Literature Searching and Reviews

In a narrative review, it is a subjectively selected body of literature with the purpose of presenting and gaining an overview of the current knowledge in a given field. The literature search can include both peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed literature.

There is rarely an in-depth description of search methods, and a systematic search has not necessarily been conducted as preliminary work. However, we would always recommend a systematic search of the field, and the quality of the review will also increase significantly if you conduct a systematic search as shown above as preliminary work. We are happy to help with the preliminary exercises. 

There is no formal quality assessment, but there should be a relevance assessment and source criticism. Synthesis and analysis are narrative, and graphic presentation may occur.

The analysis can be organized chronologically or thematically.

Research overviews/State of the Art reviews in the Humanities will often take the form of a narrative review of varying types, and as the form is very free, it can be a good choice for interdisciplinary projects.

The below mentions narrative reviews - but primarily within the health sciences:

Sukhera J. Narrative Reviews: Flexible, Rigorous, and Practical. J Grad Med Educ. 2022 Aug; 14(4): 414–417. doi: 10.4300/JGME-D-22-00480.1

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):202-222.