characteristics of systematic reviews are, a focused (i.e., narrow and specific) question, comprehensive searching and rigour and transparency in the reviewing and its reporting.
These types of reviews are very well developed in the Health Sciences, but are less common in the Arts and Humanities.
The most common form of review in the HASS sector is the Narrative Literature Review.
The information in this guide will help you determine what type of review you are doing, and the team size and timelines you might need to consider.
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.