Review papers quite like research papers, start with an introduction that gives a detailing of the problem under study in detail, the motivation that provoked the author to undertake this study and at times the structuring of the paper further on. After the introduction, the structure of the review paper changes from that of a research paper.
Further on, these are the following things that review papers do:
1. Provide enough background s that those who are reading to learn can begin.
2. Gives detailing and abundant citation of others work, through out the paper (this exercise begins in the introduction itself).
3. Give a summary of the knowledge and trends in the field.
4. Give a critical perspective of the analysis and results of others work.
5. Suggest avenues for future research : where results can be extended to other applications.
Though writing a review paper is the task of an expert and it requires great amount of knowledge and skill to be able to create an effective review paper, its use majorly is for people who are novice in their field as it provides them the foundation for future research and experimentation.
It is not an easy task to get review papers published in good journals, say like the ones indexed in SCI or Scopus. This is so, primarily because very few authors are able to create originality in review papers because they do not have that kind of expertise and command over the subject. However, this does not men that they. Donate et space in refereed, peer reviewed journals. They do and once they get published in high indexed journals, they often have very high impact factor, whereby they can be cited very frequently. What is important to note here is that, they don’t usually involve substantial original research so they need to be augmented with the conventional kind of research articles.
If you are planning to get your review paper published, before you begin writing, it is important to think about the journal you are wanting to target specifically. There may be several journals that may refrain from accepting review papers so list down the ones that are your target and read some recent examples of review papers that have been published in those journals. All good journals would be very specific about the scope and expectations they have from a paper.
It is difficult to contain to specified word limit which maybe given by the journal, more so in the case when you are accommodating a lot of external views of literature and a lot of time editors referees find it daunting to suggest which parts of the review paper should be removed or omitted.
If you are targeting SCI or Scopus indexed journals, know that it is not difficult to get review papers published there, if you know the reasons for which you may face rejection well in advance.
The Key reasons can be:
1) Make sure your paper is clearly a review and not an overview. Which means it should have worthy value addition from your side and it should be in an authoritative and constructive narrative style.
2) If the review paper fails to meet the specified aims, a good and reputed journal may reject it outrightly. The introduction to clearly state the objectives, even if they be theoretical in nature and the conclusion should assess whether the targeted objectives have been achieved or no.
3) If the review paper appears to be immature in its preparation, as in looks like an early draft rather than a thorough review of existing literature, no good journal may want to publish it. Ensure that the structure of your paper is not weak, has substantive evidence and is structured well enough.
To summarise, review papers that seek worthy publications should cover diverse existing literature with a critical eye so that the derived conclusions are supported by evidence and add good value to the existing debate of literature. In ideal words, a SCI or Scopus level paper should be readable, interesting and at the same time exciting to read.