Regarding the recent definition of a closed-loop supply chain, we should mention the elevated description of CLSC based on current requirements found in Guide and Van Wassenhove (2009). Based on the new definition, closed-loop supply chain management is the design, control, and operation of a system to maximize value creation over the entire life cycle of a product with dynamic recovery of value from different types and volumes of returns over time. The importance of this definition is the explicit business point of view instead of other factors like legal, social responsibilities, or even operational and technical details. Indeed, practitioners can focus on the profitability and value of their RL/CLSC instead of cost efficiencies or other costly objectives. Based on the new definitions of the CLSC revealing recent requirements and new situations, it is necessary to have a comprehensive review to help researchers focus on future directions. Recently, no review papers could be found in this field that had undertaken a systematic classified analysis of recent papers to spot future avenues. This paper tries to cover this gap by reviewing, categorizing, and analyzing 382 papers published between 2007 and 2013. The remainder of the paper is structured as follows: Section 2 discusses some earlier review/partial-review papers. Research methodologies are clarified in Section 3. Detailed analyses and classifications of reviewed papers are discussed in Section 4. The current gaps analysis results and future research opportunities are presented and discussed in Section 5. Finally, Section 6 contains the conclusion and future research.