- Define a topic and audience.
- Decide the type of review you wish to write and make sure that you are capable of writing (meta-analysis can be difficult for many, for example).
- Search and re-search the literature.
- Organize articles into different categories according to specific issues the articles addressed.
- Take notes while reading and categorize and organize information into subgroups.
- Keep the review focused with the audience in mind but make it of broad interest.
- Be critical, objective, open-minded, and consistent and do not become biased.
- Organize the flow of the main body of the review so that the reader will be drawn into and guided through it.
- Make use of feedback from your colleagues and reviewers.
- Feel free to include your own relevant research but be objective.
- Be up-to-date, but do not forget older studies that are still relevant
- Do not write a review that does not add anything new to the already published review articles on the same topic
Source: Pautasso M. Ten simple rules for writing a literature review. PLoS Comput Biol. 2013;9(7):e1003149. 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003149
