Review
What is a Review?
A Review collects together, and critically evaluates,
information on a given subject topic, from a variety of sources.
Reviews are valuable because they are written by acknowledged
experts who give a "considered opinion" or evaluation
about the subject and, not least, because they often contain
extensive lists of references. Reviews are, therefore, one of the
most useful sources of information when you are starting to work
on a project. If you can find a recent review early on in a
search, you can save a lot of time and effort.
Reviews are published in many primary journals in chemistry
and in specialized review publications with titles such as Advances
in..., Annual Review of... Progress in .... etc.
How to find Reviews?
- A good place to look for review articles is in the Index
to Scientific Reviews The Index to Scientific
Reviews covers not only science, but also medicine
and some technology. It contains review articles from
both specialized review publications and from ordinary
primary research journals. Review articles are arranged
in alphabetical order by name of the author. Subject
searches are carried out by means of the subject index -
Permuterm Index. The author's name acts as the link to
the reference. It is also possible to search in the
Citation Index for reviews that cite a given article.
- Another good way to obtain review articles is to search
in databases such as:
- CHEMICAL ABSTRACTS
- INSPEC ( KTU Library has CD-ROM INSPEC
1989-1998, except 1995)
- COMPENDEX
If you include the terms, review, overview, survey,
in your searches, these should give you the reviews that
you are looking for. In many cases it is possible to see
the number of references that are included in the review.
This can be useful in saving time on literature searches.
General Reviews in Chemistry
There are a number of serial publications which specialize in
review articles. The most important general review publications
in chemistry are:
- Advances in Chemistry Series
- Annual Reports on the Progress of Chemistry:
- Chemical Reviews
- Chemical Society. Specialist Periodical Reports
- Chemical Society Reviews
- Russian Chemical Reviews
- Topics in Current Chemistry
Other important reviews which deal with environmental
studies and toxicology are:
- Reviews of environmental contamination and toxicology
- Toxicological and environmental chemistry
Specialized Reviews in Chemistry
Analytical chemistry:
- Advances in analytical chemistry and instrumentation
- Advances in chromatography
- Advances in spectroscopy
- Annual reports on NMR spectroscopy
- Critical
reviews in analytical chemistry (online version)
- Applied spectroscopy reviews
- Progress in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy
- Reviews in analytical chemistry
- Separation and Purification Methods
- Topics in carbon-13 NMR spectroscopy
Biochemistry:
- Advances in biochemical engineering/biotechnology
- Advances in carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry
- Advances in protein chemistry
- Annual review of biochemistry
- Annual review of microbiology
- Current advances in protein biochemistry
- Methods in enzymology
- Progress in lipid research
- Progress in nucleic acid research and molecular biology
Chemical Engineering:
- Advances in chemical engineering
- Advances in electrochemical science and engineering
- Advances in urethane science and technology
- Annual reviews of industrial engineering chemistry
- Fortschritte der Verfahrenstechnik, Abteilung A-F
- Petroleum review
- Progress in organic coatings
- Progress in rubber and plastics technology
- Reviews in chemical engineering
Inorganic chemistry:
- Advances in inorganic chemistry
- Annual reports in inorganic and general synthesis
- Comments on inorganic chemistry
- Inorganic reaction mechanisms
- Progress in inorganic chemistry
- Silicon, Germanium, Tin and Lead compounds
Organic chemistry and organometallic chemistry:
- Advances in carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry
- Advances in heterocyclic chemistry
- Advances in organometallic chemistry
- Advances in photochemistry
- Advances in physical organic chemistry
- Advances in polymer science
- Annual reports in organic syntheses
- Fortschritte der Chemie organischer Naturstoffe
- Organic photochemistry
- Organic reaction mechanisms
- Organic reactions
- Organometallic chemistry
- Progress in polymer science
- Topics in stereochemistry
Physical chemistry:
- Advances in catalysis
- Advances in chemical physics
- Advances in colloid and interface science
- Advances in free-radical chemistry
- Advances in quantum chemistry
- Annual review of physical chemistry
- International reviews in physical chemistry
- Progress in reaction kinetics
- Progress in solid state chemistry
- Progress in surface and membrane science
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and Secondary Information Sources