Knowledge Synthesis & Systematic Reviews

What is a Narrative Review?

A narrative review (sometimes refered to as a literature review) is a summmary account of what has been published on a given topic, written primarily by researchers working in the topic area. These reviews illustrate what knowledge and ideas have been established, what the strengths and weaknesses of these ideas are, and identify controversies in the literature. Literature reviews may also formulate questions for further research and inquiry.

When conducting a narrative review, it is important to have a clearly defined research question or problem. Some important considerations while planning a narrative review include:

• Will you be looking at issues of theory, methodology, policy, or something else?
• What type of analysis is appropriate for your topic?
• How do you plan to present your findings: based on chronology, concept, or theme?
• Are there “key works” that might help guide or inform your review?

The requirements for literature searching for narrative reviews are less stringent than for other types of reviews (Grant & Booth, 2009).  Finding and analyzing everything ever produced on the topic is not required, and the "level of evidence" of the selected materials may be less important than with other types of reviews.

Recommended Resources

• Sukhera J. Narrative Reviews in Medical Education: Key Steps for Researchers. J Grad Med Educ. 2022;14(4):418-419. doi:10.4300/JGME-D-22-00481.1
• Sukhera J. Narrative reviews: flexible, rigorous, and practical. Journal of Graduate Medical Education. 2022 Aug 1;14(4):414-7.
• Gregory AT, Denniss AR. An introduction to writing narrative and systematic reviews—Tasks, tips and traps for aspiring authors. Heart, Lung and Circulation. 2018 Jul 1;27(7):893-8
• Ferrari R. Writing narrative style literature reviews. Medical writing. 2015 Dec 1;24(4):230-5.
• Keary, E., Byrne, M., & Lawton, A. (2012). How to conduct a literature review. The Irish Psychologist, 38(9-10), 239-245.
• Thorne S. Rediscovering the “Narrative” review. Nursing Inquiry. 2018 Jul;25(3):e12257.
• Greenhalgh T, Thorne S, Malterud K. Time to challenge the spurious hierarchy of systematic over narrative reviews? Eur J Clin Invest. 2018 Jun;48(6):e12931. doi: 10.1111/eci.12931.

References

Grant, M. & Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 26(2), 91-108. DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x

National Center for Biotechnology Information. Review Literature as Topic. 2005. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=mesh&dopt=Full&list_uids=68012196 (accessed March 31 2017).