Literature review

Overview
A literature review is a synthesis of past academic discussion and research findings.

Primary and secondary research
Literature reviews can be considered secondary research, which may then lead on to original research (primary research). Sometimes the boundary between primary and secondary research is not clear (e.g., a critical review of previously published ideas and data can lead to the discovery of new ideas).

Types
Literature reviews can be:
 * 1) Scoping (Munn et al., 2018)
 * 2) Traditional or narrative
 * 3) Systematic (Munn et al., 2018)
 * 4) Meta-analytic
 * 5) Meta-synthesis