Disaster management: findings from a systematic review

Purpose The paper aims to discuss a systematic review of the literature about disaster management within the period 1980‐2006. Design/methodology/approach The research protocol is based on the methodology that is commonly used in healthcare for analysing the literature and provides a state‐of‐art medical discipline. The paper presents both a descriptive analysis and a thematic analysis in order to provide a state‐of‐art of international literature. The research protocol is provided in order to make transparent the review process. Findings The descriptive analysis highlights the peculiarities of the literature in terms of attention paid during the years, country of provenience and clusters of content of the selected papers. The thematic analysis deepens the content of the papers formalising the state of art. Research limitations/implications The review considered only academic journals and peer‐reviewed published papers, excluding working papers and books. Practical implications Through both the analyses the authors argue for scholars in disaster management specific streams for further research and for providing practitioners with a state of art of disaster management discipline. Originality/value The paper is original and is aimed at translating to the disaster management discipline the methodology of the systematic review commonly used in healthcare disciplines.