A few types…

Narrative Literature Reviews

Narrative literature reviews critique and summarize a body of literature within the context of some narrative. This narrative can be explicitly argumentative, meaning it’s designed to support or refute deeply imbedded assumptions about a topic; it can also be historical, meaning it’s purpose is to examine a topic over a period of time, looking at the evolution of the research or the evolution of knowledge about a topic over a period of time; it can be methodological, meaning that the focus of the review provides a framework for understanding how a topic has been studied as much as (if not more than) exploring what someone said about the topic; it can be theoretical, meaning that the focus of the review is to examine the body of theory surrounding the topic (and potentially its development overtime).

Systematic Literature Reviews

Systematic literature reviews provide an overview of the state of research on a given topic, primarily focused on analyzing and assessing the quality of studies on a given topic. They of use when the results of studies on a topic are inconsistent.  Systematic reviews, unlike narrative reviews, select articles objectively and systematically and are thus sometimes called “selective literature reviews.”  Systematic review articles often consider all (or most) published studies on a specific them, but will often highlight only the relevant information extracted from these studies and highlight important studies on the topic.

Meta-Analyses and Meta-Synthesis Literature Reviews

Meta-analysis is a more recent evolution of the literature review that focuses on evaluating and reevaluating the quantitative results (and procedures) of empirical research on a given topic.  Its often focused on integrating and evaluating the quantitative results of several studies to reduce their results and conclusions to identify core elements and themes.  Meta-synthesis is a non-statistical technique of analyzing qualitative research on a given topic.  Meta-synthesis does not work to reduce findings on a topic to its elements, but rather, to analyze and synthesize key elements of a topic with the aim of adding to (and potentially transforming) the individual studies to make new connections and interpretations.

Integrative Literature Reviews

Is a method of reviewing a body of literature that integrates both experimental and non-experimental research (in other words, it balances an analysis of quantitative and qualitative, theoretical and methodological).

Organizational Strategies

Chronological
Thematic or Emphatic
Methodological
By Publication (emphasizing key publications)