Library:Library Research Skills For Biologists/Module 4/Module 4B SearchingForArticles/Page 12

In some indexes you can limit to a specific type of journal article called a review article.

What's a review article?

Scientific journal articles can be primary (original research) or secondary (review) articles.

• The primary literature communicates the results of original research from an experiment or study. You will notice a methods section, describing how the study was done.
• The secondary literature summarizes the results of several studies to identify trends in an area. A review article is an example of secondary literature. Often there will be a lengthy bibliography at the end of the article.

Limiting to review articles

Review articles can be very useful when you are new to a topic and need an overview. The following indexes permit you to limit your search to review articles (unfortunately, Summon and Zoological Record do not).

• Web of Science:
  In the drop down menu, select Document Type and then choose Review.
• BIOSIS Previews:
  In the drop down menu, select Literature Type and then choose Literature Review.
• PubMed:
  Click on Limits, scroll down to Type of Article, and select Review.