Scientific Publications in Different Fields

The contents of a scientific journal are divided into individual articles. There are two main types of articles: original articles and review articles. In addition to proper research articles, scientific journals may often include different types of overviews, news, letters, and discussion.

In common language, scientific journals are often referred to as serials, which may cause misunderstandings (see more on serial publications below). Also, some researchers speak of “journals”.

Original article

Original article (or a research paper article) is a short presentation (7 to 20 pages) that discusses a clearly outlined issue in the particular journal’s field of science. Original articles include either completely new research results or new inspection of older results.

However, original articles alone may not provide a general understanding of the larger topics or the level of knowledge in the field.

See an example original article at the International Journal for Educational Integrity –journal’s website.

Review article

This is where review articles come in. Review articles can help to get an overall view of what is relevant within discipline. Review articles are put together by experts on the field. The process of writing a review article includes the reviewing of the most significant original articles discussing the topic. The results presented in them will then be gathered together in the review article. The reviews are often long, spanning dozens of pages, and feature extensive lists of references.

When the search for original articles is done in a particularly comprehensive and systematic manner, the review is called a systematic review. The results presented in a set of original articles can also be re-analysed as a single set, which is called a meta-analysis. A peer-reviewed systematic review with meta-analyses is often considered as the most reliable research-based evidence.

Review articles are published both in ordinary scientific journals and in specific review journals. Annual Reviews is one of the most well-known journals for review articles. Annual Reviews is available on UEF Primo.  

Books, aka monographies, are often written when the information on the topic is already established and generally accepted. Publishing a book may take some time, and a certain amount of permanence is expected from information within a book.

Based on how the informative content has been produced, books can be sorted into the following categories: those written by one or multiple authors (authored), and ones that have been edited. Edited books are often compendiums, including multiple individual articles written by different authors. The editor has then collected these articles together under one title, forming a structure reminiscent of a chapter-based one.

Reading and learning from books are still parts of university study. However, there are differences between disciplines in what kind of information and knowledge are sought from books and how books are used as part of research, for example.

Serial publications are a common channel for publishing results in research institutions and other public organisations, establishing them as important information sources. For example, doctoral dissertations in Finland are almost always published in the universities’ serial publications.

Serial publications be can either individual books or compendiums. Much like journals, serials are published periodically under a specific title. Serials and journals are often commonly referred to as periodicals.

It is common for different issues of a serial publication to have their own themes or topics. Serial issues are published once they are finished, which means that they may not appear regularly like magazines do. The number of issues may also change from year to year.

While the most “scientific” discoveries are preferred to be published as articles in peer-reviewed journals, a significant amount of report, account or case type research data is still published through serial publications.

Serial publications are not often peer-reviewed, but they can be a viable source, nonetheless. However, the applicability of a non-peer-reviewed serial publication as a source for a thesis depends on the practices of the discipline, and on how the author of the thesis uses the source in his or her own work.

In the recent years, many serial publications have transferred to an online only format, which has made them more difficult to find from library databases, for instance. Serials are more easily found within the online publishing systems of different organisations. Sometimes serial publications may also be found through search engines.

New discoveries are first presented in scientific conferences. The presentations or their summaries held in a conference, as well as possible posters are collected into a conference proceeding. These are often produced as quickly as possible, often before the start of the conference itself.

The publications of international conferences are often recognised from the word “proceedings” that appears in their title. Do note that the word proceedings may sometimes appear in the title of “an ordinary” journal.