OmniDocTypes of Literature Reviews: Forms and Research Methods of Reviews
Literature reviews are classified by writing style into narrative, systematic, and scope-based types, each with different methods for searching, screening, and synthesizing. This article explains the differences between these types and provides steps for writing the method section.
Key Points of This Article
- Literature reviews are classified by purpose and writing style into narrative, systematic, broad, critical, integrative, and other types, with different types requiring different methods.
- Systematic reviews require pre-defining research questions and search criteria, independently screening literature by two people, and evaluating quality using unified standards.
- Narrative reviews organize literature by theme, but still need to explain the basis for the selection, not just based on impressions.
- When writing the methodology section, clearly state the database, search terms, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and screening process so others can replicate it accordingly.
- When translating foreign language documents, key terms and data must be manually verified; do not directly trust the results of machine translation.
When writing papers or proposal reports, advisors often say, "Start by writing a literature review," but the scope of "review" is not uniform. Some reviews organize viewpoints in a field by chronology, while others require search-based or filtered records, or even data merging. When the two are mixed together, the methods tend to be vague, making it easy for judges to see at a glance.
This article discusses two things: how to categorize literature reviews according to their writing style, and what research methods are used behind each type. After reading, you should be able to determine which type of review your thesis is suitable for, and write the methodological section clearly and reproducibly.
What categories are literature reviews divided into? In short, a conclusion
There is no unified classification standard for literature reviews; a common classification is based on the rigor of research objectives and methods. Narrative reviews focus on inductive understanding, systematic reviews emphasize process traceability, and scoping reviews focus on depicting the distribution of evidence. Which one you choose depends on the question you want to answer.
| Your situation | Recommended recipe | The reason |
|---|---|---|
| I want to trace the development trajectory of a certain field and use it as a background chapter for my graduation thesis | Narrative Summary | The focus is on understanding and summarizing, not on exhausting all the literature |
| I want to answer a specific question about effectiveness, such as whether a particular intervention is effective | Systematic review | The steps for searching, screening, and evaluating are fixed, and conclusions are traceable |
| Data from similar studies are sufficiently similar, and I want to provide the effect magnitude after merging | A systematic review of Canadian analysis | Meta-analysis is responsible for quantitative merging and is built on systematic retrieval |
| Want to understand what research is being done in an emerging field and to what extent it is covered | Scope Overview | The goal is to map the evidence without rushing to assess the quality of evidence |
| Trying to evaluate the limitations of existing theories or frameworks and propose new arguments | Critical review | The focus is on argumentation and questioning; the selected texts need not be exhaustive |
# what is the difference between a narrative review and a systematic review?
what is a narrative overview and how it works
Narrative review is also called traditional review. The author selects literature around the topic and organizes it according to viewpoint, time or genre. It has no uniform retrieval rules, and the key to writing is to explain clearly "why these documents are selected".
The common misconception is that "narration means writing casually". In fact, the judges will still ask you about the scope of your selection, the time span and the reasons for your choice. Even if the search form is not listed, one or two sentences should be used in the method or introduction to explain the basis of the selected articles, such as "give priority to the relevant research published in core journals in the past ten years, taking into account the classical literature".
how does system overview and meta-analysis work
The process of system review is preset. Usually, we first determine the research questions, then write down the retrieval strategy, search according to the fixed database and search words, then the two researchers independently screen the literature, decide whether to stay or not according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and then use the quality evaluation tool to score the included research. finally, synthesize the results.
Meta-analysis is a quantitative merging step in system reviews, and not all system reviews should be done. Only when the design and measurement indicators included in the study are similar enough, it is suitable to merge data. There are two points that are easy to be confused: first, systematic review is not equal to "a lot of literature review", the key lies in whether the process is transparent; second, meta-analysis can not be established separately from systematic retrieval, otherwise the representativeness of the conclusion can not be judged.
differences between scope Overview and other types
The goal of the scope review is to describe the number, distribution and main content of the existing research under a certain topic, which is often used in a situation where the field is not mature and the research direction is scattered. It usually does not do strict quality scoring or effect merging, and concludes that "existing research focuses on what problems and methods are used" rather than "which approach is more effective".
Critical review and integrated review focus on argumentation and synthesis. The former pays attention to the limitations of the theoretical framework, while the latter allows quantitative and qualitative research to be summarized by topic. These two types of writing rely more on the author's judgment, so the chain of argument is clearer than the retrieval process.
# Core comparison
| Types | Retrieval mode | Quality evaluation. | Comprehensive method | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Narrative summary | The author chooses to explain the basis. | Usually a qualitative comment | Summarize by subject or time | Background carding and theoretical review |
| System review | Fixed database and retrieval type, reproducible | Evaluate piece by piece with a unified tool | Qualitative narration is dominant. | Answer specific effect or relationship questions |
| Meta-analysis | Summary of the same system | Summary of the same system | Statistical merging effect | Quantitative conclusion when the data are similar enough |
| Scope summary | Extensive search, record range | Generally, strict grading is not done. | Describe the distribution and characteristics | Find out the general situation of research in new fields |
| Critical review | Choose around the point of view | Focus on argumentation quality | Ask questions and framework | Evaluate the theory and put forward the research direction |
# how to use it in practice: draft method in Word
The method part is what the judges care about. The following steps apply to system reviews and scope reviews, and narrative reviews can leave only steps 1 and 3.
- To create a new Word document, first write down the research questions and review types in one sentence, such as "this study uses a systematic review method to answer the impact of a certain type of intervention on a certain population".
two. Write search strategy: list database name, search term combination, time range and language limit. Each item should be written to the extent that others can do it.
- Write the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and give a reason for the excluded literature to explain how the criteria are used.
- Write the screening and extraction process: who filters, how to deal with differences, which fields are extracted, and what quality evaluation tools are used.
- Write a comprehensive method. If you do quantitative consolidation, write down the statistical model and the way to deal with heterogeneity; if not, explain why only qualitative induction is done.
Word documents are prone to confusion during modification, so you can keep a record of changes in Word or edit Word-compliant documents with the UniDoc Web Page Editor (app.unidoc.top). If you need to convert foreign language documents in PDF form into editable content, you can use the document translation function of OmniDoc to choose bilingual comparison, which is easy to check paragraph by paragraph.
# which method is suitable for you?
Just write the background part of the course thesis or graduation thesis: use a narrative review to write down the basis of the selected text clearly. -answer research questions with clear objects and results, and hope that others will review them: use a systematic review and write a part of the method to be reproducible. -the results can be compared numerically: add meta-analysis on the basis of a systematic review, but first confirm that the included studies are similar enough. There is no clear research context in the field: first make a summary of the scope, find out the distribution of the evidence, and then decide on the follow-up research.
# frequently asked questions (FAQ)
1. Is there any difference between literature review and literature review?
In many papers, the two refer to the same thing, which is a review of the existing research. The difference is mainly in the context: "literature review" often refers to an independent research method or type of paper, while "literature review" mostly refers to a chapter in the paper. Confirm with the requirements of your tutor or journal before writing.
2. Does the method part of the system review have to be written according to PRISMA?
PRISMA is a commonly used reporting specification for system reviews, including checklists for retrieval, filtering, and result presentation. Many journals will be required to follow it, but the specific requirements should be subject to the regulations of the target journal or school. Even if it is not mandatory, check it according to this list and you can still find the omissions in the method part.
3. Can descriptive reviews not list key words?
The retrieval formula may not be listed item by item, but the scope and basis of the selection, such as time span, main source and trade-off criteria, need to be explained. Otherwise, it will be difficult for the judges to judge whether your review is representative or not.
4. The quoted foreign documents need to be translated. What should we pay attention to?
Machine translation is easy to mistranslate technical terms, numbers and negative words, so it should be checked paragraph by paragraph against the original text before direct quotation, especially the research design, sample size and conclusion. The value of the summary is to accurately summarize the views of others, and a misreading may affect the whole paragraph.
# Summary
Literature review is divided into narrative, systematic, normative and other types, the choice is based on your research problems and the degree of rigor you want to achieve. The key to the method part is to write down every step of retrieval, screening, and synthesis so that others can review it. Write these steps clearly in Word, and the method part of the paper will be more persuasive.
