Tip
Some databases provide shortcuts to find review articles. Look for options such as "Publication type" or "Article type" to limit your search results to review articles.
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Identifying a Review article
Review articles do exactly what their name suggests: they review the literature published on a particular topic. Review articles do not present original research results.
Instead, review articles:
- provide an overview of the research conducted ‘to date’ on a particular topic
- 'track' the course of research, identifying significant contributions to the field, and themes in the literature
- discuss/analyze/compare/contrast the research of different authors working in the same field
Review articles can provide a starting point for researching a topic. The reference lists will contain citations for the research articles discussed – a good way of locating other literature that may be relevant to your topic. Be aware that a review article reflects the views of its authors - you should still look at the articles discussed and draw your own conclusions.
