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The theoretical positioning of a review is of the utmost importance in terms of its contribution to knowledge. This paper clarifies the significance of this design principle for different types of review i.e. for describing, understanding, explaining or testing purposes. Furthermore, new tools now mean that it is both possible and relevant for bibliometrics novices to use bibliometrics to support literature reviews. Applying the BIBGT method and combining two bibliometric techniques – co-citation analysis of references and bibliographic coupling of documents – can enhance the efficiency of the first three types of literature review. This paper provides examples of published works that apply BIBGT to each of these types of review and highlights the bibliometric software used. It concludes with a survey of promising applications for all researchers and makes recommendations for both experienced literature review researchers and literature review novices.