Conducting Systematic Literature Review on Systematic Literature Review-based Articles: A Review of Conceptual and Practical Issues

Systematic Literature Reviews (SLRs) have become a cornerstone of evidence-based research; however, SLR-based publications themselves reveal recurring conceptual, methodological, and practical inconsistencies that require systematic evaluation.This study aims to identify, categorize, and analyze the conceptual ambiguities, methodological limitations, and practical challenges discussed within SLR-based articles published between 2021 and 2025.Using a Systematic Literature Review approach, data were collected exclusively from the Scopus database.An initial search using broad keywords produced 836 records, followed by a refined search strategy that narrowed the results to 77 articles.Applying publication-year limits (2021-2025) and open-access/open-archive criteria yielded a final dataset of 41 eligible articles.Data were analyzed through structured extraction, thematic coding, and frequency-based synthesis to identify recurring patterns.The findings reveal six major themes: a) conceptual ambiguities in defining SLR b) inconsistent protocol adoption and reporting standards c) variability in search strategy design and transparency d) limitations in quality appraisal procedures e) challenges in data extraction, coding, and synthesis f) practical barriers affecting rigor, replicability, and documentation.Theme frequencies ranged from 58.5% to 80.4%, demonstrating consistent methodological fragmentation across SLR-based publications.The study concludes that current SLR practices exhibit substantial variability, weakening methodological coherence and replicability, yet SLR-based evaluations provide a valuable foundation for refining review standards.Future research should focus on establishing more precise definitional boundaries, enhancing protocol standardization, and developing field-specific appraisal and synthesis frameworks that support more consistent and transparent evidence synthesis practices.