Literature Review & Systematic Review – Importance & Differences

Literature allows the student to set back in time and explore what their ancestors did in a particular niche. Research is the continuous process of exploring and finding new things so residents of earth can live a better life. Research and literature have a deep connection as literature aims to conserve continuity in research. In simple words, literature is the backbone of research. No matter what type of research you are planning, market or dissertation, searching the relevant literature is a good start. However, design your research in light of the facts that have been done previously. You must know the types of literature reviews. Thereby in this article, we will discuss the literature review & systematic review and share its importance and contrasting points with you. So let’s get started:

Literature review- A brief introduction:

A literature review is simply a type of scholarly search that helps a researcher in collecting all relevant information in one place. However, only searching for information from scholarly articles cannot help you achieve the purpose of conducting a literature review. Creating links of information imported from other sources with the main objectives of your own research is also necessary. All in all, a literature review is a process of finding literature, extracting quality information from it and using it in other research as evidence or to support a choice.

Systematic review- A brief introduction:

A systematic literature review is a process of examining and finding data from other’s research and using the information to give specific answers to the research questions. It is a type of research methodology that helps solve scientific queries. It is a more sophisticated literature search that follows many steps involving the identification of keywords, making inclusion or exclusion criteria, making a search strategy, and evaluating or synthesis of information.

Importance of review of literature review and systematic review:

The review of literature is important as it helps researchers in developing know-how about a topic of interest. It aids in reaching out the all relevant theories, models, and frameworks that are essential to give supporting details to validate a research query. It gives benefits to both the reader and researchers in developing a deep understanding of a topic. A systematic review can be conducted to solve a specific query that belongs to any discipline. But medical and nursing professionals solve the majority of their research problems with this method. It helps them find what was previously used to cure an ailment, what are its strengths and weaknesses, and how a current study should close the gaps.

You can also read the Get 4P of marketing assignment help for the best paper solutions!

Difference between literature review and systematic review:

The only similarity between literature review and systematic review is that they both use already published scholarly articles. The majority of students, who have completed an undergraduate thesis, may know the review of literature as the second chapter of a dissertation. Yes, a review of literature refers to the same here as well, but the systematic review is the type of research methodology that can stand alone. Reviewing a few samples of both is the best tip to pick some differences between the two; however, in the light of the information provided by Dissertation Writers UK we have collected a few differences between simple literature and systematic review in the following section.

1. For defining research questions in a systematic review, the use of frameworks PICO, SPIDER, and PICOS is a good option. However, these frameworks cannot help you in defining the area of interest for conducting a literature search for a simple review.
2. The systematic review follows a more sophisticated path to solve a scientific query. Even searching literature is followed by paying special attention to the selection of keywords, noting a number of hits, fulfilling inclusion or exclusion criteria, and assessing the quality of information before making a part of your research. (Note: these are only a few steps of systematic review, to know more, you can get a step-by-step guide by professional researchers or seek dissertation help UK). Contrastingly, the literature review can be conducted by only defining the area of interest.
3. One and only one author can conduct a review. But to conduct a systematic review, three or more authors are required to contribute to a study.

Final thoughts:

In a nutshell, finding appropriate words to signify the importance of literature in research is really hard. In fact, literature is the tool to solve any scientific queries. Thus, we just witnessed how by applying a systematic and simple search approach. The literature explores ways to answer the research question. Lastly, both simple and systematic review is important tools to assist the researcher. But both have different purposes, working principles, and importance in research.

You can also read about the 5 books Journaling Methods for Novices.