The Steps to Doing a Systems Literature Review (SLR)

Literature reviews are an important part of research as they precede a doctoral dissertation, a master’s thesis, a policy paper with recommendations, a single scientific publication, a white paper, a research project of any kind, or just as a stand-alone reconnoitering of a given field or topic with the goal of understanding. Building off of previous efforts of Boote and Biele and PRISMA and applying a systemic approach (DSRP), this paper proposes a new step-wise process and evaluative rubric called Systems Literature Review (SLR). The purpose of SLR is to transform a haphazard and relative (non standardized) process into a more systematic effort that yields a literature review which is, itself, an empirical contribution to any field.