Integrative reviews of nursing research

Integrative reviews of research are a valuable part of the process of creating and organizing a body of literature. It has been argued that integrative reviews should be held to the same standards of clarity, rigor, and replication as primary research. In this paper methods for conducting an integrative review are discussed. Seventeen reviews from nursing journals were examined and compared with a proposed set of criteria for reviews. The results indicated that the majority of integrative reviews in nursing fell short of primary research standards. Guidelines for conducting more rigorous reviews are presented.