Review journal

Overview

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. This article will include the method of publication where the review article(s) form only a portion of a journal, and publications that are not strictly speaking journals, because there are no other appropriate names in use.

Types

They can be divided by A) the frequency of publication. B) the format C) the subject scope of the review D) the time period E) 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, 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

1. 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.
2. Nature publishes a part of its weekly issues