Our crucial role in stimulating discussion about science
Annual Reviews articles:
Capture current understanding of a topic, including what is well supported and what is controversial;
Set the work in historical context;
Highlight the major questions that remain to be addressed and the likely course of research in upcoming years; and
Outline the practical applications and general significance of research to society.
Who uses Annual Reviews?
Researchers who want to keep abreast of their field and integrate this information with their own activities;
Researchers who want an introduction to new fields, with a view to developing an interface between different areas of research;
Students at all levels who want to gain a thorough understanding of a topic; and
Business people, journalists, policy makers, practitioners, patients and patient advocates, and others who wish to be informed about developments in research.
Expert content curation
Annual Review articles hold a unique place in the scholarly communication ecosystem because they transfer expert knowledge synthesized from the exponentially expanding corpus of scientific literature to scholars and society.
To create this impactful content, we bring together expert Editorial Committees in each covered discipline and facilitate meetings where members can discuss trends in each field and select relevant topics for review. Authoritative authors are then invited to submit reviews, and they readily accept the challenge to help shape and define their field as a service to scholars and society.
The number of Annual Review journals continues to grow over a broad range of disciplines within the Biomedical, Life, Physical, and Social Sciences, including Economics. The creation of a new title indicates that the amount of original research in a field has reached a critical mass.