A Revisão Integrativa em Rede da Literatura (RIRL) como Proposta Epistemológica: Fundamentos Onto-Metodológicos, Ganhos Analíticos e Potencial Explicativo

Abstract

The exponential growth of scientific production demands increasingly sophisticated synthesis methods. The Integrative Review (IR) has established itself as a powerful tool due to its capacity to group together studies of different designs. However, the traditional IR frequently runs into limitations when attempting to synthesize empirical heterogeneity under a purely aggregative and categorial analytical logic. This dissertation proposes the systematization of a Network-Integrated Literature Review (NILR) as an evolution that is not merely methodological, but epistemological. In shifting the focus from “substance” to “relation,” the NILR employs network analysis to map the interactions among variables, concepts, and evidence. It is argued that the NILR promotes a structured advancement on three levels: (1) onto-methodological validation, (2) analytical validation (the transition from categorization to structural topology), and (3) explanatory validation (the modeling of mechanisms). To demonstrate this new model for integrating literature findings, in the form of the manuscript that follows, the literature on the social network model known as Cognitive Social Structure is analyzed; the novelty and complexity involved in this model provide a validation of the NILR, proposing a new six-stage protocol adapted for network modeling and positioning the NILR as an essential instrument for understanding complex contemporary phenomena. It is understood, in the end, that the NILR enables a new notion of literature integration, one more closely aligned with a systemic perspective of science.