In the medical sciences, now the importance of review articles in journals is growing rapidly. The primary and fundamental aim of writing such a review is to produce an easily readable synthesis of all the resources available in the literature on a particular area or a major research question. This is not always easy because of the proliferation of ideas and arguments on all topics related to health care. However, when carried out intelligently, this can lead to improved validity and precision of published research results. check my blog for more information.
The most important aim of any review article is not to argue in favor of any one person or organisation, rather it is to present the facts as they are without trying to persuade the reader on the subject. It is an important tool for disseminating information, knowledge and understanding in a controlled and unbiased manner. The field of medical research has seen much development over the years and systematic reviews have been written since the beginnings of the discipline itself. However, even the best review articles are bound to be biased by the interest of those who are publishing them. A reviewer does not express his personal opinion in a review article; he is only responsible to ensure that the facts presented are relevant to the overall discussion and are based on sound reasoning.
The importance of review articles lies in the fact that, unlike the research papers, which have no relationship to a particular organisation, review articles are generally submitted to a specific publisher so that they might have some connection with that organisation. Moreover, unlike the researches, which have no bearing on a particular industry, review articles are generally aimed at propagating a particular scientific viewpoint on a given topic. Moreover, unlike researches, which are generally descriptive in nature, review articles are typically argumentative. As a result, there is a greater likelihood of a reviewer promoting a view contrary to that of the publisher. Moreover, if there are only a small number of reviewers, it is even more difficult to get consistent results. Reviewers often differ in terms of their political views, methodology, experience, etc., which can significantly affect the results of any review article.
The fourth factor that makes a good review article is the use of appropriate words or terminology in describing the subject. The systematic review is conducted on a large scale and the systematic review of research articles tends to use a lot of highly technical terms. It is for this reason that many of the journal editors request the researchers to restrict the usage of such terms in their research articles. The editors do not want these terms to be misinterpreted by the readers and as such, there is a great tendency for the reviewers to misuse such terms in their published work.
Another important factor that can be used to judge the importance of the review article is the overall presentation of the work. Review articles are usually published in journals of general medical science and are generally written to describe research works that have been conducted on specific areas of interest to the respective fields. Therefore, a review article that is highly detailed and written in an impressive manner is expected to be more influential in comparison with a research paper that is poorly written and confusing. A review article should not only be grammatically sound but should also have a well structured structure, unambiguously identifying the main topic and its supporting data and arguments in a concise manner.
Finally, we would like to point out the importance of reviewing articles for reasons other than the above mentioned factors. We believe that the value of a research paper depends on how it is reviewed and whether the reviewer(s) involved in its production are well equipped to identify and evaluate its strength and weaknesses. In our opinion, a review should be done only after a thorough study of the published literature. If required, systematic reviews of different types of meta-analyses that were conducted on specific topics can also be referred to for evaluation. Such reviews can also be performed independently online. Thus, as suggested in the introduction of this chapter, the importance of meta-analyses is best understood when used in a structured fashion by reviewing previous researches and meta-analyses done on specific topics.