You identify gaps in the literature, explaining how filling them would advance understanding. When you have read it all, you need to step back and ask what do we have here? If you really know and understand the literature in an area, you are able to see how to use it constructively, so as to present a coherent, logically ordered story. It shows when you: position each issue in an appropriate place (after this, before and leading into that) introduce each major issue, and explicitly relate it to the overall storyline Assemble all material relating to each major issue in one section (not scattered throughout, nor placed in different sections that really fit together) Order the material within each section in a way that makes sense Provide short conclusions throughout, taking stock of what may be made of the material in the section. Consider the reader. If I can sit and read your review from beginning to end, able to follow your storyline with minimal need to look forward and backward to discern whether you are going anywhere (and if so, where), it is impressive. Signposts and subheadings are often helpful. What you must avoid is the appearance of a brain dump, where you simply tell the reader all about all of the studies you have read, with little evidence that you see themes or issues that might be used to organise your presentation. Use tables or graphs (Figures) when needed to present an authors results in a way that makes reader reference easy. This is especially useful when the reader will need to make multiple references to those results. You must appropriately reference any figures or graphs you include in your review, if sourced from elsewhere. If you re-create a table or a figure yourself, then this would usually be referenced as Adapted from [source]. Do not include a table listing all the studies reviewed, and details of their methodology and results. You need to show more complete digestion of the literature than is required to make such a table, and presenting one will chew into the (limited) page count without benefit.
