Tervashonka, Ari J.

Guideline Article on 20 Article Types

In addition to providing guidelines on 20 different article types, the function of this paper is to
provide basic criteria and modulate easily accessible reasons for preferences. Each article type
has its own scientific limitations with respect to focus, scope, style, structure, accessibility, or
coherence. In many cases, writers and editors do not know about all types of articles because
far more exist than are covered here. Moreover, although this guideline article focuses on 20
peer-reviewed article types, some might also exist in forms that are not peer-reviewed. The
selection has been made primarily because article types such as a review article can be
misunderstood with the basis of peer review. In these borderline cases, more details on the
limitations have been given. Nevertheless, the selected types were chosen to cover largely
different areas of science published according to differing scientific criteria, procedurality,
structure, focus, limitations, and alternative forms of argumentation. Hence, for scientific
writers and editors, this article provides guidelines for understanding largely different peer-
reviewable article types. Despite having very similar names, these types sometimes represent
entirely different focus areas and functions in science.

Keywords: article; theory article; theoretical article; case study article; review article; literature
review; systematic review; philosophical article; meta theory article; meta-article; meta-
analysis; method article; essay; guideline articles; pilot study article; clinical case study;
clinical trial; field studies; replication studies; methodological reviews; experimental design
papers; article types; systematic thinking; logical confirmation; constructive peer review