Get Your Research Published! Part 2: How to Write a Review Article

Hi All,

Today's post is a step-by-step guide on how to write the type of review article that will get published. Review articles examine literature that has been published on a particular topic. They are good to write for two reasons:

1. If you've written a literature review as part of your thesis or dissertation, much of the groundwork for writing a review article has already been completed (there is much remodelling involved, however).

2. Review articles are often very highly cited because they give a comprehensive overview of the topic in question. This is good for your H-Index!

Step 1 -- Summarise

This is merely the first step!! Try to focus on seminal publications and those which detail new developments in the field.

Step 2 -- Synthesise

• Draw out the implications of what you’ve read
• Ask yourself: “so what?”
• Arrange information in a meaningful way
• Go from the micro (what individual publications say) to the macro (what the literature says as a whole)
• Where are the gaps? How are you going to fill them?

Step 3 -- Analyse

• Don’t take arguments at face value – scrutinise them!
• Use the REVIEW criteria to stay on track:
  - Relevance (Is it central to my topic or peripheral?)
  - Expertise of author (Are they highly cited? Well respected?)
  - Viewpoint of author/organisation (Are there any affiliations that would bias the research?)
  - Intended audience (Is it aimed at an academic audience or the general public?)
  - Evidence (Are sources cited correctly and consistently? Does the evidence support the conclusions reached?)
  - When published (is the information up to date?)

Step 4 -- 'Authorise'

• How is your interpretation of the literature going to contribute to the field?
  - Theoretical contributions?
  - Practical contributions?
• Are you going to:
  - Extend the body of knowledge that exists?
  - Purposefully depart from it?
• Reviewers are looking for fresh insights!

This last step is the most important of all -- it will set you apart from others attempting to get their research published!

Stay tuned for next week's instalment which is on finding literature review models.

Cheers,

Kate