How to do a

Systematic literature review

SLR ?

Mohd Aamir Adeeb Bin Abdul Rahim, PhD.

4013, School of Quantitative Sciences (SQS)
University Utara Malaysia (UUM)
+016- 5575197
aamir@uum.edu.my
What is a
Systematic literature review
SLR?

“ Systematic, explicit and reproducible method for

identifying, evaluating and synthesizing the existing body
of completed and recorded work produced by researchers,

”
scholars and practitioners
Why a SLR
Is important ?

“ Increase Citation and Provide

Direction for Future Research
For a Researcher and
PhD students

”
What are the differences
between SLR and traditional
literature review?
 SLR Traditional literature review
If your need to answer a Often part of empirical studies or
Needs/Reasons
question paper
Research Protocol Required No
Research Selection
Structured and Replicable Not Structured or Replicable
Process
Evaluation Process Uses a Protocol / Objective Researcher’s choice / subjective
Data Extraction
Uses a Protocol / Objective Researcher’s choice / subjective
Process
Framework / Knowledge
Research Synthesis
Map
Categories.
E.g. - Methods

Period
Reviewed article

Insight
Indicating Current Trends
and Potential Direction
Categories.
Evaluating Criteria
And Method

Inclusion and Exclusion

Period and domain
applications

Insight
Indicating Current Trends
and Potential Direction
Categories.
E.g. - Methods

Period
Reviewed article

Insight
Indicating evolution, research
streams, and Potential Direction
Process for an SLR.
Conducting Reporting
Planning

a) Is it needed?
b) What are the 1) Identify
objective and the
research questions 2) Evaluate
that SLR were trying 5) Sharing your finding
to answer? 3) Extract
c) Review Protocol. 4) Synthesize
(PRISMA)
SLR Layout

• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methodology
• Results/Findings
• Discussion
• Limitation & Future Work
• Conclusion
• References
Title

Title of SLR should clearly mention “Systematic Literature Review” or

“Meta Analysis”
Abstract

• Background & Objectives

• Data Sources . E.g. SCOPUS , WOS
• Study Eligibility Criteria
• Study Appraisal and synthesis methods
• Results and Limitation
• Conclusion and Implication of Key finding
Introduction - Rationale

• Describe rationale for the review in the context of what is already known
• Define the importance of the review questions
• Briefly mention the current state of knowledge and it limitations.
• Clearly state what the review aim to add
• Discuss how the limitation of the existing reviews may be overcome by this
SLR review.
Introduction - Objective

• Provide explicit statement of the questions being addressed.

• Objective
• Precise and explicit
• Understand the review scope
• Potential applicability to reader interest
• Narrowly focused on broad, depending on the overall objective of
the review
Introduction - Framing research question for SLR

What do we know about XYZ ? (SLR)

VS
What can cause an increase or decrease in the
possibilities of XYZ ?
(Traditional review – Empirical paper)
Sample Objective and Research questions
Let see some example
 A systematic review on material selection methods
https://doi.org/10.1177/1464420720916765

A systematic review of the applications of multi-criteria decision-making methods in site selection problems
https://doi.org/10.1108/BEPAM-05-2018-0078

DEMATEL Technique: A Systematic Review of the State-of-the-Art

Literature on Methodologies and Applications
https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/3696457
Methodology for SLR
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
(PRISMA) protocol http://prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/
The PRISMA methodology consists of
Identification, Screening, Eligibility and Included
Criterion Eligibility Criteria Exclusion Criteria

Identification Records identified Additional records General Material sciences, Engineering or Other
through WoS identified through Topic Interdisciplinary engineering related
database searching other sources fields selection method
(n =1534) (n = 932) *Keyword design, material, materials, selection, Handling, Equipment,
screening, ranking, evaluation , Medical
method, approach, tools, decision,
“multi criteria”, chart, questionnaire,
Records after duplicates removed
property, weight , Ashby, DSS*,
Screening

(n = 1322) KBS*, ES*, CBR*, LCA*, MCDM*,

AHP*, SAW*, ANP*, COPRAS*,
TOPSIS*, VIKOR*, ELECTRE*,
Records Records excluded PROMETHEE*, GRA*, DEA*,
screened (n = 600) NN*, DL*, GP*, NLP*, LP*, MIP*,
(n = 722) GA*

Full-text articles
Eligibility

Full-text articles Period 2000 – September 2018 Pre-2000

assessed for
excluded, with
eligibility Literature International journal articles, highly Others (e.g. books,
reasons
(n =428) Type relevant proceeding papers and editorials, letters,
(n =294)
conference articles meeting reports,
master and doctoral
thesis), and duplicate
reports
Included

Studies included Publication Published and e-view (DOI=Digital

in synthesis status Object Identifier) articles, articles in
(n =428) press, proceeding and reviews
Language English Non-English

A systematic review on material selection methods

https://doi.org/10.1177/1464420720916765
 Methodology- Eligibility criteria

• Proper EC informs various step of

Eligibility Criteria the review methodology
• Influence the development of the
search strategy
• Ensure that studies are selected in a
Study Characteristic Report Characteristic
systematic and unbiassed manner

Focus on research
studies. e.g. models
e.g. Article type,
Timeline and etc.
What is included and
What is excluded and
Why?
Keyword https://www-scopus-com.eserv.uum.edu.my/

Boolean search
OR and AND

"Analytical hierarchy process" OR "Analytic hierarchy process" OR "AHP“)

"Analytical hierarchy process" OR "Analytic hierarchy process" OR "AHP“)

AND
"Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solutions" OR
"TOPSIS“
Keywords
A systematic literature review in identifying research
advancement and opportunities of Fuzzy MCDM in
Decision Sciences domain. (on-going-review)

Search String = TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ( "Fuzzy*" OR "Fuzzy" ) AND (

"Analytical hierarchy process" OR "Analytic hierarchy process" OR "AHP" OR
"Analytic Network Process" OR "ANP" OR "Technique for Order Preference
by Similarity to Ideal Solutions" OR "TOPSIS" OR
"VlseKriterijumskaOptimizacija I KompromisnoResenje" OR "VIKOR" OR
Fuzzy "COmplex PRoportional Assessment" OR "COPRAS" OR "Preference
Ranking Organisation Method" OR "PROMETHEE" OR "Elimination and
Choice Translating Reality" OR "ELECTRE" OR "Decision-Making Trial and
Evaluation Laboratory" OR "DEMATEL " OR "Data envelopment analysis"
OR "DEA" OR "Weighted Product method" OR "WPM" OR "Grey
relational analysis" OR "GRA" OR "Multi Criteria Decision Making" OR
"MCDM" OR "Multi Attribute Decision Making" OR "Multi attribute utility
MCDM Method theory" OR "Multi attribute value theory" OR "Multi Criteria Decision
Analysis" OR "Multi Objective Decision Making" OR "Simple Additive
Weighting" OR "goal programming*" OR "neural network*" OR "decision
making*" OR "decision-making*" ) ) AND PUBYEAR > 1969 AND (
LIMIT-TO ( DOCTYPE , "ar" ) ) AND ( LIMIT-TO ( SUBJAREA , "DECI" )

Decision Science Domain

Why 1969 ?

1969 Present Fuzzy theory from Zadeh article

was produced (Prominent article
on Fuzzy
Database - Scopus

https://www-scopus-com.eserv.uum.edu.my/
Limitation of SCOPUS database
• Can only download information limited to 2000 article per download.
• Hence, it is recommended to have a strategy when downloading such as
breaking it into several separate search and combine it later .
• Or , the search needed to be filtered down using years and search
strategy. E.g. Method or factors.
 Database - Scopus https://www-scopus-com.eserv.uum.edu.my/

Search String = TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ( "Fuzzy*" OR "Fuzzy" ) AND (

"Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solutions" OR
"TOPSIS" OR "VlseKriterijumskaOptimizacija I
KompromisnoResenje" OR "VIKOR" OR "COmplex PRoportional
Assessment" ) ) AND PUBYEAR > 2016 AND ( LIMIT-TO (
DOCTYPE , "ar" ) ) AND ( LIMIT-TO ( SUBJAREA , "DECI" ) )
If the article more
than 500 article
once filtered. It is Filter by Year
advised to narrow
it down

A systematic literature review in identifying research

advancement and opportunities of Fuzzy Compromises
MCDM in Decision Sciences domain.
Filter by Method
Finding
Selected data extracted from SCOPUS
Categories to cluster the article

• Search techniques could be employed to skim and associated the article with
method or factors using Excel
Finding
How to extract the data from SCOPUS
Error if more than 2000. Breakdown the search for download

Click to analyze search results

How to skim and associated
the article with method or
factors using Excel

• Title,Abstract and Keyword

are required from SCOPUS
file
• Use “CountIf” AND “If”
condition on collumm

=COUNTIF($B2,"*AHP*")
then
=IF(SUM(F2:H2)>0,"✔","")
Discussion and Conclusion
SLR
Discussion

• Implication of research result are evaluated and interpreted in relation to the

research questions
• The results/finding should be discussed and any improvement or further
research should be made here
• Ask yourself whether
• Have result interpreted according to research question and aim
• Have conclusion or recommendation bee appropriately drawn form data
analysis?
• Have important studies been highlighted?
• How relevant and useful are this SLR to the reader and how can it
position future research advancement?
 Sustainable fashion: current and future research directions
Blockchain Applications in the Biomedical Domain: A Scoping Review https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EJM-02-2019-
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2019.01.010 0132/full/html
Conclusion

• This section should summaries main point and usefulness of the SLR. It
should not include any new information. However areas for future research
may be suggested

• Ask yourself
• Were main points drawn out?
• Were fresh insight or an new perspective made on the topic?
• Have any recommendation been made based on the review?
• Were there any suggestion future research?
Thank You.

Mohd Aamir Adeeb Bin Abdul Rahim, PhD.

4013, School of Quantitative Sciences (SQS)
University Utara Malaysia (UUM)
+016- 5575197
aamir@uum.edu.my