Clinical Education

There are different types of literature review. The most common that students are asked to do is a review of the research literature as part of your dissertation project. However, some students carry out a structured literature review as their project.

Narrative review

• The literature search may or may not be comprehensive
• Narrative synthesis of the literature
• Analysis can be in many formats, i.e. chronological, conceptual, thematic, etc.

Rapid review

• Uses systematic review methods to search and critically appraise existing research, but completeness of search is determined by time constraints

Scoping review

• Aims to identify potential size and scope of available research literature. 
• No formal quality assessment.
• Often used to identify viability of a full systematic review.

Systematic review

• Seeks to systematically search for, appraise and synthesise research evidence
• Reviewers often adhere to guidelines on the conduct of a review
• Aims for exhaustive, comprehensive literature searching

From Grant, M., & Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: An analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 26(2), 91-108. See: Table 1