Reviews

	Research study cited in a review.

A review is defined by EMBASE as a publication of a significant review of original research, usually with an extensive bibliography. Reviews serve as evidence of knowledge transfer in that they add to the body of knowledge about a given disease, disorder, or condition. Reviews can also be very helpful in determining whether a finding from a research study has resulted in clinical applications. Reviews are not the same as a meta-analysis or a systematic review. See Meta-Analyses and Systematic Reviews for more information.

One example of a review is a work devoted to highlights of discoveries/advancements in a field of study. An article published in Archives of Ophthalmology, “The 100 most frequently cited articles in ophthalmology journals” by Ohba, et al., outlined a series of top cited papers published in ophthalmology journals, one of which was an article from the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study. While citation counts alone do not denote significance, the article outlined the advancements in the field of ophthalmology based on the top cited articles.

Another review is “Application of new ophthalmic technology in the pediatric patient: Pediatrics and strabismus,” published in Current Opinion in Ophthalmology:

In adult patients, measurement of the central corneal thickness (CCT) has become standard of care for patients with known or suspected glaucoma. In the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study [2], the CCT was found to be a strong predictor for the development of glaucoma, with patients having corneas thinner than 555 µm having a three times greater risk than those with thicker corneas . . . it has become the standard of care to perform pachymetry measurements on all children with or suspected of having glaucoma.

– Hutcheson, Kelly A. Application of new ophthalmic technology in the pediatric patient: Pediatrics and strabismus. Current Opinion in Ophthalmology, September 2007;18(5):384-391.

Assessment

Comprehensive review of the literature is required to locate reviews.

	Search using the keywords, title or the name of the author/research study.

Some resources that may be helpful include the following:

EMBASE

EMBASE is an abstract and indexing (A&I) biomedical and pharmacological database. It contains over 19 million indexed records from over 7,000 journals (including international titles), covering 1947 to the present.

EMBASE offers a search option for reviews. From the home page, select Advanced Search. Scroll down and select More Limits. Under Publication Types, select Review.

EMBASE Advanced Search option page showing Review filter

PubMed

PubMed is a freely accessible online database of biomedical journal citations and abstracts created by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). Approximately 5,200 journals published in the United States and more than 80 other countries are indexed in PubMed. Follow directions for searching as noted.

PubMed offers a search option to search for reviews. From the PubMed home page, select the Limits after entering the search query. Scroll down to the Type of Article box and select Review.

Scopus

Scopus is a large abstract and citation database of research literature and web sources. Updated daily, Scopus offers:

Over 16,000 peer-reviewed journals from more than 4,000 publishers
Over 1,200 Open Access journals
520 conference proceedings
650 trade publications
315 book series
23 million patent records

Scopus offers a limits option to restrict results by reviews under Document Type as noted on the main page. After entering a search query, open the drop down menu box for Document Type and select Review.

Web of Knowledge – Web of Science

Web of Science allows for concurrent searching of the following databases:

Science Citation Index Expanded (1980-present)
- Science Citation Index Expanded is a multidisciplinary index to the journal literature of the sciences. It fully indexes over 6,650 major journals across 150 scientific disciplines and includes all cited references captured from indexed articles.
Social Sciences Citation Index (1980-present)
- The Social Sciences Citation Index is a multidisciplinary index to the journal literature of the social sciences. It fully indexes over 1,950 journals across 50 social sciences disciplines. It also indexes individually selected, relevant items from over 3,300 of the world’s leading scientific and technical journals.
Arts and Humanities Citation Index (1980-present)
- Arts & Humanities Citation Index is a multidisciplinary index to the journal literature of the arts and humanities. It fully covers 1,160 of the world’s leading arts and humanities journals. It also indexes individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals.

Web of Science offers a limit option to restrict results by reviews under Document Type. From the drop down menu box to the right of the search box, select Review. Enter the search query in the other search boxes as noted.

Web of Science search limited to a Document Type of Review

Last updated: April 27, 2009