The article aims to provide a critical review of 23 studies that have used metaphor analysis to provide insight into academic literacy research over the past 30 years. It begins by summarising some of the key issues and trends that have been addressed using metaphor analysis, grouping these into two broad categories: metaphor as a methodological tool, and metaphor as an intervention tool. Methods of metaphor collection and analysis are then outlined and discussed. It is noted that an increasing number of studies in this area have identified methodological issues resulting from what Armstrong et al. (2011) term ‘the subjectivity problem’, and the article thus discusses how such issues may be resolved in future research.