A GUIDELINE ON HOW TO WRTITE

AND PUBLISH A REVIEW PAPER

PROF. DR. SAIDUR RAHMAN

Department of Mechanical Engineering
E-mail: saidur@um.edu.my
 OUTCOMES OF THIS TALK
This talk will answer followings questions:
1. Why review papers?
2. What is a review paper?
3. How to write a review paper?
4. Where to submit & How to submit
5. Is there any challenges?
 OVERVIEW

 Submission of a manuscript to a journal is

usually an exciting prospect for researchers,
especially younger ones.

 News of acceptance from the Editor is

even more exciting.
 News of rejection is usually very
depressing.
MOTIVATION
Research isn’t complete until it’s published.
If research isn’t shared, it’s as if the research hadn’t
been done.

Work, finish, publish

(Michael Faraday)
VALUE OF UNPUBLISHED WORK

• Who benefits?
– Possibly, person who did the work (?)
– Nobody
• Who is disadvantaged?
– Other researchers
– Funding body
WHY WE NEED TO PUBLISH?
WHY WE NEED TO PUBLISH?

To create
network
WHY WE NEED TO PUBLISH?
WHY REVIEW PAPERS?
 The Hallmarks of Cancer (Cell) 12,370 2000

Role of ambient temperature, door 18 2002

opening, on refrigerator-freezer energy
consumption
 CITATION TREND OF MY OWN REVIEW PAPERS
Publication titles Total Year
citations published
A review on applications and challenges of nanofluids 179 2011

A review on biomass as a fuel for boilers 155 2011

A review on global solar energy policy 131 2011

A review on global wind energy policy 122 2010

A review on electrical motors energy use and energy 101 2010

savings

Latest development of the viscosity of nanofluids 67 2012

 Citation of review articles
Title of article Journal Publication Total
name year citations

Biodiesel production: a review Bioresource 1999 1771

Technology

Hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials Bioresource 2002 1288

for ethanol production: a review Technology

Removal of heavy metal ions from J. Envi. 2011 102

wastewaters: A review Management

Recent developments in Life Cycle J. Envi. 2009 213

Assessment Management

Science and technology of novel Fuel 2003 583

processes for deep desulfurization of
oil refinery streams: a review
 Citation of review articles: Civil
Engineering
Title of article Journal name Publication Total
year citations

Vibration based condition Structural health 2004 162

monitoring: A review monitoring

Neural networks in civil Computer-aided 2001 113

engineering: 1989-2000 civil and
infrastructure
engineering

Review of NDT methods in the NDT & E 2001 86

assessment of concrete and INTERNATIONAL
masonry structures
 SCIENCE: CHEMISTRY/MATERIALS
Title of article Journal Publication Total
name year citations

The surface science of titanium Surface 2003 2138

dioxide Science
Reports
TiO"2 photocatalysis and related Surface 2008 1167
surface phenomena Science
Reports

A review of chitin and chitosan Reactive and 2000 1189

applications Functional
Polymers
Recent developments in cathode Journal of 2010 228
materials for lithium ion batteries Power
Sources

Science and technology of novel Fuel 2003 583

processes for deep desulfurization of
oil refinery streams: a review
 Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Title of article Journal Publication Total
name year citations

Hallmarks of Cancer: The Next Cell 2011 2512

Generation

Synthesis and surface Biomaterials 2005 1856

engineering of iron oxide
nanoparticles for biomedical
applications

MicroRNAs - Genomics, cell 2004 7470

Biogenesis, Mechanism, and
Function
 Physics and Astronomy
Title of article Journal Publication Total
name year citations

Complex networks: Structure and Physics 2006 2271

dynamics report

Raman spectroscopy in graphene Physics 2009 431

report

Community detection in graphs Physics 2010 778

report
WHY CITATION IS SO
IMPORTANT?
Importance of citations

• Very important of ranking criteria

• Can be internationally recognized
researcher
• Need for promotion
• Highly cited authors/rewarding
WHAT IS A REVIEW PAPER?
 what is a review paper?

May review almost anything, typically recent work

Designed to summarize, analyze, evaluate, or

synthesize information that has already been
published

Must be general/broad No one has reported

before

No original
work
HOW TO WRITE A REVIEW
PAPER?
 What is a literature review?

• A description of your topic area, supported

by references (Own and others work)
• A summary, discussion and critical analysis
of academic work related to your research
question
 STRUCTURE OF A MANUSCRIPT
• Title and author (s)
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Nomenclatures
• TOC
• Introduction
• Literature review
• Main body (Building your story)
• Tables/Figures (Number, quality, redundancy, legend, …)
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgements (If any)
• References
– Format/style
– Types (Journals, books, reports, conference proceedings)
– Number?
• Appendix
 Title

• Tell readers what your paper is all about

• The title of the manuscript needs to be
short and relevant to the subject matter
• Attract the reader’s attention
• General/broad for larger audience
• Avoid jargon and abbreviations
 Examples of good title

1. A review on global wind energy policy

2. Biodiesel production: a review

3. A review of solar photovoltaic technologies

4. Progress and recent trends in biodiesel fuels

 Author (s) names

 Author names and affiliations should be in the following

format.
M. Hassan*1, B.S. Yilbas2 and Y. Ali1

* 1) Department of Mechanical Engineering

University of Malaya
Email: hassan@um.edu.my
2) Department of Mechanical Engineering,
KFUPM,
Saudi Arabia
Email: bsyilbas@kfupm.edu.sa
 Abstract

Tell readers what you did and the important findings

 The abstract should be short and precise giving clear

indication of what investigation has been described in the
manuscript and the precise conclusion to entice potential
readers.
 It is the summary of the work

 About 200-300 words should be

sufficient.
 Keywords

Used by indexing and abstracting services

 They are the labels of your manuscript

 The keywords should reflect the subject matter of the
manuscript in the same way the title of the manuscript
should.

 As such most of the keywords may already be present in the

title.
 The number of keywords should not be more than five.
 Use only established abbreviations (i.e. DNA)
 Introduction

Needs to get readers attention

Cite/give credit to others work
 Introduction

Provide context to convince readers that you

clearly know why your work is important

 The introduction section should contain brief statement of

the need for the investigation, review of up to date literature
and specific objectives.

 This section should reflect the new contents of the review

HOW TO GENERATE NEW IDEA

Think
more
Common mistakes

Nash’s PhD thesis

27 pages long

Won him a Nobel prize

 SOURCES OF LITERATURE

• Sciencedirect
• IEEE explore
• Springer
• Taylor and Francis
• Multiscience
• Inderscience
• Wiley
• Yahoo, Google search (put key
words)
• Scopus
• Engineering Village
• Pro-quest-digital dissertation
• Ingentaconnect
• Personal communications
• Etc…
MAIN BODY
 TIPS
Depending on the level of expertise and
experiences

• one can write a reviewer paper as short

as 4-6 pages even with 5-10 references

• It can be up to 100 pages with 300-500

references
 TIPS
• Its quite easy to publish in some Journals

• However, its really very difficult in some

journals

• Prepare a Table of Content

Critical review/Key features
Example review Figure
Example review Figure
FIGURES AND TABLES
 Conclusions

 The conclusions section should contain short and precise

concluding remarks arising out of the investigation.

 Only the very important points should be included in this

section.

 It is the concrete achievement/findings of the work

 Should highlight the achievements of objectives

 Acknowledgement (s)

 The acknowledgement is used to give credit to the funding

authorities of the research work, collaborators or other
colleagues whose names do not appear as co-authors but
who made some contribution in producing the material for
the manuscript.
STEP BY STEP PROCEDURE
TO WRITE A REVIEW PAPER
WHERE TO PUBLISH
JOURNAL SELECTION PROCESS

Time
WHERE TO PUBLISH
Impact Factors
 TOP NOTCH JOURNALS
• The New England journal of Medicine: 51.658
• Chemical review:41.298
• The Lancet: 39.060
• Nature:38.597
• Cell (IF31.057)
• Science (IF31.027)
• Elsevier publishing group:
HOW TO FIND IF/TIER
How to find quick publication list
of journals

Time
Time
Time
 Where to publish?

• See publication history

• Get experiences by publishing in diverse
group journals
• Some journals even initially reject
• Some journals allow submissions and
process for a review
• Invite int. experts to make team stronger
• Don’t submit many papers by the
same author in the same journal!
BEST PAPER SELECTION
PROCESS
 HOW TO SELECT TOP
CITED/DOWNLOADED ARTICLES
WWW.SCIENCEDIRECT.COM
TOP 25 IN APPLIED ENERGY
HOW TO SUBMIT
 SUBMISSION OF A REVIEW MANUSCRIPT

• Some journals accept submission of a

review manuscript only by an invitation

• Some journals allow submission only

review manuscript

• Some Journals allow submission of both

(Original and review works)
• Some Journals Editors ask authors CV to
verify expertise in the field
Challenges in submitting
review paper
 Whats are challenges

• Need to be steadfast, patient, never give

up
• Sometimes rejected after submission of
many times in different journals
• Challenging comments from
editors/reviewers
• Identify alternatives
• Lack of expertise
 Thank for your kind

E-mail: saidur@um.edu.my