It depends on your style of writing the reviewed literature. Some write it in a narrative and sequence form whereas others too write it author by author.

If it is in the narrative form them you can't arrange it in any other since the should be a flow in your narration. On the other hand, when it is done author by author then you can arrange it year by year with the latest publication first followed by the next latest

I believe the ascending order of year of publication make it easy to the readers to following the progress in contributions to the body of knowledge by researchers as regards that particular area of study or problem.

The order in which the literature review should be arranged depends on the specific research project and the preferences of the researcher. However, there are a few commonly used methods for arranging a literature review:

Chronological order: This method arranges the literature review in ascending or descending order based on the year of publication. This method is useful when tracing the development of a particular field or topic over time.

Alphabetical order: This method arranges the literature review in alphabetical order based on the authors' last names. This method is useful when there are a large number of sources to be reviewed, and it is difficult to find a clear structure for organizing them.

Thematic order: This method arranges the literature review based on themes or research questions. This method is useful when the researcher wants to highlight specific themes or areas of interest, and to show how different sources contribute to our understanding of these themes.

Methodological order: This method arranges the literature review based on the research methods used in the studies. This method is useful when the researcher wants to highlight the different research methods that have been used in the field and to show how different methods have been used to address specific research questions.

It is also common to use a combination of the above methods, or to organize the literature review based on a combination of factors, such as themes and publication dates. It is important that the literature review is well-organized and clearly structured, so that it is easy for readers to follow the researcher's train of thought and to understand the connections between different sources.

It is at the discretion of the Researcher on how the literature review, so collected be arranged. I always arrange it as per the most relevant one's or very closely related to the topic in the beginning because it provides a clear picture and the gap/ lag in previous research can be identified easily and what your aiming at in your research paper recognised.

As a matter of fact there are prescribed way of arranging the literature review so collected such as Chronological Order, Eminent authors work, major theories and so on. If it is possible to arrange the literature based on the most related content in chronological order would be the best.

In my opinion literature review should be in a logical order. When someone reads the LR section he/she should feel that it is a story. LR should not just about stating what has been found out in some order. You start with introducing the topic and then narrow it down to your research and finally lay out the research gaps based on what is missing in the literature.

Thank you all for enlighting on the topic

I used to use subject matter to guide the reader through the review in a logical sequence.