A literature review is not a review in the classic sense of you as a reader offering your opinion on a piece of writing ("I give this scientific study 5 stars!"). Instead, it looks at existing work around a specific topic or within a certain field, summarizes the findings, and synthesizes something about that research. For example, a literature review might look at current scientific studies around salmon conservation and offer insight on the how the methodology in this area has changed over time. Or it might look at several articles around pedagogical theory and note trends or conflicts between the studies, or between the existing studies and a new study.
When you write your own paper, you use literature (such as articles or studies) to support your own idea, but when you write a literature review, you summarize, organize and discuss the ideas of others. Many research papers include a literature review at the beginning of the paper to give background to the reader about the prior research in that field.
There are many types of literature reviews, including scoping reviews, systematic reviews, and rapid reviews. Literature reviews are commonly used across disciplines, and can be published alone or as part of grant applications, academic studies, or larger academic publications.
| Systematic Review | Scoping Review | |
| Purpose | Reviews selected research to sum up the best available research on a specific topic: use to confirm current practice, identify new practices, produce statements of recommendation | Reviews a large body of research to show the breadth of literature on a broad topic: used to identify gaps in a knowledge base, clarify broadly used definitions, or look at how research has been conducted on a specific subject |
| Scope | Reviews a smaller number of studies on a focused research question | Reviews a large or diverse body of conflicting literature on a broad topic |
| Result | Will emerge with a recommendation or best practice | Will demonstrate the breadth of available literature through an overview |
| Ask yourself | Do I want to determine the effectiveness or feasibility of a specific practice? | Do I want to map the characteristics of certain concepts, definitions, or resources in a field? |
| Contains assessment of methodology or bias? | Generally yes | Generally no |
(From Munn, Z., Peters, M. D., 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, 1-7.)
Resources for Reviews by Discipline and Type - Temple University Library
Literature Reviews - The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Systematic Reviews - Duke University Medical Center Library and Archives
Research Methods - Auroria Library
Learn how to Write a Review of Literature - The Writing Center, University of Wisconsin - Madison