How can we review an article

Unlike research articles, most review articles lack methods or data sections. Rather than reporting a new method or discovery, they aim to introduce and say something new about a topic. Knowing this, there are certain things to consider when peer reviewing a review article.

In a webinar on How to peer review a review article, Matt Pavlovich, Editor of Trends in Biotechnology, discusses what to focus on when reviewing a review article and the expectations that a journal editor has for a peer reviewer.

Based on the webinar, we present five tips every peer reviewer should consider when reviewing a review article:

1. Understand the journal’s requirements

The journal has invited you to peer review a review article because you are someone who knows the field well and could be a regular contributor to the journal. Before you start your review, it is important to understand the journal’s peer review requirements. They will be your overarching guide for the feedback you provide. For example, review articles written for Trends in Biotechnology are required to include recent work but don’t need to cite every paper ever published in the field. When in doubt, seek clarification of requirements from the editor of the journal. A clear understanding enables you to be efficient and provide a thorough assessment of the review article.

2. Keep in mind that review articles are for a wide audience

The aim of review articles is to introduce a non-expert, average expert, or new researcher to a topic, and in some cases, review articles are multidisciplinary in approach. As a result, review articles are written for a wider audience than research articles. Overall, the review article should provide a broad understanding of a topic. Therefore, clear communication of the topic is essential for a review, and you should make this a focus of your feedback.

3. Determine the review article’s message

A well-written review delivers an overarching message throughout the various sections of the article. It should clearly explain the key concepts, terminologies, and debates in the literature, but also provide a new perspective. Overall, a reader should not be misled by the article. If there are unclear sections of the review article, you should point this out to the author(s) in your feedback. Could the message be made clearer by reorganizing the information? In addition to structure, consider the timeliness of the message – this is key to the relevance of the review article.

4. Be professional and constructive in your comments

When providing comments on a review article, remember to keep it professional. As Matt puts it: “Be nice. Use professional courtesy. Do unto the authors as you’d have them do to you.” Ensure that you provide insightful and courteous comments on ways to improve the manuscript before publication. Constructive feedback is highly recommended: you should focus on addressing problems rather than reasons why the article should not be published. Your suggestions will go a long way in helping the journal editor and the author(s) publish the best content that they can.

5. Keep your feedback consistent and content-focused

As a reviewer, you should make sure your feedback is consistent. Your comments on the article should agree with the recommendations you provide for improvement. This consistency will make it easier for author(s) to consider how to make changes, not only what needs to change. This should be the crux of your recommendations as a reviewer. Additionally, you should focus your recommendations on the content, not the style, of the article. Think about the author’s perspective and delivery. As long as the point is clear, less attention should be given to the grammar usage, punctuation, style inconsistencies, and reference formatting, as this will be taken care of by the journal’s editor before publication.

To learn more about reviewing a review article, click here to listen to Matt.

Posted by

Kelechi Amakoh works on marketing, communications and digital content for Researcher Academy, Elsevier’s free e-learning platform for early-career researchers.

Filed to Trends in Biotechnology, Get published, Cell Mentor

Article reviews are typically assigned to measure a student's ability to grasp the concept(s) of an article and to respond to the information contained in the article. There are several ways to go about writing an article review, and the best way to do that is to use the same writing practices you would use to write an essay or formal paper. However, there will be some differences between writing an article review and a formal paper. Specifically, when writing an article review, you should focus solely on the content of that particular article.

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The first way to be successful with any type of analytical writing is to ask questions. In the same way that you would ask questions of a person you're trying to learn more about, you ask questions about an article. The subtle difference is that the article will answer your questions, just not vocally. You have to ask the questions and find the answers that the text has to offer. Some common questions concern the author and the content of the article.

For example:

• What is the author's purpose for writing this?
• Who is their target audience?
• What is the tone or style of the writing?
• What does the information in the article say?

At this point, you're ready to arrange the answers to all of your questions into a format that you can present to an audience, which, in most cases, will be an instructor, teacher, or professor who assigned the article review. Article reviews should be titled. Think about how convenient your name is as an identifier. Like your name, an article should have a title to identify it. Article reviews should contain a similar structure to essays in that they have an introduction, body, and conclusion.

An article review will generally be broken down like this:

Introduction: thesis, brief article summary

Body: strengths, weaknesses, and critique

Conclusion: significant points, overall reaction

Writing an article review is like a conversation with someone. You ask questions to get more information in order to analyze the content of an article. These questions also allow you to critique, or analyze the content, by summarizing the article or putting the main ideas the author has presented into your own words and determining its accuracy, strengths, and weaknesses. Once that's done, you respond to that information by writing your article review, structuring it into three parts. The introduction contains the thesis and a brief article summary. The body highlights the article's strengths and weaknesses and gives a critique, and the conclusion reiterates significant points and your overall reaction.

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How do we review an article?

To do this, we recommend take notes, annotating, and reading the article several times before critiquing. As you read, be sure to note important items like the thesis, purpose, research questions, hypotheses, methods, evidence, key findings, major conclusions, tone, and publication information.

What are the methods of a review article?

Table 2..

How do you critically review an article?

The critique should be a balanced discussion and evaluation of the strengths, weakness and notable features of the text. Remember to base your discussion on specific criteria. Good reviews also include other sources to support your evaluation (remember to reference). You can choose how to sequence your critique.

What are the three types of article reviews?

Review articles can be of three types, broadly speaking: literature reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. Review articles can be of varying lengths depending upon the journal and subject area.