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Systematic Reviews: Different types of review

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Articles about Review types

Often cited paper about review types and methodologies: 
 

A useful update to the 2009 Grant & Booth paper - covers various review methodologies and groups them into review "families"

  • Sutton, A., Clowes, M., Preston, L., & Booth, A. (2019). Meeting the review family: exploring review types and associated information retrieval requirements. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 36 (3), 202-222. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12276

Systematized Review (versus Systematic Review)

Another type of Review described in the Grant & Booth (2009) paper is the Systematized Review.
Systematized Review:
  • Attempts to include elements of the systematic review process while stopping short of a systematic review 
  • Typically conducted as postgraduate student assignment
  • May or may not include comprehensive searching
  • May or may not include quality assessment
  • Typically narrative with tabular accompaniment
  • Analysis will cover: what is known; uncertainty around findings; limitations of methodology
Grant, M. J., & Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 26 (2), 91-108. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x
 

What type of literature review do you need?

Systematic Review vs Literature Review

The following table highlights some of the differences between systematic and literature reviews.  The two can be confused as both are used to provide a summary of the literature or research on a topic.  

Kysh, Lynn (2013): Difference between a systematic review and a literature review. [figshare]. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.766364

Narrative versus Systematic Review

Types of Review

A useful summary of types of review from the PhD On Track web resource.

Systematic Reviews in Business and Management

In Business and Management Systematic Reviews are less common but other less detailed reviews do take place. These can be called a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA), Critically Assessed Topic (CAT) or Systematic Literature Review. See also the Rapid Reviews section above.


Business Systematic Literature Reviews

Initially intended for information specialists, researchers, students and others will find this excellent resource invaluable to aid understanding of the different types and phases of the review and how to follow the processes involved: https://bslrblog.wordpress.com/.


Other useful links and resources: