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Systematic Reviews: Narrative Reviews

Collaborative support for researchers undertaking systematic reviews

What is a narrative review?

Narrative reviews (sometimes called a topic or literature review) are general discussions of a topic, often with no stated hypothesis. They are often invited papers written by experts in the field. 

 

They can provide rationales for future research and can speculate on new types of interventions available. (Ferrari, 2015)

 

A narrative review is not a "less good" systematic/scoping review. The aims and methodology are different; they are different study types. 

 

 

Rossella Ferrari (2015) Writing narrative style literature reviews, Medical Writing, 24:4, 230-235, DOI: 10.1179/2047480615Z.000000000329

What are some limitations of narrative reviews?

Some limitations of narrative reviews are that they often do not include methodology (i.e., how did they get these results?) and therefore can be subjective in study selection, which can potentially lead to bias. This also makes narrative reviews not reproducible. Because it is not necessary for a narrative review to comprehensive, it is often difficult to discern how much weight to apply to their claims. 

 

However, narrative reviews can be important and necessary contributions to medical literature.

When should I perform a narrative review versus a systematic/scoping review?

It's very important to remember that not all research questions require or are appropriate for a systematic/scoping review (SR).

 

  • When the question is too broad for a comprehensive, methodologically rigorous SR to take place.
  • When there is not enough literature yet available to perform a SR. 
  • When there is not enough time to perform a SR.
  • When there is not a large enough team available to perform a SR.

How should I write a narrative review?

Because there are no formal guidelines that narrative reviews must adhere to (such as PRISMA for systematic reviews) their quality can vary greatly. However, there are some resources to help you build your review.