Methodological update of integrative reviews: an emphasis on the quality of the results

Abstract

To date, there are numerous proposals of methodologies that guide secondary research of the integrative review type, which have made great contributions and have served as a basis for other methodological proposals. This article proposes a methodological emphasis on the quality of integrative reviews, which, in the opinion of the present author, are the ones that should be followed to achieve an integral review with excellent quality; to facilitate its learning, a mnemonic “Integra” has been generated: (I) Idea or study problem; (N) Question or aim; (T) Search tactics; (E) Execution or use of the search; (G) Degree and quality control of the results; (R) Filtered results; and finally, (A) Analysis and discussion. The proposed resource serves as a methodological tool for a critical and congruent synthesis of the literature, in a novel and related way, showing evidence of reflection or critical thinking; without detracting from the fact that an exhaustive search must be carried out as a previous step in order to identify the relevant articles published on the subject; a systematic integration of the results; and a critique of the scope, nature and quality of the literature in relation to the proposed research question.