Embedded Files
Mary DeJong, M.L.S. mary.dejong@nau.edu
In Lesson 2 you learned that there are two types of journal articles: research articles and review articles. And, you came away from that lesson chock full of information about research articles. Well, in this lesson you'll learn all about review articles.
The function of a review article
The function of a review article
Review articles provide a review, or overview of the current state of knowledge on a topic. These articles help us understand what we already know and how confident we can be in that knowledge.
When authors write review articles, their first step is to search and gather journal articles on a particular topic. This process is called conducting a literature search. Typically, most of the articles gathered are research articles, which you learned about in the previous lesson. But, other types of articles, such as review articles or perspective articles, might also be examined.
Next they read those articles and assimilate their contents. They'll look at the history of progress in that area of research, as well as any patterns, conclusions, overlaps, discrepancies, etc. that emerge from the articles as a group. Finally, they'll write up what they learned to provide the reader with a summary of what is currently known about that topic. Many review articles also identify gaps in our knowledge of a topic. Pointing out gaps helps other researchers understand where future research efforts should be directed.
Take, for example, this review article:
- Albalawi, E. K., & Kumar, L. (2013). Using remote sensing technology to detect, model and map desertification: A review. Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, 11(2), 791-7.
The first page of that article is shown above, or you can look at it here. To create this review article, the authors gathered together studies where remote sensing technology was used to model and map desertification. Then they summarized the findings of those articles and wrote up this review article to provide readers with an overview of how remote sensing is being used to map desertification.
So, while a research article reports on a single study that was conducted, a review article examines lots of studies (in a particular area of research) in order to get a bigger picture about what we know - or don't yet know - about that area of research.
The value of review articles
The value of review articles
Now that you understand the function and purpose of a review article, can you see how useful they are? Suppose you wanted to get yourself up-to-speed on an area of research that you're not all that familiar with. The quickest and easiest way to do that is to find and read a review article that covers that area of research.
Or, suppose you were interested in strategically choosing a new area to research. Review articles would be perfect to consult for this purpose, as they summarize what we already know and what we still need to know.
Plus, certain types of review articles – such as systematic reviews and meta-analyses (which you'll learn about shortly) – are specifically designed to help us understand how confident we can be that we've reached an answer to a particular research question. So, these types of review articles can be used to help us develop policies and best practices.
The structure of a review article
The structure of a review article
In the last lesson, you learned that research articles are laid out following an established structure, including an Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, etc. Review articles sometimes have the same (or similar) sections as research articles and sometimes they don't. Let's look at two examples.
Example 1.
Example 1.
- Moreno-Poyato, A. R., et al. (2016). The therapeutic relationship in inpatient psychiatric care: a narrative review of the perspective of nurses and patients. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 30(6), 782-787.
Example 2.
Example 2.
- Bouffard, D., & Wüest, A. J. (2019). Convection in lakes. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 51, 189-215.
The structure of the review article in Example 1 is as follows:
Title
Abstract
Purpose of the review and research questions
Methods
Results
Discussion
Strengths and limitations
Research and practice implications
References cited
The structure of the review article in Example 2 is as follows:
Title
Abstract
Introduction
Convection induced by boundary fluxes
Thermobaric convection in deep lakes
Double-diffusive convection
Bioconvection in lakes
Conclusions and future directions
Future issues
Literature cited
The review article in Example 1 is structured much like a research article since it has a title, abstract, a section on the purpose of the study which is like an introduction, as well as a section for methods, results, and discussion. Plus you see a few additional sections.
However, the review article in Example 2 is not structured like a research article. It has no methods, results, or discussion sections - rather, it's divided into its own unique sections that the authors created. Lots of review articles are like this where the authors organize the article as they see fit, and create their own section headings.
Going back to the review article in Example 1, are you wondering why a review article would have a methods section at all? After all, the authors are not conducting an experiment where they have to explain the methods they used. So, why include a methods section in a review article? If it's present, the methods section in a review article will describe the process the authors used to collect articles. To the right you see a snippet of the methods section from the article in Example 1 where the authors discuss the databases and keywords they used to search for articles.
Where are review articles documented and stored?
Where are review articles documented and stored?
Review articles are published in journals mostly - just like research articles. In fact, many journals contain a combination of research articles and review articles in every issue – just like you see in this table of contents from The New England Journal of Medicine.
And, a few journals ONLY publish review articles. The name of the journal usually indicates whether it has this specialization. For example, Annual Review of Sociology is a journal that comes out once annually and contains only review articles.
Review articles are secondary sources
Review articles are secondary sources
A review article is considered to be a secondary source – as opposed to research articles which are primary sources. Secondary sources don't document the results of a brand-new, original research project. Instead they take pre-existing information from primary sources (like research articles) and summarize, synthesize and/or analyze that research.
Review articles and the peer-review process:
Review articles and the peer-review process:
Note that both research articles and review articles must go through a peer-review process before being published. You should have learned all about the peer-review process in Lesson 3 of the Information Literacy Basics Tutorial, but if you've forgotten, feel free to review that material now!
When you hear people talking about review articles and peer-review, it's easy to get them confused. To help you distinguish between them, note that one is a thing (that is, it's a type of journal article) and the other is a process.
In Lesson 2 you learned that there are different types of research articles characterized by different study designs. There are different types of review articles as well. For example, there are traditional literature reviews, state-of-the art reviews, perspective articles, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. These five types of review articles are fairly common, but in some disciplines, such as medical sciences, you'll regularly encounter even more types of review articles, such as scoping reviews, integrative reviews, rapid reviews, mapping reviews, etc.
We’ll examine the most common types of review articles here, but if you want to learn more, just do a Google search on review articles types or do a Google search on a particular type of review article (such as scoping review) to learn more about it.
Traditional literature reviews (a.k.a. narrative reviews)
Traditional literature reviews (a.k.a. narrative reviews)
A traditional literature review, also called a narrative review, is the type of review article you've learned about so far on this page. That is, it’s a type of article that provides an overview and summary of the published literature in a specific area of research.
State-of-the-art review article
State-of-the-art review article
A state-of-the-art review article is like a narrative review except that it only examines the very latest developments and advancements in an area of research. These reviews provide a benchmark of recent progress, and they often discuss emerging trends as well. State-of-the-art reviews are fairly common in engineering, but you find them in other disciplines as well. Here are a couple of examples:
- Liu, S., et al. (2022). Energy-saving potential prediction models for large-scale building: A state-of-the-art review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 156, 111992.
- Hasan, K. F. et al. (2021). A state-of-the-art review on coir fiber-reinforced biocomposites. RSC advances, 11(18), 10548-10571.
Perspective article
Perspective article
A perspective article (also sometimes called an opinion article) shares some of the same qualities as a narrative review and a state-of-the-art review except that these articles offer a personal perspective on an area of research. Here is an example of a perspective article published in the journal Nature:
- Creevy, K. E., Akey, J. M., Kaeberlein, M., & Promislow, D. E. (2022). An open science study of ageing in companion dogs. Nature, 602(7895), 51-57.
Authors of these articles often present their vision for where future research efforts should be directed. They may also propose solutions to controversies within that area of research, or express opinions on how to resolve controversies. In general, these articles are more speculative and opinionated, but the authors still base their ideas on a close examination of existing research.
Systematic review article
Systematic review article
A systematic review article is more formal and focused than other types of review articles. In a systematic review article, the authors collect information relevant to a specific research question. They'll comprehensively search for all of the research articles that have produced results and evidence relevant to that research question. Then, they'll examine those articles for the quality and robustness of their research methods, excluding any that don't meet certain standards. (For example, articles might get excluded if they don't have large sample sizes, or statistically significant results, or weren't conducted using a double-blind study design.) For the articles that remain, the authors of the systematic review will examine each, looking specifically at the evidence presented in the research results. What the authors want to determine is whether the research evidence from all of those articles is converging on the same answer to the research question. If so, this collective evidence raises our level of confidence that we have the right answer to that question. So, a systematic review article helps us understand how confident we can be that we've resolved a research problem.
As an example, take a look at the article below, and check out the highlighted sections in particular. In this systematic review, the authors collected articles on the use of virtual reality as a teaching tool for nurses to answer the question: Is virtual reality simulation an effective teaching tool? After collecting and analyzing studies on this topic and looking at those studies' research results as a whole, they concluded that virtual reality simulation is an effective teaching tool.
Meta-analysis
Meta-analysis
A meta-analysis is much like a systematic review article except the focus is on gathering data from multiple, high-quality, research articles to answer a particular research question. The authors of the meta-analysis will then re-crunch those data to arrive at an answer to the research question. The answer they arrive at will have more statistical clout, since it's drawn from more extensive data – thus, it should provide a more conclusive answer to the research question.
More about systematic reviews and meta-analyses
More about systematic reviews and meta-analyses
Both systematic reviews and meta-analyses interpret evidence gathered from multiple, high-quality, research articles. In doing so, they provide stronger evidence and confirmation that a research question has been resolved than any of those research articles could do individually. Thus, systematic reviews and meta-analyses have a higher-level of authority than other types of articles, and for this reason they are often used to provide guidance in making policy decisions and developing best practices. In fact, these two types of articles were first developed and used in the discipline of medicine for just that purpose – to collect the best and strongest evidence about which treatments and therapies should be used on patients. If you are planning on a career in the medical sciences, you'll probably see infographics (such as the one below) that rank medical information sources according to our confidence in the accuracy of their conclusions.
The use of systematic reviews and meta-analyses now extends far beyond establishing best medical treatments and practices, plus these types of review articles have been widely adopted in disciplines outside the medical sciences.
Below you see a couple of examples of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, one from forestry and one from sports medicine.
Notice the research question that was examined, the number of articles that were included in the analysis after the authors excluded articles that didn't qualify, and the conclusion to the question.
These two examples also show that you can't always expect the article title to explicitly say it is a systematic review or meta-analysis. And, some authors combine both a systematic review and meta-analysis in one article.
Check the publication date of any review articles you consult
Check the publication date of any review articles you consult
When you are looking for review articles on a topic, keep in mind that you want to find those that are recently published. You don't want to be referring to review articles that are really old; after all, the point of a review article is to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge on a topic. So, pay attention to the publication date and if it seems old, then look for a newer review article.
Learn more!
Learn more!
If you are really interested in different types of review articles, then take a look at this article which provides lots of information about them. Or, do a Google search on review article types, or do a Google search on a particular type of review article.
You are finished with Lesson 3. What's next?
You are finished with Lesson 3. What's next?
Report abuse