Writing summary, synthesis/ review papers: 5 different scenarios

Summary/ synthesis papers play an important role in the scientific process and they are an underappreciated source of productivity during your PhD or postdoc. I discuss 5 different scenarios for writing such papers as a function of the amount of data published in a field.
0:00 Summary papers serve a very important function; this is also for early-career researchers
2:23 New field, barely any published data (or none); no reviews
3:46 Bunch of data published; no review papers
4:32 Solid amount of data published; narrative reviews are available
5:20 Massive amount of data; already many reviews and meta-analyses
7:57 Few primary literature papers, several reviews
Link to paper on opinion papers: • Writing opinion papers...
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Matthias Rillig, professor of ecology at Freie Universität Berlin, chats about life in academia.
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[@shyamphartyal7645]

Thanks for sharing...

[@mrillig]

Thanks!

[@hsl3902]

Summary
1. A new field, little data.
Perspective; viewpoint; opinion paper
2. A lot of data, no reviews
None quantitative review or meta analysis
3. Solid amount of data and review papers
Quantitative meta analysis or systematic mapping
4. Many reviews and meta analysis
Systematic map about landscape, review of reviews or second-order meta analysis or bibliometric analysis
5. Imbalance between synthesis paper and primary literature
Comparatively little primary literature

[@mrillig]

nice!

[@evelynkarkkulainen1784]

Thanks

[@mrillig]

:)

[@bashiruabidemi9055]

Thank you for this video professor. I am a young researcher in my field. An Msc student. I will be glad if you can explain more on how to write a narrative and a systematic review paper. I mean how to write the introduction, body , discussion, conclusion.

[@mrillig]

Thanks. I will think about this, but I think this is difficult to make a general video about.

[@silky_y]

This is super inspirational, thank you! I'm a junior researcher and I have always wanted to write review papers. But at the same time the task is so daunting because comparing to it, research paper seems a lot easier to write (at least for me). How do you identify a gap/topic to write about, and how do you make sure whatever you write about is different enough from other already published reviews? On top of that, there is always this voice inside me that questions whether I am suitable for writing the summary/reviews. Am I knowledgable enough to summarize the research as a junior researcher?

[@mrillig]

Thanks for writing! Identifying a gap is of course not straightforward; but you need to do this also for a standard research paper, where in the introduction you need to explain why this is new and how it moves things forward. It's not that different for a review/ synthesis paper. If you have identified such gaps before when you write research papers, yes, you are knowledgeable enough to write a summary paper.

[@ronan-dm5xc]

Good points. I recently started think about writing a review paper about an area that is relatively new to me. I am interested in the new field, and plan to work on it. I believe the process of writing a review paper will help me understand the topic and identify the gaps to be filled. What do you think?

[@mrillig]

Absolutely. This can be a good opportunity for you, and it hopefully provides he field with a fresh perspective. It is also an option to include a co-author that is more familiar with the field, since often there are certain pitfalls in areas with which you are then not familiar.

[@ronan-dm5xc]

@@mrillig That's a great suggestion, thanks!

[@silky_y]

What is a proper length of time one should aim for when writing one of these reviews? For example, if one or your grad students or post docs wants to write one, what is your expectation?

[@mrillig]

That's impossible to answer in general terms, since this depends on too many factors, including the scope of the topic and the experience of the author. But it's important to realize that these writing projects can happen 'on the side', for example in addition to empirical work, and more flexibly.

[@silky_y]

@@mrillig I suppose that was not a very good question😂 thank you for your answer!! I was curious because I find it can take a lot of time, like as much time as you would put into it. So I thought if only I can aim for a more confined length of time and then just say to myself, ok this is enough.😅

[@mrillig]

This 'ok this is enough' applies to absolutely every paper of any kind, and thus of course also to this type of paper.
Yes, depending on the scope this can take a lot of time, and it takes quite a lot of creative energy to write such papers. The real advantage is that you can do this in parallel to your other work. You can keep adding things until it has matured enough for a final push to put it over the finish line.
Data synthesis (in the narrow sense, like in a meta-analysis) really takes an awful lot of time, and it's technically challenging to do, and I would not underestimate the time required for this....it's a common mistake.

[@hsl3902]

I think second order meta analysis is an interesting thing😂😂😂

[@mrillig]

It is!