How to Write a Relevant, Accurate and Sustainable Literature Review Using a Generally Accepted Research Protocol (GARP): A Multidisciplinary Mixed Research Method

The objective of this paper is to design a Generally Accepted Research Protocol (GARP) for conducting literature reviews, aimed at guiding new researchers and assisting editors, practitioners, experts, and reviewers in understanding the essential steps and processes of writing a Literature Review Paper (LRP). To achieve this, we collected a total of n = 2405 peer-reviewed research and review articles across three disciplinary groups—Education and Engineering, Medical Sciences, and Accounting, Finance, Economics, and Management (AFEM)—from seven databases (Elsevier, Emerald, Nature Portfolio, Springer Nature & Link, Taylor & Francis, Wiley, and Google Scholar) published between 1999 and March 2025. We conducted five (5) cycles of descriptive and semi-qualitative content analysis following the GARP method developed in this study and identified n = 115 relevant articles, which form the foundational core of the GARP Framework presented in this study. Our findings also reveal that several similar initiatives have been undertaken across the analyzed disciplines, with most of these studies focusing on systematic review guidelines based on the PRISMA statement and designed for discipline-specific applications. Our method differs from previous initiatives by proposing a universal alternative method for literature review writing. The goal is to reduce the noise (propositions and steps) by focusing on the steps that really matter when writing a synthesis: data collection, data processing, and data reporting.