Narrative review

How it is used

Used to present themes, debates, and background in a field. It is broader and more flexible than a systematic review.

Example sentences

1. The introduction began with a brief narrative review to show how definitions of resilience had shifted across disciplines.

   Here, narrative review means a selective discussion of prior work used to trace changing ideas, not a formal systematic search.

2. Because the project aimed to map key arguments, the supervisor recommended a narrative review instead of a meta-analysis.

   In this sentence, the term refers to a review approach suited to comparing perspectives and concepts rather than pooling statistics.

Common collocations

• conduct a narrative review
• brief narrative review
• narrative review article

Related terms

• literature reviewA critical summary of what has already been published on a topic, showing the main ideas, debates and gaps that a new study responds to.
• literatureThe body of published research and writing on a particular subject; in academic use it does not mean novels and poetry.

More terms: Literature Review

• research gap
• theoretical framework
• seminal
• synthesize
• draw on
• build on
• primary source
• secondary source
• systematic review
• database
• meta-analysis
• body of literature