Term for a meta-analysis without a literature review
For a wide study that attempts to distill &quot;truth&quot; out of &quot;evidence&quot;, meta-analysis would be the correct term.
But for a narrower study that compares a small number of studies and attempts to improve the evidence for an answer to the underlying question or at least improve the search for better evidence, I think &quot;comparative analysis&quot; would probably be better - especially if an editor is uncomfortable.
But you might also think about qualifying the term depending on your actual goal in the paper.