IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tec/journl/v18y2021i1p550-574.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Review Articles: A Critical Review of the Pitfalls and Guidelines to effectively conducting and reporting reviews

Author

Listed:
  • Favourate Y Mpofu

    (National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe)

Abstract

One of the most fundamental building blocks of any research activity is available knowledge in the subject or area being investigated. Therefore, how to appropriately access, assess, decipher, analyse and synthesise information from this body of knowledge should be an important consideration for researchers. A properly structured, conducted and well reported literature review can build a powerful foundation for strengthening knowledge and advancing theoretical or conceptual framework development. The integration of research outcomes and perspectives from diverse studies can help pinpoint consistencies and inconsistencies, research gaps and address research questions in a cogent manner. Despite reviews being a necessity, how to do them effectively, transparently and constructively remains a complicated task. In light of this observation, literature review as a research methodology dimension is vital, yet researchers often find their review articles being rejected for publication. The study found out that common pitfalls that lead to rejections include: poor article quality, no visible methodology and unclear contribution or lack of value addition. Possibly, researchers are not offering, adequate information on the research strategy, inclusion and exclusion criteria for studies used, the research process and analysis. This study was motivated by this rejection dilemma and sought to contribute to research literature on how to enhance the quality, validity and trustworthiness of review research. Through a critical literature review, the paper discusses the probable contribution of review articles, challenges of conducting them productively and possible amelioration guidelines.

Suggested Citation

  • Favourate Y Mpofu, 2021. "Review Articles: A Critical Review of the Pitfalls and Guidelines to effectively conducting and reporting reviews," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 18(1), pages 550-574, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:tec:journl:v:18:y:2021:i:1:p:550-574
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://techniumscience.com/index.php/socialsciences/article/view/3034/1153
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://techniumscience.com/index.php/socialsciences/article/view/3034
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Snyder, Hannah, 2019. "Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 333-339.
    2. Robert W. Palmatier & Mark B. Houston & John Hulland, 2018. "Review articles: purpose, process, and structure," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 1-5, January.
    3. Bert Van Wee & David Banister, 2016. "How to Write a Literature Review Paper?," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 278-288, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Favourate Y. Mpofu & Tankiso Moloi, 2022. "Direct Digital Services Taxes in Africa and the Canons of Taxation," Laws, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-20, July.
    2. Mpofu Favourate Y Sebele, 2021. "Informal Sector Taxation and Enforcement in African Countries: How plausible and achievable are the motives behind? A Critical Literature Review," Open Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 72-97, January.
    3. Favourate Y. Mpofu, 2024. "Industry 4.0 in Finance, Digital Financial Services and Digital Financial Inclusion in Developing Countries: Opportunities, Challenges, and Possible Policy Responses," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 14(2), pages 120-135, March.
    4. Favourate Y. Mpofu, 2022. "Taxing the Digital Economy through Consumption Taxes (VAT) in African Countries: Possibilities, Constraints and Implications," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, August.
    5. Favourate Y. Mpofu, 2022. "Industry 4.0 in Financial Services: Mobile Money Taxes, Revenue Mobilisation, Financial Inclusion, and the Realisation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-24, July.
    6. Favourate Y. Mpofu, 2022. "Green Taxes in Africa: Opportunities and Challenges for Environmental Protection, Sustainability, and the Attainment of Sustainable Development Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-26, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Yanyan & Mandler, Timo & Meyer-Waarden, Lars, 2021. "Three decades of research on loyalty programs: A literature review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 179-197.
    2. Mandler, Timo & Sezen, Burcu & Chen, Jieke & Özsomer, Ayşegül, 2021. "Performance consequences of marketing standardization/adaptation: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 416-435.
    3. Uchendu Eugene Chigbu & Sulaiman Olusegun Atiku & Cherley C. Du Plessis, 2023. "The Science of Literature Reviews: Searching, Identifying, Selecting, and Synthesising," Publications, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, January.
    4. Maulana Noveri, 2020. "Research Trends in Marketing Science Before COVID-19 Outbreak: A Literature Review," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 15(s1), pages 514-533, October.
    5. Nazir Saima & Chisti Khalid, 2023. "Corporate Spin-Offs and Shareholders’ Wealth: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda," Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 11(1), pages 42-63, October.
    6. Hosany, A. R. Shaheen & Hosany, Sameer & He, Hongwei, 2022. "Children sustainable behaviour: A review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 236-257.
    7. Julia Rötzmeier-Keuper, 2020. "Consumer Vulnerability: Overview And Synthesis Of The Current State Of Knowledge And Future Service-Related Research Directions," Working Papers Dissertations 65, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    8. Paul, Justin & Criado, Alex Rialp, 2020. "The art of writing literature review: What do we know and what do we need to know?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4).
    9. Lenart-Gansiniec Regina, 2022. "The dilemmas of systematic literature review: the context of crowdsourcing in science," International Journal of Contemporary Management, Sciendo, vol. 58(1), pages 11-21, March.
    10. Kumar, Avinash & Kumra, Rajeev & Singh, Ramendra, 2022. "Base of the pyramid producers’ constraints: An integrated review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 115-129.
    11. Samson John Mgaiwa, 2021. "Fostering Graduate Employability: Rethinking Tanzania’s University Practices," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, April.
    12. Siemieniako, Dariusz & Kubacki, Krzysztof & Mitręga, Maciej, 2021. "Inter-organisational relationships for social impact: A systematic literature review," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 453-469.
    13. Dimitris Damigos, 2023. "How Much Are Consumers Willing to Pay for a Greener Hotel Industry? A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-19, May.
    14. Mpofu Favourate Y Sebele, 2021. "Informal Sector Taxation and Enforcement in African Countries: How plausible and achievable are the motives behind? A Critical Literature Review," Open Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 72-97, January.
    15. Nelaeva, Alena & Nilssen, Frode, 2022. "Contrasting knowledge development for internationalization among emerging and advanced economy firms: A review and future research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 232-256.
    16. Bygballe, Lena E. & Dubois, Anna & Jahre, Marianne, 2023. "The importance of resource interaction in strategies for managing supply chain disruptions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    17. Evers, Natasha & Ojala, Arto & Sousa, Carlos M.P. & Criado-Rialp, Alex, 2023. "Unraveling business model innovation in firm internationalization: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    18. Shivam Gupta & Sachin Modgil & Samadrita Bhattacharyya & Indranil Bose, 2022. "Artificial intelligence for decision support systems in the field of operations research: review and future scope of research," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 308(1), pages 215-274, January.
    19. Terry Clark & Thomas Martin Key, 2021. "The methodologies of the marketing literature: mechanics, uses and craft," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(3), pages 416-431, December.
    20. Jayaswal, Pragya & Parida, Biswajita, 2023. "The role of augmented reality in redefining e-tailing: A review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Literature review; Knowledge; Contribution; Narrative review; Scoping review;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tec:journl:v:18:y:2021:i:1:p:550-574. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tasente Tanase (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.