Whether you are in the planning phase of undergraduate, graduate, or doctorate research, you must answer a few well-defined research questions. What will be the research problem for your study? Which research design will be more appropriate for you to achieve the aims? How will you reach the targeted audiences to collect valuable information? and many more. Research is a long process that demands students to make logical decisions at every new step. Likewise, the selection of the best method to collect the information is a problem that asks students to choose an appropriate one. Thus, this article will describe the two most common methods of data collection ‘literature review’ and ‘systematic review’, so even a novice researcher can choose one of them for his/ her research.
Note: This article will primarily focus on the key differences between both types of reviews.
Differences # 1 (based on the main goal):
Based on the goals of the research, the scope of the study may help you in selecting whether a literature review will be best for your study or a systematic review. If a scope of a study is broad and descriptive, the literature review can be performed. For example, if your main goal is to descriptively describe the causes, symptoms, and treatment of trypanosomiasis ‘sleeping’ sickness’, then a literature review will be the most suitable. In contrast, a systematic literature review’s goal is to answer well-defined, focused, and clear research questions. For example, when you need to answer ‘whether the antitrypansomal treatment is for all patients suffering from African Trypanosomiasis by considering different cases’, then the systematic review can help in giving inferences by seeking evidence-based decisions.
Differences # 2 (based on searching for evidence):
Another factor that makes a literature review different from a systematic review is the search strategy. In the simple literature review, you can select relevant studies by searching across a single database. Contrary to this, the latter demands a researcher to make a more sophisticated search strategy by selecting keywords inclusion/ exclusion criteria lists to search for sources across multiple databases. Additionally, a systematic literature review allows the researcher to include information published not only in traditional databases such as Google School but also review the information published in conferences’ abstract books. The purpose of the use of multiple databases is to minimise bias.
Differences # 3 (based on assessing search results):
In the systematic literature review, for assessing search results, the parameters of inclusion must be established at the start of a study. Most reviewers set such parameters under the umbrella of predefined frameworks such as PICO (population, intervention, comparison and outcomes), SPIDER (sample, phenomenon of interest, design, evaluation, and research type) or PICOS (population, intervention, comparison, outcomes, and study type). After the selection of an appropriate framework, the researcher assesses the results based on the predefined parameters. However, in the literature review, there is no need to set such parameters to reach a valid conclusion.
Differences # 4 (based on summarising findings):
In a systematic review, reviewers reach a conclusion after evaluating the quality of sources or evidence. The commonly used method to check the quality of evidence is ‘risk bias assessments’ at individual study levels or across studies. However, literature review rarely suggests reviewers evaluate the quality of sources by using any reasonable quality assessment method. Furthermore, by applying a meta-analysis approach systematic literature review can also give quantitative results that a literature review cannot bring.
Differences # 5 (based on the utility of results):
As far as the results of both types of reviews are concerned, it is obvious that a systematic literature review brings insights with a less-associated risk of bias. The less associated bias makes the results more authentic or of high quality. In contrast, the results extracted by conducting a literature review are useful for finding background information. Additionally, the former is the method that helps organisations and government agencies to issue guidelines about a process and to give a recommendation.
Final Thoughts:
After comparing systematic review and literature review, it can be concluded that no one method of review can give preference over others. Both types of reviews are conducted to achieve different purposes. It is differences in the main goal, search strategy, search results assessing, findings summarising, and results’ utilisation that help categorise both types of review. Considering the pros and cons of each, you can select the one that can assist you in getting closer to your main objectives of conducting research. In case of any confusion, you can get dissertation help online when using any of these types in your dissertation. UK based highly qualified and experienced writers are always there to assist you in using literature and systematic review more effectively in your academic assignments and dissertations, no matter what is your subject area or academic level.
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