Academic papers structure

Guide for Authors

Surveys, Review or Literature Review

The terms ‘Review’, ‘Literature Review’, and ‘Survey’ are interchangeable in this context.

What makes a good survey?

  • A survey may typically contain the following elements:
  • Be approximately 50 printed pages in length (i.e. 100 typed pages)
  • A good descriptive title
  • A concise abstract
  • A table of contents that establishes the structure of the survey
  • Introduction (including motivation and historical remarks)
  • Outline of the Survey
  • Basic concepts, examples and results (with sketches of the proofs)
  • Comments on the relevance of the results, relations to other results and applications
  • Open problems
  • Critical review of the relevant literature
  • Comprehensive bibliography
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