Subject Guides: Reviewing the literature: Writing

Writing a review

The type of review determines how it is written. While there are similarities, there are also differences.

Differences:		All types of reviews:
Literature review	Focusses on the research gap and comparing and contrasting studies related to it	are planned carefully with the aims clearly in focus involve stages or steps compare and contrast research on the topic are clearly structured with no extraneous sections narrow down from broader literature to specific details are written with clarity, economy, and precise sentence structure use academic writing style and require careful editing and revising
Scoping review	Maps key concepts and evidence, find the breadth of a field. Broad aims or question
Systematic review	Answers very specific questions
Meta-analysis	Uses statistical methods to synthesise data from a number of studies

The All reviews page describes the elements of writing a review article that are common to all reviews. For information about elements that are different, see the scoping review or systematic review pages.

The information in the Writing tab summarises the document below.

Review sections

Sections in a review are:

Abstract	A structured abstract
Introduction	Rationale Objectives Research question or aim
Methods	Eligibility criteria Information sources Search strategy Selection of sources of evidence Data charting process Data items
Results	Search results Characteristics of sources of evidence
Discussion	What the results mean Recommendations Conclusion
Further content	Reference list Further data or appendices

Review templates

This document is a fillable PDF for writing reviews.

Fillable review template

Methods Wizard
From Bond University's Systematic Review Accelerator, the Methods Wizard allows you to input details of your review method to create a written methods section.
JBI Sumari
JBI Sumari has templates for different review types you are able to fill in. Watch the Sumari YouTube channel to find out how to sign up and use this resource the library subscribes to.