how to write a review
TRANSCRIPT
LOGO
How to write a review
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Contents
Who needs review articles?1
Who should write a review?2
Types of review articles 33
Elements of a review article44
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Who needs review articles?
Route to ensure a viable future
Ways to attract readers
Increase the journal’s impact factor
Journal editors
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Who needs review articles?
Readers: they feel that, like a morning jog or cold shower
Skimming
original material
The effort to
read reviews to keep up to date
In other words, reading reviews is good for you
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Who needs review articles?
Many review articles often are quite tedious
Transmitting the enthusiasm that carries them through the working day
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Who should write a review?
The frontier of
knowledge
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Review Articles
coherent narrative
particular topic
Accumulate the results
It do not cover original research
Rev
iew
Arti
cles
Examples of reviews: 'Nature Reviews'
‘Critical Review in Biomedical Engineering’
What is the function of a review article?
to organize literature
to synthesize literature
to evaluate literature
to identify patterns and trends in the literature
to identify research gaps and recommend new research areas
FunctionsFunctions
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Article review
Scholarly review consists of summarizing and evaluating an academic source that is of interest to academic audiences.
Reporting main ideas, claims, positions, or findings, and the reasoning which supports these ideas
Critiquing its contribution to knowledge
in the discipline in which it is published
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Which types of review articles exist?
Narrative review
Best evidence review
Systematic review
Met
hodo
logi
cal a
ppro
ach
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Narrative review
Selected studies are compared and summarized on the basis of the author’s experience, existing theories and models
Results are based on a qualitative rather than a quantitative level
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Best evidence review
A focus on selected studies is combined with systematic methods of study-selection and result exploration.
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Systematic review
Findings from various individual studies are analyzed statistically by strict procedures.
Meta-Analyses are used to pool the results of individual studies.
A meta-analysis : Meta-analysis is a statistical technique for combining the findings from independent
studies.
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Types by objective (Noguchi 2006)
Status quo review Presentation of the most current research for a given topic or
field of research History review Development of a field of research over time Issue review Investigation of an issue (i.e. a point of disagreement or a
question) in a specific field of research Theory/model review Introduction of a new theory or model in a specific field of
research
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How long is a review article?
Review articles vary considerably in length
Narrative reviews may range between 8,000 and 40,000 words (references and everything else included)
Systematic reviews are usually shorter with less than 10,000 words
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Elements of a review article
Title Helping readers to decide whether they should
read the text or not Length between eight to 12 words (Davis 2005)
The title must be informative:o The title has to include important termso It has to indicate that the text is a review articleo It may include the message of the article, not just itso Coverage (Gustavii 2003)
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Elements of a review article
List of authorsAbstract
Informs about the main objectives and result of the review article(informative abstract)
Indicates the text structure (descriptive abstract) Usually 200 to 250 words Tense :
Objectives>> present
Material methods, results>> past
Conclusions>>present
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Elements of a review article
Table of ContentsIntroduction
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Elements of a review article
Body: Material and Methods Narrative reviews do not have a methods section Tense: past
Body: Main Part of the Review Article 70 to 90% of the core text (introduction, body,
conclusions) Paragraph structure: Cover one idea, aspect or topic per paragraph. Avoid referring to only one study per paragraph;
consider several studies per paragraph instead
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Elements of a review article
Conclusions Answer the research question set in the
introduction 5 to 10% of the core text
Acknowledgements References Illustrations: Concept Maps
Concept maps are used in review articles to visualize the structuring of the topic, to show the relationships between studies, concepts, models or theories
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Examples of high-quality review articles in the plant sciences
Annual Review of Plant BiologyCurrent Opinion in Plant BiologyNew Phytologist: “Tansley review” series
(commissioned, paid)Trends in Ecology and EvolutionTrends in Plant ScienceNature Reviews GeneticsNature Reviews MicrobiologyNature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology
