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Types of Reviews

Overview of NSLHD Libraries services and resources to help you understand and undertake a range of review types.

What is a Narrative Review?

A narrative literature review, or traditional literature review, provides an overview and discussion of the relevant literature on a topic. They do not aim to locate all relevant literature in a systematic way, instead they bring together a summary of the literature in a qualitative manner.

Characteristics include:

  • may or may not include comprehensive searching
  • may or may not include quality assessment
  • analysis may be chronological, conceptual, thematic etc.

Timeframe: several months or more

Books

Conducting Research Literature Reviews
Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review
Health Sciences Literature Review Made Easy
Doing a Literature Review in Nursing, Health and Social Care
The Literature Review
Doing a literature review in health and social care : a practical guide
Literature Review and Synthesis

Further Reading

Examples