Introduction:

The interest of nursing in the methodology of the literature systematic review has been increasing, since it constitutes a method that allows a practice based on scientific evidence with scientific accuracy.

Objective:

To characterize the different types of literature review and to describe the main steps of a systematic review of the literature

Material and methods:

Narrative review of the literature. Database search on the following platforms: Google Academic, Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), EBSCO Host, and Virtual Health Library (VHL). Keywords: meta-analysis; evidence-based medicine; review literature as topic; methodology, in the English and Portuguese languages.

Results:

fourteen types of reviews were described and analyzed according to the type of research, evaluation of the methodological quality of the articles included, synthesis of the information collected and global analysis of the data. The advantages and disadvantages of each type and the main steps of a systematic review of the literature were presented.

Conclusions:

A systematic review of the literature is the foundation for evidence-based practice, since it aggregates a large amount of information in a single study.

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