Methodology of Research Reviews and Its Role in Knowledge Production:Developing a Typology

The literature review obtained from the continuous scientific researches is considered as a great capital for the scientific community, which can play a unique role in the production of knowledge, if exploited appropriately. In this regard, review research is a type of research aimed at independent and systematic study of the literature review for exploring, describing, integrating, explaining or criticizing patterns, relationships, and trends visible in the body of knowledge, which can not easily be addressed through the first-order research and resources. It is sometimes thought that review articles, in contrast to scientific-research articles and similar to scientific-promotional articles, have no particular innovation and merely retell the previous researches results. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the capacity of review research in generating knowledge, conceptualizing different types of these studies and ultimately, providing a comprehensive typology of review articles The results of this study, which have been carried out by Metha-synthesis method suggest that the broad scope of review research can be classified according to the three criteria consisting of scope, organization and study objectives, and  also at least 10 distinct types of review articles can be identified that each one has its own function in the production of knowledge.