Systematic literature reviews

We suggest two alternative definitions of  review articles:

"There is no commonly agreed definition of review articles and different disciplines might value them differently. However, in general parlance review articles are defined as articles that do not contain original data and simply collect, review and synthesize earlier research, without including substantial theoretical or conceptual development." (Harzing, 2013, 24).

"a systematic, explicit, and reproducible method for identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing the existing body of completed and recorded work produced by researchers, scholars, and practitioners. (Fink, 2020, 254)

The main focus of a systematic review is to synthesize previous research. These articles do not present any new, original data. In other words, to perform a (systematic) literature review, is a research method in its own right. In general, these types of study typically:

• require a research question that can be answered by studying a group of studies that all are trying to answer the same question
• collect, sort and code a group of studies that are very similar (Wang, 2019, pp. 4-5)

Typically, the methodology section of a review article may explain how and where the author has identified relevant studies and which criteria have been used for inclusion and exclusion. Such information can include the search string used, list of databases or a time frame. So, a review article will usually have a specific scope and not necessarily cover the complete body of research within an area.

Most research articles contain a literature review section, where the author links the study to relevant literature and theory. However, this does not make them review articles. "Book review" is another example of a document type that is not relevant here.

For different types of reviews, see this page. 

Searching for already published review articles on your research question, may be a good starting point for your topic and may give you a kick start in getting an overview, especially if you're able to find a fairly recent review article.  These particular type of articles:

• Provide a summary of research on a topic
• Identify researchers and specific works within the area (great way to find relevant authors and studies related to a research topic)
• Often identify gaps in the research and indicate where more research is needed (may help you to find and formulate a research question)

One should not expect to find literature reviews within all research areas and certainly not in extensive numbers. Also note that new research areas are not likely to have been covered (yet).