The ever-increasing need to find experts in academia contributes to the rise of Expertise Locator System (ELS) in academia. ELS can exist in the form of an expert search system or expert recommender system. Albeit the systems' common purpose of finding an expert, the existing ELS are different from each other in characteristics. There is a consideration, reason, and purpose why an ELS is created with specific characteristics. It is therefore essential to assess and review the characteristics of the system, before creating an ELS. By systematically reviewing recent articles using the Kitchenham method, this research identifies various type of characteristics, so that in the future, ELS in academia can be developed with these characteristics. This study has also identified and proposed seven new characteristics of ELS.