importance of reviewing previous literature in research

Why is it important to do a literature review in research?

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 “A substantive, thorough, sophisticated literature review is a precondition for doing substantive, thorough, sophisticated research”. Boote and Baile 2005

Authors of manuscripts treat writing a literature review as a routine work or a mere formality. But a seasoned one knows the purpose and importance of a well-written literature review.  Since it is one of the basic needs for researches at any level, they have to be done vigilantly. Only then the reader will know that the basics of research have not been neglected.

The aim of any literature review is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of existing knowledge in a particular field without adding any new contributions.   Being built on existing knowledge they help the researcher to even turn the wheels of the topic of research.  It is possible only with profound knowledge of what is wrong in the existing findings in detail to overpower them.  For other researches, the literature review gives the direction to be headed for its success. 

The common perception of literature review and reality:

As per the common belief, literature reviews are only a summary of the sources related to the research. And many authors of scientific manuscripts believe that they are only surveys of what are the researches are done on the chosen topic.  But on the contrary, it uses published information from pertinent and relevant sources like

• Scholarly books
• Scientific papers
• Latest studies in the field
• Established school of thoughts
• Relevant articles from renowned scientific journals

and many more for a field of study or theory or a particular problem to do the following:

• Summarize into a brief account of all information
• Synthesize the information by restructuring and reorganizing
• Critical evaluation of a concept or a school of thought or ideas
• Familiarize the authors to the extent of knowledge in the particular field
• Encapsulate
• Compare & contrast

By doing the above on the relevant information, it provides the reader of the scientific manuscript with the following for a better understanding of it:

• It establishes the authors’  in-depth understanding and knowledge of their field subject
• It gives the background of the research
• Portrays the scientific manuscript plan of examining the research result
• Illuminates on how the knowledge has changed within the field
• Highlights what has already been done in a particular field
• Information of the generally accepted facts, emerging and current state of the topic of research
• Identifies the research gap that is still unexplored or under-researched fields
• Demonstrates how the research fits within a larger field of study
• Provides an overview of the sources explored during the research of a particular topic

Importance of literature review in research:

The importance of literature review in scientific manuscripts can be condensed into an analytical feature to enable the multifold reach of its significance.  It adds value to the legitimacy of the research in many ways:

• Provides the interpretation of existing literature in light of updated developments in the field to help in establishing the consistency in knowledge and relevancy of existing materials
• It helps in calculating the impact of the latest information in the field by mapping their progress of knowledge.
• It brings out the dialects of contradictions between various thoughts within the field to establish facts
• The research gaps scrutinized initially are further explored to establish the latest facts of theories to add value to the field
• Indicates the current research place in the schema of a particular field
• Provides information for relevancy and coherency to check the research
• Apart from elucidating the continuance of knowledge, it also points out areas that require further investigation and thus aid as a starting point of any future research
• Justifies the research and sets up the research question
• Sets up a theoretical framework comprising the concepts and theories of the research upon which its success can be judged
• Helps to adopt a more appropriate methodology for the research by examining the strengths and weaknesses of existing research in the same field
• Increases the significance of the results by comparing it with the existing literature
• Provides a point of reference by writing the findings in the scientific manuscript
• Helps to get the due credit from the audience for having done the fact-finding and fact-checking mission in the scientific manuscripts
• The more the reference of relevant sources of it could increase more of its trustworthiness with the readers
• Helps to prevent plagiarism by tailoring and uniquely tweaking the scientific manuscript not to repeat other’s original idea
• By preventing plagiarism , it saves the scientific manuscript from rejection and thus also saves a lot of time and money
• Helps to evaluate, condense and synthesize gist in the author’s own words to sharpen the research focus
• Helps to compare and contrast to  show the originality and uniqueness of the research than that of the existing other researches
• Rationalizes the need for conducting the particular research in a specified field
• Helps to collect data accurately for allowing any new methodology of research than the existing ones
• Enables the readers of the manuscript to answer the following questions of its readers for its better chances for publication
• What do the researchers know?
• What do they not know?
• Is the scientific manuscript reliable and trustworthy?
• What are the knowledge gaps of the researcher?

22. It helps the readers to identify the following for further reading of the scientific manuscript:

• What has been already established, discredited and accepted in the particular field of research
• Areas of controversy and conflicts among different schools of thought
• Unsolved problems and issues in the connected field of research
• The emerging trends and approaches
• How the research extends, builds upon and leaves behind from the previous research

A profound literature review with many relevant sources of reference will enhance the chances of the scientific manuscript publication in renowned and reputed scientific journals .

References:

http://www.math.montana.edu/jobo/phdprep/phd6.pdf

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Literature review.

• What is a Literature Review?
• What is Its Purpose?
• 1. Select a Topic
• 2. Set the Topic in Context
• 3. Types of Information Sources
• 4. Use Information Sources
• 5. Get the Information
• 6. Organize / Manage the Information
• 7. Position the Literature Review
• 8. Write the Literature Review

A literature review is a comprehensive summary of previous research on a topic. The literature review surveys scholarly articles, books, and other sources relevant to a particular area of research.  The review should enumerate, describe, summarize, objectively evaluate and clarify this previous research.  It should give a theoretical base for the research and help you (the author) determine the nature of your research.  The literature review acknowledges the work of previous researchers, and in so doing, assures the reader that your work has been well conceived.  It is assumed that by mentioning a previous work in the field of study, that the author has read, evaluated, and assimiliated that work into the work at hand.

A literature review creates a "landscape" for the reader, giving her or him a full understanding of the developments in the field.  This landscape informs the reader that the author has indeed assimilated all (or the vast majority of) previous, significant works in the field into her or his research. 

 "In writing the literature review, the purpose is to convey to the reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. The literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (eg. your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries.( http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review )

Recommended Reading

• Next: What is Its Purpose? >>
• Last Updated: Oct 2, 2023 12:34 PM

A Guide to Literature Reviews

Importance of a good literature review.

• Conducting the Literature Review
• Structure and Writing Style
• Types of Literature Reviews
• Citation Management Software This link opens in a new window
• Acknowledgements

A literature review is not only a summary of key sources, but  has an organizational pattern which combines both summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories . A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information in a way that informs how you are planning to investigate a research problem. The analytical features of a literature review might:

• Give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations,
• Trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates,
• Depending on the situation, evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant research, or
• Usually in the conclusion of a literature review, identify where gaps exist in how a problem has been researched to date.

The purpose of a literature review is to:

• Place each work in the context of its contribution to understanding the research problem being studied.
• Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration.
• Identify new ways to interpret prior research.
• Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies.
• Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort.
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research.
• Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important].
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Literature Review - what is a Literature Review, why it is important and how it is done

What are literature reviews, goals of literature reviews, types of literature reviews, about this guide/licence.

• Strategies to Find Sources
• Evaluating Literature Reviews and Sources
• Tips for Writing Literature Reviews
• Writing Literature Review: Useful Sites
• Citation Resources
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• Useful Resources

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 What is a literature review? "A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries. " - Quote from Taylor, D. (n.d) "The literature review: A few tips on conducting it"

Source NC State University Libraries. This video is published under a Creative Commons 3.0 BY-NC-SA US license.

What are the goals of creating a Literature Review?

• To develop a theory or evaluate an existing theory
• To summarize the historical or existing state of a research topic
• Identify a problem in a field of research 

- Baumeister, R.F. & Leary, M.R. (1997). "Writing narrative literature reviews," Review of General Psychology , 1(3), 311-320.

When do you need to write a Literature Review?

• When writing a prospectus or a thesis/dissertation
• When writing a research paper
• When writing a grant proposal

In all these cases you need to dedicate a chapter in these works to showcase what have been written about your research topic and to point out how your own research will shed a new light into these body of scholarship.

Literature reviews are also written as standalone articles as a way to survey a particular research topic in-depth. This type of literature reviews look at a topic from a historical perspective to see how the understanding of the topic have change through time.

What kinds of literature reviews are written?

• Narrative Review: The purpose of this type of review is to describe the current state of the research on a specific topic/research and to offer a critical analysis of the literature reviewed. Studies are grouped by research/theoretical categories, and themes and trends, strengths and weakness, and gaps are identified. The review ends with a conclusion section which summarizes the findings regarding the state of the research of the specific study, the gaps identify and if applicable, explains how the author's research will address gaps identify in the review and expand the knowledge on the topic reviewed.
• Book review essays/ Historiographical review essays : This is a type of review that focus on a small set of research books on a particular topic " to locate these books within current scholarship, critical methodologies, and approaches" in the field. - LARR
• Systematic review : "The authors of a systematic review use a specific procedure to search the research literature, select the studies to include in their review, and critically evaluate the studies they find." (p. 139). Nelson, L.K. (2013). Research in Communication Sciences and Disorders . San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing.
• Meta-analysis : "Meta-analysis is a method of reviewing research findings in a quantitative fashion by transforming the data from individual studies into what is called an effect size and then pooling and analyzing this information. The basic goal in meta-analysis is to explain why different outcomes have occurred in different studies." (p. 197). Roberts, M.C. & Ilardi, S.S. (2003). Handbook of Research Methods in Clinical Psychology . Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.
• Meta-synthesis : "Qualitative meta-synthesis is a type of qualitative study that uses as data the findings from other qualitative studies linked by the same or related topic." (p.312). Zimmer, L. (2006). "Qualitative meta-synthesis: A question of dialoguing with texts," Journal of Advanced Nursing , 53(3), 311-318.

Guide adapted from "Literature Review" , a guide developed by Marisol Ramos used under CC BY 4.0 /modified from original.

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• Last Updated: Jul 3, 2024 10:56 AM
• URL: https://lit.libguides.com/Literature-Review

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• How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates, and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
• Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models, and methods?
• Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

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To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

• Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

Scribbr slides are free to use, customize, and distribute for educational purposes.

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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

• To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

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Research Methods

• Getting Started
• Literature Review Research
• Research Design
• Research Design By Discipline
• SAGE Research Methods
• Teaching with SAGE Research Methods

Literature Review

• What is a Literature Review?
• What is NOT a Literature Review?
• Purposes of a Literature Review
• Types of Literature Reviews
• Literature Reviews vs. Systematic Reviews
• Systematic vs. Meta-Analysis

Literature Review  is a comprehensive survey of the works published in a particular field of study or line of research, usually over a specific period of time, in the form of an in-depth, critical bibliographic essay or annotated list in which attention is drawn to the most significant works.

Also, we can define a literature review as the collected body of scholarly works related to a topic:

• Summarizes and analyzes previous research relevant to a topic
• Includes scholarly books and articles published in academic journals
• Can be an specific scholarly paper or a section in a research paper

The objective of a Literature Review is to find previous published scholarly works relevant to an specific topic

• Help gather ideas or information
• Keep up to date in current trends and findings
• Help develop new questions

A literature review is important because it:

• Explains the background of research on a topic.
• Demonstrates why a topic is significant to a subject area.
• Helps focus your own research questions or problems
• Discovers relationships between research studies/ideas.
• Suggests unexplored ideas or populations
• Identifies major themes, concepts, and researchers on a topic.
• Tests assumptions; may help counter preconceived ideas and remove unconscious bias.
• Identifies critical gaps, points of disagreement, or potentially flawed methodology or theoretical approaches.
• Indicates potential directions for future research.

All content in this section is from Literature Review Research from Old Dominion University 

Keep in mind the following, a literature review is NOT:

Not an essay 

Not an annotated bibliography  in which you summarize each article that you have reviewed.  A literature review goes beyond basic summarizing to focus on the critical analysis of the reviewed works and their relationship to your research question.

Not a research paper   where you select resources to support one side of an issue versus another.  A lit review should explain and consider all sides of an argument in order to avoid bias, and areas of agreement and disagreement should be highlighted.

A literature review serves several purposes. For example, it

• provides thorough knowledge of previous studies; introduces seminal works.
• helps focus one’s own research topic.
• identifies a conceptual framework for one’s own research questions or problems; indicates potential directions for future research.
• suggests previously unused or underused methodologies, designs, quantitative and qualitative strategies.
• identifies gaps in previous studies; identifies flawed methodologies and/or theoretical approaches; avoids replication of mistakes.
• helps the researcher avoid repetition of earlier research.
• suggests unexplored populations.
• determines whether past studies agree or disagree; identifies controversy in the literature.
• tests assumptions; may help counter preconceived ideas and remove unconscious bias.

As Kennedy (2007) notes*, it is important to think of knowledge in a given field as consisting of three layers. First, there are the primary studies that researchers conduct and publish. Second are the reviews of those studies that summarize and offer new interpretations built from and often extending beyond the original studies. Third, there are the perceptions, conclusions, opinion, and interpretations that are shared informally that become part of the lore of field. In composing a literature review, it is important to note that it is often this third layer of knowledge that is cited as "true" even though it often has only a loose relationship to the primary studies and secondary literature reviews.

Given this, while literature reviews are designed to provide an overview and synthesis of pertinent sources you have explored, there are several approaches to how they can be done, depending upon the type of analysis underpinning your study. Listed below are definitions of types of literature reviews:

Argumentative Review      This form examines literature selectively in order to support or refute an argument, deeply imbedded assumption, or philosophical problem already established in the literature. The purpose is to develop a body of literature that establishes a contrarian viewpoint. Given the value-laden nature of some social science research [e.g., educational reform; immigration control], argumentative approaches to analyzing the literature can be a legitimate and important form of discourse. However, note that they can also introduce problems of bias when they are used to to make summary claims of the sort found in systematic reviews.

Integrative Review      Considered a form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated. The body of literature includes all studies that address related or identical hypotheses. A well-done integrative review meets the same standards as primary research in regard to clarity, rigor, and replication.

Historical Review      Few things rest in isolation from historical precedent. Historical reviews are focused on examining research throughout a period of time, often starting with the first time an issue, concept, theory, phenomena emerged in the literature, then tracing its evolution within the scholarship of a discipline. The purpose is to place research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-the-art developments and to identify the likely directions for future research.

Methodological Review      A review does not always focus on what someone said [content], but how they said it [method of analysis]. This approach provides a framework of understanding at different levels (i.e. those of theory, substantive fields, research approaches and data collection and analysis techniques), enables researchers to draw on a wide variety of knowledge ranging from the conceptual level to practical documents for use in fieldwork in the areas of ontological and epistemological consideration, quantitative and qualitative integration, sampling, interviewing, data collection and data analysis, and helps highlight many ethical issues which we should be aware of and consider as we go through our study.

Systematic Review      This form consists of an overview of existing evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated research question, which uses pre-specified and standardized methods to identify and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect, report, and analyse data from the studies that are included in the review. Typically it focuses on a very specific empirical question, often posed in a cause-and-effect form, such as "To what extent does A contribute to B?"

Theoretical Review      The purpose of this form is to concretely examine the corpus of theory that has accumulated in regard to an issue, concept, theory, phenomena. The theoretical literature review help establish what theories already exist, the relationships between them, to what degree the existing theories have been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be tested. Often this form is used to help establish a lack of appropriate theories or reveal that current theories are inadequate for explaining new or emerging research problems. The unit of analysis can focus on a theoretical concept or a whole theory or framework.

* Kennedy, Mary M. "Defining a Literature."  Educational Researcher  36 (April 2007): 139-147.

All content in this section is from The Literature Review created by Dr. Robert Larabee USC

Robinson, P. and Lowe, J. (2015),  Literature reviews vs systematic reviews.  Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 39: 103-103. doi: 10.1111/1753-6405.12393

What's in the name? The difference between a Systematic Review and a Literature Review, and why it matters . By Lynn Kysh from University of Southern California

Systematic review or meta-analysis?

A  systematic review  answers a defined research question by collecting and summarizing all empirical evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria.

A  meta-analysis  is the use of statistical methods to summarize the results of these studies.

Systematic reviews, just like other research articles, can be of varying quality. They are a significant piece of work (the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at York estimates that a team will take 9-24 months), and to be useful to other researchers and practitioners they should have:

• clearly stated objectives with pre-defined eligibility criteria for studies
• explicit, reproducible methodology
• a systematic search that attempts to identify all studies
• assessment of the validity of the findings of the included studies (e.g. risk of bias)
• systematic presentation, and synthesis, of the characteristics and findings of the included studies

Not all systematic reviews contain meta-analysis. 

Meta-analysis is the use of statistical methods to summarize the results of independent studies. By combining information from all relevant studies, meta-analysis can provide more precise estimates of the effects of health care than those derived from the individual studies included within a review.  More information on meta-analyses can be found in  Cochrane Handbook, Chapter 9 .

A meta-analysis goes beyond critique and integration and conducts secondary statistical analysis on the outcomes of similar studies.  It is a systematic review that uses quantitative methods to synthesize and summarize the results.

An advantage of a meta-analysis is the ability to be completely objective in evaluating research findings.  Not all topics, however, have sufficient research evidence to allow a meta-analysis to be conducted.  In that case, an integrative review is an appropriate strategy. 

Some of the content in this section is from Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: step by step guide created by Kate McAllister.

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2.3 Reviewing the Research Literature

Learning objectives.

• Define the research literature in psychology and give examples of sources that are part of the research literature and sources that are not.
• Describe and use several methods for finding previous research on a particular research idea or question.

Reviewing the research literature means finding, reading, and summarizing the published research relevant to your question. An empirical research report written in American Psychological Association (APA) style always includes a written literature review, but it is important to review the literature early in the research process for several reasons.

• It can help you turn a research idea into an interesting research question.
• It can tell you if a research question has already been answered.
• It can help you evaluate the interestingness of a research question.
• It can give you ideas for how to conduct your own study.
• It can tell you how your study fits into the research literature.

What Is the Research Literature?

The research literature in any field is all the published research in that field. The research literature in psychology is enormous—including millions of scholarly articles and books dating to the beginning of the field—and it continues to grow. Although its boundaries are somewhat fuzzy, the research literature definitely does not include self-help and other pop psychology books, dictionary and encyclopedia entries, websites, and similar sources that are intended mainly for the general public. These are considered unreliable because they are not reviewed by other researchers and are often based on little more than common sense or personal experience. Wikipedia contains much valuable information, but the fact that its authors are anonymous and its content continually changes makes it unsuitable as a basis of sound scientific research. For our purposes, it helps to define the research literature as consisting almost entirely of two types of sources: articles in professional journals, and scholarly books in psychology and related fields.

Professional Journals

Professional journals are periodicals that publish original research articles. There are thousands of professional journals that publish research in psychology and related fields. They are usually published monthly or quarterly in individual issues, each of which contains several articles. The issues are organized into volumes, which usually consist of all the issues for a calendar year. Some journals are published in hard copy only, others in both hard copy and electronic form, and still others in electronic form only.

Most articles in professional journals are one of two basic types: empirical research reports and review articles. Empirical research reports describe one or more new empirical studies conducted by the authors. They introduce a research question, explain why it is interesting, review previous research, describe their method and results, and draw their conclusions. Review articles summarize previously published research on a topic and usually present new ways to organize or explain the results. When a review article is devoted primarily to presenting a new theory, it is often referred to as a theoretical article .

Figure 2.6 Small Sample of the Thousands of Professional Journals That Publish Research in Psychology and Related Fields

Most professional journals in psychology undergo a process of peer review . Researchers who want to publish their work in the journal submit a manuscript to the editor—who is generally an established researcher too—who in turn sends it to two or three experts on the topic. Each reviewer reads the manuscript, writes a critical review, and sends the review back to the editor along with his or her recommendations. The editor then decides whether to accept the article for publication, ask the authors to make changes and resubmit it for further consideration, or reject it outright. In any case, the editor forwards the reviewers’ written comments to the researchers so that they can revise their manuscript accordingly. Peer review is important because it ensures that the work meets basic standards of the field before it can enter the research literature.

Scholarly Books

Scholarly books are books written by researchers and practitioners mainly for use by other researchers and practitioners. A monograph is written by a single author or a small group of authors and usually gives a coherent presentation of a topic much like an extended review article. Edited volumes have an editor or a small group of editors who recruit many authors to write separate chapters on different aspects of the same topic. Although edited volumes can also give a coherent presentation of the topic, it is not unusual for each chapter to take a different perspective or even for the authors of different chapters to openly disagree with each other. In general, scholarly books undergo a peer review process similar to that used by professional journals.

Literature Search Strategies

Using psycinfo and other databases.

The primary method used to search the research literature involves using one or more electronic databases. These include Academic Search Premier, JSTOR, and ProQuest for all academic disciplines, ERIC for education, and PubMed for medicine and related fields. The most important for our purposes, however, is PsycINFO , which is produced by the APA. PsycINFO is so comprehensive—covering thousands of professional journals and scholarly books going back more than 100 years—that for most purposes its content is synonymous with the research literature in psychology. Like most such databases, PsycINFO is usually available through your college or university library.

PsycINFO consists of individual records for each article, book chapter, or book in the database. Each record includes basic publication information, an abstract or summary of the work, and a list of other works cited by that work. A computer interface allows entering one or more search terms and returns any records that contain those search terms. (These interfaces are provided by different vendors and therefore can look somewhat different depending on the library you use.) Each record also contains lists of keywords that describe the content of the work and also a list of index terms. The index terms are especially helpful because they are standardized. Research on differences between women and men, for example, is always indexed under “Human Sex Differences.” Research on touching is always indexed under the term “Physical Contact.” If you do not know the appropriate index terms, PsycINFO includes a thesaurus that can help you find them.

Given that there are nearly three million records in PsycINFO, you may have to try a variety of search terms in different combinations and at different levels of specificity before you find what you are looking for. Imagine, for example, that you are interested in the question of whether women and men differ in terms of their ability to recall experiences from when they were very young. If you were to enter “memory for early experiences” as your search term, PsycINFO would return only six records, most of which are not particularly relevant to your question. However, if you were to enter the search term “memory,” it would return 149,777 records—far too many to look through individually. This is where the thesaurus helps. Entering “memory” into the thesaurus provides several more specific index terms—one of which is “early memories.” While searching for “early memories” among the index terms returns 1,446 records—still too many too look through individually—combining it with “human sex differences” as a second search term returns 37 articles, many of which are highly relevant to the topic.

Depending on the vendor that provides the interface to PsycINFO, you may be able to save, print, or e-mail the relevant PsycINFO records. The records might even contain links to full-text copies of the works themselves. (PsycARTICLES is a database that provides full-text access to articles in all journals published by the APA.) If not, and you want a copy of the work, you will have to find out if your library carries the journal or has the book and the hard copy on the library shelves. Be sure to ask a librarian if you need help.

Using Other Search Techniques

In addition to entering search terms into PsycINFO and other databases, there are several other techniques you can use to search the research literature. First, if you have one good article or book chapter on your topic—a recent review article is best—you can look through the reference list of that article for other relevant articles, books, and book chapters. In fact, you should do this with any relevant article or book chapter you find. You can also start with a classic article or book chapter on your topic, find its record in PsycINFO (by entering the author’s name or article’s title as a search term), and link from there to a list of other works in PsycINFO that cite that classic article. This works because other researchers working on your topic are likely to be aware of the classic article and cite it in their own work. You can also do a general Internet search using search terms related to your topic or the name of a researcher who conducts research on your topic. This might lead you directly to works that are part of the research literature (e.g., articles in open-access journals or posted on researchers’ own websites). The search engine Google Scholar is especially useful for this purpose. A general Internet search might also lead you to websites that are not part of the research literature but might provide references to works that are. Finally, you can talk to people (e.g., your instructor or other faculty members in psychology) who know something about your topic and can suggest relevant articles and book chapters.

What to Search For

When you do a literature review, you need to be selective. Not every article, book chapter, and book that relates to your research idea or question will be worth obtaining, reading, and integrating into your review. Instead, you want to focus on sources that help you do four basic things: (a) refine your research question, (b) identify appropriate research methods, (c) place your research in the context of previous research, and (d) write an effective research report. Several basic principles can help you find the most useful sources.

First, it is best to focus on recent research, keeping in mind that what counts as recent depends on the topic. For newer topics that are actively being studied, “recent” might mean published in the past year or two. For older topics that are receiving less attention right now, “recent” might mean within the past 10 years. You will get a feel for what counts as recent for your topic when you start your literature search. A good general rule, however, is to start with sources published in the past five years. The main exception to this rule would be classic articles that turn up in the reference list of nearly every other source. If other researchers think that this work is important, even though it is old, then by all means you should include it in your review.

Second, you should look for review articles on your topic because they will provide a useful overview of it—often discussing important definitions, results, theories, trends, and controversies—giving you a good sense of where your own research fits into the literature. You should also look for empirical research reports addressing your question or similar questions, which can give you ideas about how to operationally define your variables and collect your data. As a general rule, it is good to use methods that others have already used successfully unless you have good reasons not to. Finally, you should look for sources that provide information that can help you argue for the interestingness of your research question. For a study on the effects of cell phone use on driving ability, for example, you might look for information about how widespread cell phone use is, how frequent and costly motor vehicle crashes are, and so on.

How many sources are enough for your literature review? This is a difficult question because it depends on how extensively your topic has been studied and also on your own goals. One study found that across a variety of professional journals in psychology, the average number of sources cited per article was about 50 (Adair & Vohra, 2003). This gives a rough idea of what professional researchers consider to be adequate. As a student, you might be assigned a much lower minimum number of references to use, but the principles for selecting the most useful ones remain the same.

Key Takeaways

• The research literature in psychology is all the published research in psychology, consisting primarily of articles in professional journals and scholarly books.
• Early in the research process, it is important to conduct a review of the research literature on your topic to refine your research question, identify appropriate research methods, place your question in the context of other research, and prepare to write an effective research report.
• There are several strategies for finding previous research on your topic. Among the best is using PsycINFO, a computer database that catalogs millions of articles, books, and book chapters in psychology and related fields.
• Practice: Use the techniques discussed in this section to find 10 journal articles and book chapters on one of the following research ideas: memory for smells, aggressive driving, the causes of narcissistic personality disorder, the functions of the intraparietal sulcus, or prejudice against the physically handicapped.

Adair, J. G., & Vohra, N. (2003). The explosion of knowledge, references, and citations: Psychology’s unique response to a crisis. American Psychologist, 58 , 15–23.

Research Methods in Psychology Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Conducting a Literature Review

Benefits of conducting a literature review.

• Steps in Conducting a Literature Review
• Summary of the Process
• Additional Resources
• Literature Review Tutorial by American University Library
• The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It by University of Toronto
• Write a Literature Review by UC Santa Cruz University Library

While there might be many reasons for conducting a literature review, following are four key outcomes of doing the review.

Assessment of the current state of research on a topic . This is probably the most obvious value of the literature review. Once a researcher has determined an area to work with for a research project, a search of relevant information sources will help determine what is already known about the topic and how extensively the topic has already been researched.

Identification of the experts on a particular topic . One of the additional benefits derived from doing the literature review is that it will quickly reveal which researchers have written the most on a particular topic and are, therefore, probably the experts on the topic. Someone who has written twenty articles on a topic or on related topics is more than likely more knowledgeable than someone who has written a single article. This same writer will likely turn up as a reference in most of the other articles written on the same topic. From the number of articles written by the author and the number of times the writer has been cited by other authors, a researcher will be able to assume that the particular author is an expert in the area and, thus, a key resource for consultation in the current research to be undertaken.

Identification of key questions about a topic that need further research . In many cases a researcher may discover new angles that need further exploration by reviewing what has already been written on a topic. For example, research may suggest that listening to music while studying might lead to better retention of ideas, but the research might not have assessed whether a particular style of music is more beneficial than another. A researcher who is interested in pursuing this topic would then do well to follow up existing studies with a new study, based on previous research, that tries to identify which styles of music are most beneficial to retention.

Determination of methodologies used in past studies of the same or similar topics.  It is often useful to review the types of studies that previous researchers have launched as a means of determining what approaches might be of most benefit in further developing a topic. By the same token, a review of previously conducted studies might lend itself to researchers determining a new angle for approaching research.

Upon completion of the literature review, a researcher should have a solid foundation of knowledge in the area and a good feel for the direction any new research should take. Should any additional questions arise during the course of the research, the researcher will know which experts to consult in order to quickly clear up those questions.

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What is a literature review?

A literature review is an integrated analysis -- not just a summary-- of scholarly writings and other relevant evidence related directly to your research question.  That is, it represents a synthesis of the evidence that provides background information on your topic and shows a association between the evidence and your research question.

A literature review may be a stand alone work or the introduction to a larger research paper, depending on the assignment.  Rely heavily on the guidelines your instructor has given you.

Why is it important?

A literature review is important because it:

• Explains the background of research on a topic.
• Demonstrates why a topic is significant to a subject area.
• Discovers relationships between research studies/ideas.
• Identifies major themes, concepts, and researchers on a topic.
• Identifies critical gaps and points of disagreement.
• Discusses further research questions that logically come out of the previous studies.

APA7 Style resources

APA Style Blog - for those harder to find answers

1. Choose a topic. Define your research question.

Your literature review should be guided by your central research question.  The literature represents background and research developments related to a specific research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in a synthesized way.

• Make sure your research question is not too broad or too narrow.  Is it manageable?
• Begin writing down terms that are related to your question. These will be useful for searches later.
• If you have the opportunity, discuss your topic with your professor and your class mates.

2. Decide on the scope of your review

How many studies do you need to look at? How comprehensive should it be? How many years should it cover? 

• This may depend on your assignment.  How many sources does the assignment require?

3. Select the databases you will use to conduct your searches.

Make a list of the databases you will search. 

Where to find databases:

• use the tabs on this guide
• Find other databases in the Nursing Information Resources web page
• More on the Medical Library web page
• ... and more on the Yale University Library web page

4. Conduct your searches to find the evidence. Keep track of your searches.

• Use the key words in your question, as well as synonyms for those words, as terms in your search. Use the database tutorials for help.
• Save the searches in the databases. This saves time when you want to redo, or modify, the searches. It is also helpful to use as a guide is the searches are not finding any useful results.
• Review the abstracts of research studies carefully. This will save you time.
• Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to locate others.
• Check with your professor, or a subject expert in the field, if you are missing any key works in the field.
• Ask your librarian for help at any time.
• Use a citation manager, such as EndNote as the repository for your citations. See the EndNote tutorials for help.

Review the literature

Some questions to help you analyze the research:

• What was the research question of the study you are reviewing? What were the authors trying to discover?
• Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings?
• What were the research methodologies? Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions.
• Does the research seem to be complete? Could it have been conducted more soundly? What further questions does it raise?
• If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that is?
• How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this study been cited? If so, how has it been analyzed?

Tips: 

• Review the abstracts carefully.  
• Keep careful notes so that you may track your thought processes during the research process.
• Create a matrix of the studies for easy analysis, and synthesis, across all of the studies.
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5 Reasons the Literature Review Is Crucial to Your Paper

• 3-minute read
• 8th November 2016

People often treat writing the literature review in an academic paper as a formality. Usually, this means simply listing various studies vaguely related to their work and leaving it at that.

But this overlooks how important the literature review is to a well-written experimental report or research paper. As such, we thought we’d take a moment to go over what a literature review should do and why you should give it the attention it deserves.

What Is a Literature Review?

Common in the social and physical sciences, but also sometimes required in the humanities, a literature review is a summary of past research in your subject area.

Sometimes this is a standalone investigation of how an idea or field of inquiry has developed over time. However, more usually it’s the part of an academic paper, thesis or dissertation that sets out the background against which a study takes place.

There are several reasons why we do this.

Reason #1: To Demonstrate Understanding

In a college paper, you can use a literature review to demonstrate your understanding of the subject matter. This means identifying, summarizing and critically assessing past research that is relevant to your own work.

Reason #2: To Justify Your Research

The literature review also plays a big role in justifying your study and setting your research question . This is because examining past research allows you to identify gaps in the literature, which you can then attempt to fill or address with your own work.

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Reason #3: Setting a Theoretical Framework

It can help to think of the literature review as the foundations for your study, since the rest of your work will build upon the ideas and existing research you discuss therein.

A crucial part of this is formulating a theoretical framework , which comprises the concepts and theories that your work is based upon and against which its success will be judged.

Reason #4: Developing a Methodology

Conducting a literature review before beginning research also lets you see how similar studies have been conducted in the past. By examining the strengths and weaknesses of existing research, you can thus make sure you adopt the most appropriate methods, data sources and analytical techniques for your own work.

Reason #5: To Support Your Own Findings

The significance of any results you achieve will depend to some extent on how they compare to those reported in the existing literature. When you come to write up your findings, your literature review will therefore provide a crucial point of reference.

If your results replicate past research, for instance, you can say that your work supports existing theories. If your results are different, though, you’ll need to discuss why and whether the difference is important.

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Literature Reviews

• Searching for Literature
• Organizing Literature and Taking Notes
• Writing and Editing the Paper
• Help and Resources

Organizing Your Paper

Before you begin writing your paper, you will need to decide upon a way to organize your information. You can organize your paper using a number of different strategies, such as the following:

• Topics and subtopics : Discussing your sources in relation to different topics and subtopics; probably the most common approach
• Chronologically : Discussing your sources from oldest to newest in order to show trends or changes in the approach to a topic over time
• Methods : Discussing your sources by different methods that are used to approach the topic

When literature reviews are incorporated into a research paper, they are often structured using the  funnel method , which begins with a broad overview of a topic and then narrows down to more specific themes before focusing in on the specific research question that the paper will address.

A literature review paper often follows this basic organization:

Introduction

• Describes the importance of the topic
• Defines key terms
• Describes the goals of the review
• Provides an overview of the literature to be discussed (e.g., methods, trends, etc.) (optional)
• Describes parameters of the review and particular search methods used (optional)
• Discusses findings of sources, as well as strengths, weaknesses, similarities, differences, contradictions, and gaps
• Divides content into sections (for longer reviews), uses headings and subheadings to indicate section divisions, and provides brief summaries at the end of each section
• Summarizes what is known about the topic
• Discusses implications for practice
• Discusses areas for further research

Synthesizing Sources

A literature review paper not only describes and evaluates the scholarly research literature related to a particular topic, but it also synthesizes that information. Synthesis  is the process of weaving together information from sources to arrive at new analyses and insights.

To help you prepare to synthesize sources in your paper, you can take the topic matrix that you prepared as you were organizing your sources, and flesh it out into a  synthesis matrix  that contains detailed notes from each source as they relate to different topics and subtopics of your literature review. Once you've completed your synthesis matrix, you can more easily identify ways that sources relate to each other in terms of their similarities and differences, methodological strengths and weakness, and contradictions and gaps. The video below shows how to create a synthesis matrix.

Video:  Synthesis Matrix Tutorial  by  Andrew Davis .

Writing Your Paper

A literature review paper should flow logically from one topic to the next. As you write your paper, consider these tips:

• Write in a formal voice and with an impartial tone.
• Define critical terms and describe key theories.
• Use topic sentences to clearly indicate what each paragraph is about.
• Use transitions to make links between sections.
• Introduce acronyms upon first using them.
• Call attention to seminal (i.e., highly influential; groundbreaking) studies.
• Clearly distinguish between your ideas and those of the authors you cite.
• Cite multiple sources for a single idea, if appropriate.
• Create a list of references that follows appropriate style guidelines.
• Give your paper a title that conveys what the literature review is about.
• Once you have written your paper, carefully proofread it for errors.
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The History of Peer Review Is More Interesting Than You Think

The term “peer review” was coined in the 1970s, but the referee principle is usually assumed to be as old as the scientific enterprise itself. (It isn’t.)

Peer review has become a cornerstone of academic publishing, a fundamental part of scholarship itself. With peer review, independent, third-party experts in the relevant field(s) assess manuscripts submitted to journals. The idea is that these expert peers referee the process, especially when it comes to technical matters that may be beyond the knowledge of editors.

“In all fields of academia, reputations and careers are now expected to be built on peer-reviewed publication; concerns with its efficacy and appropriateness thus seem to strike at the heart of scholarship,” write historians Noah Moxham and Aileen Fyfe .

The peer review system, continue Moxham and Fyfe, is “crucial to building the reputation both of individual scientists and of the scientific enterprise at large” because the process

is believed to certify the quality and reliability of research findings. It promises supposedly impartial evaluation of research, through close scrutiny by specialists, and is widely used by journal editors, grant-making bodies, and government.

As with any human enterprise, peer review is far from foolproof . Errors and downright frauds have made it through the process. In addition, as Moxham and Fyfe note, there can be “inappropriate bias due to the social dynamics of the process.” (Some peer review types may introduce less bias than others.)

The term “peer review” was coined in the early 1970s, but the referee principle is usually assumed to be about as old as the scientific enterprise itself, dating to the Royal Society of London’s Philosophical Transactions , which began publication in 1665.

Moxham and Fyfe complicate this history, using the Royal Society’s “rich archives” to trace the evolution of editorial practices at one of the earliest scientific societies.

Initially, the publication of Philosophical Transactions was a private venture managed by the Society’s secretaries. Secretary Henry Oldenburg, the first editor, ran it from 1665 to 1677, without, write Moxham and Fyfe, any “clear set of standards.”

Research sponsored by the Royal Society itself was published separately from the Transactions . In fact, the royally chartered Society had the power to license publication of books and periodicals (like the Transactions ) as “part of a wider mechanism of state censorship intended to ensure the proscription of politically seditious or religious heterodox material.” But as time passed, there wasn’t really much Society oversight over the publication at all.

The situation came to a crisis in the early 1750s, when an unsuccessful candidate for a Society fellowship raised a ruckus, conflating the separate administrations of the Society and the now rather stodgy Transactions. The bad press compelled the Society to take over financial and editorial control—by committee—of the Transactions in 1752. The editorial committee could refer submissions to fellows with particular expertise—but papers were already being vetted since they needed to be referred by fellows in the first place.

Formalization of the use of expert referees would be institutionalized by 1832. A “written report of fitness” of submissions by one or more fellows was to be made before acceptance. This followed similar procedures already introduced abroad, particularly at the Académie des sciences in Paris.

All of this, Moxham and Fyfe argue, was more about institution-building (and fortification) than what we know as peer reviewing today.

“Refereeing and associated editorial practices” were intended to “disarm specific attacks upon the eighteenth-century Society; sometimes, to protect the Society’s finances; and, by the later nineteenth century, to award prestige to members of the nascent profession of natural scientists.”

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From 1752 to 1957, the front of every Transactions included an “ Advertisement ” noting that the Society could not pretend to “answer for the certainty of the facts, or propriety of the reasonings” of the papers contained within; all that “must still rest on the credit or judgement of their respective authors.”

The twentieth century saw a plethora of independent scientific journals and an exponential increase in scientific papers. “Professional, international scientific research” burst the bounds of the old learned societies with their gentlemanly ways. In 1973, the journal Nature (founded in 1869) made refereeing standard practice, to “raise the journal above accusations of cronyism and elitism.” Since then, peer review, as it came to be called in preference to refereeing, has become universal. At least in avowed “peer-reviewed journals.”

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• Open access
• Published: 24 July 2024

A self-assessment maturity matrix to support large-scale change using collaborative networks in the New Zealand health system

• Kanchan M. Sharma 1 ,
• Peter B. Jones 2 ,
• Jacqueline Cumming 3 &
• Lesley Middleton 4  

BMC Health Services Research volume  24 , Article number:  838 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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A maturity matrix can be a useful tool for organisations implementing large-system transformation (LST) initiatives in complex systems. Insights from implementation of a local LST initiative using collaborative networks, known as Alliances, highlighted a tool was needed to help health system leaders prompt discussions on how and where to focus their change efforts. In the New Zealand (NZ) health system, Alliances were introduced to integrate the planning and delivery of health care between primary and hospital care.

The aim of this research was to use insights from Alliance members to develop a learning tool that collaborative networks could use to assess and improve their readiness for change. We constructed a maturity matrix using the knowledge of senior NZ health system leaders, in a workshop setting. The maturity matrix was empirically tested and refined with three Alliances and with feedback from the NZ Ministry of Health Māori Health Strategy and Policy team.

The maturity matrix described the 10 key elements that had been found to support successful implementation of LST initiatives in the NZ health system, along with success indicators and different stages of maturity from beginning to excellence. Testing of the maturity matrix with three Alliances suggested that it functioned as a learning tool and stimulated collective thinking and reflection. The Māori Health Strategy and Policy team commented on the importance of such a tool to increase health system leaders’ responsiveness to improving Māori health outcomes. Comparisons with similar international matrices revealed common elements with ours. A strength of our maturity matrix is that it is specific to the NZ context and is the first practical tool to implement large-scale change in the health system that incorporates principles of the Government’s treaty with Māori, the indigenous people of NZ.

Conclusions

Through a regular self-assessment process, use of the maturity matrix may create feedback loops to support deliberate learning and knowledge sharing for senior health system leaders and collaborative networks. The maturity matrix fills an important gap in the NZ health system and contributes to implementation science literature internationally.

This study was approved by the Victoria University of Wellington Human Ethics Committee (Ethics Approval Number 27,356). The research was supported by the Victoria University of Wellington research grant (222,809) and from the University of Auckland Department of Medicine research fund (H10779).

Peer Review reports

Research from the United Kingdom and Europe shows an emerging use of maturity matrices in health care settings as deliberate learning tools for organisations dealing with complex changes. These include uses in primary care and hospital settings to stimulate quality improvement and to improve communication and co-operation among teams; assess readiness for change; identify areas of improvement; share experiences; help organisations understand the local conditions that enable successful delivery of integrated care; and evaluate the delivery of integrated care [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Other uses of maturity matrices have included measuring performance or evaluating the success of interventions in specific health conditions or programmes, such as, evaluating the role of Cardiac Genetic Nurses in inherited cardiac conditions [ 12 ]; measuring success of health policies in local government [ 13 ]; and defining stages of development and maturity of medicine programmes in Canadian hospitals [ 14 ]. Evaluations on the use of maturity matrices confirm that a self-assessment matrix can be a useful tool to implement and sustain large-system transformation (LST) initiatives, as it helps health system agents recognise their strengths and weaknesses and identify areas of improvement needed for system transformation [ 1 , 3 , 4 , 9 , 11 , 15 ].

In this article we report on the development of a maturity matrix: a learning tool specifically designed for trust-based collaborative networks, such as Alliances, to improve communication and co-operation among health system leaders, assess readiness for change and identify areas for improvement to successfully implement LST initiatives in health systems. The purpose of this maturity matrix is to prompt discussions among senior health system leaders on where best to focus attention along an improvement pathway when implementing complex interventions in a complex adaptive system. By LST initiatives, we mean ‘interventions aimed at co-ordinated, system wide change affecting multiple organisations and care providers, with the goal of significant improvements in the efficiency of health care delivery, the quality of patient care, and population-level patient outcomes’ (p 422) [ 16 ].

In 2015, the New Zealand (NZ) Ministry of Health (Manatū Hauora) implemented the System Level Measures (SLM) programme to enhance a collaborative way of working beyond organisational and professional boundaries, as well as to address health inequities and encourage continuous learning and quality improvement [ 17 ]. The SLM programme was designed by Manatū Hauora with health system leaders from primary and secondary care. Alliances were collaborative networks that were responsible for leading the implementation of the programme in their districts. The implementation included development of an annual improvement plan using a collaborative approach underpinned by robust improvement science, and monitoring and reporting progress against successive plans [ 17 ].

A maturity matrix was constructed as part of a doctoral thesis that investigated the journey of the SLM programme, to better understand how the different elements coalesced to drive improvement in a complex adaptive system [ 18 , 19 ]. The research identified a set of 10 key elements needed in the NZ health system to increase the chances of success with implementation of LST initiatives. These are (i) an alliancing way of working; (ii) a commitment to te Tiriti o Waitangi Footnote 1 ; (iii) an understanding of equity; (iv) clinical leadership and involvement; (v) involved people, whānau (family and extended family), and community; (vi) intelligent commissioning; (vii) continuous improvement; (viii) integrated health information; (ix) analytic capability; and (x) dedicated resources and time [ 18 , 19 ].

The preparedness of teams to engage with a maturity matrix reinforces the Alliance teams’ interest in continuous improvement and accords with the value of actions that support a learning culture. Work by others tracking the conditions that support large-scale transformation highlights four system enablers that have overlaps with our 10 key elements: (i) build an authorizing environment; (ii) provide relevant, authentic, timely, and meaningful data; (iii) designate and distribute leadership and decision making; and (iv) support the emergence of a learning culture [ 20 ].

New Zealand Alliances

At the time of this research, the NZ health system had 20 geographically based District Health Boards (DHBs) that delivered publicly funded hospital and specialist services and purchased primary care services from Primary Health Organisations (PHOs). DHBs funded PHOs (not-for-profit meso-layer organisations) to provide comprehensive primary care services through their member general practices. Citizens choose the general practice they enrol with and general practices choose which PHO to become a member of [ 21 ]. Manatū Hauora had overall leadership of the health and disability system. A simplified visual description of the NZ health system at the time of this research is shown in Supplementary Figure A.

An important context for the health and disability system relates to the rights and interests of Māori who are the indigenous population of NZ. The British Crown and Māori rangatira (chiefs) signed te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi) for the populations to live together under a common set of laws and agreements [ 22 ]. Under te Tiriti o Waitangi (te Tiriti) principles, crown agents have responsibility to work together with iwi (Māori tribe), hapū (sub-tribe), whānau (family or extended family) and Māori to plan, develop, and deliver health and disability services. The purpose is to ensure Māori receive equitable health care and have equitable health outcomes as pākehā (non-Māori) while protecting Māori cultural concepts, values and practices [ 22 , 23 ].

Since 2013, Manatū Hauora contractually required all DHBs and PHOs in each district to form Alliances to deliver integrated patient-centred health care [ 24 , 25 ]. Manatū Hauora published an Alliance Charter, which outlined the rules of engagement that Alliance members pledged to [ 26 ]. It also outlined members’ commitment to act in good faith to develop an Alliance plan for their district and decide how to fund and deliver their agreed plan [ 26 ]. Members committed to actively engage in good faith, and honour confidentiality, shared responsibility, shared decision-making, and shared accountability, to enable open and transparent discussions [ 26 ].

Most DHBs had a single Alliance with PHOs in their district, the simplest being an Alliance between one DHB and one PHO. Some DHBs had multiple Alliances, typically for two reasons. The first reason was because a PHO provided primary care services in more than one DHB district resulting in one Alliance that involved the local DHB, the PHO and other local partners in a district and another Alliance with the PHO and all DHBs the PHO provided primary care services in. The second reason was where more than one PHO provided primary care services in a DHB district and, usually owing to their poor relationship and/or history of working together, the PHOs did not agree to forming a single Alliance. The DHB then formed separate Alliances with each of their PHOs.

Each Alliance was governed by an Alliance Leadership Team (ALT). ALT members were appointed by agreement between member DHBs and PHOs and were made up of senior operational and clinical leaders. Some ALTs included local iwi (Māori tribe), community representatives, and other health service providers such as ambulance services, pharmacy, and Māori and Pacific health providers. The most common type of ALT consisted of the DHB Chief Executive and/or planning and funding manager, the PHO Chief Executive, and DHB and PHO clinical leaders.

NZ Alliances were not legal entities and therefore could not commission (fund and contract for) services, nor did they have their own budgets for spending on health care. Instead, Alliances had access to a flexible funding pool, a portion of PHO funding set aside to provide management services, health promotion activities, services to improve access, services to manage chronic care in the community, and support rural health providers, and they could use this funding pool to support new initiatives [ 25 ]. ALTs agreed on a shared vision and goals for their local health system and agreed a work programme with their Alliance partners. DHBs were encouraged to contribute additional funding to the flexible funding pool to support the Alliance work programme [ 25 ].

NZ Alliances adapted over time, depending on local relationships, interactions, behaviours, and their history of working together; they therefore varied across the country in form, function, and maturity. For example, in response to the SLM programme, the three DHBs and the seven PHOs providing health services across the largest city, Auckland, formed a single Alliance.

Two authors (KMS and PBJ) led the development and implementation of the SLM programme from Manatū Hauora and gained first-hand insights and knowledge on the inner workings of NZ Alliances. They identified three clusters of Alliances as a result of their day-to-day interactions over a period of five years and through assessing the improvement plans and monitoring Alliances’ progress with implementation of the SLM programme.

First, there were high-functioning Alliances. These were seen to have an agreed shared vision and common goals for their local system, were clinically led, had an independent chair, and placed people and their communities at the centre of their decision-making. The high-functioning Alliances established Service Level Alliance Teams (SLATs) or other informal working groups, such as consumer councils and clinical leadership forums, as necessary to deliver on the Alliances’ work programme. SLATs were workstreams within the Alliance structure (e.g., child health SLAT, youth health SLAT, rural SLAT) and reported to the Alliance. Each SLAT was made up of a diverse group of people relevant to the workstream that included clinicians, managers, analysts, service users, and Māori and Pacific representatives. SLATs used improvement science methods to identify problems and co-design solutions to improve health service delivery. ALTs considered recommendations from SLATs and then made recommendations to the DHB executive team on activities and services to meet the Alliance vision and goals. Upon agreement, DHBs and PHOs commissioned change through their contractual processes to give effect to the Alliance priorities [ 25 ]. ALTs monitored outcomes of Alliance activities and fed the information back to their member organisations. They refreshed their work programme and membership at least annually.

The second cluster of Alliances existed simply to meet the contractual requirement for there to be an Alliance, and which allowed partner PHOs and their contracted providers access to the flexible funding pool. These Alliances were constrained by their capability to lead change and improvement initiatives and lacked insight as to their strengths and weaknesses. From our observations they did not know what a high-functioning Alliance looked like, how they compared with other Alliances, or what they needed to do to become high-functioning to implement and sustain LST initiatives.

The third cluster of Alliances were dysfunctional, either owing to a lack of leadership from the DHB and/or the PHO or a lack of understanding about the alliancing concept. These Alliances were seen to have had a poor history of working together and low-trust relationships between senior managers of DHBs and PHOs, and between senior managers and clinicians in DHBs and PHOs. They were further hampered by a lack of capability for improvement and therefore lacked awareness of their inability to be functional.

To help the second and third cluster of Alliances, we identified that a maturity matrix had the potential to focus attention on the features that will put the lesser performing Alliances on a developmental pathway to become high functioning. We expected a maturity matrix would enable Alliances to assess their readiness for change, measure improvement progress over time, and to identify their development areas. We aimed to:

Search the literature for existing matrices that could be adopted for the NZ context.

Use the insights from Alliance members to refine and develop a NZ specific maturity matrix.

This research was conducted between November 2018 and December 2019 and included four phases.

Phase 1 – Literature search

The published and grey literature was searched using keywords in the OVID and PUBMED databases using the keywords: maturity audit or checklist or matrix or framework or stages or self-assess or tool or models, stages of organisational maturity, and quality assurance or indicator. The search was limited to English language from 1946 to 2018. Grey literature was searched using Google and visiting known quality improvement websites in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and NZ. These included websites such as the King’s Fund, Nuffield Trust, Institute of Healthcare Improvement, and the Health Quality & Safety Commission. The search was further refined using keywords self-assessment and performance and was limited from 2008 to 2018. A total of 22 articles were identified from which 12 were deemed relevant and examined further.

Three maturity matrices were considered for use in the NZ health system: (i) a self-assessment maturity matrix used in Danish general practices to stimulate quality improvement, which was later refined and used in general practices across the UK and the Europe [ 1 , 2 ]; (ii) the Development for Integrated Care (DMIC), a web-based self- evaluation tool used in Netherlands [ 9 ]; and (iii) the Scaling Integrated Care in Context (SCIROCCO) maturity matrix, an online self-assessment tool used across health and social care systems in the European Union [ 10 ]. Nine other matrices were studied for their conceptual frameworks for defining stages of maturity and measuring progress along the maturity scale that could be adapted for NZ [ 5 , 7 , 8 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 27 , 28 ].

None of the 12 overseas maturity matrices studied were considered suitable to be adopted for use in the NZ health system. Most were limited in their scope to one service or setting, and while the SCIROCCO and DMIC maturity matrices had a multi-disciplinary team focus and contained useful domains, they did not feature rights of indigenous people nor considered an indigenous treaty or partnership such as te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Of the 12 maturity matrices examined, the conceptual framework and the development process to construct a maturity matrix for the NZ health system was adapted from Kirk, Simpson, et al. [ 12 ]. This study provided a simple and practical framework to construct a maturity matrix that described the outcome sought, key indicators to measure the outcome, and description of maturity along the scale of beginning, emerging, established, and excellence. We believed the consensus approach used by Kirk, Simpson, et al. [ 12 ] was a useful and pragmatic way to elicit information from research participants with limited availability who would also be users of the matrix.

Phase 2 – Workshop

Senior clinical and operational leaders from the NZ health system constructed the maturity matrix in a workshop setting ( n  = 10). Participants involved were those with significant experience in the design and implementation of LST initiatives and those charged with making major strategic decisions about resourcing these initiatives in their organisations. These included DHB planning and funding managers, PHO Chief Executives, hospital and primary care clinical leaders, senior managers from Manatū Hauora and the Health Quality and Safety Commission, and Māori and Pacific community leaders who held senior roles in the health system.

The workshop was facilitated by one of the authors (PBJ) who was the SLM Programme clinical lead and had the relevant skills, subject matter expertise and credibility to elicit information from participants. Table  1 shows the framework, adapted from Kirk, Simpson, et al. [ 12 ], that was used to construct the maturity matrix. Participants worked in groups to identify the outcomes, success indicators and the maturity scale for all 10 elements: (i) an alliancing way of working; (ii) a commitment to te Tiriti o Waitangi; (iii) an understanding of equity; (iv) clinical leadership and involvement; (v) involved people, whānau (family and extended family), and community; (vi) intelligent commissioning; (vii) continuous improvement; (viii) integrated health information; (ix) analytic capability; and (x) dedicated resources and time. [ 18 , 19 ]. An iterative approach was used to reach consensus among participants.

The first version of the maturity matrix constructed at the workshop was shared with workshop participants following the workshop for their feedback. The second version of the maturity matrix that incorporated post-workshop feedback from participants was used for field testing with the ALTs.

Phase 3 – Field testing

The aim of this phase was to empirically test the maturity matrix with three ALTs that represented the three clusters. The test aimed to determine the extent to which the maturity matrix functioned as a learning tool, helped Alliances see where they were on the improvement journey and identify areas of improvement, acted as a resource for collective thinking and reflection, and if it was easy and practical to use. ALTs were purposefully sampled based on the size of the population the DHB was serving, the number of PHOs providing services in the district, the membership of the ALT, and the knowledge and insights on the maturity and functionality of ALTs from the two authors (KMS and PBJ) involved in the development and implementation of the SLM programme. ALTs 1 and 3 had a broad membership that included senior DHB and PHO managers and clinicians, consumer advocates, and representatives from community health services such as pharmacy, Māori and Pacific providers and district nursing. ALT 1 had one PHO providing primary care services in the district while ALT 3 had multiple PHOs in their Alliance. ALT 2 had limited membership with only DHB and PHO managers and clinicians. The order of input was determined by the ALTs’ availability to meet for the testing.

The testing process was facilitated by one of the co-authors (PBJ) for ALTs 1 and 3. PBJ was unavailable to facilitate testing for ALT 2, so a workshop participant facilitated this session. KS was present at all three ALT testing sessions as an observer. Written consent was provided by all participants. Group discussions were used to collate feedback from participants on the content of the maturity matrix. Ideas for improvement from ALT 1 was tested with ALT 2, and ideas from ALTs 1 and 2 were tested with ALT 3 to discuss different perceptions, consolidate ideas, and to refine the maturity matrix. Some changes were made to the matrix as it progressed through the testing with three ALTs to improve efficacy. The final version of the matrix was shared with all three ALTs. This is fully discussed in the results section.

Phase 4 – Input from Manatū Hauora Māori Health Strategy and Policy (MHSP) team

Following testing with the three ALTs, the maturity matrix was revised and shared with Manatū Hauora MHSP team to seek their feedback on the matrix to ensure that te Tiriti principles were accurately reflected across the maturity scale for all the key elements, with particular attention to two elements: commitment to te Tiriti o Waitangi; and understanding of equity. All feedback was incorporated, and the revised maturity matrix was shared with the MHSP team manager to ensure its accuracy, which was confirmed. Figure  1 summarises how the maturity matrix was developed, tested, and refined over the four phases.

Iterative process for developing and refining the maturity matrix

Results were drawn from phases three and four of the testing (Fig.  1 ). Testing of the maturity matrix with the ALTs was an important part of the research process. It allowed us to check if the matrix covered all the key elements that Alliances believed were important to support them with implementation of LST initiatives; if the level of detail enabled the ALTs to assess their capability; and if the self-assessment process stimulated collective thinking and reflection on contextual factors that enable or constrain Alliances’ success with change efforts.

The version tested with the ALTs (V2) had scores for each maturity stage, i.e., beginning = 0, emerging = 1, established = 2, and excellence = 3. The scores, along with other structural components of the matrix (the conceptual framework, 10 elements, and maturity scales), remained unchanged throughout phase 3. However, there were changes made following each ALT testing to improve the layout (e.g., adding a row to add up scores for each element), descriptive details of elements and their outcomes, and the tone of the matrix to be empowering and inclusive. The iterative approach allowed us to improve the efficacy of the matrix without making substantive changes to the design and core content.

All ALTs rigorously debated the scores, for example, whether they were 1 or 1.5 and some participants found it challenging to look beyond their organisation when scoring. ALT 3 recommended removing the scores to take the focus away from getting the ‘right’ score and focussing on improvement instead. The ALT felt the scores were meaningless and removing them shifted the conversation to factors important for transformation such as, leadership, trust, and relationships.

As a suggestion for the tool , remove the numbers. Because you’re not a two or three , the power is in the words and the discourse and what you’ll end up with is people ending up with is people averaging across three of the sections and say , we’re a 2.33 and that is absolutely meaningless. That’s what happens if you put numbers on these sorts of scales that people do that. So , if you take the numbers off then people have to use words and the words mean something. (ALT 3 participant).

The testing process with ALTs was influenced by local contextual factors. For example, for ALT 1, which had high-trust relationships and a positive history of working together, the focus of testing was on their readiness for change and to identify areas of improvement for the Alliance. The ALT was motivated to use the matrix regularly for continuous improvement. In ALT 2, which did not have a history of working together constructively and where trust was low between the DHB and service providers, the focus was on getting the right score, debating the maturity scale, and whether a larger range of scores was needed to enable Alliances to accurately score. Further, this Alliance placed an emphasis on performance of individual providers or Alliance member organisations rather than a collectively assessment of their Alliance. For example, DHB and PHO members blaming each other for past failures of the Alliance’s efforts. We also observed a lack of trust between DHB/PHO management and clinical leaders, and Manatū Hauora (i.e., suspicion that Alliances’ results from the assessment would be used against them, or at least, for judgement of ALT performance). ALT 3 was initially reticent to use the matrix as they believed they were already high functioning and therefore did not need to self-assess against a tool. We observed a command-and-control leadership style of DHB members in this Alliance. However, once the facilitator started the testing process and encouraged participation from non-DHB members, the ALT completed the self-assessment process, identified areas of improvement and said that they found the tool useful to reflect and stimulate open and honest communication among the members.

The feedback from ALTs helped improved consistency of language and tone used in the matrix to strengthen the intent of maturity matrix as a learning tool that is empowering, inclusive of all health system agents and focuses on wellbeing outcomes (rather than just health outcomes).

The three ALTs agreed that the key elements provided adequate coverage of the areas considered important to the Alliance and that the maturity matrix stimulated collective thinking, reflection, and improvement, “…. certainly , a useful exercise to go through and it makes you think and reflect on where you’ve got to and where you might go to next ” (ALT 3 participant). Table  2 summarises key suggestions from ALTs to improve the matrix.

Feedback from Manatū Hauora Māori health and strategy (MHSP) team

Manatū Hauora MHSP team reviewed version five of the maturity matrix (following testing with ALTs) from an equity and te Tiriti perspective and provided feedback. Overall, their feedback was positive and commended equity and te Tiriti being embedded in the maturity matrix, both as key elements and as indicators of maturity. They commented on the necessity of a maturity matrix such as this to increase the understanding and responsiveness of health system leaders and Alliances towards fulfilling their obligation to te Tiriti and improving Māori health outcomes. Table  3 summaries feedback from the team to strengthen descriptions in the matrix and to strengthen the alignment with Whakamaua, the Māori Health Action Plan.

The final version of the maturity matrix is supplied as Additional file 2 – Table A.

Testing with ALTs revealed that the maturity matrix stimulated collective thinking and reflection for Alliances on key elements and conditions that increase chances of success with implementation of LST initiatives. The matrix acted as a compass for Alliances to see where they were along the maturity scale and identify areas of improvement. The self-assessment process could be used prospectively to gauge readiness for change, in real time when implementing change, and retrospectively to understand failures or partial successes of change efforts, a finding supported by evaluation of maturity matrices used in other settings [ 1 , 3 , 4 , 9 , 11 , 15 ]. A continuous use of the self-reflection process, along with key actions to improve, should build capability of health system leaders and networks to implement and sustain LST initiatives [ 8 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 27 , 28 ].

Having a non-judgemental facilitator who was familiar with the maturity matrix and had creditability with ALTs proved to be an important enabler of the testing process, a finding supported by evidence in literature [ 4 ]. The facilitator was able to assist with interpretation of the maturity matrix and move teams along if they got stuck on one element or indicator. The facilitator’s credibility was important as this meant that ALT members knew the facilitator, their experience in the health system and the history of their way of working. This knowledge and experience created trust with ALTs and enabled them to assess their strengths and weaknesses sincerely and not worry about presenting their better side or being judged on their discussions or results of their assessment.

The elements, maturity levels, and the self-assessment approach of this maturity matrix can be compared to the two international matrices designed to help organisations understand the local conditions that enable successful delivery of integrated care (the DMIC tool [ 9 ] and the SCIROCCO project [ 10 ]).

The DMIC tool focuses on delivery of integrated care for a condition (such as stroke or diabetes services) at an organisational level. It is comprehensive with a total of 89 elements grouped in nine clusters. This tool is different to our maturity matrix as it is designed for those involved in the delivery of services (co-ordinators, managers and professionals) to develop, evaluate and improve the delivery of integrated care. Ours is designed to implement LST initiatives that are broad and widespread across geographical and professional boundaries, seek paradigm shifts in mindsets and relies on building and sustaining high trust relationships among senior system leaders who oversee design, funding and delivery of health services.

The SCIROCCO is a project co-funded by the Health Programme of the European Union. It is a self-assessment tool that enables those working in the health and social care system across the European Union to assess their readiness to deliver integrated care. The tool aims to help European regions to understand their strengths, weaknesses and potential areas of improvement, adopt and scale up integrated care solutions, facilitate multi-stakeholder discussions on progress and delivery of integrated care and facilitate coaching to help regions and organisations understand the local conditions that enable successful delivery of integrated care. One of the important components of this model is that regions share their experience and assessments with others through a web-based platform. This facilitates sharing of knowledge between the regions.

Elements common across these two matrices and ours include involvement of citizens, a continuous improvement approach, a population health approach to address health inequities, a collaborative way of working, integrated data and analytical capability, integration of health and social care services, and dedicated resources in the form of funding, time, and change management teams.

All three matrices aim to facilitate discussions among multi-disciplinary teams to build a shared understanding of their readiness to implement LST initiatives in the health system and to identify areas of improvement.

We considered adopting the SCIROCCO matrix for NZ, however health system leaders at the workshop felt that while the SCIROCCO domains were useful and related to the key elements they had identified, the assessment scale of the model contained generic statements that did not have sufficient detail to enable self-assessment for Alliances. This matrix did not encompass the NZ context, especially te Tiriti.

A strength of our maturity matrix is that it is specific to the NZ context and is underpinned by the principles of te Tiriti and equity in a multifaceted way by identifying them as separate elements and as indicators for each element. There are frameworks that outline how NZ government agencies should engage with Māori [ 29 , 30 ], however, this maturity matrix is the first that provides a practical tool incorporating te Tiriti principles for collaborative networks to use to implement and sustain LST initiatives in the health system.

The 2022 reform of the NZ health system replaced Alliances with localities. Localities are local networks comprising of local health service providers, social sector agencies, non-government organisations, iwi, local authorities, and consumers and communities [ 31 ]. Te Whatu Ora - Health NZ has a legislative responsibility to ensure all of NZ is covered by a locality, that there is a plan outlining priority outcomes and services for the locality, and that Te Aka Whai Ora – Māori Health Authority and Iwi Māori Partnership Boards are involved in the development, implementation and review of the locality plan [ 32 ]. Localities are responsible for working together to meet local health needs and wellbeing outcomes for their population [ 32 ]. Localities are not legal entities, do not have a budget, and cannot commission services. Like Alliances, localities are mandated from the centre and will be guided by national policies and operating rules. Te Whatu Ora is responsible for commissioning services to deliver on the locality plans.

However, the new Government elected in October 2023 disestablished Te Aka Whai Ora with the intent of moving decisions closer to the community, home and the hapū [ 33 ]. It is unclear how functions of Te Aka Whai Ora will be incorporated across Te Whatu Ora and Manatū Hauora and what will become of localities.

Nonetheless, regardless of how the health systems are structured, collaboration between primary and secondary care, and other providers to improve delivery of health services, outcomes and equity remain important. In a recent NZ study, some DHB and PHO leaders said that Manatū Hauora’s mandate for them to form Alliances resulted in successful implementation of integrated work programmes that shifted siloed thinking [ 34 ].

While those with a positive history of working together or a willingness to share power and resources to improve outcomes for their population will continue to see the benefits of collaborative networks, there are those that will need a push in a form of mandate (push) or incentive (pull). The form and name of these collaborative networks are not important. It is the depth of processes, strong relationships, a high-level of trust, and the ability to work collectively towards a shared vision that add value to and success of these networks. These behaviours cannot be driven from the centre and will require iterative practice cycles that include an ability to collectively self-reflect, assess strengths and weaknesses, and learn. The iterative practice cycles create feedback loops and facilitate conscious and deliberate learning that refines and distributes knowledge gained by experience in a practical way. Collaborative networks, in whichever form they exist, will benefit from tools like this maturity matrix to foster deliberate learning and knowledge sharing to help them perform as cohesive high-functioning networks and to develop and deliver on their plans.

A limitation of this maturity matrix is that it was constructed with a small group of people and tested with three ALTs. More work is required to test, improve, and increase its fidelity, accessibility, and adoption. However, development of this maturity matrix makes an important contribution to implementation science literature in and beyond the NZ health system.

This research broke new ground for NZ health system with the creation of a tool in the form of a self-assessment maturity matrix using the knowledge of senior system leaders to increase chances of success with implementation of LST initiatives. The maturity matrix provides an important tool for collaborative networks to support deliberate learning and knowledge sharing in a practical way. LST initiatives are not short on excellent conceptual and theoretical work on why improvement matters and how networked governance can support change. The contribution made by this work is to profile the value of supporting leaders with tools to manage the hard task of reaching and sustaining a state of maturity across all the elements needed to embed change.

List of abbreviations and te reo Māori translations

Data availability

No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

The Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the British Crown and Māori rangatira (chiefs of the indigenous population of NZ) for the populations to live together under a common set of laws and agreements.

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Acknowledgements

All the research participants from New Zealand. Kristie Saumure, senior librarian at the NZ Ministry of Health who helped with the literature search.Andy Inder who contributed to the early conceptual design of the research and helped with recruitment of research participants for the workshop.

The research was supported by the Victoria University of Wellington research grant 222809 and from the University of Auckland Department of Medicine research fund (H10779).

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KMS collected, analysed, and interpreted all research data and wrote the manuscript. PBJ contributed to conception of the research, shared his knowledge and insights as the clinical lead for the System Level Measures programme, assisted with data collection (by facilitating the workshop), and provided editorial advice for the manuscript. JC and LM were doctorate research supervisors and contributed to the research design and interpretation of data and provided editorial advice for the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Sharma, K.M., Jones, P.B., Cumming, J. et al. A self-assessment maturity matrix to support large-scale change using collaborative networks in the New Zealand health system. BMC Health Serv Res 24 , 838 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-11284-6

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Digital education: Mapping the landscape of virtual teaching in higher education – a bibliometric review

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• Fatima Makda   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0006-9695-5339 1  

Virtual teaching gained momentum for its ability to drive education continuity in times of disruption. As a result, the implementation of virtual teaching has piqued the attention of the higher education sector to leverage the affordances of this mode of instructional delivery, even in times of non-disruption. This study aims to conduct a review of virtual teaching in the higher education sector to reveal the key research trends of previous publications and areas of focus for future research. A bibliometric analysis is used to identify the key topics, themes, authors, sources, articles, and existing collaborations. To achieve this, papers indexed in the Scopus database between 2012 and 2023 were examined and analysed using VOSviewer. The findings of the study are provided through a quantitative analysis that gives a high-level overview of virtual teaching in the higher education sector and highlights the key performance indicators for the creation of articles and their citation through tables, graphs, and visualisation maps. The research yielded a total of 5,663 publications, of which 2,635 published articles were included in the analysis. The findings reiterate virtual teaching as a move in the direction of sustainable education as its assists in democratising knowledge. The analysis highlights the multifaceted nature of the research topic on virtual teaching, revealing six distinct yet interconnected thematic clusters. This study provides a holistic picture of virtual teaching in the higher education sector by integrating the analysis results with pertinent reviews of literature and makes recommendations for future research.

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1 Introduction

Virtual Teaching has gained momentum in the higher education sector for its ability to drive education continuity in times of disruption. As a result, the implementation of virtual teaching has piqued the attention and interest in education to leverage the affordances of this mode of instructional delivery within the higher education sector, even in times of non-disruption. The notion of teaching and learning environments has progressed from closed brick-and-mortar environments to an open education ecosystem (Dillenbourg, 2016 ; Dlamini, 2022 ). The rigid brick-and-mortar model of education is cracking under the pressure of accessibility, inflexibility, and outdated methods. Traditional education is facing numerous challenges, including limited access, inflexible schedules, ineffective teaching methods, and rising costs. Virtual teaching can revolutionise education offering a promising solution to these challenges by providing greater access, flexible learning options, personalised instruction, and more affordable educational opportunities (Dung, 2020 ). Teaching practices must be adapted given that virtual teaching is no longer an option imposed by pandemics, but a pedagogical approach that leverages technology while acknowledging the unique learning styles and preferences of contemporary students (Szymkowiak et al., 2021 ). Virtual teaching can also function as a possible education solution to achieve inclusivity and ubiquitous learning (Dlamini & Ndzinisa, 2020 ).

The increase in the growing number of students, natural disasters, pandemics, war zone areas, student unrest (Bartusevičienė et al., 2021 ), and the increasing demand for personalised and lifelong learning highlight the need for virtual teaching and online learning. To achieve this, there is a need to invest in infrastructure, create awareness, develop high-quality online courses, provide training for educators, and address equity concerns to transform education (Alemán de la Garza, 2019 ; Turnbull et al., 2021 ). Virtual teaching can be a powerful tool for transforming education, contributing to transformative learning experiences for students (Vaquero-Diego & Vazquez, 2022 ). Thus, providing students with an equitable opportunity to succeed.

This brings the need for further adoption and integration of virtual teaching methods potentially offering transformative empowerment. Students from underserved groups can access world-class lectures, professionals can upskill at their own pace, and geographically scattered students can learn together and collaborate (Dung, 2020 ) – virtual education transcends physical boundaries, democratising knowledge, affords ubiquitous teaching, and expands learning opportunities for students not bounded by time and space. Virtual classrooms and environments can be customised to individual learning styles, fostering deeper engagement, and encouraging self-directed exploration.

On the other hand, we cannot ignore the crucial challenges that exist in bridging the digital divide and nurturing human connection. Good internet connection, equipment, and content knowledge are required for an effective online environment (Adam et al., 2019 ; Welch et al., 2014 ). With strategic partnerships, deliberate investment in infrastructure, teacher training, and innovative digital pedagogy, virtual education can revolutionise learning, making it a mechanism of accessibility, flexibility, and personalisation, for all future students (Rana et al., 2021 ). Now is the opportune moment to foster innovation, devise solutions, and put them into action by exploring unconventional methods using virtual teaching and online learning. This approach will persist in tackling challenges within the education sector, ensuring a dynamic teaching-learning process, and embracing the virtual mode of instructional delivery in higher education (Khandelwal & Shankar, 2022 ).

A bibliometric analysis spanning the past decade can help identify previous literature, the current developments, and gaps in the evolving environment of virtual teaching. This study will not only map the key trends and emerging areas but also reveal the real-world impact and knowledge gaps that call for further research. From uncovering influential voices and global perspectives to informing future research agendas and policy decisions, this study has the potential to guide academics, educators, and policymakers striving to navigate the future of education in our technology-driven world. Furthermore, by providing a refined picture of the past decade’s developments in the virtual teaching space, this paper can pave the way for a more effective, equitable, and accessible virtual learning environment for all.

The paper aims to explore and analyse the literature on virtual teaching in higher education using bibliometric analysis to find the key topics, authors, sources, most cited articles, and collaborations. Furthermore, to understand the conceptual, intellectual, and social structure of the literature on the topic, as well as to identify the knowledge base of the use of virtual teaching in higher education and whether it is widely employed and integrated into teaching and learning processes. To achieve these aims, the objectives of the current study are to:

Identify the most prolific literature on virtual teaching in higher education.

Discover the key players in the field.

Demonstrate which topics are of most concern to researchers.

Indicate the keywords in the domain.

Investigate the topics and themes that can be addressed in future research in the area.

The current study will answer the following research questions and sub-research questions:

What is the current status and key trends of research on virtual teaching in higher education?

SRQ1: Which articles are cited the most?

SRQ2: Which journals lead the literature?

SRQ3: Which authors lead the literature?

SRQ4: What are the main topics and themes that are researched?

SRQ5: What are the main words that are researched?

SRQ6: Which countries contribute most to the research production?

What topics and themes can be addressed in future research?

The remainder of the paper is structured as follows: Section two provides a brief overview of virtual teaching whilst section three discusses the research methodology and reports some of the initial data statistics of the analysis. Following this, the discussion of the bibliometric analysis and the key findings emanating from the analysis are presented and a write up of the findings and thematic classification is contained in section four. Section five provides an interpretation and discussion of the key findings presented in the previous sections. The study concludes in section six with a summary of the limitations of the study with possible future research ideas, and the theoretical and practical implications.

2 Virtual teaching

Virtual teaching is a mode of instructional delivery in the digital education space that can be delivered both synchronously and asynchronously (Amiti, 2020 ). It can be described as the delivery of instruction through technology, such as video conferencing software or online learning platforms (Grammens et al., 2022 ).

The notion of virtual teaching has emerged as a transformative tool in the higher education sector, offering a plethora of affordances and benefits that cater to diverse student needs and enhance educational experiences. One of the core affordances of virtual teaching is the unprecedented flexibility as online platforms allow students to access resources and coursework at their convenience (Tan et al., 2021 ), catering to diverse learning styles and schedules, and breaking free from the constraints of strict traditional classroom schedules. Students can access course materials and recordings anytime, anywhere, allowing them to learn at their own pace and around existing commitments (Shonhe et al., 2023 ). This empowers those with demanding schedules, such as working professionals or students with personal challenges, to pursue their academic goals without sacrificing flexibility. Online learning becomes a personalised journey, not a rigid timetable. This flexibility is particularly beneficial for non-traditional students, working professionals, and those with family responsibilities, enabling them to pursue higher education without compromising other life commitments (Remenick, 2019 ). Additionally, the digital nature of virtual teaching and online learning facilitates a more inclusive environment, accommodating students from various geographical locations and cultural backgrounds, and fostering a rich and diverse global learning community (Paudel, 2021 ).

Moreover, virtual teaching and online learning platforms often provide access to a wider range of resources by incorporating a variety of multimedia resources, interactive tools, and collaborative spaces that cater to multiple learning styles and preferences (Shonhe et al., 2023 ). Digital resources can enhance engagement, promote active learning, and encourage students to take ownership of their educational journey (Wekerle, 2022 ). Additionally, online learning environments provide opportunities for educators to employ innovative digital teaching and pedagogical strategies, such as flipped classrooms, gamification, augmented reality, and personalised learning pathways, to meet individual student needs and optimise learning outcomes (Sumathi, 2022 ). Furthermore, the scalability of virtual teaching allows institutions to reach a broader audience, potentially increasing enrolment rates and expanding access to quality education.

Beyond accessibility and flexibility, virtual teaching unlocks new avenues for engagement and personalised learning (Neifachas et al., 2022 ). Interactive exercises, simulations, and gamified content foster deeper understanding and active participation (Vlachopoulos & Makri, 2017 ). Virtual teaching and online learning with the support of AI-powered tools can offer individualised feedback and adaptive learning paths, tailoring the curriculum to each student’s strengths and developmental areas (Essel et al., 2022 ). This approach can foster deeper engagement and cater to diverse learning styles, ensuring no student gets left behind.

While challenges such as ensuring digital equity, narrowing the digital divide, reducing technological barriers, and maintaining human connection exist, the affordances of virtual teaching and online learning in the higher education sector are undeniably beneficial as it democratises knowledge, empower students, and encourage engagement, allowing for a more accessible, flexible, and inclusive educational environment. The transformative power of virtual teaching and online learning is reshaping the rigid walls of traditional higher education. These innovative approaches offer a plethora of affordances and benefits, revolutionising knowledge delivery and accessibility in several key ways. In a world that is constantly changing, integrating virtual teaching is not just an option but a crucial step towards leveraging its affordances as a valuable tool to improve teaching and learning in the higher education sector. As technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative and effective uses of virtual teaching in the future.

3 Research methodology

The current paper’s focus pertains to virtual teaching in the higher education sector. This study aims to conduct a review of virtual teaching in higher education to reveal the key research trends of previous publications and areas of focus for future research.

This study follows a similar approach to the works of (Phan et al., 2022 ; Tandon et al., 2021 ). Based on these pieces of literature, articles and conference papers that explore the use of virtual teaching in higher education were identified, scanned, read, and analysed to collate the most relevant and appropriate dataset. The Scopus database was used to identify the most relevant and appropriate literature. This database was chosen due to its broad journal coverage (Hallinger & Nguyen, 2020 ). The study followed a two-step process to identify relevant publications: (1) Search words and search strings were used to identify the relevant literature from the Scopus database, and (2) Specific criteria for inclusion and exclusion of literature were used to further extract only appropriate and applicable literature to conduct the bibliometric analysis.

Pritchard ( 1969 ) was one of the earliest prominent figures who is often credited with coining the term “bibliometrics” in the mid-20th century. His work laid the foundation for the quantitative analysis of academic literature, particularly in the context of scientific research. Since then, numerous scholars across multiple disciplines have contributed to the development and refinement of bibliometric analysis, each bringing their insights and methodologies to the field. A bibliometric analysis is a widely recognised and systematic approach used to examine and evaluate extensive amounts of scientific data. It is a popular approach for exploring and examining extensive quantities of literature as it allows for analysis to deconstruct the shifts in the development of a particular field and identify collaboration patterns, while also highlighting the emerging trends within the field (Donthu et al., 2021 ). The current study makes use of a bibliometric analysis to gather many publications as data and objectively analysed these in terms of the volume of publications, citation patterns, authorship trends, country collaborations, institutional affiliations, and the overall impact of research outputs. Additionally, through the bibliometric analysis keywords were identified, influential literature was found, the main authors arose, emerging trends were recognised, and areas where further research is needed were identified. Overall, the goal of this bibliometric study was to enhance understanding and knowledge of the academic landscape within the domain of virtual teaching.

The literature was searched for using the keywords “Virtual Teaching”, “Virtual Instruction”, “Virtual Instructional Delivery”, “Online Teaching”, “Online Instruction”, “Virtual Mode of Instructional Delivery”, “Digital Instruction”, “Electronic Teaching”, “Internet-Mediated Teaching”, “Web-Based Teaching”, “Cyber Teaching”, “Higher Education”, “University”.

The search query that was used to conduct the advanced search on Tuesday, 24 October 2023, was as follows:

(TITLE-ABS-KEY (“Virtual Teaching” OR “Virtual Instruction” OR “Virtual Instructional Delivery” OR “Online Teaching” OR “Online Instruction” OR “Virtual Mode of Instructional Delivery” OR “Digital Instruction” OR “Electronic Teaching” OR “Internet-Mediated Teaching” OR “Web-Based Teaching” OR “Cyber Teaching”) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (“Higher Education” OR “University”))

The first search resulted in 5,663 publications. Most publications from the first search resulted in false positives. In other words, some publications were not strongly related to the field, the document types were not limited to articles or conference papers and the publications were not all in the English language. Therefore, further refinement was done based on the criteria presented in Table  1 below. The criteria used were as follows:

The final search query that was used to conduct the advanced search with all the refinements was as follows:

(TITLE-ABS-KEY (“Virtual Teaching” OR “Virtual Instruction” OR “Virtual Instructional Delivery” OR “Online Teaching” OR “Online Instruction” OR “Virtual Mode of Instructional Delivery” OR “Digital Instruction” OR “Electronic Teaching” OR “Internet-Mediated Teaching” OR “Web-Based Teaching” OR “Cyber Teaching”) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (“Higher Education” OR “University”)) AND PUBYEAR > 2011 AND PUBYEAR < 2024 AND (LIMIT-TO (SUBJAREA , “SOCI”) OR LIMIT-TO (SUBJAREA , “ARTS”)) AND (LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE , “ar”) OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE , “cp”)) AND (LIMIT-TO (SRCTYPE , “j”) OR LIMIT-TO (SRCTYPE , “p”)) AND (LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE , “English”)) .

After careful refinement, the dataset was reduced to a total of 2,635 publications. The findings and results are organised and presented according to several metrics, including yearly publication counts, publications by country, highly cited documents, publications per source, authorship distribution, co-authorship patterns, and the network of keyword co-occurrences. To create visual representations of these co-occurrence networks, VOSviewer, a powerful and user-friendly literature review tool to analyse and visually understand network data through interactive maps, was used (Van Eck & Waltman, 2011 ). This software simplifies the process of visualising bibliometric networks by displaying nodes exclusively within the network’s visualisation. An outline of the research methodology and a summary of the research framework is illustrated in Fig.  1 .

An outline of the research methodology and a summary of the research framework

A total of 2,635 articles on virtual teaching were extracted, 462 consisted of conference papers and 2,173 were journal articles. These were analysed on the publications per year, country, document source, source title, author, and co-authorship network. Analysis was also done on the most cited publications and the keywords.

4.1 Publications per year

As evidenced by the rise in publications, with 2020 marking a turning point with 293 publications and 2021 witnessing a doubling to 683 publications, research in this area has grown rapidly in recent years. While a slight dip in 2022 with 677 publications might suggest the initial surge settling, the overall trend signifies a robust field with active exploration and continuous evolution. It should be noted that the year 2023 is currently sitting at 509 publications and there is a high possibility that this will increase during the last quarter of the year. This is illustrated in Fig.  2 .

Publications per year

The current exponential growth in research conducted in the virtual teaching space can be attributed to the pandemic serving as a catalyst, pushing institutions to rapidly explore, experiment, and implement virtual teaching in the higher education sector (Pokhrel & Chhetri, 2021 ). Thus, the growing research interest aligns with the increasing global adoption of virtual teaching practices across higher education institutions, highlighting the need for a deeper understanding of its variations and complexities. 805 (30%) of the publications contain the keywords “Covid” or “Pandemic”. Research focus in the space is now occurring from access to equitable education to digital tools to student engagement to educator competencies needed in the virtual teaching space.

4.2 Publications per country

The publication per country analysis identified the number of publications per country. Countries with at least five research publications on virtual teaching that originated from the country were considered for this analysis. The USA dominates with a total of 596 publications and 7,483 citations. This is followed by China (301 papers, 2,886 citations), Australia (185 papers, 4,103 citations), the United Kingdom (167 papers, 2,035 citations), and Spain (155 papers, 3,106 citations). South Africa comes in at 7th place, making the top 10, with 100 papers and 469 citations. Table  2 summarises the top 20 countries based on publications and citations.

Figure  3 illustrates a graphical representation of the countries with at least five research publications on virtual teaching.

Countries with at least 5 publications on virtual teaching and online learning

This illustration and findings confirm that research relating to virtual teaching is predominantly conducted in the global north. South Africa is the only Sub-Saharan African country in the top 10 and Zimbabwe, Ghana and Nigeria are the only other African countries with publications in the virtual teaching space. More research needs to be conducted on virtual teaching and digitalisation in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, especially given the contextual realities of developing countries that differ from other parts of the world (Adam et al., 2019 ; Dlamini, 2022 ).

4.3 Publications per document source on source title

The publications per document source on the source title were analysed. The top 10 journals based on the number of articles published in that journal are summarised in Table  3 . The top journal with publications in this area is Sustainability (85 papers, 1,451 citations) which aims “to encourage researchers to publish their experimental , computational , and theoretical research relating to natural and applied sciences , engineering , economics , social sciences , and humanities in detail to promote scientific and other understanding and to permit predictions and impact assessments of global change and development related to sustainability” Footnote 1 . This can be indicative of virtual teaching use for sustainable education.

Sustainability is followed by Education Sciences (66 papers, 688 citations), International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (58 papers, 386 citations), Education and Information Technologies (47 papers, 929 citations), and Online Learning Journal (44 papers, 1,052 citations).

The top 10 journals based on the number of articles cited in that journal are summarised in Table  4 . The top journal with citations in the area of virtual teaching is Human Behavior And Emerging Technologies followed by the Sustainability Journal. With this type of analysis and considering the research in virtual teaching only recently becoming predominant in the education space, it is not surprising to see Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies at the top as it “ advances the understanding of complex interactions between diverse human behavior and emerging digital technologies” Footnote 2 . Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies is followed by Sustainability (Switzerland) (85 papers, 1,451 citations), Postdigital Science and Education (5 papers, 1,091 citations), Online Learning Journal (44 papers, 1,052 citations) and Education and Information Technologies (47 papers, 929 citations).

4.4 Most cited publications

To fully grasp the understanding of research conducted in the virtual teaching and online learning space in education, it was necessary to analyse the extracted papers on the most cited documents and the focus areas that stem from them. From the 2,635 extracted papers, 13 of the publications have been cited more than 200 times. These are summarised in Table 5 .

Based on the 13 publications and upon a frequency count and a brief thematic analysis of the keywords, the following focus areas emanate:

Pandemic impact

Remote teaching and online learning

Online teaching and online learning

Online learning readiness

Online education

Digital teaching and pedagogy

Digitalisation

It should also be noted that most of these studies were qualitative and exploratory in nature. Based on this and the focus areas that were identified, a probable reason can be linked to an observation that virtual teaching and online learning only truly picked up during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Consequently, the topic is still in its initial phases of research and experimentation. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the aspects of virtual teaching and online learning better and conduct future research in the area of actual virtual teaching implementation and its effect post-pandemic. Some areas of future research can include but are not limited to, areas of virtual teaching competencies, addressing social and emotional learning in virtual environments (Yu & Zhou, 2022 ), exploring AI-powered adaptive virtual learning (Muñoz et al., 2022 ), looking at the role of AI in virtual teaching and assessment, investigating culturally responsive virtual teaching, and virtual teaching and learning in metaverse applications (Sin et al., 2023 ).

4.5 Publication per author and Co-authorship Network

Co-authorship analysis sheds light on the collaborative networks and partnerships that drive research within a field (Donthu, 2021 ). There were 2,605 authors identified from the 2,635 extracted documents. This includes both the first authors and their co-authors. When we set the minimum number of documents per author at 2, only 39 authors were revealed. This indicates that there are 39 authors through solo authorship or co-authorship who have published more than one document. The overlay visualisation co-authorship network in Fig.  4 shows some clusters of co-authorship and others that are independent. This can be due to some authors in the current dataset not co-authoring with each other, which could be due to several reasons, such as different disciplines or even research interests. The authors and their well-cited publications are Rapanta C.; Botturi L.; Goodyear P.; Guàrdia L.; Koole M. (2 papers, 988 citations), Moorhouse B.L. (2 papers, 259 citations), Peimani N.; Kamalipour H. (2 papers, 116 citations), Herman J.H. (2 papers, 77 citations) and Moorhouse B.L.; Kohnke L. (2 papers, 60 citations). The data in Table  6 is an extract of the Top 10 authors sorted by publication from then by citations. A limitation of this analysis is that the data retrieved from Scopus that is analysed in VOSviewer stores all the publishing author(s) names in one author data column which results in the total citation count per document and not per author. For example, in the snippet provided in Table  6 , the author Moorhouse B.L has a total of 4 publications and 319 citations.

Owens, T, Meyer K.A; Murrel V.S, Herman J.H, Carceller C.; Dawson S.; Locky, and Tsai C.W were the earlier set of authors that were publishing in the virtual teaching space given our time restriction of 2012–2023. These co-authorships can be seen in the purple colour on the map and existed from 2014 to 2016. The most recent authors publishing in the virtual teaching space can be seen in the yellow represented on the map. There are many authors represented recently which may be indicative of the pandemic acting as a catalyst for studies in this researched field.

Overlay visualisation co-authorship network

4.6 Research focus based on co-occurring keywords

A co-occurring keyword analysis is important to identify and analyse patterns in the literature. This analysis involves examining the frequency with which certain keywords appear together in the existing extracted literature (Donthu, 2021 ). When conducting a co-occurrence map using the bibliographic data extracted, it is important to set the minimum number of co-occurrences for the keywords to be extracted. This can assist with the appropriate clustering of keywords into themes that are used to explain the extent of research done in virtual teaching. This is a valuable analysis as it helps to identify themes, topics, relationships, trends, patterns, and outliers or gaps in research (Donthu, 2021 ).

The current study used the predefined minimum number of co-occurring keywords as 10. This choice was made to find a balance by eliminating inadequate results and reducing the occurrence of repeated words. This implies that for a keyword to be extracted, it must have a minimum of ten instances of co-occurrence with the author and source-indexed keywords. The analysis revealed a total number of 8,164 Keywords for all 2,635 extracted publications. Out of these keywords, 248 met the threshold of 10 co-occurrences and were further grouped into six clusters. Figure  5 shows the network visualisation map for the 248 co-occurring keywords and their 6 different clusters. At the centre of it are the keywords “Online Teaching”, “Online Learning”, “Higher Education” and “Covid-19” to which most of the other keywords are linked.

Network visualisation map for co-occurring keywords

4.6.1 Cluster 1 technology enabled teaching

Represented by the red region on the map with 62 keywords. This cluster highlights the pervasive role of technology in shaping virtual teaching with a strong focus on leveraging technological platforms and digital tools to deliver and manage educational content. The prominence of keywords like “online learning,” “distance learning,” “learning management system,” “blended learning,” and “technology” suggests a strong theme of technological tools and platforms in virtual teaching. Keywords like “active learning,” “collaborative learning,” “flipped classroom,” “engagement,” and “pedagogy” point towards another theme focused on effective teaching and learning strategies and approaches in the virtual environment. This can suggest efforts to incorporate engaging and interactive pedagogy for student engagement and satisfaction (Chamorro-Atalaya, 2021 ). Keywords like “assessment,” “online assessment,” “feedback,” and “student engagement” indicate research in areas of research and assessment with a concern for measuring and improving learning outcomes in virtual settings. The presence of keywords like “case study,” “qualitative research,” and “action research” suggests that many studies within this cluster employ qualitative research methods to explore the experiences and perspectives of stakeholders in virtual teaching (Merriam & Grenier, 2019 ). These research methods align with the period and maturity of the topic at hand, considering that it is an emerging field of study. Keywords like “emergency remote teaching,” “covid-19,” and “lockdown” highlight the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on virtual teaching, potentially indicating an emerging area of research on adapting to unforeseen circumstances. It may be helpful to learn from the events of the pandemic and see how we can adapt the positive experiences of virtual teaching during the pandemic period and incorporate it into non-disruptive teaching periods to provide high-quality education to reach a larger number of students across multiple geographical areas (Ewing, 2021 ). Furthermore, it will be helpful to explore specific digital technologies and digital pedagogies that can be used successfully to increase student engagement and learning outcomes in the virtual space, given the connections between technology and pedagogy revealing using technology effectively to promote active learning and collaboration in the virtual teaching and learning environment (Roe, 2022 ).

4.6.2 Cluster 2 educator development

Represented by the green region on the map with 56 keywords. This cluster underscores the importance of empowering educators for success in virtual teaching. It seems to centre around the core aspects of the educational process in teaching and learning in virtual settings, as evidenced by keywords like “learning and teaching,” “teaching practices,” “student learning,” “motivation,” and “engagement.” These keywords suggest a focus on adapting and refining teaching methods for online environments. There is also an emphasis on professional development illustrated by keywords like “professional development,” “faculty development,” “training,” and “academic staff”. This suggests a strong theme of supporting educators in adapting to and thriving in virtual teaching environments. The close connection between professional development and teaching practices highlights the need for training programs that directly address the challenges and opportunities of virtual teaching (Fernández-Batanero et al., 2022 ). There is a need to equip educators with the necessary skills and knowledge needed to effectively teach in virtual teaching environments (Chi & Oanh, 2023 ). Assessment and evaluation also come into play through the keywords “assessment,” “evaluation,” “feedback,” and “student satisfaction” which indicate a continued concern for measuring and improving learning outcomes in virtual environments, but from a different angle compared to the first cluster. This cluster is more indicative of educators’ role and influence in the design and development of assessments in the virtual teaching and online learning space. The presence of keywords like “case study,” “action research,” and “survey” suggests that many studies within this cluster also employ qualitative and quantitative research methods to explore the experiences and perspectives of the various stakeholders in virtual teaching. The keywords “social learning,” “community of practice,” and “collaboration” highlight the importance of building communities and fostering social interaction within virtual learning environments for the development of educational experiences (Garrison et al., 1999 ; Garrison & Anderson, 2003 ). Keywords like “digitalization,” “digital tools,” and “information and communication technologies” strengthen the analysis results from the first cluster as they suggest an ongoing focus on leveraging technology to enhance learning and teaching. This cluster emphasises the crucial role of institutional support in providing ongoing professional development and building collaborative networks for educators (Garrison & Anderson, 2003 ; Rice & Deschaine, 2020 ). Building on the analysis from this cluster, it will be helpful to conduct further research on competencies and professional development programs for virtual teaching and innovative assessment practices focused on student motivation and performance. Furthermore, research could delve into the design and effectiveness of professional development programs specifically tailored to virtual teaching needs, fostering a supportive ecosystem for educators to thrive in this evolving virtual space.

4.6.3 Cluster 3 leadership, policy, and governance

Represented by the blue region on the map has 51 keywords. This cluster focuses on the broader framework and governance of virtual teaching in higher education. It emphasises the need for robust policies and leadership structures that promote innovation, inclusivity, and quality assurance in virtual teaching. This cluster seems to centre around the broader context and governance of virtual teaching in higher education, as evidenced by keywords like “educational leadership,” “policy,” “decision making,” “innovation,” and “quality assurance.” These keywords highlight the need for strategic leadership and policy development to effectively manage and guide the integration of virtual teaching practices (Wajdi et al., 2020 ). The link between “policy” and “innovation” suggests a focus on developing policies that encourage and support innovative approaches to virtual teaching. Keywords like “higher education,” “university,” “institution,” “administration,” and “resources” suggest a strong theme of how higher education institutions are adapting and responding to the challenges and opportunities of virtual teaching indicating an emphasis on institutional factors. This reveals a concern for how universities are adapting their structures and resources to accommodate this evolving paradigm. Keywords like “student success,” “student support,” “equity,” “inclusion,” and “accessibility” indicate a continued concern for student-centred approaches in ensuring positive learning outcomes and experiences for all students in virtual settings. This can also indicate a commitment to ensuring that all students benefit from and have equitable access to quality virtual learning experiences. The presence of keywords like “survey,” “questionnaire,” and “interviews” suggests that many studies within this cluster employ quantitative and qualitative research methods to gather data from different stakeholders involved in virtual teaching. Keywords like “open education,” “MOOCs,” and “online learning platforms” highlight the increasing adoption of open and flexible learning models in higher education. Keywords like “sustainability,” “environmental impact,” and “green campus” suggest an emerging focus on the environmental implications of virtual teaching and promoting sustainable practices. It will be helpful to conduct further research on specific policies and strategies for supporting student success in virtual environments or institutional initiatives for promoting virtual and open education as well as the impact of virtual teaching on climate change. Further research could investigate the impact of different policy frameworks on virtual teaching and explore effective strategies for navigating the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing virtual teaching across diverse institutional contexts.

4.6.4 Cluster 4 student perspectives and experiences

Represented by the yellow region on the map has 43 keywords. This cluster delves into the student-centred aspect of virtual teaching. It highlights the importance of gathering student feedback and understanding their diverse experiences to inform pedagogical practices and improve virtual learning environments. Keywords like “student satisfaction,” “student engagement,” “motivation,” “perception,” and “attitude” highlight a strong focus on students’ attitudes and understanding how students feel about and respond to virtual learning environments. It highlights the importance of understanding how students perceive and respond to virtual learning environments. Keywords like “challenges,” “barriers,” “advantages,” “benefits,” and “difficulties” suggest an emphasis on the challenges and opportunities that this cluster explores in the dual nature of virtual teaching, with both drawbacks and positive aspects for students being researched. Keywords like “anxiety,” “stress,” “isolation,” “support,” and “community” indicate a more social and emotional dimension in the concern for the well-being and social-emotional experiences of students in virtual settings. The connection between “student attitudes” and “social and emotional dimensions” emphasises the need to consider not only academic outcomes but also the well-being of students in virtual settings. The presence of keywords like “survey,” “questionnaire,” and “interviews” suggests that many studies within this cluster likely employ quantitative and qualitative research methods to gather data directly from students about their virtual learning experiences. Keywords like “self-directed learning,” “autonomy,” and “independence” highlight the potential for virtual teaching to foster student agency and self-reliance. Keywords like “diversity,” “inclusion,” and “equity” suggest an emerging focus on ensuring that virtual learning environments are accessible and beneficial for all students, regardless of their backgrounds or learning styles. It will be helpful to conduct further research on specific challenges faced by different student groups in virtual settings and effective strategies for promoting student engagement and emotional well-being potentially revealing valuable recommendations for improving the virtual learning experience for students (Tan et al., 2021 ). Additionally, future research can delve more into exploring strategies to address social and emotional needs and foster a sense of community within virtual learning environments, fostering collaboration, and mitigating feelings of isolation among students in online settings is needed.

4.6.5 Cluster 5 technology infrastructure

Represented by the purple region on the map has 33 keywords. This cluster focuses on the technological foundation and infrastructure of effective virtual teaching. It emphasises the need for careful planning and investment in appropriate technology infrastructure that supports pedagogical goals and accessibility. Keywords like “learning management system,” “educational technology,” “software,” “hardware,” “platform,” and “infrastructure” highlight a strong theme of exploring both technology infrastructure and the tools and resources necessary for supporting virtual teaching and learning. It highlights the importance of selecting and implementing robust technological tools and platforms. Keywords like “accessibility,” “usability,” “interface,” “design,” and “interoperability” provide emphasis on accessibility and usability for ensuring that virtual learning technologies are easy to use and inclusive for all students. This indicates a concern for ensuring that technology is user-friendly and inclusive for all students by incorporating instructional design principles and universal design for learning (UDL) practices. Keywords like “integration,” “collaboration,” “communication,” “engagement,” and “interaction” indicate a focus on how technology can be used to create engaging and interactive virtual learning environments. The link between “technology” and “integration” highlights the need for seamless integration of technology into teaching and learning practice. In other words, using technology to create interactive and engaging virtual learning experiences. The presence of keywords like “case study,” “pilot study,” and “evaluation” suggests that many studies within this cluster likely employ case studies and evaluation methods to assess the effectiveness of specific technologies or platforms in virtual teaching settings. Keywords like “artificial intelligence,” “virtual reality,” and “augmented reality” highlight the potential for emerging technologies to further enhance virtual learning experiences. Keywords like “cloud computing,” “big data,” and “learning analytics” suggest an interest in using data-driven approaches to personalise and optimise learning in virtual environments. It will be helpful to conduct further research on specific technologies used for accessibility purposes or the challenges and opportunities associated with emerging technologies in virtual teaching. Further research could explore the effectiveness of different learning management systems and technological tools, investigate best practices for technology integration in virtual teaching, and address challenges associated with accessibility and digital equity in virtual environments (Dlamini, 2023 ).

4.6.6 Cluster 6: Curriculum design and delivery in distance and web-based learning

Represented by the light blue region on the map has 3 keywords. This cluster highlights the need for modification and transformation of curriculum design and delivery in the context of distance and web-based learning. This cluster seems to centre around the instructional design and delivery of virtual teaching through the development and implementation of learning experiences specifically designed for distance and web-based environments. The “curriculum” keyword highlights the importance of structuring content and learning activities effectively for self-directed and online learning. “Distance learning” and “self-instruction” emphasise the need for independent learning strategies and autonomous engagement with the material. The tight connections between curriculum, self-instruction, and internet technologies reveal a focus on creating student-centred, autonomous learning experiences that leverage the unique capabilities of online platforms. Keywords like “internet” and “web-based learning” once again point towards the integration of technology with the prevalence of technology as a platform for delivering and accessing learning content. The focus is not just on online access, but on building learning experiences that leverage the unique affordances of internet technologies such as multimedia, interaction, and collaboration. Despite the focus on technology, the keywords suggest a student-centred approach with a concern for tailoring the curriculum and learning approaches to the needs of individual students. The focus on student-centredness might involve the use of qualitative research methods such as surveys, interviews, and observations to gather data on student experiences and learning outcomes in online settings. “Self-instruction” implies flexible and personalised learning paths, while “distance learning” necessitates consideration of student autonomy and motivation in virtual settings. Keywords from other clusters like “open education” and “MOOCs” hint at the increasing popularity of flexible and accessible online learning resources. Mohapatra and Mohanty ( 2017 ) recognise MOOCs as a potential solution for providing wider access to quality education at an affordable cost. This highlights the potential for democratising education, catering to diverse student needs, and providing affordable access to education. “Adaptive learning” and “personalized learning” suggest an emerging focus on dynamic curricula and learning pathways that adjust to individual student progress and preferences, optimizing the learning experience for each student. It will be helpful to conduct further research on how to effectively design and implement curricula for self-instruction that empower students, foster self-directed learning, and harness the potential of innovative web-based technologies for optimal learning outcomes in distance and online settings (Tan et al., 2021 ).

4.7 Research focus base on year of publication

Figure  6 shows the network visualisation map for the 248 co-occurring keyword clusters based on time i.e. in the different years of publication. With a minimum of 10 occurrences, it was observed that the research conducted in 2021–2023 in the virtual teaching and learning space related to “Covid-19”, “pandemic(s)”, “Emergency remote teaching” and “remote teaching”. This can be seen in the yellow represented on the map in Fig.  6 . Research done between 2020 and 2021 in this area was related to “online teaching”, “online learning”, “e-learning” and “higher education”. This can be seen in the greenish colour represented on the map in Fig.  6 . Research done between 2019 and 2020 in this area was related to “computer-aided instruction”, “online instruction”, “learning management system” and “distance education”. This can be seen in the purple areas represented on the map in Fig.  6 .

Network visualisation map for co-occurring keywords over time

The observations are logically sound as virtual teaching stems from digitalising distance education. We can also see the growth of research areas done over the last five years. A trend to note is that although there are ‘many’ research areas, newer keywords are ‘synonyms’ for the older keywords. Further research should be conducted in areas of access challenges, student engagement, lecturers’ competencies needed for successful implementation, and frameworks for virtual teaching and online learning. These areas need to be given considerable attention as studies on virtual teaching continue to emerge.

5 Discussion

Virtual teaching is a long-standing approach in both the education sector and within the literature. However, virtual teaching gained momentum for its ability to drive education continuity in times of disruption. During the pandemic and forced lockdown in 2020, there was a rise in the adoption of virtual teaching. The significant increase in publications, particularly post-pandemic (2020–2023), aligns with the surge in virtual teaching adoption. The dominance of keywords like “Covid-19” and “pandemic” in these publications underscores the pandemic’s role as a catalyst for research on emergency remote teaching and adaptation to unforeseen circumstances (Ewing, 2021 ). Consequently, learning from the experiences of the pandemic, higher education institutions and educators realised the affordances of virtual teaching and its beneficial impact, evolving beyond emergency remote teaching measures. The growing number of students, combined with the increasing demand for lifelong learning and personalised education, highlight the long-term need for virtual teaching and online learning options. Virtual classrooms transcend physical limitations, democratising access to knowledge and creating a more inclusive learning environments for students across the globe. The shift from traditional brick and mortar classrooms to a more open educational ecosystem positions virtual teaching as a transformative tool in higher education. By leveraging technology and adapting teaching practices to cater to diverse student needs and preferences, virtual education offers a plethora of benefits, including greater access, flexibility, personalisation, and potentially lower costs. In other words, virtual teaching is no longer a temporary solution but a powerful pedagogical approach shaping the future of higher education.

The analysis and findings identified in this study highlight a multifaceted approach encompassing technology, pedagogy, leadership, student experience, infrastructure, and curriculum design. This underscores the critical role of technology in enabling virtual teaching, while simultaneously emphasising the importance of effective digital pedagogy. The centrality of technology in virtual teaching, with a focus on leveraging platforms, digital tools, and learning management systems (LMS) for content delivery and management and creating engaging and interactive learning experiences is necessary. The focus on teaching practices, student learning, motivation, and engagement aligns with the need to adapt and refine teaching methods and assessments for online settings. This adds emphasis on the importance of integrating effective pedagogy, teaching, and learning strategies with technology to promote student engagement and active learning (Chamorro-Atalaya, 2021 ). Research on assessment strategies suggests a concern for measuring and improving learning outcomes in virtual environments. This becomes necessary as there is a need to redesign assessments in virtual environments differently to traditional assessments. This underlines the importance of empowering educators for success in both teaching and assessing in virtual environments. Professional development programs become necessary due to the need to equip educators with the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive in this evolving space (Fernández-Batanero et al., 2022 ; Chi & Oanh, 2023 ).

For the effective integration of virtual teaching in higher education institutions there is a need for strong leadership, strategic planning, and policy development to effectively manage and integrate virtual teaching practices so that it moves beyond substitution but to a level of transformation. It becomes necessary to develop policies that encourage exploration of new and effective approaches in virtual teaching with a commitment to ensuring positive learning outcomes and experiences for all students in diverse virtual settings. This highlights the importance of understanding student experiences and perspectives to inform pedagogical practices and improve virtual learning environments. By designing the virtual environment to be more student centred, it will not only address academic needs but also consider students’ well-being and social-emotional experiences (Tan et al., 2021 ).

This study focused on research trends for virtual teaching, but it’s also important to consider the broader implications for virtual teaching in higher education. Virtual teaching can offer cost benefits, such as reduced need for physical classroom space. However, ensuring equitable access for students with limited technology or internet resources requires investment in infrastructure and support services. Research on cost-effective and sustainable models for virtual teaching is crucial. Consequently, there is a need for careful planning, design, development, and investment in appropriate technology infrastructure to support virtual teaching and learning. As we move forward, ongoing research and development are vital to optimise virtual teaching practices. Exploring the effectiveness of various approaches, addressing social and emotional considerations, and integrating culturally responsive digital pedagogy are key areas for future research. More research needs to be conducted on virtual teaching and digitalisation in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, especially given the contextual realities of developing countries that differ from other parts of the world (Adam et al., 2019 ; Dlamini, 2022 ). Further investigating the potential use of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality for immersive experiences in virtual environments holds significant promise as it suggests the potential of emerging technologies to further enhance virtual learning experiences. By embracing these trends and fostering a culture of innovation, higher education institutions can harness the power of digital education and virtual teaching to create dynamic and accessible learning opportunities for a diverse student, shaping the future of higher education in the process.

6 Conclusion

Virtual teaching presents a transformative opportunity for higher education. By addressing the research gaps identified, embracing future trends, and considering the broader social and institutional implications, higher education institutions can create a future where virtual teaching empowers educators, promotes student success, and expands access to equitable high-quality education for all. Virtual teaching in higher education is undergoing a dynamic transformation, fuelled by rapid technological advancements, shifting pedagogical paradigms, accessible and equitable education, and a growing demand for flexible learning models. Through a comprehensive bibliometric review, this research study mapped the current status and key trends of research on virtual teaching in higher education and identified topics and research areas that can be further addressed in future research. This study underscores the critical role of technology in enabling virtual teaching, while simultaneously emphasising the importance of effective pedagogy and educator development. It highlights the need for leadership that promotes innovation and policies that ensure equitable access and student success. Furthermore, the study emphasises the importance of understanding and addressing student perspectives and experiences to create engaging and supportive virtual teaching environments.

6.1 Theoretical implications

The prominence of technology-driven teaching and student-centred learning suggests a potential shift towards constructivist and student-centred paradigms in virtual teaching environments. This challenges traditional teacher-centred models and necessitates research on effective student engagement strategies and personalised learning pathways within online settings. While this emphasises educator support and professional development which stresses the need for understanding how best to equip educators with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in this evolving paradigm. This opens avenues for research into transformative pedagogical approaches and collaborative learning communities for educators in virtual settings. Furthermore, the focus on navigating policy and governance in the virtual teaching space highlights the need for theoretical frameworks and best practices for integrating virtual teaching into the broader infrastructure of higher education. This could involve research on policy formulation, resource allocation, and leadership models conducive to effective virtual teaching implementation.

6.2 Practical implications

To optimise virtual teaching and online learning experiences, a multifaceted approach is crucial. Curriculums can be redesigned to exploit the strengths of learning management systems, incorporating interactive activities, multimedia resources, and opportunities for student collaboration. The insights from technology-driven, student centred and digital pedagogy-focused teaching environments can inform the design and development of engaging and interactive learning experiences within virtual platforms. Virtual platforms themselves can be leveraged to promote active learning through online discussions, simulations, case studies, and problem-solving activities. There is a need to support and empower educators with an emphasis on educator training for their practical needs through the design and implementation of effective professional development programs tailored to virtual teaching competencies, pedagogy adaptation, and technology integration. This also highlights the importance of building communities of practice and peer support networks for educators navigating this shift in developing technological proficiency and pedagogical strategies that synergistically capitalise on the affordances of online platforms. Personalisation is another key advantage, as virtual platforms can be used to deliver adaptive content, differentiated instruction, and feedback tailored to individual student needs. Furthermore, understanding student perspectives and experiences is crucial for creating access to equitable and supportive virtual learning environments. However, ensuring accessibility is paramount. Higher education institutions must provide accessible technologies, training, and support services for students. Beyond technical concerns, offering support services tailored to student needs in virtual environments is essential. This includes technical support, academic coaching, and other resources to ensure student well-being and success in online learning environments.

6.3 Limitations and future scope of research

This bibliometric study contributes to the ever-growing body of scholarly knowledge, however, not without limitations. A data limitation exists as this bibliometric review was restricted to published literature existing in the Scopus database. This potentially overlooks published literature from other databases as well as unpublished research or perspectives from marginalised communities. Future research can extend the literature of other reliable databases. Another limitation is that the current bibliometric analysis focused on English-language article publications and conference paper proceedings in the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities. Future research should broaden the scope to include diverse cultural contexts and educational systems to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of virtual teaching practices globally. Moreover, given that the field of virtual teaching is dynamic and rapid technological advancements necessitate ongoing research and adaptation, future research should incorporate emerging technologies and explore their potential impact on learning models and pedagogical practices. Future research should also investigate how institutional policies and leadership practices can best support the implementation and scaling up of effective virtual teaching initiatives. Lastly, further research is needed to explore effective strategies for harnessing the affordances of digital technology and virtual teaching to enhance student engagement, personalise learning experiences, and promote deeper understanding in virtual environments that contribute to students’ overall educational experience.

Data availability

The author confirms that all data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article. Furthermore, primary and secondary sources and data supporting the findings of this study were all publicly available at the time of submission.

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Makda, F. Digital education: Mapping the landscape of virtual teaching in higher education – a bibliometric review. Educ Inf Technol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-12899-2

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A review of foot–terrain interaction mechanics for heavy-duty legged robots.

1. Introduction

2. supporting feet of heavy-duty legged robots, 2.1. supporting foot configurations of heavy-duty legged robots, 2.1.1. feet with passive adaptive joints, cylindrical supporting foot configurations, semi-cylindrical supporting foot configurations, spherical supporting foot configurations, hemispherical supporting foot configurations, square supporting foot configurations, special supporting foot configurations, 2.1.2. feet with active driving joints, 2.2. plantar patterns of supporting foot of legged robots, 3. dynamics analysis of robot, 3.1. models of pressure–sinkage for mobile robot, 3.1.1. models for pressure–sinkage at zero slip conditions, a theoretical exploration of the wheeled robots, a theoretical exploration of the wheel-legged composite robots, a theoretical exploration of the legged robots, 3.1.2. models for pressure–sinkage at non-zero slip conditions, 3.2. tangential force models, 4. further research, 4.1. configuration research of biomimetic supporting feet, 4.1.1. application of bionic technology in supporting feet design, 4.1.2. design and distribution of plantar patterns of supporting feet, 4.2. study of effective contact area between irregular foot and dynamic deformable terrain, 4.3. mechanical behavior modeling of interaction between supporting feet and extreme/dynamic environments, 4.3.1. construction of nonlinear tangential force mathematical model, 4.3.2. construction of resultant force mathematical model, 4.4. parameterization research of soil characteristics in extreme/dynamic environments, 4.5. cross-application of multimodal information fusion and foot–terrain interaction mechanics, 5. conclusions, author contributions, conflicts of interest, nomenclature.

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Zhuang, H.; Wang, J.; Wang, N.; Li, W.; Li, N.; Li, B.; Dong, L. A Review of Foot–Terrain Interaction Mechanics for Heavy-Duty Legged Robots. Appl. Sci. 2024 , 14 , 6541. https://doi.org/10.3390/app14156541

Zhuang H, Wang J, Wang N, Li W, Li N, Li B, Dong L. A Review of Foot–Terrain Interaction Mechanics for Heavy-Duty Legged Robots. Applied Sciences . 2024; 14(15):6541. https://doi.org/10.3390/app14156541

Zhuang, Hongchao, Jiaju Wang, Ning Wang, Weihua Li, Nan Li, Bo Li, and Lei Dong. 2024. "A Review of Foot–Terrain Interaction Mechanics for Heavy-Duty Legged Robots" Applied Sciences 14, no. 15: 6541. https://doi.org/10.3390/app14156541

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Chapter 2: Getting Started in Research

Reviewing the Research Literature

Learning Objectives

• Define the research literature in psychology and give examples of sources that are part of the research literature and sources that are not.
• Describe and use several methods for finding previous research on a particular research idea or question.

Reviewing the research literature means finding, reading, and summarizing the published research relevant to your question. An empirical research report written in American Psychological Association (APA) style always includes a written literature review, but it is important to review the literature early in the research process for several reasons.

• It can help you turn a research idea into an interesting research question.
• It can tell you if a research question has already been answered.
• It can help you evaluate the interestingness of a research question.
• It can give you ideas for how to conduct your own study.
• It can tell you how your study fits into the research literature.

What Is the Research Literature?

The  research literature  in any field is all the published research in that field. The research literature in psychology is enormous—including millions of scholarly articles and books dating to the beginning of the field—and it continues to grow. Although its boundaries are somewhat fuzzy, the research literature definitely does not include self-help and other pop psychology books, dictionary and encyclopedia entries, websites, and similar sources that are intended mainly for the general public. These are considered unreliable because they are not reviewed by other researchers and are often based on little more than common sense or personal experience. Wikipedia contains much valuable information, but the fact that its authors are anonymous and may not have any formal training or expertise in that subject area, and its content continually changes makes it unsuitable as a basis of sound scientific research. For our purposes, it helps to define the research literature as consisting almost entirely of two types of sources: articles in professional journals, and scholarly books in psychology and related fields.

Professional Journals

Professional journals  are periodicals that publish original research articles. There are thousands of professional journals that publish research in psychology and related fields. They are usually published monthly or quarterly in individual issues, each of which contains several articles. The issues are organized into volumes, which usually consist of all the issues for a calendar year. Some journals are published in hard copy only, others in both hard copy and electronic form, and still others in electronic form only.

Most articles in professional journals are one of two basic types: empirical research reports and review articles.  Empirical research reports  describe one or more new empirical studies conducted by the authors. They introduce a research question, explain why it is interesting, review previous research, describe their method and results, and draw their conclusions. Review articles  summarize previously published research on a topic and usually present new ways to organize or explain the results. When a review article is devoted primarily to presenting a new theory, it is often referred to as a theoretical article .

Most professional journals in psychology undergo a process of  double-blind peer review . Researchers who want to publish their work in the journal submit a manuscript to the editor—who is generally an established researcher too—who in turn sends it to two or three experts on the topic. Each reviewer reads the manuscript, writes a critical but constructive review, and sends the review back to the editor along with his or her recommendations. The editor then decides whether to accept the article for publication, ask the authors to make changes and resubmit it for further consideration, or reject it outright. In any case, the editor forwards the reviewers’ written comments to the researchers so that they can revise their manuscript accordingly. This entire process is double-blind, as the reviewers do not know the identity of the researcher(s), and vice versa. Double-blind peer review is helpful because it ensures that the work meets basic standards of the field before it can enter the research literature. However, in order to increase transparency and accountability some newer open access journals (e.g., Frontiers in Psychology) utilize an open peer review process wherein the identities of the reviewers (which remain concealed during the peer review process) are published alongside the journal article.

Scholarly Books

Scholarly books  are books written by researchers and practitioners mainly for use by other researchers and practitioners. A  monograph  is written by a single author or a small group of authors and usually gives a coherent presentation of a topic much like an extended review article.  Edited volumes have an editor or a small group of editors who recruit many authors to write separate chapters on different aspects of the same topic. Although edited volumes can also give a coherent presentation of the topic, it is not unusual for each chapter to take a different perspective or even for the authors of different chapters to openly disagree with each other. In general, scholarly books undergo a peer review process similar to that used by professional journals.

Literature Search Strategies

Using psycinfo and other databases.

The primary method used to search the research literature involves using one or more electronic databases. These include Academic Search Premier, JSTOR, and ProQuest for all academic disciplines, ERIC for education, and PubMed for medicine and related fields. The most important for our purposes, however, is PsycINFO, which is produced by the APA. PsycINFO is so comprehensive—covering thousands of professional journals and scholarly books going back more than 100 years—that for most purposes its content is synonymous with the research literature in psychology. Like most such databases, PsycINFO is usually available through your university library.

PsycINFO consists of individual records for each article, book chapter, or book in the database. Each record includes basic publication information, an abstract or summary of the work (like the one presented at the start of this chapter), and a list of other works cited by that work. A computer interface allows entering one or more search terms and returns any records that contain those search terms. (These interfaces are provided by different vendors and therefore can look somewhat different depending on the library you use.) Each record also contains lists of keywords that describe the content of the work and also a list of index terms. The index terms are especially helpful because they are standardized. Research on differences between women and men, for example, is always indexed under “Human Sex Differences.” Research on notetaking is always indexed under the term “Learning Strategies.” If you do not know the appropriate index terms, PsycINFO includes a thesaurus that can help you find them.

Given that there are nearly four million records in PsycINFO, you may have to try a variety of search terms in different combinations and at different levels of specificity before you find what you are looking for. Imagine, for example, that you are interested in the question of whether women and men differ in terms of their ability to recall experiences from when they were very young. If you were to enter “memory for early experiences” as your search term, PsycINFO would return only six records, most of which are not particularly relevant to your question. However, if you were to enter the search term “memory,” it would return 149,777 records—far too many to look through individually. This is where the thesaurus helps. Entering “memory” into the thesaurus provides several more specific index terms—one of which is “early memories.” While searching for “early memories” among the index terms returns 1,446 records—still too many too look through individually—combining it with “human sex differences” as a second search term returns 37 articles, many of which are highly relevant to the topic.

Depending on the vendor that provides the interface to PsycINFO, you may be able to save, print, or e-mail the relevant PsycINFO records. The records might even contain links to full-text copies of the works themselves. (PsycARTICLES is a database that provides full-text access to articles in all journals published by the APA.) If not, and you want a copy of the work, you will have to find out if your library carries the journal or has the book and the hard copy on the library shelves. Be sure to ask a librarian if you need help.

Using Other Search Techniques

In addition to entering search terms into PsycINFO and other databases, there are several other techniques you can use to search the research literature. First, if you have one good article or book chapter on your topic—a recent review article is best—you can look through the reference list of that article for other relevant articles, books, and book chapters. In fact, you should do this with any relevant article or book chapter you find. You can also start with a classic article or book chapter on your topic, find its record in PsycINFO (by entering the author’s name or article’s title as a search term), and link from there to a list of other works in PsycINFO that cite that classic article. This works because other researchers working on your topic are likely to be aware of the classic article and cite it in their own work. You can also do a general Internet search using search terms related to your topic or the name of a researcher who conducts research on your topic. This might lead you directly to works that are part of the research literature (e.g., articles in open-access journals or posted on researchers’ own websites). The search engine Google Scholar is especially useful for this purpose. A general Internet search might also lead you to websites that are not part of the research literature but might provide references to works that are. Finally, you can talk to people (e.g., your instructor or other faculty members in psychology) who know something about your topic and can suggest relevant articles and book chapters.

What to Search For

When you do a literature review, you need to be selective. Not every article, book chapter, and book that relates to your research idea or question will be worth obtaining, reading, and integrating into your review. Instead, you want to focus on sources that help you do four basic things: (a) refine your research question, (b) identify appropriate research methods, (c) place your research in the context of previous research, and (d) write an effective research report. Several basic principles can help you find the most useful sources.

First, it is best to focus on recent research, keeping in mind that what counts as recent depends on the topic. For newer topics that are actively being studied, “recent” might mean published in the past year or two. For older topics that are receiving less attention right now, “recent” might mean within the past 10 years. You will get a feel for what counts as recent for your topic when you start your literature search. A good general rule, however, is to start with sources published in the past five years. The main exception to this rule would be classic articles that turn up in the reference list of nearly every other source. If other researchers think that this work is important, even though it is old, then by all means you should include it in your review.

Second, you should look for review articles on your topic because they will provide a useful overview of it—often discussing important definitions, results, theories, trends, and controversies—giving you a good sense of where your own research fits into the literature. You should also look for empirical research reports addressing your question or similar questions, which can give you ideas about how to operationally define your variables and collect your data. As a general rule, it is good to use methods that others have already used successfully unless you have good reasons not to. Finally, you should look for sources that provide information that can help you argue for the interestingness of your research question. For a study on the effects of cell phone use on driving ability, for example, you might look for information about how widespread cell phone use is, how frequent and costly motor vehicle crashes are, and so on.

How many sources are enough for your literature review? This is a difficult question because it depends on how extensively your topic has been studied and also on your own goals. One study found that across a variety of professional journals in psychology, the average number of sources cited per article was about 50 (Adair & Vohra, 2003) [1] . This gives a rough idea of what professional researchers consider to be adequate. As a student, you might be assigned a much lower minimum number of references to use, but the principles for selecting the most useful ones remain the same.

Key Takeaways

• The research literature in psychology is all the published research in psychology, consisting primarily of articles in professional journals and scholarly books.
• Early in the research process, it is important to conduct a review of the research literature on your topic to refine your research question, identify appropriate research methods, place your question in the context of other research, and prepare to write an effective research report.
• There are several strategies for finding previous research on your topic. Among the best is using PsycINFO, a computer database that catalogs millions of articles, books, and book chapters in psychology and related fields.
• Practice: Use the techniques discussed in this section to find 10 journal articles and book chapters on one of the following research ideas: memory for smells, aggressive driving, the causes of narcissistic personality disorder, the functions of the intraparietal sulcus, or prejudice against the physically handicapped.
• Watch the following video clip produced by UBCiSchool about how to read an academic paper (without losing your mind):

Video Attributions

• “ Sample PsycINFO Search on EBSCOhost ” by APA Publishing Training . Standard YouTube Licence.
• “ Using Google Scholar (CLIP) ” by clipinfolit . CC BY (Attribution)
• “ How to Read an Academic Paper ” by UBCiSchool . CC BY (Attribution)
• Adair, J. G., & Vohra, N. (2003). The explosion of knowledge, references, and citations: Psychology’s unique response to a crisis. American Psychologist, 58 , 15–23. ↵

All the published research in a particular field.

Periodicals that publish original research articles.

A type of research article which describes one or more new empirical studies conducted by the authors.

A type of research article that summarizes previously published research on a topic and usually presents new ways to organize or explain the results.

A type of review article primarily devoted to presenting a new theory.

Books written by researchers and practitioners mainly for sue by other researchers and practitioners.

Type of scholarly book written by a single author or small group of authors, coherently presents a topic much like an extended review article.

A type of scholarly book in which an editor or small group of editors recruit many authors to write separate chapters on different aspects of the same topic.

An electronic database covering thousands of professional journals and scholarly books produced by the APA.

Research Methods in Psychology - 2nd Canadian Edition Copyright © 2015 by Paul C. Price, Rajiv Jhangiani, & I-Chant A. Chiang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review

Marco pautasso.

1 Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology (CEFE), CNRS, Montpellier, France

2 Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB), FRB, Aix-en-Provence, France

Literature reviews are in great demand in most scientific fields. Their need stems from the ever-increasing output of scientific publications [1] . For example, compared to 1991, in 2008 three, eight, and forty times more papers were indexed in Web of Science on malaria, obesity, and biodiversity, respectively [2] . Given such mountains of papers, scientists cannot be expected to examine in detail every single new paper relevant to their interests [3] . Thus, it is both advantageous and necessary to rely on regular summaries of the recent literature. Although recognition for scientists mainly comes from primary research, timely literature reviews can lead to new synthetic insights and are often widely read [4] . For such summaries to be useful, however, they need to be compiled in a professional way [5] .

When starting from scratch, reviewing the literature can require a titanic amount of work. That is why researchers who have spent their career working on a certain research issue are in a perfect position to review that literature. Some graduate schools are now offering courses in reviewing the literature, given that most research students start their project by producing an overview of what has already been done on their research issue [6] . However, it is likely that most scientists have not thought in detail about how to approach and carry out a literature review.

Reviewing the literature requires the ability to juggle multiple tasks, from finding and evaluating relevant material to synthesising information from various sources, from critical thinking to paraphrasing, evaluating, and citation skills [7] . In this contribution, I share ten simple rules I learned working on about 25 literature reviews as a PhD and postdoctoral student. Ideas and insights also come from discussions with coauthors and colleagues, as well as feedback from reviewers and editors.

Rule 1: Define a Topic and Audience

How to choose which topic to review? There are so many issues in contemporary science that you could spend a lifetime of attending conferences and reading the literature just pondering what to review. On the one hand, if you take several years to choose, several other people may have had the same idea in the meantime. On the other hand, only a well-considered topic is likely to lead to a brilliant literature review [8] . The topic must at least be:

• interesting to you (ideally, you should have come across a series of recent papers related to your line of work that call for a critical summary),
• an important aspect of the field (so that many readers will be interested in the review and there will be enough material to write it), and
• a well-defined issue (otherwise you could potentially include thousands of publications, which would make the review unhelpful).

Ideas for potential reviews may come from papers providing lists of key research questions to be answered [9] , but also from serendipitous moments during desultory reading and discussions. In addition to choosing your topic, you should also select a target audience. In many cases, the topic (e.g., web services in computational biology) will automatically define an audience (e.g., computational biologists), but that same topic may also be of interest to neighbouring fields (e.g., computer science, biology, etc.).

Rule 2: Search and Re-search the Literature

After having chosen your topic and audience, start by checking the literature and downloading relevant papers. Five pieces of advice here:

• keep track of the search items you use (so that your search can be replicated [10] ),
• keep a list of papers whose pdfs you cannot access immediately (so as to retrieve them later with alternative strategies),
• use a paper management system (e.g., Mendeley, Papers, Qiqqa, Sente),
• define early in the process some criteria for exclusion of irrelevant papers (these criteria can then be described in the review to help define its scope), and
• do not just look for research papers in the area you wish to review, but also seek previous reviews.

The chances are high that someone will already have published a literature review ( Figure 1 ), if not exactly on the issue you are planning to tackle, at least on a related topic. If there are already a few or several reviews of the literature on your issue, my advice is not to give up, but to carry on with your own literature review,

The bottom-right situation (many literature reviews but few research papers) is not just a theoretical situation; it applies, for example, to the study of the impacts of climate change on plant diseases, where there appear to be more literature reviews than research studies [33] .

• discussing in your review the approaches, limitations, and conclusions of past reviews,
• trying to find a new angle that has not been covered adequately in the previous reviews, and
• incorporating new material that has inevitably accumulated since their appearance.

When searching the literature for pertinent papers and reviews, the usual rules apply:

• be thorough,
• use different keywords and database sources (e.g., DBLP, Google Scholar, ISI Proceedings, JSTOR Search, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science), and
• look at who has cited past relevant papers and book chapters.

Rule 3: Take Notes While Reading

If you read the papers first, and only afterwards start writing the review, you will need a very good memory to remember who wrote what, and what your impressions and associations were while reading each single paper. My advice is, while reading, to start writing down interesting pieces of information, insights about how to organize the review, and thoughts on what to write. This way, by the time you have read the literature you selected, you will already have a rough draft of the review.

Of course, this draft will still need much rewriting, restructuring, and rethinking to obtain a text with a coherent argument [11] , but you will have avoided the danger posed by staring at a blank document. Be careful when taking notes to use quotation marks if you are provisionally copying verbatim from the literature. It is advisable then to reformulate such quotes with your own words in the final draft. It is important to be careful in noting the references already at this stage, so as to avoid misattributions. Using referencing software from the very beginning of your endeavour will save you time.

Rule 4: Choose the Type of Review You Wish to Write

After having taken notes while reading the literature, you will have a rough idea of the amount of material available for the review. This is probably a good time to decide whether to go for a mini- or a full review. Some journals are now favouring the publication of rather short reviews focusing on the last few years, with a limit on the number of words and citations. A mini-review is not necessarily a minor review: it may well attract more attention from busy readers, although it will inevitably simplify some issues and leave out some relevant material due to space limitations. A full review will have the advantage of more freedom to cover in detail the complexities of a particular scientific development, but may then be left in the pile of the very important papers “to be read” by readers with little time to spare for major monographs.

There is probably a continuum between mini- and full reviews. The same point applies to the dichotomy of descriptive vs. integrative reviews. While descriptive reviews focus on the methodology, findings, and interpretation of each reviewed study, integrative reviews attempt to find common ideas and concepts from the reviewed material [12] . A similar distinction exists between narrative and systematic reviews: while narrative reviews are qualitative, systematic reviews attempt to test a hypothesis based on the published evidence, which is gathered using a predefined protocol to reduce bias [13] , [14] . When systematic reviews analyse quantitative results in a quantitative way, they become meta-analyses. The choice between different review types will have to be made on a case-by-case basis, depending not just on the nature of the material found and the preferences of the target journal(s), but also on the time available to write the review and the number of coauthors [15] .

Rule 5: Keep the Review Focused, but Make It of Broad Interest

Whether your plan is to write a mini- or a full review, it is good advice to keep it focused 16 , 17 . Including material just for the sake of it can easily lead to reviews that are trying to do too many things at once. The need to keep a review focused can be problematic for interdisciplinary reviews, where the aim is to bridge the gap between fields [18] . If you are writing a review on, for example, how epidemiological approaches are used in modelling the spread of ideas, you may be inclined to include material from both parent fields, epidemiology and the study of cultural diffusion. This may be necessary to some extent, but in this case a focused review would only deal in detail with those studies at the interface between epidemiology and the spread of ideas.

While focus is an important feature of a successful review, this requirement has to be balanced with the need to make the review relevant to a broad audience. This square may be circled by discussing the wider implications of the reviewed topic for other disciplines.

Rule 6: Be Critical and Consistent

Reviewing the literature is not stamp collecting. A good review does not just summarize the literature, but discusses it critically, identifies methodological problems, and points out research gaps [19] . After having read a review of the literature, a reader should have a rough idea of:

• the major achievements in the reviewed field,
• the main areas of debate, and
• the outstanding research questions.

It is challenging to achieve a successful review on all these fronts. A solution can be to involve a set of complementary coauthors: some people are excellent at mapping what has been achieved, some others are very good at identifying dark clouds on the horizon, and some have instead a knack at predicting where solutions are going to come from. If your journal club has exactly this sort of team, then you should definitely write a review of the literature! In addition to critical thinking, a literature review needs consistency, for example in the choice of passive vs. active voice and present vs. past tense.

Rule 7: Find a Logical Structure

Like a well-baked cake, a good review has a number of telling features: it is worth the reader's time, timely, systematic, well written, focused, and critical. It also needs a good structure. With reviews, the usual subdivision of research papers into introduction, methods, results, and discussion does not work or is rarely used. However, a general introduction of the context and, toward the end, a recapitulation of the main points covered and take-home messages make sense also in the case of reviews. For systematic reviews, there is a trend towards including information about how the literature was searched (database, keywords, time limits) [20] .

How can you organize the flow of the main body of the review so that the reader will be drawn into and guided through it? It is generally helpful to draw a conceptual scheme of the review, e.g., with mind-mapping techniques. Such diagrams can help recognize a logical way to order and link the various sections of a review [21] . This is the case not just at the writing stage, but also for readers if the diagram is included in the review as a figure. A careful selection of diagrams and figures relevant to the reviewed topic can be very helpful to structure the text too [22] .

Rule 8: Make Use of Feedback

Reviews of the literature are normally peer-reviewed in the same way as research papers, and rightly so [23] . As a rule, incorporating feedback from reviewers greatly helps improve a review draft. Having read the review with a fresh mind, reviewers may spot inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and ambiguities that had not been noticed by the writers due to rereading the typescript too many times. It is however advisable to reread the draft one more time before submission, as a last-minute correction of typos, leaps, and muddled sentences may enable the reviewers to focus on providing advice on the content rather than the form.

Feedback is vital to writing a good review, and should be sought from a variety of colleagues, so as to obtain a diversity of views on the draft. This may lead in some cases to conflicting views on the merits of the paper, and on how to improve it, but such a situation is better than the absence of feedback. A diversity of feedback perspectives on a literature review can help identify where the consensus view stands in the landscape of the current scientific understanding of an issue [24] .

Rule 9: Include Your Own Relevant Research, but Be Objective

In many cases, reviewers of the literature will have published studies relevant to the review they are writing. This could create a conflict of interest: how can reviewers report objectively on their own work [25] ? Some scientists may be overly enthusiastic about what they have published, and thus risk giving too much importance to their own findings in the review. However, bias could also occur in the other direction: some scientists may be unduly dismissive of their own achievements, so that they will tend to downplay their contribution (if any) to a field when reviewing it.

In general, a review of the literature should neither be a public relations brochure nor an exercise in competitive self-denial. If a reviewer is up to the job of producing a well-organized and methodical review, which flows well and provides a service to the readership, then it should be possible to be objective in reviewing one's own relevant findings. In reviews written by multiple authors, this may be achieved by assigning the review of the results of a coauthor to different coauthors.

Rule 10: Be Up-to-Date, but Do Not Forget Older Studies

Given the progressive acceleration in the publication of scientific papers, today's reviews of the literature need awareness not just of the overall direction and achievements of a field of inquiry, but also of the latest studies, so as not to become out-of-date before they have been published. Ideally, a literature review should not identify as a major research gap an issue that has just been addressed in a series of papers in press (the same applies, of course, to older, overlooked studies (“sleeping beauties” [26] )). This implies that literature reviewers would do well to keep an eye on electronic lists of papers in press, given that it can take months before these appear in scientific databases. Some reviews declare that they have scanned the literature up to a certain point in time, but given that peer review can be a rather lengthy process, a full search for newly appeared literature at the revision stage may be worthwhile. Assessing the contribution of papers that have just appeared is particularly challenging, because there is little perspective with which to gauge their significance and impact on further research and society.

Inevitably, new papers on the reviewed topic (including independently written literature reviews) will appear from all quarters after the review has been published, so that there may soon be the need for an updated review. But this is the nature of science [27] – [32] . I wish everybody good luck with writing a review of the literature.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to M. Barbosa, K. Dehnen-Schmutz, T. Döring, D. Fontaneto, M. Garbelotto, O. Holdenrieder, M. Jeger, D. Lonsdale, A. MacLeod, P. Mills, M. Moslonka-Lefebvre, G. Stancanelli, P. Weisberg, and X. Xu for insights and discussions, and to P. Bourne, T. Matoni, and D. Smith for helpful comments on a previous draft.

Funding Statement

This work was funded by the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) through its Centre for Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity data (CESAB), as part of the NETSEED research project. The funders had no role in the preparation of the manuscript.