Recent advances in the biomedical applications of silver nanoparticles

# What is a review article?

  • A critical, constructive analysis of the literature in a specific field through summary,

classification, analysis, comparison.

  • A scientific text relying on previously published literature or data. New data from the

author’s experiments are not presented (with exceptions: some reviews contain new

data).

  • A stand-alone publication. Literature reviews as integral parts of master theses, doctoral

theses or grant proposals will not be considered here. However, many tips in this

guideline are transferable to these text types.

 

# What is the function of a review article?

  • to organize literature
  • to evaluate literature
  • to identify patterns and trends in the literature
  • to synthesize literature
  • to identify research gaps and recommend new research areas.

What is your review article about ?

Status quo review :

# 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.

#  Elements of a review article .

Title

Function Helping readers to decide whether they should read the text or not. Includes terms for indexing (e.g. in data bases).

 Elements of the Review article:

TITLE

  • The title must be informative:
  • The title has to include important terms.
  • It has to indicate that the text is a review article.
  • It may include the message of the article, not just its coverage.
  • The title must be short:
  • Keep the title concise.
  • A longer subtitle may be an option in case a specification is necessary.

 

TENSE

In a title with results indicated: the present tense stresses the general validity of the results and illustrates what the author is trying to achieve with the article; the past tense indicates that results are not established knowledge yet.

LENGTH

between eight to 12 words (Davis 2005) Question The title should only be a question if this question remains unanswered at the time of writing.

Note: Make sure to have a narrow focus and an explicit research question. Indicate these two points clearly in the introduction. Give theoretical or practical justifications for the need for a review.

 

# Body: Main Part of the Review Article Section structure:

  • A coherent structuring of the topic is necessary to develop the section structure.
  • Subheadings reflect the organisation of the topic and indicate the content of the various sections.

Possible criteria for structuring the topic are:

  • methodological approaches
  • models or theories
  • extent of support for a given thesis
  • studies that agree with another versus studies that disagree
  • chronological order
  • geographical location.

Paragraph structure •

  • Cover one idea, aspect or topic per paragraph.
  • Avoid referring to only one study per paragraph; consider several studies per paragraph instead.

Three tenses are frequently used:

  • Present: reporting what another author thinks, believes, writes, reporting current knowledge or information of general validity, e.g. It is believed…
  • Simple past: referring to what a specific researcher did or found, referring to a single study, e.g. They found…
  • Present perfect: referring to an area of research with a number of independent researchers involved, e.g. They have found…

 

Citations

Citations are usually indirect but in some cases pointed and relevant remarks might be cited directly.

Conclusion

Function of conclusion:

Answer the research question set in the introduction.

Elements of conclusion:

  • implications of the findings •
  • interpretations by the authors (kept separate from factual information)
  • identification of unresolved questions Tense present: summarising and drawing conclusions present perfect: referring to an area of research or a body of literature Citations few or none Length 5 to 10% of the core text (introduction, body, conclusions).
  • Note Make sure to have a clear take home message that integrates the points discussed in the review. Make sure your conclusions are not simply a repeat of the abstract !

# Illustrations

Concept maps are used in review articles to visualize the structuring of the topic, to show the relationships between studies, concepts, models or theories. ( we can discuss more about this in class).

 

  1. C) Preparing a review article in 18 steps stage step
  • 1narrow the topic, define a few research questions or hypotheses 2
  • 2 search for literature sources, refine topic and research questions during the search
  • 3read, evaluate, classify and make notes
  • 4redefine the focus and the research questions, define the take-home message
  • 5 compose a preliminary title develop structure
  • find a structuring principle for the article (e.g. chronological, subject matter, experimental procedure)
  • prepare an outline, find headings for the sections in the text body
  • plan the content of each paragraph in the different sections
  • prepare tables, concept maps, figures write draft
  • draft the methods section (if needed)
  • draft the body sections
  • draft the conclusions
  • draft the introduction
  • draft the abstract revise
  • revise drafts of different sections, abstract & title, tables, figures & legends
  • revise citations and references
  • correct grammar, spelling, punctuation

18. adjust the layout