Reviews
| Review articles are summaries that integrate findings from many research reports. A review typically cites many sources in the text of the article and has an extensive list of references. A quick way to differentiate a review article from an article of some other type is by the length of the reference list: most review articles cite more than fifty references, and many cite more than a hundred. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Review articles are published in journals that also publish research articles, and in review journals that publish only reviews (or reviews and news, or reviews and an editorial, or reviews and book reviews), and in annual reviews. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Examples of review journals include: | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Many databases, indexes, and abstracts include citations to both research and review articles without differentiating between the two, so that the usual subject search will yield references to research articles and to review articles. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| To identify citations to review articles in databases from Ovid (BIOSIS [Biological Abstracts], Current Contents, or Journals@Ovid), use the 'Limit to Reviews' button on the search screen. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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To identify citations to review articles in databases from Cambridge (ASFA, Biological Sciences, Plant Science), specify the 'Publication Type' by using 'PT=review' as part of your search structure: |
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| for example: 'cyanothus and pt=review'. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| To identify citations to review articles in Medline, the Grateful Med interface provides a menu on the search screen for 'Publ Types'. The default, 'All', can be changed to 'Review'. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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To identify citations to review articles in ERIC, specify 'literature review' as part of the search. ERIC uses 'Literature Review as a descriptor, not as a 'document type' or 'DT=...', so the search structure might be, |
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| for example: 'laboratory animal* and literature review'. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| In other databases, using 'review' and a search word in the 'Title' field will identify some but not all review articles. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| There is no single authoritative list of review journals nor of annual review series. Typically, they have titles beginning: | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Such titles are not foolproof; a 'Yearbook', for example, may be statistical or administrative. Only the article content and reference list are reliable identifiers. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Return to Biology 700 homepage. | |||||||||||||||||||||