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

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
3. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology

See also

• Annual Reviews (publisher)
• Meta-analysis
• Literature review
• Systematic review