Writing narrative literature reviews

Journal Article (Journal Article)

Narrative literature reviews serve a vital scientific function, but few resources help people learn to write them. As compared with empirical reports, literature reviews can tackle broader and more abstract questions, can engage in more post hoc theorizing without the danger of capitalizing on chance, can make a stronger case for a null-hypothesis conclusion, and can appreciate and use methodological diversity better. Also, literature reviews can draw any of 4 conclusions: The hypothesis is correct, it has not been conclusively established but is the currently best guess, it is false, or the evidence permits no conclusion. Common mistakes of authors of literature review manuscripts are described.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • Baumeister, RF; Leary, MR

Published Date

  • January 1, 1997

Published In

Volume / Issue

  • 1 / 3

Start / End Page

  • 311 - 320

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1089-2680

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1037/1089-2680.1.3.311

Citation Source

  • Scopus