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Review Articles - Coggle Diagram
Review Articles
Chapter 12: Term Papers & Review Articles
Purpose of reviews
Distinguish between review articles and term papers
Review articles provide an overview of the current state of knowledge, literature, and research on a particular topic. They are not original but secondary.
Term papers are upper level graduate papers that can be viewed as a simplified version of a review article.
Concentrates on comparing and contrasting info to a present argument
Make the information understandable to scientists
Use simple words and avoid excess jargon and technical detail
Figures and boxed material should summarize primary source data or highlight new ideas
Deciding on the topic
Select a topic of appeal and importance
Issues that are of interest to the scientific community and which sufficient materials exist. well defined and well studied areas.
Two main approaches:
Choose a point that you want to make and then select your primary studies based on this area of interest
Familiarize yourself with a topic starting at general sources and work your way to specific sources
Look at tertiary sources first to get an idea, secondary to work on an outline, and primary to fill in the outline
Format
For review papers and term papers:
Title
Abstract - not always required
INtroduction
Main analysis section
Conclusion and/or reccomendations
Acknowledgements - only for articles for pubications
References
Create an outline and subsections based on gathered info
Create subsections based on info you gathered from literature
Use bullet points or whole sentences under each heading or subheading
Write iteratively
As you are filling in the outline, reread source articles and identify additional papers if needed
Start writing review article by linking all ideas under each subheading
Make the title short but informative
Short titles are more memorable
Keep within 30 to 50 characters
Write the abstract as a table of contents in paragraph form and include:
Background - optional
Problem statement - optional
Topic of review
Overview of content
Introduction
Intro should provide the big picture of the topic and grab reader's attention
Phrase topic statement carefully. It sets the tone and make the importance of the research clear
Organize the introduction:
Background
Unknown or problem
Topic of review
Overview of contents
Main analysis section
Organize logically into subsections:
Chronologically: should relate to key time periods
Thematically: correspond to relative ideas or themes
Methodically: based on description of different methods and approaches
Include other subsections as needed
Conclusion
Summarize your topic, generalize any interpretations, and provide some significance
Cite primary and secondary references as needed
Scientific Review Article Video
Review articles contain up to date info and background knowledge
Written by scientists with in depth knowledge on the topic and have usually contributed from their field laboratory
Cover relevant literature
Method of understanding literature without reading 100 articles to come to the same conclusion
Follow the journal's review style
Some journals publish annual articles where authors review extensive literature and write them by citing many other papers
Introduction to Scientific Journal Literature
Scientists communicate their scholarly research results by publishing articles in journals
Journals are primary literature
Can contain:
Research articles
Scientific review article
General science articles
Science news articles
Popular press scientific articles
Primary research and review articles are the best to use
Use for literature searches
Chapter 6: Literature Sources
Source Material
Use appropriate search terms
Use keywords and refine search by changing or combining keywords
Entering an entire research question in a library database search will likely get no results because they search for exact words entered. ONLY search keywords representing the main concept.
When a topic is mentioned in a textbook you can search for a cited reference to find out more
Use wildcards such as "*" to find words containing the same root.
Ex. "univers*" would find all possible endings to that root.
Verify your references against the original document
References tend to have high rate of error.
Read all references you cite to prevent false representation or the information within
Select the most relevant sources
It is important to distinguish between references related to your topic and those relevant to your writing
Related may discuss your topic and be interesting but are not relevant to the argument you are trying to make
Relevant apply to the content of your writing and to the flow of thoughts
Rather than listing any and all papers published on the topic, select the most relevant by citing original or review articles
Evaluate web sources before use
If the website is a peer reviewed journal or an open access site, it contains primary sources
If the website contains informative secondary sources, verify the content of that and their citations before using them
Use the
Directory of Open Access Journals
at
doaj.org
for reliable open access journals
Scientific Reference Databases
Become familiar with the most important science databases
Google Scholar
HighWire
MEDLINE
PubMed
Web of Science
BIOSIS
Current Contents
-Scopus
Managing Sources
Keep a list of references to help organize and keep track of them
Searching the Literature
Know where to find sources:
Books usually contain more dated info than recent journals and articles.
Internet search engines may not be ideal because info may be difficult to distinguish relevant, reliable, and accurate.
Internet sites such as Google Scholar provide access to primary literature that is usually peer reviewed.
Bibliographic databases like Pub Scholar and school libraries have the most reliable info.
Distinguish between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources:
Primary: Original, usually peer reviewed publication of a scientist's new data, results, and theories; report results for the first time
Secondary: analyze and discuss the info provided by primary sources
Tertiary: compile and reorganize info provided in mainly secondary sources