Improving Systematic Literature Reviews: A Narrative Guideline to Structure the Analysis Stage

Abstract

Systematic literature reviews (SLRs) have been used in various disciplines to explore existing research on a particular topic. SLRs are important for identifying research gaps, providing guidelines for practice and informing policy. There are several guidelines for conducting SLRs which focus mainly on providing methodological steps to ensure rigour and transparency. The initial steps of a SLR have detailed guidance. However, the analysis and evaluation steps lacks detailed guidance leading to quality challenges of reporting of their findings. With rigour during the analysis of the SLR, the findings could become more logical and relevant to practice and policy-making. The purpose of this paper is to develop guidelines for conducting analysis and synthesis during a SLR to improve the relevance and use of the findings as a basis for policy-making, practice and academia. The analysis guideline will show how findings from the SLRs can inform the regulations and standards of the different fields or industries. The paper will show how analysis is conducted in such that it assists practitioners to make informed decisions and know actions that need to be taken in their fields or industries. Lastly, researchers in academia usually conduct SLRs, and this paper will guide them in how to conduct SLR analysis based on their purpose and targeted outcome. A narrative review was used to identify the patterns to improve rigour and transparency during the analysis of a SLR. The findings from the narrative review show that the analysis process depends on the purpose and the targeted outcome of the SLR. If the outcome of the SLR is to identify research gaps, publication metric analysis should be included because it assists in identifying contextual, population and methodological gaps. On the other hand, to identify knowledge gaps, concepts should be identified, effects and interconnections should be determined. An extensive analysis should also be conducted to build a model and framework. The guidelines provided in this paper should assist researchers in improving the analysis process of a SLR, leading to usable findings.