The purpose of any literature review is to determine the state of the science about a topic. Literature reviews may be con- sidered the sine qua non of science in that gaps in existing knowledge are revealed and a direction for the next logical step in the extension of knowledge becomes evident. Understanding the state of science about a topic is how knowledge of the topic advances by means of research. Paradoxically, most authors of literature reviews do not for- malize the knowledge as conceptual models, grand theories, or middle-range theories. Instead, most reviews of literature do not include the name of the conceptual model or grand theory that guided the review, the conceptual models or grand theories that guided the studies that are included in the reviews, the names of the middle-range theories that were generated or tested by those studies, or the names of the mid- dle-range theories that emerged from the review. In this essay, I describe scoping reviews, realist reviews, and vari- ous types of integrative reviews as well as provide examples of the rare exceptions to usual acontextual and atheoretical literature reviews. I also share my ideas about how the con- cepts and propositions of nursing conceptual models can shape literature reviews and, therefore, clearly and explicitly advance discipline-specific nursing knowledge.