The authors describe the different types of literature reviews that are published, and the various forms that they take. They consider the 'why?', 'who?', 'where?', 'when?', and 'how?' questions that are frequently raised by nurses who are considering publishing their work, and suggest some of the answers

The style of published literature reviews varies according to their content and format. In terms of content, they may range from practical reviews of scales and measurement tools used in research (see for example Fletcher et al(1)), to critical reviews of others’ research (published or unpublished) in a given field (Farquhar (2)). In terms of format, as Paul Moorbath has indicated in this issue of Nurse Researcher, the published work can take the form of journal articles (1,2), reports or working papers (3), book chapters (4) or even complete books (5).