Types of reviews

Be aware of the different types of reviews and different methods for doing a 'literature review'. Be particularly careful with the wording you use for your review for example a systematic literature review is not the same as a systematic review.

Systematic Reviews and Other Comprehensive Searching: Review Types  from the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale Sutton A, Clowes M, Preston L, Booth A. Meeting the review family: exploring review types and associated information retrieval requirements. Health Info Libr J. 2019;36(3):202-22.

Doctoral candidates may be interested in this blog post Not all literature reviews are the same on the different types of 'review'.

Integrated reviews

Whittemore, R. and Knafl, K. (2005), The integrative review: updated methodology. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 52: 546-553. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2005.03621.x

Cerigo, H., Quesnel-Vallée, A. Systematic mixed studies reviews: leveraging the literature to answer complex questions through the integration of quantitative and qualitative evidence. Int J Public Health (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01386-3

Rapid reviews

“A rapid review is a form of knowledge synthesis that accelerates the process of conducting a traditional systematic review through streamlining or omitting specific methods to produce evidence ... in a resource-efficient manner.”

Key points:

• Search Cochrane CENTRAL, Medline and Embase. If the topic warrants it search CINAHL or APA PsycInfo but no more than 1or 2 additional databases.
• Limit to english language only
• Ideally 2 reviewers to screen 20% of records with one reviewer screening the bulk of results.
• Systematic reviews are included as relevant study designs.

See the full document at Cochrane Rapid Reviews - Interim Methods Guidance.
See also STARR Decision Tool: Selecting Approches for Rapid Reviews