Systematic Mapping Reviews
Introduction
A literature review is a comprehensive synthesis of existing “literature” (or published material) in order to establish current knowledge of a subject. It is not a book review, but a survey of a particular subject driven by a research question. The purpose of a literature review is to provide an overview and synthesis of published research directly related to the research question under consideration. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established as evidence 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 problem statement or question). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries.
A literature review must do these things:
- be organized around and related directly to the research question you are developing
- synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known
- identify areas of controversy in the literature
- formulate questions that need further research
While there are a variety of types of literature reviews, we are going to focus on the Systematic Mapping review, because it is perfect for addressing an evidence-based question, problem, or need with a thorough, trustworthy overview of the scholarly literature. Kitchenham, Budgen, & Brereton (2010) explains systematic mapping studies differ from systematic literature reviews in the following ways (Table 1):
| Area of Difference | Systematic Mapping | Systematic Literature Review |
| Research questions | General questions to discover research trends (e.g., trends over time, topics covered) | Specific questions designed to aggregate evidence related to that question |
| Search process | Based on a topic area | Based on a specific research question |
| Search strategy requirements | Less stringent since only seeking trends | All studies must be found |
| Quality evaluation | No quality assessment needs to be performed | Essential to determine the rigor and relevance of the primary studies |
| Results | An inventory of papers on the topic area | Aggregated evidence to answer a specific question |
Table 1. Differing characteristics of Systematic Mapping and Systematic Literature Review Methods
Systematic mapping studies provide the benefits of
- clear, reusable study protocols;
- an overview of an area of research;
- identification of research gaps;
- visualization of research trends;
- related work identification; and
- use as an educational source (Kitchenham, Budgen & Brereton, 2010, 2011).
Interacting with the exercises in this chapter will guide you through the process of conducting your own Systematic Mapping Literature Review study. Since this process is truly conducting a study, there are methodological protocols to follow:
- Need identification and scoping
- Developing the search
- Inclusion and exclusion
- Tracking the process and data
- Conducting the search
- Quality assessment
- Data extraction
- Analysis and classification
- Visualization
- Reporting the mapping
There are seven chapters in this part of the book with activities in each chapter. Upon completion of the chapters you should have a complete, potentially publishable systematic mapping study. Let’s get started!
