Review journal
A review journal in academic publishing is a periodical or series that is devoted to the publication of review articles that summarize the progress in some particular area or topic during a preceding period.
Types
Review journals can be divided by
- the frequency of publication
- the format
- the subject scope of the review
- the time period
- the type of review they provide
Each individual title needs to be characterized in these respects.
Frequency of publication
- irregular, less than annual
- Annual.
- Periodically: monthly, semi-monthly, quarterly, etc.
Format
- separate journal
- regular feature in a journal
- irregular of special article in a journal
Subject scope
- Broad overview of the subject as a whole
- Overview of major topic within the subject
- Review of specific topic
Time period
- Multi year
- Annual
- recurring in a cycle over a multi year period
- irregular
- Currently published items.
Material included
- comprehensive -- all relevant work
- selective/comprehensive -- all major relevant work
- selective -- the best work in a field.
Type of review
- enumerative -- listing with brief descriptions
- evaluative -- judging worth of the publications included
- summarizing -- providing a state-of-the-art summary
- tutorial
Representative review series
- Annual review of [biochemistry, anthropology , etc. ], published by Annual Reviews online and in print, publishes 32 series of annual volumes giving enumerative overviews of major topics within each subject, in a multi year cycle.
- Nature publishes a part of its weekly issues
- Annual Review of Information Science and Technology
See also