Writing Literature Reviews as Scholarly Knowledge Production: An Integrative Review
Abstract
Literature reviews play a central role in academic knowledge production by structuring disciplinary conversations, legitimizing research problems, and enabling theory development. Despite their importance, literature reviews are frequently treated as preparatory texts rather than as independent scholarly contributions. This integrative review synthesizes seminal and contemporary scholarship on literature review writing to examine its purposes, dominant review types, methodological standards, and recurring challenges. Drawing on peer-reviewed and authoritative sources, the review identifies a clear shift from descriptive and narrative approaches toward systematic, integrative, and theory-building reviews. Findings further reveal persistent conceptual and epistemic difficulties in literature review writing, particularly among postgraduate researchers, that undermine the rigor of reviews and scholarly contributions. By consolidating methodological frameworks and best practices, this article contributes to the literature by clarifying the role of literature reviews as forms of scholarly knowledge production and by articulating conditions under which reviews generate theoretical and intellectual impact.
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