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Introduction to reviews

Learning Objectives

This chapter will help you:

  • understand the features, aims, and purposes of systematic and scoping reviews.
  • choose the most appropriate review for you.

“A literature review is a systematic, explicit, and reproducible method of identifying, evaluating and synthesizing the existing body of completed and recorded work produced by researchers, scholars, and practitioners” (Fink, 2020, p. 6).  

Review types

Reviews summarise previous literature about a topic. They have been used in health sciences for many years, but are increasingly being adopted by other disciplines as well. There are many types of review which have different features, purposes and rigour in the methodologies (Grant & Booth, 2009). Many PhD students do a scoping or systematic review as part of their studies. You might conduct a review for publication in a journal, to evaluate current practices or create decision making guidelines. This book focuses on systematic and scoping reviews.

Just like reviews, there are many types of chicken. Image by E. Roga

The steps of a review

Systematic and scoping reviews both follow a structured process and aim to find all the available evidence on a topic. While there are some differences depending on the review type, generally conducting a review involves the following steps:

  • question: Develop clear review aims and a question.
  • protocol: Plan in detail how the review will be done.
  • search: Search comprehensively to find all evidence, for example, peer reviewed journal articles or reports.
  • screen: Select the relevant studies from the search results that meet the inclusion criteria.
  • extract: Collect the relevant data from each study.
  • appraise: Evaluate whether the results of the studies can be trusted.
  • synthesise: Combine the data to form conclusions.
  • report: Write up the review.

What is a systematic review?

The Cochrane Collaboration says systematic reviews “seek to collate evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria in order to answer a specific research question. They aim to minimize bias by using explicit, systematic methods documented in advance with a protocol” (Chandler et al., 2022, para. 1).

A systematic review compares, evaluates, and synthesises all available evidence about a research question. They can be used to identify research gaps, inform policies and practice, or guide decision making.

Systematic reviews have:

  • clear objectives and specific questions,
  • inclusion and exclusion criteria which are decided on before beginning the review and used to decide which studies are included,
  • a comprehensive search decided on before beginning the review to find all relevant studies,
  • an appraisal of the quality of the included studies,
  • objective analyses of the data from the included studies,
  • a synthesis of the findings from the included studies,
  • transparent reporting of the methodology, and
  • recommendations for practice or further research (Aromataris & Pearson, 2014).

This short video from Cochrane explains what a systematic review is and how they are done. 

Cochrane. (2016, January 28). What are systematic reviews? [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/egJlW4vkb1Y

What is a scoping review?

A scoping review identifies and maps the amount and type of all available evidence on a topic. They can be used to explore and clarify concepts, identify research gaps, examine emerging evidence, and explore how research on a topic was conducted (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005). As they aim to provide an overview of evidence, they do not usually include a critical appraisal of the included articles.

Scoping reviews have:

  • broad questions to map the literature,
  • inclusion and exclusion criteria which may be altered after beginning the search and used to decide which studies are included,
  • a comprehensive search to find all relevant studies that can be refined during the process of searching,
  • changes from the protocol during the review documented for transparency,
  • included studies’ data charted, summarised, and collated,
  • study characteristics summarised and findings described thematically, and
  • transparent reporting of the methodology (Levac et al., 2010).

This short video from the Joanna Briggs Institute explains what a scoping review is.

JBI. (2022, April 28). What are scoping reviews? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=456fb8Az5tU&t=4s

Which review should I choose?

There are other types of review as well, and it can be overwhelming to decide which is the best one for you. Consider the purpose of your review and what you would like to achieve, as well as the resources available to you. Many people think they need to do a systematic review, but actually they need to do a scoping review, or another type of review that involves searching in a systematic way for evidence.

Cornell University Library created a flow chart that can help you select which review is the best one for your purpose.

Activity 1

Click through the choices in the activity below to see which type of review you need to conduct.

The website Right Review is another great tool for choosing a review type. It helps choose the most appropriate one for your research question and aims from 41 review types through a series of questions.  

Example

This is an example of a published systematic review.

Sullivan O., Curtin, M., ​Flynn, R., Cronin, C., Mahony, J. O., ​& Trujillo, J. (2023). The use of telehealth interventions to aid transition to self-management for adolescents with allergic conditions: A systematic review. Allergy, 79, 861-883. https://doi.org/10.1111/all.15963​

Further reading

Munn, Z., Peters, M. D. J., Stern, C., Tufanaru, C., McArthur, A., & Aromataris, E. (2018). Systematic review or scoping review? Guidance for authors when choosing between a systematic or scoping review approach. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 18(1), Article 143. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-018-0611-x  

References

Arksey, H., & O’Malley, L. (2005). Scoping studies: Towards a methodological framework. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 8(1), 19-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/1364557032000119616

Aromataris, E., & Pearson, A. (2014). The systematic review: An overview. The American Journal of Nursing, 114(3), 53-58. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000444496.24228.2c 

Chandler, J., Cumpston, M., Thomas, J., Higgins, J. P. T., Deeks, J. J., & Clarke, M. J. (2022). Introduction. In J. P. T. Higgins, J. Thomas, J. Chandler, M. Cumpston, T. Li, M. J. Page, & V. A. Welch (Eds.), Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions (version 6.5). Cochrane. https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/current/chapter-i 

Fink, A. (2020). Conducting research literature reviews: From the Internet to paper (5th ed.). SAGE. 

Grant, M. J., & Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: An analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 26(2), 91–108. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x

Levac, D., Colquhoun, H., & O’Brien, K. K. (2010). Scoping studies: Advancing the methodology. Implementation Science, 5(1), Article 69. https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-5-69 

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