BACKGROUND Over the past two decades, there has been a growing need to develop electronic health records (EHR), which have been introduced into hospitals and clinics to manage patient data. Emerging the use of openEHR and the need for developing openEHR archetypes. OBJECTIVE The aim of our study was to provide a systematic literature review to identify, analyze, and characterize the state of the art about methodologies for developing openEHR archetypes. METHODS We did an exhaustive literature search of the five main databases in the computer science field – IEEE Digital Library, ACM Digital Library, Science Direct, Scopus, and Springer Link – for studies published from 2002 to 2020. Studies investigating theoretical reference related to methodologies for developing openEHR archetypes were included. Reviews, reports, posters, brief reports, books, textbooks, theses and dissertations, editorial letters, brief communications, commentaries, and unpublished working papers, papers that were not written in English, papers with text not available in full, duplicated papers and papers that did not directly address methodologies for developing openEHR archetypes were excluded. RESULTS We identified a total of 361 studies, of which 9 were eligible for inclusion. The 9 selected papers were then grouped into 5 categories - Methodology design, Methodology applied to specific clinical scenarios, Methodology applied to exams, Archetype modeling for EHR system and Archetype modeling and interoperability - in which we identified some connection points between the papers, and we realized that any gaps in one paper are complemented by the other papers. CONCLUSIONS Our systematic review of the literature contributed to the construction of a theoretical reference on methodologies for developing openEHR archetypes, as well as showing that it is a growing research topic. Furthermore, we realize that there are some aspects (e.g., terminology and validations) that require further study.