1. Our Vision: To be a World Class University
RESEARCH CENTRE FOR NANO-MATERIALS AND ENERGY TECHNOLOGY (RCNMET) SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND
TECHNOLOGY, SUNWAY UNIVERSITY & Prof. Lancaster University, UK
14 May, 2023, Organized by FCEE, UTM
MASTERING THE ART OF REVIEW PAPER WRITING: STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL PUBLICATION IN
HIGH-IMPACT JOURNALS
SAIDUR RAHMAN, PROF AND HEAD

2. Our Vision: To be a World Class University
OUTLINES
Need for publication
Understanding literature and review paper
Purpose of literature study and review paper
Importance and drawbacks of citation impact
challenges in writing review paper
Structure of a review manuscript
Examples of good title
Critical review components/elements
Examples of critical review of literature (Tables and Figures)
Source of literature
Review gaps
Where to submit
Copyright and other issues
Other matters

3. ✓ To generate new knowledge/advance science/Disseminate
knowledge
✓ To solve industrial/global problem through research
✓ Publish paper to get a PhD/Master-training/requirement
✓ Review paper: Literature is part of thesis. Critical review of
literature is very important
✓ Improve knowledge and writing skills
✓ To boost self confidence
✓ To establish network for long term sustainable research
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WHY WE NEED TO PUBLISH

4. ✓ For recognition (Research award)/academic excellence
✓ Indication/reflection of quality work
✓ To improve continuously through the comments of experts in the
field by peer review process
✓ For academic/research promotion
WHY WE NEED TO PUBLISH

5. LITERATURE
REVIEW

6. 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

7. WHAT IS A LITERATURE REVIEW
“Is an interpretation of what has been published on a topic by
scholars and researchers” (Dena Taylor, Director, Health Sciences Writing Centre, and
Margaret Procter, Coordinator, Writing Support, University of Toronto).
“Discusses published information in a particular subject area,
and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a
certain time period” (University of North Carolina website).
“Is a body of text that aims to review the critical points of current
knowledge on a particular topic” (Wikipedia 3-19-07).

8. “A Literature Review Surveys scholarly articles, books, and other
sources (e.g., dissertations, conference proceedings) relevant to a
topic. . . .
Its purpose is to demonstrate that the writer has insightfully and
critically surveyed relevant literature on his or her topic in order to
convince an intended audience that the topic is worth addressing”
(105)
~from Writing the Successful Thesis and Dissertation: Entering the
Discussion
By Irene L. Clark
COMPREHENSIVE DEFINITION

9. 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
original
work

10. TYPES OF PAPER
✓ Original paper (Journal)
✓ Original paper (conference)
✓ Review paper (long)
✓ Review (short/mini)

11. PURPOSE OF LITERATURE STUDY

12. PURPOSE OF LITERATURE STUDY
✓ Importance: To improve knowledge on a specific
topic
✓ Support: Establishing a need for current and/or future
research projects
✓ Comparison/validation
✓ Used in introduction, literature review, methodology,
results and discussions sections
✓ Used to design experiment/research
✓ Used in thesis, proposal, report, paper writings

13. ✓ Impact is defined by an impact factor which is
dependent on basically total number of
citations
IMPACT
A/B = 2021 impact factor
A = the number of times cited for the
published articles in 2019 and 2020
B = the total number of published articles
in 2019 and 2020.
JOURNAL NAME IMPACT FACTOR
CA-A CANCER JOURNAL FOR CLINICIANS 508.702
NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE 74.70
CHEMICAL REVIEWS 60.62
NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY 54.91
NATURE 49.96
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY 39.21
SCIENCE 41.84
CHEMICAL SOCIETY REVIEWS 54.56
NATURE PHOTONICS 38.77
REVIEWS OF MODERN PHYSICS 54.49
PROGRESS IN MATERIAL SCIENCE 31.56
ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE 38.53
PROGRESS IN ENERGY AND COMBUSTION
SCIENCE
29.39

15. CITATION TRNED OF REVIEW PAPERS
Hall mark of cancer: Next
generation: Cited 67,729 times

16. InspiringYoung Minds
WHY CITATION IS SO IMPORTANT?
The number of citations may be regarded as a measure of the
usefulness, impact, or influence of a publication
✓ Used in introduction, literatures, methodology and results
and discussions
✓ Quality depends where it is used (intro, methods, R and D..)
✓ Used as support of our research
✓ To compare and validate research
✓ Used to design the experiment
✓ Used to improve existing research
✓ Without literature you may need to start
from the scratch which is a difficult task
✓ Giving due credit to outstanding works
J. R. Cole & Cole, 1973, mentioned citations as a measure of quality p. 21

17. Source: Nature publishing group
Misuse of citations
Excessive self citation
Reviewers ask to cite their papers
Editors ask to cite journals papers
Citation request by friends/colleague
In appropriate citations
negative” citations (criticizing, correcting other works)

18. ✓ Very important for ranking criteria/visibility
✓ Need for promotion
✓ Research funding (total citations and h-index)
✓ Highly cited (top 1%/ top 2% researchers recognition)
WHY CITATION IS SO IMPORTANT?

19. InspiringYoung Minds
PURPOSE OF LITURATURE STUDY?
✓ Working on a review paper help to improve the knowledge of a
master, PhD student, RA, PDF on a new topic.
✓ Some researchers may not have labs and cant not produce data, in
that case someone can focus on writing a review paper. During this
pandemic situation, lab activities are restricted, therefore, it is also
good idea to write a review paper to best use of one’s time.
✓ This is the part of a thesis. Literature review is also part of an original
paper in introduction. It is also used in methods to compare/validate
with others’ methods. Literature results are also used to compare and
validate one’s results to check the robustness of one’s work.

20. InspiringYoung Minds
PURPOSE OF LITURATURE STUDY?
✓ By reading a review paper, new students or new researchers can
optimize time as it summarizes findings of others (lets say 200-300
papers to gain knowledge on the topic).
✓ It helps to identify research gaps and this is one of the purposes of
review paper. Future directions are highlighted through which one can
start own’s original/experimental work
✓ After critical analysis, this can be published as a review paper which
can be used as an outcome. As a side benefit, this will be useful for
other researchers (meaning that it will be cited)

21. ✓ One can train himself/herself on how to critically analyze others"
work. This also helps to improve writing skills. Helpful in
addressing critical review of literature in thesis
✓ If someone is an expert on the topic, he/she need to
summarize/critically analyze their original published papers and
publish as a review paper.
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PURPOSE OF LITURATURE STUDY?

22. Major challenges in writing review paper
• Lack of expertise and guidance
• Lack of patience/dedication/seriousness
• Lack of critical understanding
• Too limited scope in some area
• Already similar papers exist/published/saturated research topic
• Challenging review comments: Extremely negative/discouraging
• Too lengthy content
• Lack of databases/necessary published articles

23. HOW TO WRITE REVIEW
PAPER/CRITICAL REVIEW

24. InspiringYoung Minds
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
How many pages?
How many references?
Best way to get a similar
published/model papers on the
topic
Original paper
IMRAD

25. InspiringYoung Minds
COOMON MISTAKES
Too lengthy
Nash’s PhD thesis
27 pages long
Won him a Nobel prize

26. InspiringYoung Minds
EXAMPLE OF GOOD TITLE
✓ A review on global wind energy policy
✓ Biodiesel production: a review
✓ A review of solar photovoltaic technologies
✓ Hall mark of cancer: Next generation (Cited
67,729 times)
Watch my YouTube channel on how to write attractive title and abstract

27. InspiringYoung Minds
Planning for LITERATURE

28. InspiringYoung Minds
CRITICAL REVIEW OF LITERATURE
1. Summarize
2. Synthesize
3. Analyze
4. New/Different/Lacking
5. Controversial
6. Inconclusive or too limited
7. Interpretation of Design and Methods
8. Comparison and critique
9. Discussing the significance of findings
10.Argument
11.Strength and weakness

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SYNTHESIZE
Synthesizing implies combining. Rather than summarizing
the main points of each source, put together the ideas
and findings of multiple sources in order to make an
overall point.
https://libguides.cmich.edu/lit_review/LR_synthesize

30. InspiringYoung Minds
Source #1 Source #2 Source #3 Source #4
Main idea #1
Main idea #2
Main idea #3
Main idea #4
Main idea #5
Main idea #6
When this chart is developed, review your notes to identify
common themes, areas of disagreement, or gaps in the
literature.
https://libguides.cmich.edu/lit_review/LR_synthesize
SYNTHESIZE

31. Identify and highlight the most important and relevant
information from the findings, methodology, etc.
Provide an overview of the main points of each source
and put them together into a coherent whole—write
your own interpretations and discuss the importance of
findings in relation to the body of literatures
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SUMMARIZE EACH SOURCE
• Matt Weiss
• Graduate Writing Center Coordinator

32. InspiringYoung Minds
ANALYZING SOURCE
✓ Provide an argument (Disagreement) about a
body of literatures
✓ Analysis literatures in terms:
Individual sources
Body of literatures

33. InspiringYoung Minds
COMPARISON AND CRITIQUE
Evaluate the strength and weaknesses/limitations of the
work:
How the different studies are related? Identify new,
different, or controversial/confusing points/issues?
What evidence is lacking, inconclusive, contradicting,
or too limited?
What research designs or methods seem unsatisfactory?

34. InspiringYoung Minds
✓ ScienceDirect/Elsevier
✓ IEEE explore
✓ Springer
✓ Taylor and Francis
✓ Multiscience
✓ Inderscience
✓ Wiley
✓ Yahoo, Google search (put key words)
✓ Scopus/WOS
✓ Pro-quest-digital dissertation
✓ Personal
communications/collaboration
✓ Institutional depository
……………………
SOURCE OF LITERATURE

35. The authors of the paper cited in reference [8] have briefly discussed various solar PV panel
cooling technologies. However, only a few technologies were introduced while the main
focus of the paper was on the testing and performance of a developed Ground-Coupled
Central Panel Cooling System (GC-CPCS). In reference [9], the authors presented an
overview of various methods that can be employed for cooling photovoltaic cells.
However, when looking closely, it can be seen that the focus of the paper was only on
examining the passive, forced air and liquid forced convection cooling methods applied to
different solar concentrator systems. Unlike the above-mentioned review studies, this paper
provides a comprehensive review of how different technologies can be used to minimize
the negative effects of increased temperature, while trying to improve the performance of
a PV panel operating beyond the recommended temperature of the Standard Test
Conditions (STC).
Taken from;
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 79 (2017) 192–203
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REVIEW GAP

36. InspiringYoung Minds
AUTHENTICITY OF LITERATURE
Nanoparticles Electrical properties Researchers
Ti3C2 (MXene) Less than 1000 Scm¯¹
Up to 4600 Scm¯¹
Up to 6500 Scm¯¹
Anasori et al., 2017
MXenes 10000 – 15000 Scm¯¹ Krowne, 2019
Ti3C2(MXene) 2410 Scm¯¹ Wang et al., 2015
Graphene 351 Scm¯¹ at 500 °C Chen et al., 2008
Graphene 2000 Scm¯¹ Wu et al., 2009

37. InspiringYoung Minds
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
✓ Its quite easy to publish in some Journals
✓ However, its really very difficult in some journals
✓ Prepare a Table of Content

38. InspiringYoung Minds
TOC
Main body

39. CRITICAL REVIEWS
KEY FEATURES: FIGURES AND TABLES
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40. InspiringYoung Minds
EXAMPLE REVIEW FIGURE

41. InspiringYoung Minds
EXAMPLE REVIEW FIGURE

42. InspiringYoung Minds
EXAMPLE REVIEW TABLE

43. InspiringYoung Minds
EXAMPLE REVIEW TABLE

44. InspiringYoung Minds
SUBMISSION OF REVIEW PAPER
✓ 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

45. ✓ Copyright
https://www.elsevier.com/about/pol
icies/copyright/permissions
✓ Content similarity
✓ Reference management: Endnote
✓ Paraphrasing
OTHER ISSUES
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46. InspiringYoung Minds
Emerging
nanomaterials
Energy Storage Heat Transfer
Solar Energy
RESEARCH COLLABORATION

47. InspiringYoung Minds
LAB FACILITIES AT RCNMET
We welcome you to solve your research challenges through:
SERVICE and collaboration

48. InspiringYoung Minds
LAB FACILITIES AT RCNMET

49. YouTube channel
Research strategy for Early Career Researchers
Improving writing skills with better impact
How to be graduated on time
Rewards for Research
Research with limited facilities
Writing titles and abstract
Search by “Saidur Rahman”
29 videos

50. saidur@sunway.edu.my
THANK YOU