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How to Write an Article Review (With Examples)

Last Updated: April 24, 2024 Fact Checked

Preparing to Write Your Review

Writing the article review, sample article reviews, expert q&a.

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 3,099,898 times.

An article review is both a summary and an evaluation of another writer's article. Teachers often assign article reviews to introduce students to the work of experts in the field. Experts also are often asked to review the work of other professionals. Understanding the main points and arguments of the article is essential for an accurate summation. Logical evaluation of the article's main theme, supporting arguments, and implications for further research is an important element of a review . Here are a few guidelines for writing an article review.

Education specialist Alexander Peterman recommends: "In the case of a review, your objective should be to reflect on the effectiveness of what has already been written, rather than writing to inform your audience about a subject."

Article Review 101

• Read the article very closely, and then take time to reflect on your evaluation. Consider whether the article effectively achieves what it set out to.
• Write out a full article review by completing your intro, summary, evaluation, and conclusion. Don't forget to add a title, too!
• Proofread your review for mistakes (like grammar and usage), while also cutting down on needless information.

• Article reviews present more than just an opinion. You will engage with the text to create a response to the scholarly writer's ideas. You will respond to and use ideas, theories, and research from your studies. Your critique of the article will be based on proof and your own thoughtful reasoning.
• An article review only responds to the author's research. It typically does not provide any new research. However, if you are correcting misleading or otherwise incorrect points, some new data may be presented.
• An article review both summarizes and evaluates the article.

• Summarize the article. Focus on the important points, claims, and information.
• Discuss the positive aspects of the article. Think about what the author does well, good points she makes, and insightful observations.
• Identify contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies in the text. Determine if there is enough data or research included to support the author's claims. Find any unanswered questions left in the article.

• Make note of words or issues you don't understand and questions you have.
• Look up terms or concepts you are unfamiliar with, so you can fully understand the article. Read about concepts in-depth to make sure you understand their full context.

• Pay careful attention to the meaning of the article. Make sure you fully understand the article. The only way to write a good article review is to understand the article.

• With either method, make an outline of the main points made in the article and the supporting research or arguments. It is strictly a restatement of the main points of the article and does not include your opinions.
• After putting the article in your own words, decide which parts of the article you want to discuss in your review. You can focus on the theoretical approach, the content, the presentation or interpretation of evidence, or the style. You will always discuss the main issues of the article, but you can sometimes also focus on certain aspects. This comes in handy if you want to focus the review towards the content of a course.
• Review the summary outline to eliminate unnecessary items. Erase or cross out the less important arguments or supplemental information. Your revised summary can serve as the basis for the summary you provide at the beginning of your review.

• What does the article set out to do?
• What is the theoretical framework or assumptions?
• Are the central concepts clearly defined?
• How adequate is the evidence?
• How does the article fit into the literature and field?
• Does it advance the knowledge of the subject?
• How clear is the author's writing? Don't: include superficial opinions or your personal reaction. Do: pay attention to your biases, so you can overcome them.

• For example, in MLA , a citation may look like: Duvall, John N. "The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated Mediation in DeLillo's White Noise ." Arizona Quarterly 50.3 (1994): 127-53. Print. [9] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source

• For example: The article, "Condom use will increase the spread of AIDS," was written by Anthony Zimmerman, a Catholic priest.

• Your introduction should only be 10-25% of your review.
• End the introduction with your thesis. Your thesis should address the above issues. For example: Although the author has some good points, his article is biased and contains some misinterpretation of data from others’ analysis of the effectiveness of the condom.

• Use direct quotes from the author sparingly.
• Review the summary you have written. Read over your summary many times to ensure that your words are an accurate description of the author's article.

• Support your critique with evidence from the article or other texts.
• The summary portion is very important for your critique. You must make the author's argument clear in the summary section for your evaluation to make sense.
• Remember, this is not where you say if you liked the article or not. You are assessing the significance and relevance of the article.
• Use a topic sentence and supportive arguments for each opinion. For example, you might address a particular strength in the first sentence of the opinion section, followed by several sentences elaborating on the significance of the point.

• This should only be about 10% of your overall essay.
• For example: This critical review has evaluated the article "Condom use will increase the spread of AIDS" by Anthony Zimmerman. The arguments in the article show the presence of bias, prejudice, argumentative writing without supporting details, and misinformation. These points weaken the author’s arguments and reduce his credibility.

• Make sure you have identified and discussed the 3-4 key issues in the article.

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://libguides.cmich.edu/writinghelp/articlereview
• ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4548566/
• ↑ Jake Adams. Academic Tutor & Test Prep Specialist. Expert Interview. 24 July 2020.
• ↑ https://guides.library.queensu.ca/introduction-research/writing/critical
• ↑ https://www.iup.edu/writingcenter/writing-resources/organization-and-structure/creating-an-outline.html
• ↑ https://writing.umn.edu/sws/assets/pdf/quicktips/titles.pdf
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_periodicals.html
• ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4548565/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/593/2014/06/How_to_Summarize_a_Research_Article1.pdf
• ↑ https://www.uis.edu/learning-hub/writing-resources/handouts/learning-hub/how-to-review-a-journal-article
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/

About This Article

If you have to write an article review, read through the original article closely, taking notes and highlighting important sections as you read. Next, rewrite the article in your own words, either in a long paragraph or as an outline. Open your article review by citing the article, then write an introduction which states the article’s thesis. Next, summarize the article, followed by your opinion about whether the article was clear, thorough, and useful. Finish with a paragraph that summarizes the main points of the article and your opinions. To learn more about what to include in your personal critique of the article, keep reading the article! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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An article review is a critical evaluation of a scholarly or scientific piece, which aims to summarize its main ideas, assess its contributions, and provide constructive feedback. A well-written review not only benefits the author of the article under scrutiny but also serves as a valuable resource for fellow researchers and scholars. Follow these steps to create an effective and informative article review:

1. Understand the purpose: Before diving into the article, it is important to understand the intent of writing a review. This helps in focusing your thoughts, directing your analysis, and ensuring your review adds value to the academic community.

2. Read the article thoroughly: Carefully read the article multiple times to get a complete understanding of its content, arguments, and conclusions. As you read, take notes on key points, supporting evidence, and any areas that require further exploration or clarification.

3. Summarize the main ideas: In your review’s introduction, briefly outline the primary themes and arguments presented by the author(s). Keep it concise but sufficiently informative so that readers can quickly grasp the essence of the article.

4. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses: In subsequent paragraphs, assess the strengths and limitations of the article based on factors such as methodology, quality of evidence presented, coherence of arguments, and alignment with existing literature in the field. Be fair and objective while providing your critique.

5. Discuss any implications: Deliberate on how this particular piece contributes to or challenges existing knowledge in its discipline. You may also discuss potential improvements for future research or explore real-world applications stemming from this study.

6. Provide recommendations: Finally, offer suggestions for both the author(s) and readers regarding how they can further build on this work or apply its findings in practice.

7. Proofread and revise: Once your initial draft is complete, go through it carefully for clarity, accuracy, and coherence. Revise as necessary, ensuring your review is both informative and engaging for readers.

Sample Review:

A Critical Review of “The Effects of Social Media on Mental Health”

Introduction:

“The Effects of Social Media on Mental Health” is a timely article which investigates the relationship between social media usage and psychological well-being. The authors present compelling evidence to support their argument that excessive use of social media can result in decreased self-esteem, increased anxiety, and a negative impact on interpersonal relationships.

Strengths and weaknesses:

One of the strengths of this article lies in its well-structured methodology utilizing a variety of sources, including quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews. This approach provides a comprehensive view of the topic, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of the effects of social media on mental health. However, it would have been beneficial if the authors included a larger sample size to increase the reliability of their conclusions. Additionally, exploring how different platforms may influence mental health differently could have added depth to the analysis.

Implications:

The findings in this article contribute significantly to ongoing debates surrounding the psychological implications of social media use. It highlights the potential dangers that excessive engagement with online platforms may pose to one’s mental well-being and encourages further research into interventions that could mitigate these risks. The study also offers an opportunity for educators and policy-makers to take note and develop strategies to foster healthier online behavior.

Recommendations:

Future researchers should consider investigating how specific social media platforms impact mental health outcomes, as this could lead to more targeted interventions. For practitioners, implementing educational programs aimed at promoting healthy online habits may be beneficial in mitigating the potential negative consequences associated with excessive social media use.

Conclusion:

Overall, “The Effects of Social Media on Mental Health” is an important and informative piece that raises awareness about a pressing issue in today’s digital age. Given its minor limitations, it provides valuable

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• CAREER FEATURE
• 04 December 2020
• Correction 09 December 2020

How to write a superb literature review

Andy Tay is a freelance writer based in Singapore.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Literature reviews are important resources for scientists. They provide historical context for a field while offering opinions on its future trajectory. Creating them can provide inspiration for one’s own research, as well as some practice in writing. But few scientists are trained in how to write a review — or in what constitutes an excellent one. Even picking the appropriate software to use can be an involved decision (see ‘Tools and techniques’). So Nature asked editors and working scientists with well-cited reviews for their tips.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03422-x

Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Updates & Corrections

Correction 09 December 2020 : An earlier version of the tables in this article included some incorrect details about the programs Zotero, Endnote and Manubot. These have now been corrected.

Hsing, I.-M., Xu, Y. & Zhao, W. Electroanalysis 19 , 755–768 (2007).

Article   Google Scholar  

Ledesma, H. A. et al. Nature Nanotechnol. 14 , 645–657 (2019).

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Brahlek, M., Koirala, N., Bansal, N. & Oh, S. Solid State Commun. 215–216 , 54–62 (2015).

Choi, Y. & Lee, S. Y. Nature Rev. Chem . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-020-00221-w (2020).

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How to Review a Journal Article

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For many kinds of assignments, like a  literature review , you may be asked to offer a critique or review of a journal article. This is an opportunity for you as a scholar to offer your  qualified opinion  and  evaluation  of how another scholar has composed their article, argument, and research. That means you will be expected to go beyond a simple  summary  of the article and evaluate it on a deeper level. As a college student, this might sound intimidating. However, as you engage with the research process, you are becoming immersed in a particular topic, and your insights about the way that topic is presented are valuable and can contribute to the overall conversation surrounding your topic.

IMPORTANT NOTE!!

Some disciplines, like Criminal Justice, may only want you to summarize the article without including your opinion or evaluation. If your assignment is to summarize the article only, please see our literature review handout.

Before getting started on the critique, it is important to review the article thoroughly and critically. To do this, we recommend take notes,  annotating , and reading the article several times before critiquing. As you read, be sure to note important items like the thesis, purpose, research questions, hypotheses, methods, evidence, key findings, major conclusions, tone, and publication information. Depending on your writing context, some of these items may not be applicable.

Questions to Consider

To evaluate a source, consider some of the following questions. They are broken down into different categories, but answering these questions will help you consider what areas to examine. With each category, we recommend identifying the strengths and weaknesses in each since that is a critical part of evaluation.

Evaluating Purpose and Argument

• How well is the purpose made clear in the introduction through background/context and thesis?
• How well does the abstract represent and summarize the article’s major points and argument?
• How well does the objective of the experiment or of the observation fill a need for the field?
• How well is the argument/purpose articulated and discussed throughout the body of the text?
• How well does the discussion maintain cohesion?

Evaluating the Presentation/Organization of Information

• How appropriate and clear is the title of the article?
• Where could the author have benefited from expanding, condensing, or omitting ideas?
• How clear are the author’s statements? Challenge ambiguous statements.
• What underlying assumptions does the author have, and how does this affect the credibility or clarity of their article?
• How objective is the author in his or her discussion of the topic?
• How well does the organization fit the article’s purpose and articulate key goals?

Evaluating Methods

• How appropriate are the study design and methods for the purposes of the study?
• How detailed are the methods being described? Is the author leaving out important steps or considerations?
• Have the procedures been presented in enough detail to enable the reader to duplicate them?

Evaluating Data

• Scan and spot-check calculations. Are the statistical methods appropriate?
• Do you find any content repeated or duplicated?
• How many errors of fact and interpretation does the author include? (You can check on this by looking up the references the author cites).
• What pertinent literature has the author cited, and have they used this literature appropriately?

Following, we have an example of a summary and an evaluation of a research article. Note that in most literature review contexts, the summary and evaluation would be much shorter. This extended example shows the different ways a student can critique and write about an article.

Chik, A. (2012). Digital gameplay for autonomous foreign language learning: Gamers’ and language teachers’ perspectives. In H. Reinders (ed.),  Digital games in language learning and teaching  (pp. 95-114). Eastbourne, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Be sure to include the full citation either in a reference page or near your evaluation if writing an  annotated bibliography .

In Chik’s article “Digital Gameplay for Autonomous Foreign Language Learning: Gamers’ and Teachers’ Perspectives”, she explores the ways in which “digital gamers manage gaming and gaming-related activities to assume autonomy in their foreign language learning,” (96) which is presented in contrast to how teachers view the “pedagogical potential” of gaming. The research was described as an “umbrella project” consisting of two parts. The first part examined 34 language teachers’ perspectives who had limited experience with gaming (only five stated they played games regularly) (99). Their data was recorded through a survey, class discussion, and a seven-day gaming trial done by six teachers who recorded their reflections through personal blog posts. The second part explored undergraduate gaming habits of ten Hong Kong students who were regular gamers. Their habits were recorded through language learning histories, videotaped gaming sessions, blog entries of gaming practices, group discussion sessions, stimulated recall sessions on gaming videos, interviews with other gamers, and posts from online discussion forums. The research shows that while students recognize the educational potential of games and have seen benefits of it in their lives, the instructors overall do not see the positive impacts of gaming on foreign language learning.

The summary includes the article’s purpose, methods, results, discussion, and citations when necessary.

This article did a good job representing the undergraduate gamers’ voices through extended quotes and stories. Particularly for the data collection of the undergraduate gamers, there were many opportunities for an in-depth examination of their gaming practices and histories. However, the representation of the teachers in this study was very uneven when compared to the students. Not only were teachers labeled as numbers while the students picked out their own pseudonyms, but also when viewing the data collection, the undergraduate students were more closely examined in comparison to the teachers in the study. While the students have fifteen extended quotes describing their experiences in their research section, the teachers only have two of these instances in their section, which shows just how imbalanced the study is when presenting instructor voices.

Some research methods, like the recorded gaming sessions, were only used with students whereas teachers were only asked to blog about their gaming experiences. This creates a richer narrative for the students while also failing to give instructors the chance to have more nuanced perspectives. This lack of nuance also stems from the emphasis of the non-gamer teachers over the gamer teachers. The non-gamer teachers’ perspectives provide a stark contrast to the undergraduate gamer experiences and fits neatly with the narrative of teachers not valuing gaming as an educational tool. However, the study mentioned five teachers that were regular gamers whose perspectives are left to a short section at the end of the presentation of the teachers’ results. This was an opportunity to give the teacher group a more complex story, and the opportunity was entirely missed.

Additionally, the context of this study was not entirely clear. The instructors were recruited through a master’s level course, but the content of the course and the institution’s background is not discussed. Understanding this context helps us understand the course’s purpose(s) and how those purposes may have influenced the ways in which these teachers interpreted and saw games. It was also unclear how Chik was connected to this masters’ class and to the students. Why these particular teachers and students were recruited was not explicitly defined and also has the potential to skew results in a particular direction.

Overall, I was inclined to agree with the idea that students can benefit from language acquisition through gaming while instructors may not see the instructional value, but I believe the way the research was conducted and portrayed in this article made it very difficult to support Chik’s specific findings.

Some professors like you to begin an evaluation with something positive but isn’t always necessary.

The evaluation is clearly organized and uses transitional phrases when moving to a new topic.

This evaluation includes a summative statement that gives the overall impression of the article at the end, but this can also be placed at the beginning of the evaluation.

This evaluation mainly discusses the representation of data and methods. However, other areas, like organization, are open to critique.

Get science-backed answers as you write with Paperpal's Research feature

How to Write a Conclusion for Research Papers (with Examples)

The conclusion of a research paper is a crucial section that plays a significant role in the overall impact and effectiveness of your research paper. However, this is also the section that typically receives less attention compared to the introduction and the body of the paper. The conclusion serves to provide a concise summary of the key findings, their significance, their implications, and a sense of closure to the study. Discussing how can the findings be applied in real-world scenarios or inform policy, practice, or decision-making is especially valuable to practitioners and policymakers. The research paper conclusion also provides researchers with clear insights and valuable information for their own work, which they can then build on and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field.

The research paper conclusion should explain the significance of your findings within the broader context of your field. It restates how your results contribute to the existing body of knowledge and whether they confirm or challenge existing theories or hypotheses. Also, by identifying unanswered questions or areas requiring further investigation, your awareness of the broader research landscape can be demonstrated.

Remember to tailor the research paper conclusion to the specific needs and interests of your intended audience, which may include researchers, practitioners, policymakers, or a combination of these.

Table of Contents

What is a conclusion in a research paper, summarizing conclusion, editorial conclusion, externalizing conclusion, importance of a good research paper conclusion, how to write a conclusion for your research paper, research paper conclusion examples.

• How to write a research paper conclusion with Paperpal? 

Frequently Asked Questions

A conclusion in a research paper is the final section where you summarize and wrap up your research, presenting the key findings and insights derived from your study. The research paper conclusion is not the place to introduce new information or data that was not discussed in the main body of the paper. When working on how to conclude a research paper, remember to stick to summarizing and interpreting existing content. The research paper conclusion serves the following purposes: 1

• Warn readers of the possible consequences of not attending to the problem.
• Recommend specific course(s) of action.
• Restate key ideas to drive home the ultimate point of your research paper.
• Provide a “take-home” message that you want the readers to remember about your study.

Types of conclusions for research papers

In research papers, the conclusion provides closure to the reader. The type of research paper conclusion you choose depends on the nature of your study, your goals, and your target audience. I provide you with three common types of conclusions:

A summarizing conclusion is the most common type of conclusion in research papers. It involves summarizing the main points, reiterating the research question, and restating the significance of the findings. This common type of research paper conclusion is used across different disciplines.

An editorial conclusion is less common but can be used in research papers that are focused on proposing or advocating for a particular viewpoint or policy. It involves presenting a strong editorial or opinion based on the research findings and offering recommendations or calls to action.

An externalizing conclusion is a type of conclusion that extends the research beyond the scope of the paper by suggesting potential future research directions or discussing the broader implications of the findings. This type of conclusion is often used in more theoretical or exploratory research papers.

Align your conclusion’s tone with the rest of your research paper. Start Writing with Paperpal Now!  

The conclusion in a research paper serves several important purposes:

• Offers Implications and Recommendations : Your research paper conclusion is an excellent place to discuss the broader implications of your research and suggest potential areas for further study. It’s also an opportunity to offer practical recommendations based on your findings.
• Provides Closure : A good research paper conclusion provides a sense of closure to your paper. It should leave the reader with a feeling that they have reached the end of a well-structured and thought-provoking research project.
• Leaves a Lasting Impression : Writing a well-crafted research paper conclusion leaves a lasting impression on your readers. It’s your final opportunity to leave them with a new idea, a call to action, or a memorable quote.

Writing a strong conclusion for your research paper is essential to leave a lasting impression on your readers. Here’s a step-by-step process to help you create and know what to put in the conclusion of a research paper: 2

• Research Statement : Begin your research paper conclusion by restating your research statement. This reminds the reader of the main point you’ve been trying to prove throughout your paper. Keep it concise and clear.
• Key Points : Summarize the main arguments and key points you’ve made in your paper. Avoid introducing new information in the research paper conclusion. Instead, provide a concise overview of what you’ve discussed in the body of your paper.
• Address the Research Questions : If your research paper is based on specific research questions or hypotheses, briefly address whether you’ve answered them or achieved your research goals. Discuss the significance of your findings in this context.
• Significance : Highlight the importance of your research and its relevance in the broader context. Explain why your findings matter and how they contribute to the existing knowledge in your field.
• Implications : Explore the practical or theoretical implications of your research. How might your findings impact future research, policy, or real-world applications? Consider the “so what?” question.
• Future Research : Offer suggestions for future research in your area. What questions or aspects remain unanswered or warrant further investigation? This shows that your work opens the door for future exploration.
• Closing Thought : Conclude your research paper conclusion with a thought-provoking or memorable statement. This can leave a lasting impression on your readers and wrap up your paper effectively. Avoid introducing new information or arguments here.
• Proofread and Revise : Carefully proofread your conclusion for grammar, spelling, and clarity. Ensure that your ideas flow smoothly and that your conclusion is coherent and well-structured.

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Remember that a well-crafted research paper conclusion is a reflection of the strength of your research and your ability to communicate its significance effectively. It should leave a lasting impression on your readers and tie together all the threads of your paper. Now you know how to start the conclusion of a research paper and what elements to include to make it impactful, let’s look at a research paper conclusion sample.

How to write a research paper conclusion with Paperpal?

A research paper conclusion is not just a summary of your study, but a synthesis of the key findings that ties the research together and places it in a broader context. A research paper conclusion should be concise, typically around one paragraph in length. However, some complex topics may require a longer conclusion to ensure the reader is left with a clear understanding of the study’s significance. Paperpal, an AI writing assistant trusted by over 800,000 academics globally, can help you write a well-structured conclusion for your research paper. 

• Sign Up or Log In: Create a new Paperpal account or login with your details.  
• Navigate to Features : Once logged in, head over to the features’ side navigation pane. Click on Templates and you’ll find a suite of generative AI features to help you write better, faster.  
• Generate an outline: Under Templates, select ‘Outlines’. Choose ‘Research article’ as your document type.  
• Select your section: Since you’re focusing on the conclusion, select this section when prompted.  
• Choose your field of study: Identifying your field of study allows Paperpal to provide more targeted suggestions, ensuring the relevance of your conclusion to your specific area of research. 
• Provide a brief description of your study: Enter details about your research topic and findings. This information helps Paperpal generate a tailored outline that aligns with your paper’s content. 
• Generate the conclusion outline: After entering all necessary details, click on ‘generate’. Paperpal will then create a structured outline for your conclusion, to help you start writing and build upon the outline.  
• Write your conclusion: Use the generated outline to build your conclusion. The outline serves as a guide, ensuring you cover all critical aspects of a strong conclusion, from summarizing key findings to highlighting the research’s implications. 
• Refine and enhance: Paperpal’s ‘Make Academic’ feature can be particularly useful in the final stages. Select any paragraph of your conclusion and use this feature to elevate the academic tone, ensuring your writing is aligned to the academic journal standards. 

By following these steps, Paperpal not only simplifies the process of writing a research paper conclusion but also ensures it is impactful, concise, and aligned with academic standards. Sign up with Paperpal today and write your research paper conclusion 2x faster .  

The research paper conclusion is a crucial part of your paper as it provides the final opportunity to leave a strong impression on your readers. In the research paper conclusion, summarize the main points of your research paper by restating your research statement, highlighting the most important findings, addressing the research questions or objectives, explaining the broader context of the study, discussing the significance of your findings, providing recommendations if applicable, and emphasizing the takeaway message. The main purpose of the conclusion is to remind the reader of the main point or argument of your paper and to provide a clear and concise summary of the key findings and their implications. All these elements should feature on your list of what to put in the conclusion of a research paper to create a strong final statement for your work.

A strong conclusion is a critical component of a research paper, as it provides an opportunity to wrap up your arguments, reiterate your main points, and leave a lasting impression on your readers. Here are the key elements of a strong research paper conclusion: 1. Conciseness : A research paper conclusion should be concise and to the point. It should not introduce new information or ideas that were not discussed in the body of the paper. 2. Summarization : The research paper conclusion should be comprehensive enough to give the reader a clear understanding of the research’s main contributions. 3 . Relevance : Ensure that the information included in the research paper conclusion is directly relevant to the research paper’s main topic and objectives; avoid unnecessary details. 4 . Connection to the Introduction : A well-structured research paper conclusion often revisits the key points made in the introduction and shows how the research has addressed the initial questions or objectives. 5. Emphasis : Highlight the significance and implications of your research. Why is your study important? What are the broader implications or applications of your findings? 6 . Call to Action : Include a call to action or a recommendation for future research or action based on your findings.

The length of a research paper conclusion can vary depending on several factors, including the overall length of the paper, the complexity of the research, and the specific journal requirements. While there is no strict rule for the length of a conclusion, but it’s generally advisable to keep it relatively short. A typical research paper conclusion might be around 5-10% of the paper’s total length. For example, if your paper is 10 pages long, the conclusion might be roughly half a page to one page in length.

In general, you do not need to include citations in the research paper conclusion. Citations are typically reserved for the body of the paper to support your arguments and provide evidence for your claims. However, there may be some exceptions to this rule: 1. If you are drawing a direct quote or paraphrasing a specific source in your research paper conclusion, you should include a citation to give proper credit to the original author. 2. If your conclusion refers to or discusses specific research, data, or sources that are crucial to the overall argument, citations can be included to reinforce your conclusion’s validity.

The conclusion of a research paper serves several important purposes: 1. Summarize the Key Points 2. Reinforce the Main Argument 3. Provide Closure 4. Offer Insights or Implications 5. Engage the Reader. 6. Reflect on Limitations

Remember that the primary purpose of the research paper conclusion is to leave a lasting impression on the reader, reinforcing the key points and providing closure to your research. It’s often the last part of the paper that the reader will see, so it should be strong and well-crafted.

• Makar, G., Foltz, C., Lendner, M., & Vaccaro, A. R. (2018). How to write effective discussion and conclusion sections. Clinical spine surgery, 31(8), 345-346.
• Bunton, D. (2005). The structure of PhD conclusion chapters.  Journal of English for academic purposes ,  4 (3), 207-224.

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How to Write an Article Review: Template & Examples

An article review is an academic assignment that invites you to study a piece of academic research closely. Then, you should present its summary and critically evaluate it using the knowledge you’ve gained in class and during your independent study. If you get such a task at college or university, you shouldn’t confuse it with a response paper, which is a distinct assignment with other purposes (we’ll talk about it in detail below).

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In this article, prepared by Custom-Writing experts, you’ll find:

• the intricacies of article review writing;
• the difference between an article review and similar assignments;
• a step-by-step algorithm for review composition;
• a couple of samples to guide you throughout the writing process.

So, if you wish to study our article review example and discover helpful writing tips, keep reading.

❓ What Is an Article Review?

• ✍️ Writing Steps

📑 Article Review Format

🔗 references.

An article review is an academic paper that summarizes and critically evaluates the information presented in your selected article.

The first thing you should note when approaching the task of an article review is that not every article is suitable for this assignment. Let’s have a look at the variety of articles to understand what you can choose from.

Popular Vs. Scholarly Articles

In most cases, you’ll be required to review a scholarly, peer-reviewed article – one composed in compliance with rigorous academic standards. Yet, the Web is also full of popular articles that don’t present original scientific value and shouldn’t be selected for a review.

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Not sure how to distinguish these two types? Here is a comparative table to help you out.

Article Review vs. Response Paper

Now, let’s consider the difference between an article review and a response paper:

• If you’re assigned to critique a scholarly article , you will need to compose an article review .
• If your subject of analysis is a popular article , you can respond to it with a well-crafted response paper .

The reason for such distinctions is the quality and structure of these two article types. Peer-reviewed, scholarly articles have clear-cut quality criteria, allowing you to conduct and present a structured assessment of the assigned material. Popular magazines have loose or non-existent quality criteria and don’t offer an opportunity for structured evaluation. So, they are only fit for a subjective response, in which you can summarize your reactions and emotions related to the reading material.

All in all, you can structure your response assignments as outlined in the tips below.

✍️ How to Write an Article Review: Step by Step

Here is a tried and tested algorithm for article review writing from our experts. We’ll consider only the critical review variety of this academic assignment. So, let’s get down to the stages you need to cover to get a stellar review.

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Read the Article

As with any reviews, reports, and critiques, you must first familiarize yourself with the assigned material. It’s impossible to review something you haven’t read, so set some time for close, careful reading of the article to identify:

• The author’s main points and message.
• The arguments they use to prove their points.
• The methodology they use to approach the subject.

In terms of research type , your article will usually belong to one of three types explained below.

Summarize the Article

Now that you’ve read the text and have a general impression of the content, it’s time to summarize it for your readers. Look into the article’s text closely to determine:

• The thesis statement , or general message of the author.
• Research question, purpose, and context of research.
• Supporting points for the author’s assumptions and claims.
• Major findings and supporting evidence.

As you study the article thoroughly, make notes on the margins or write these elements out on a sheet of paper. You can also apply a different technique: read the text section by section and formulate its gist in one phrase or sentence. Once you’re done, you’ll have a summary skeleton in front of you.

Evaluate the Article

The next step of review is content evaluation. Keep in mind that various research types will require a different set of review questions. Here is a complete list of evaluation points you can include.

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Write the Text

After completing the critical review stage, it’s time to compose your article review.

The format of this assignment is standard – you will have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction should present your article and summarize its content. The body will contain a structured review according to all four dimensions covered in the previous section. The concluding part will typically recap all the main points you’ve identified during your assessment.

It is essential to note that an article review is, first of all, an academic assignment. Therefore, it should follow all rules and conventions of academic composition, such as:

• No contractions . Don’t use short forms, such as “don’t,” “can’t,” “I’ll,” etc. in academic writing. You need to spell out all those words.
• Formal language and style . Avoid conversational phrasing and words that you would naturally use in blog posts or informal communication. For example, don’t use words like “pretty,” “kind of,” and “like.”
• Third-person narrative . Academic reviews should be written from the third-person point of view, avoiding statements like “I think,” “in my opinion,” and so on.
• No conversational forms . You shouldn’t turn to your readers directly in the text by addressing them with the pronoun “you.” It’s vital to keep the narrative neutral and impersonal.
• Proper abbreviation use . Consult the list of correct abbreviations , like “e.g.” or “i.e.,” for use in your academic writing. If you use informal abbreviations like “FYA” or “f.i.,” your professor will reduce the grade.
• Complete sentences . Make sure your sentences contain the subject and the predicate; avoid shortened or sketch-form phrases suitable for a draft only.
• No conjunctions at the beginning of a sentence . Remember the FANBOYS rule – don’t start a sentence with words like “and” or “but.” They often seem the right way to build a coherent narrative, but academic writing rules disfavor such usage.
• No abbreviations or figures at the beginning of a sentence . Never start a sentence with a number — spell it out if you need to use it anyway. Besides, sentences should never begin with abbreviations like “e.g.”

Finally, a vital rule for an article review is properly formatting the citations. We’ll discuss the correct use of citation styles in the following section.

When composing an article review, keep these points in mind:

• Start with a full reference to the reviewed article so the reader can locate it quickly.
• Ensure correct formatting of in-text references.
• Provide a complete list of used external sources on the last page of the review – your bibliographical entries .

You’ll need to understand the rules of your chosen citation style to meet all these requirements. Below, we’ll discuss the two most common referencing styles – APA and MLA.

Article Review in APA

When you need to compose an article review in the APA format , here is the general bibliographical entry format you should use for journal articles on your reference page:

• Author’s last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year of Publication). Name of the article. Name of the Journal, volume (number), pp. #-#. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

Horigian, V. E., Schmidt, R. D., & Feaster, D. J. (2021). Loneliness, mental health, and substance use among US young adults during COVID-19. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 53 (1), pp. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2020.1836435

Your in-text citations should follow the author-date format like this:

• If you paraphrase the source and mention the author in the text: According to Horigian et al. (2021), young adults experienced increased levels of loneliness, depression, and anxiety during the pandemic.
• If you paraphrase the source and don’t mention the author in the text: Young adults experienced increased levels of loneliness, depression, and anxiety during the pandemic (Horigian et al., 2021).
• If you quote the source: As Horigian et al. (2021) point out, there were “elevated levels of loneliness, depression, anxiety, alcohol use, and drug use among young adults during COVID-19” (p. 6).

Note that your in-text citations should include “et al.,” as in the examples above, if your article has 3 or more authors. If you have one or two authors, your in-text citations would look like this:

• One author: “According to Smith (2020), depression is…” or “Depression is … (Smith, 2020).”
• Two authors: “According to Smith and Brown (2020), anxiety means…” or “Anxiety means (Smith & Brown, 2020).”

Finally, in case you have to review a book or a website article, here are the general formats for citing these source types on your APA reference list.

Article Review in MLA

If your assignment requires MLA-format referencing, here’s the general format you should use for citing journal articles on your Works Cited page:

• Author’s last name, First name. “Title of an Article.” Title of the Journal , vol. #, no. #, year, pp. #-#.

Horigian, Viviana E., et al. “Loneliness, Mental Health, and Substance Use Among US Young Adults During COVID-19.” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs , vol. 53, no. 1, 2021, pp. 1-9.

In-text citations in the MLA format follow the author-page citation format and look like this:

• According to Horigian et al., young adults experienced increased levels of loneliness, depression, and anxiety during the pandemic (6).
• Young adults experienced increased levels of loneliness, depression, and anxiety during the pandemic (Horigian et al. 6).

Like in APA, the abbreviation “et al.” is only needed in MLA if your article has 3 or more authors.

If you need to cite a book or a website page, here are the general MLA formats for these types of sources.

✅ Article Review Template

Here is a handy, universal article review template to help you move on with any review assignment. We’ve tried to make it as generic as possible to guide you in the academic process.

📝 Article Review Examples

The theory is good, but practice is even better. Thus, we’ve created three brief examples to show you how to write an article review. You can study the full-text samples by following the links.

📃 Men, Women, & Money  

This article review examines a famous piece, “Men, Women & Money – How the Sexes Differ with Their Finances,” published by Amy Livingston in 2020. The author of this article claims that men generally spend more money than women. She makes this conclusion from a close analysis of gender-specific expenditures across five main categories: food, clothing, cars, entertainment, and general spending patterns. Livingston also looks at men’s approach to saving to argue that counter to the common perception of women’s light-hearted attitude to money, men are those who spend more on average.

📃 When and Why Nationalism Beats Globalism

This is a review of Jonathan Heidt’s 2016 article titled “When and Why Nationalism Beats Globalism,” written as an advocacy of right-wing populism rising in many Western states. The author illustrates the case with the election of Donald Trump as the US President and the rise of right-wing rhetoric in many Western countries. These examples show how nationalist sentiment represents a reaction to global immigration and a failure of globalization.

📃 Sleep Deprivation  

This is a review of the American Heart Association’s article titled “The Dangers of Sleep Deprivation.” It discusses how the national organization concerned with the American population’s cardiovascular health links the lack of high-quality sleep to far-reaching health consequences. The organization’s experts reveal how a consistent lack of sleep leads to Alzheimer’s disease development, obesity, type 2 diabetes, etc.

✏️ Article Review FAQ

A high-quality article review should summarize the assigned article’s content and offer data-backed reactions and evaluations of its quality in terms of the article’s purpose, methodology, and data used to argue the main points. It should be detailed, comprehensive, objective, and evidence-based.

The purpose of writing a review is to allow students to reflect on research quality and showcase their critical thinking and evaluation skills. Students should exhibit their mastery of close reading of research publications and their unbiased assessment.

The content of your article review will be the same in any format, with the only difference in the assignment’s formatting before submission. Ensure you have a separate title page made according to APA standards and cite sources using the parenthetical author-date referencing format.

You need to take a closer look at various dimensions of an assigned article to compose a valuable review. Study the author’s object of analysis, the purpose of their research, the chosen method, data, and findings. Evaluate all these dimensions critically to see whether the author has achieved the initial goals. Finally, offer improvement recommendations to add a critique aspect to your paper.

• Scientific Article Review: Duke University
• Book and Article Reviews: William & Mary, Writing Resources Center
• Sample Format for Reviewing a Journal Article: Boonshoft School of Medicine
• Research Paper Review – Structure and Format Guidelines: New Jersey Institute of Technology
• Article Review: University of Waterloo
• Article Review: University of South Australia
• How to Write a Journal Article Review: University of Newcastle Library Guides
• Writing Help: The Article Review: Central Michigan University Libraries
• Write a Critical Review of a Scientific Journal Article: McLaughlin Library
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Article Review: How's and Why's Explained

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An article review is a critical evaluation of a published journal article. It typically provides an overview of the main points, the author’s arguments, and general quality. Article reviews are usually conducted as part of an academic course or as professional development for educators.

Preparing material before writing an article review requires a thorough study of facts. Assessing what should be stated in your paper plays a crucial role in your research process. The main difficulty is that you should consider the specified information with extra care and formulate your thoughts clearly when writing. It is impossible to write a review article without studying the work. You can't conduct a fair review without having a certain knowledge base. Provided information must be reasonable and contain valid arguments. If these basic characteristics are absent, it indicates that such an evaluation is unfair.

What Is a Review Article?

Writing this type of professional paper requires preparation. A review article or a literature review is an article critique of another author's work that was published previously. Its purpose is to survey existing research and provide readers with your critical assessment of this specific topic. You will be able to create a high-quality article review using these principles:

• main topic in-depth analysis;
• generalization and classification;
• comparison of information from several sources.

When specifying a definition of a review article, a thorough analysis of relevant information and an appropriate database use are a must. The main task is to identify the topic correctly and share the results of your research. The subject of paperwork and the conclusions' validity of its author are your main targets.

Review Article Structure

Preparation for writing a review contains several stages. They include research and making your own opinion. Without an outline of your review article , nothing will work. So it is worth considering an outline and focusing on this issue as well. In addition, your finished work should include:

• criticism and comparison (introduction);
• detailed topic analysis;
• new information.

Finished work should contain a personal conclusion. If you don't include it, an article will be incomplete. You can learn more about how to write such paperwork correctly by exploring the other information below.

How to Write a Good Introduction for a Review Article

Preliminary preparation for writing a piece in a new format will let you:

• determine the author’s focus;
• mark arguments;
• pay attention to structuring.

Studying headlines and arguments plays a critical role in your finished work. Eventually, it makes it more helpful to readers. You should also focus on the introduction of how to start an essay . The introduction makes it possible to get acquainted with a perspective of its topic. For greater efficiency, it is worth pointing out the main thesis. It is important to display issues raised in an article when writing an introduction. When you start your paper, make sure your introduction is catchy enough. It should be interesting and bring some value to your readers. The first few sentences will be your hook for grabbing attention. Tell your audience why you have chosen that particular topic. Also, mention why the subject you surveyed is important.

The Body of Review Article

When studying materials, you should identify different ways of argumentation . Then you will have to highlight them in your work. Please note that the body of article review is an essential component that needs careful work on its details. Remember that your body paragraphs will vary depending on your topic. The bulk of the work includes:

• describing the author's arguments;
• providing a personal assessment.

Study the text of the first paragraphs. Then try to retell them in your own words. Retelling will help you understand your topic better and transfer your attention from the background to the foreground. Ultimately, you will have to summarize what you’ve read. Tell your opinion about its choice of arguments and evidence base.

How to Write Conclusion to Review Article

Writing a conclusion is always hard. You will need to outline the topic raised by the author and share your impressions. Use the citation from the author's work. Identify the most compelling arguments. Then address them in the conclusion of your review article. Also you can try to use our Conclusion Generator to find interesting ideas. You can’t finish reviewing without providing new information. This will mean that your research was unproductive. Discover new sides of a raised topic. Then search for the presence of arguments from similar literature. It will let you compile a summary of materials you have read and offer food for thought.

Review Article Format

Article review format is necessary for a correct presentation of data about used articles and scientific papers. While writing research, you will need to use citations of both the author and other reliable sources. Depending on your choice, you should write a description. It is worth stopping at APA in some cases. This type of data presentation is more common. There are different rules for writing descriptions of citations in MLA format. Special attention is paid to allocating primary information. Initials, titles, indications of sources, and other information are drawn in accordance with the rules. Looking for a book review format ? We have one more blog dedicated to this theme.

APA Format Article Review

Knowing how to cite a quote is mandatory because they can be used as arguments. Studying materials and presenting data about sources in a certain style requires careful focus on the order of placement of bibliographic data. Choosing APA format for article review is a popular decision for authors who prefer citing information from Internet sources, magazines, and newspapers.

MLA Format Article Review

To write this type of paper, people use quotes from literature covering the given topic. Formatting choice depends on your personal preference. However, if you have decided what style to use, you still should follow some basic rules. Article review in MLA format assumes an indication of publication date, bibliographic data, and titles. Don’t make mistakes when citing authors. Take your time to study the requirements.

How to Write an Article Review

In order to write such a paper, you should decide on your goal. As an author, you should use your analytical skills, critical thinking, and logical arguments. If you still don’t understand how to write an article review, you should follow the tips below:

• come up with some catchy title;
• use the author's quotes of your publication;
• don’t forget to include the title that you are analyzing;
• reflect your main ideas in the introduction;
• write a resume.

The final part is displaying your material's strengths and weaknesses. Identifying your opinion about the work is also a goal. Use informed criticism to achieve the desired result.

Last Thoughts on Writing a Review Article

A review article is a type of professional essay writing . So you need to study its subject carefully. Use multiple sources and highlight the main arguments. Then form your own opinion on the given topic. In conclusion of your article review, you should bring new arguments for or against the author's opinion. Use the authors' work with an excellent reputation and quote them in your article sections. Finally, don't forget to summarize and point out your work's strengths and weaknesses. Healthy criticism will let you draw up proper conclusions and challenge the author's opinion.

If you need help with your article review, feel free to contact our essay writing service. Our proficient academic writers will execute a perfect paper while being in touch for immediate revisions all the time.

FAQ About Article Review

1. what is a systematic article review.

Reviews of publications that highlight important research are thoroughly analyzed by peers and other representatives in its field. Writing a systematic review article will let you provide strong and weak arguments. Besides, it will help you give your reasons and draw correct conclusions. This will require exploring other relevant articles and databases. Research work allows you to identify erroneous conclusions. It also allows you to produce quality material for interested readers.

2. How long should an article review be?

Preparing and writing a review article requires a serious approach to the work being studied. It is rather difficult to determine how much such an article should take. Many things depend on your chosen topic: the volume of source material (number of words), research quality carried out. Ultimately, you will need to show the author's arguments as well as bring yours in order to support or refute a central thought.

3. How to title an article review?

When writing a review, selecting the right title is also an important task. It is permissible to use interrogative, summarizing, and other sentences to fully reflect the main idea. Heading becomes the focus for drawing attention, so it should be appropriate for your work. The finished review article should reflect the selected topic. It also should present a composed heading for a better understanding of readers.

4. Why articles are peer-reviewed?

In their works, researchers raise important questions that cannot be ignored. Reviewing materials allows you to determine your conclusion’s validity and to achieve better results. Conducting new independent research guarantees discovering new sides of an issue. In addition, more readers manage to study the journal article review.

Rachel R. Hill is a real educational devotee. She prides in writing exceptional general guides while listening to every need of students.

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How to Write an Article Review: Tips and Examples

Did you know that article reviews are not just academic exercises but also a valuable skill in today's information age? In a world inundated with content, being able to dissect and evaluate articles critically can help you separate the wheat from the chaff. Whether you're a student aiming to excel in your coursework or a professional looking to stay well-informed, mastering the art of writing article reviews is an invaluable skill.

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In this article, our research paper writing service experts will start by unraveling the concept of article reviews and discussing the various types. You'll also gain insights into the art of formatting your review effectively. To ensure you're well-prepared, we'll take you through the pre-writing process, offering tips on setting the stage for your review. But it doesn't stop there. You'll find a practical example of an article review to help you grasp the concepts in action. To complete your journey, we'll guide you through the post-writing process, equipping you with essential proofreading techniques to ensure your work shines with clarity and precision!

What Is an Article Review: Grasping the Concept 

A review article is a type of professional paper writing that demands a high level of in-depth analysis and a well-structured presentation of arguments. It is a critical, constructive evaluation of literature in a particular field through summary, classification, analysis, and comparison.

If you write a scientific review, you have to use database searches to portray the research. Your primary goal is to summarize everything and present a clear understanding of the topic you've been working on.

Writing Involves:

• Summarization, classification, analysis, critiques, and comparison.
• The analysis, evaluation, and comparison require the use of theories, ideas, and research relevant to the subject area of the article.
• It is also worth nothing if a review does not introduce new information, but instead presents a response to another writer's work.
• Check out other samples to gain a better understanding of how to review the article.

Types of Review

When it comes to article reviews, there's more than one way to approach the task. Understanding the various types of reviews is like having a versatile toolkit at your disposal. In this section, we'll walk you through the different dimensions of review types, each offering a unique perspective and purpose. Whether you're dissecting a scholarly article, critiquing a piece of literature, or evaluating a product, you'll discover the diverse landscape of article reviews and how to navigate it effectively.

Journal Article Review

Just like other types of reviews, a journal article review assesses the merits and shortcomings of a published work. To illustrate, consider a review of an academic paper on climate change, where the writer meticulously analyzes and interprets the article's significance within the context of environmental science.

Research Article Review

Distinguished by its focus on research methodologies, a research article review scrutinizes the techniques used in a study and evaluates them in light of the subsequent analysis and critique. For instance, when reviewing a research article on the effects of a new drug, the reviewer would delve into the methods employed to gather data and assess their reliability.

Science Article Review

In the realm of scientific literature, a science article review encompasses a wide array of subjects. Scientific publications often provide extensive background information, which can be instrumental in conducting a comprehensive analysis. For example, when reviewing an article about the latest breakthroughs in genetics, the reviewer may draw upon the background knowledge provided to facilitate a more in-depth evaluation of the publication.

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Formatting an Article Review

The format of the article should always adhere to the citation style required by your professor. If you're not sure, seek clarification on the preferred format and ask him to clarify several other pointers to complete the formatting of an article review adequately.

How Many Publications Should You Review?

• In what format should you cite your articles (MLA, APA, ASA, Chicago, etc.)?
• What length should your review be?
• Should you include a summary, critique, or personal opinion in your assignment?
• Do you need to call attention to a theme or central idea within the articles?
• Does your instructor require background information?

When you know the answers to these questions, you may start writing your assignment. Below are examples of MLA and APA formats, as those are the two most common citation styles.

Using the APA Format

Articles appear most commonly in academic journals, newspapers, and websites. If you write an article review in the APA format, you will need to write bibliographical entries for the sources you use:

• Web : Author [last name], A.A [first and middle initial]. (Year, Month, Date of Publication). Title. Retrieved from {link}
• Journal : Author [last name], A.A [first and middle initial]. (Publication Year). Publication Title. Periodical Title, Volume(Issue), pp.-pp.
• Newspaper : Author [last name], A.A [first and middle initial]. (Year, Month, Date of Publication). Publication Title. Magazine Title, pp. xx-xx.

Using MLA Format

• Web : Last, First Middle Initial. “Publication Title.” Website Title. Website Publisher, Date Month Year Published. Web. Date Month Year Accessed.
• Newspaper : Last, First M. “Publication Title.” Newspaper Title [City] Date, Month, Year Published: Page(s). Print.
• Journal : Last, First M. “Publication Title.” Journal Title Series Volume. Issue (Year Published): Page(s). Database Name. Web. Date Month Year Accessed.

Enhance your writing effortlessly with EssayPro.com , where you can order an article review or any other writing task. Our team of expert writers specializes in various fields, ensuring your work is not just summarized, but deeply analyzed and professionally presented. Ideal for students and professionals alike, EssayPro offers top-notch writing assistance tailored to your needs. Elevate your writing today with our skilled team at your article review writing service !

The Pre-Writing Process

Facing this task for the first time can really get confusing and can leave you unsure of where to begin. To create a top-notch article review, start with a few preparatory steps. Here are the two main stages from our dissertation services to get you started:

Step 1: Define the right organization for your review. Knowing the future setup of your paper will help you define how you should read the article. Here are the steps to follow:

• Summarize the article — seek out the main points, ideas, claims, and general information presented in the article.
• Define the positive points — identify the strong aspects, ideas, and insightful observations the author has made.
• Find the gaps —- determine whether or not the author has any contradictions, gaps, or inconsistencies in the article and evaluate whether or not he or she used a sufficient amount of arguments and information to support his or her ideas.
• Identify unanswered questions — finally, identify if there are any questions left unanswered after reading the piece.

Step 2: Move on and review the article. Here is a small and simple guide to help you do it right:

• Start off by looking at and assessing the title of the piece, its abstract, introductory part, headings and subheadings, opening sentences in its paragraphs, and its conclusion.
• First, read only the beginning and the ending of the piece (introduction and conclusion). These are the parts where authors include all of their key arguments and points. Therefore, if you start with reading these parts, it will give you a good sense of the author's main points.
• Finally, read the article fully.

These three steps make up most of the prewriting process. After you are done with them, you can move on to writing your own review—and we are going to guide you through the writing process as well.

Outline and Template

As you progress with reading your article, organize your thoughts into coherent sections in an outline. As you read, jot down important facts, contributions, or contradictions. Identify the shortcomings and strengths of your publication. Begin to map your outline accordingly.

If your professor does not want a summary section or a personal critique section, then you must alleviate those parts from your writing. Much like other assignments, an article review must contain an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Thus, you might consider dividing your outline according to these sections as well as subheadings within the body. If you find yourself troubled with the pre-writing and the brainstorming process for this assignment, seek out a sample outline.

Your custom essay must contain these constituent parts:

• Pre-Title Page - Before diving into your review, start with essential details: article type, publication title, and author names with affiliations (position, department, institution, location, and email). Include corresponding author info if needed.
• Running Head - In APA format, use a concise title (under 40 characters) to ensure consistent formatting.
• Summary Page - Optional but useful. Summarize the article in 800 words, covering background, purpose, results, and methodology, avoiding verbatim text or references.
• Title Page - Include the full title, a 250-word abstract, and 4-6 keywords for discoverability.
• Introduction - Set the stage with an engaging overview of the article.
• Body - Organize your analysis with headings and subheadings.
• Works Cited/References - Properly cite all sources used in your review.
• Optional Suggested Reading Page - If permitted, suggest further readings for in-depth exploration.
• Tables and Figure Legends (if instructed by the professor) - Include visuals when requested by your professor for clarity.

Example of an Article Review

You might wonder why we've dedicated a section of this article to discuss an article review sample. Not everyone may realize it, but examining multiple well-constructed examples of review articles is a crucial step in the writing process. In the following section, our essay writing service experts will explain why.

Looking through relevant article review examples can be beneficial for you in the following ways:

• To get you introduced to the key works of experts in your field.
• To help you identify the key people engaged in a particular field of science.
• To help you define what significant discoveries and advances were made in your field.
• To help you unveil the major gaps within the existing knowledge of your field—which contributes to finding fresh solutions.
• To help you find solid references and arguments for your own review.
• To help you generate some ideas about any further field of research.
• To help you gain a better understanding of the area and become an expert in this specific field.
• To get a clear idea of how to write a good review.

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Steps for Writing an Article Review

Here is a guide with critique paper format on how to write a review paper:

Step 1: Write the Title

First of all, you need to write a title that reflects the main focus of your work. Respectively, the title can be either interrogative, descriptive, or declarative.

Step 2: Cite the Article

Next, create a proper citation for the reviewed article and input it following the title. At this step, the most important thing to keep in mind is the style of citation specified by your instructor in the requirements for the paper. For example, an article citation in the MLA style should look as follows:

Author's last and first name. "The title of the article." Journal's title and issue(publication date): page(s). Print

Abraham John. "The World of Dreams." Virginia Quarterly 60.2(1991): 125-67. Print.

Step 3: Article Identification

After your citation, you need to include the identification of your reviewed article:

• Title of the article
• Title of the journal
• Year of publication

All of this information should be included in the first paragraph of your paper.

The report "Poverty increases school drop-outs" was written by Brian Faith – a Health officer – in 2000.

Step 4: Introduction

Your organization in an assignment like this is of the utmost importance. Before embarking on your writing process, you should outline your assignment or use an article review template to organize your thoughts coherently.

• If you are wondering how to start an article review, begin with an introduction that mentions the article and your thesis for the review.
• Follow up with a summary of the main points of the article.
• Highlight the positive aspects and facts presented in the publication.
• Critique the publication by identifying gaps, contradictions, disparities in the text, and unanswered questions.

Step 5: Summarize the Article

Make a summary of the article by revisiting what the author has written about. Note any relevant facts and findings from the article. Include the author's conclusions in this section.

Step 6: Critique It

Present the strengths and weaknesses you have found in the publication. Highlight the knowledge that the author has contributed to the field. Also, write about any gaps and/or contradictions you have found in the article. Take a standpoint of either supporting or not supporting the author's assertions, but back up your arguments with facts and relevant theories that are pertinent to that area of knowledge. Rubrics and templates can also be used to evaluate and grade the person who wrote the article.

Step 7: Craft a Conclusion

In this section, revisit the critical points of your piece, your findings in the article, and your critique. Also, write about the accuracy, validity, and relevance of the results of the article review. Present a way forward for future research in the field of study. Before submitting your article, keep these pointers in mind:

• As you read the article, highlight the key points. This will help you pinpoint the article's main argument and the evidence that they used to support that argument.
• While you write your review, use evidence from your sources to make a point. This is best done using direct quotations.
• Select quotes and supporting evidence adequately and use direct quotations sparingly. Take time to analyze the article adequately.
• Every time you reference a publication or use a direct quotation, use a parenthetical citation to avoid accidentally plagiarizing your article.
• Re-read your piece a day after you finish writing it. This will help you to spot grammar mistakes and to notice any flaws in your organization.
• Use a spell-checker and get a second opinion on your paper.

The Post-Writing Process: Proofread Your Work

Finally, when all of the parts of your article review are set and ready, you have one last thing to take care of — proofreading. Although students often neglect this step, proofreading is a vital part of the writing process and will help you polish your paper to ensure that there are no mistakes or inconsistencies.

To proofread your paper properly, start by reading it fully and checking the following points:

• Punctuation
• Other mistakes

Afterward, take a moment to check for any unnecessary information in your paper and, if found, consider removing it to streamline your content. Finally, double-check that you've covered at least 3-4 key points in your discussion.

And remember, if you ever need help with proofreading, rewriting your essay, or even want to buy essay , our friendly team is always here to assist you.

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How to write an article review, how to write an article review in apa format, related articles.

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Writing a Paper: Conclusions

Writing a conclusion.

A conclusion is an important part of the paper; it provides closure for the reader while reminding the reader of the contents and importance of the paper. It accomplishes this by stepping back from the specifics in order to view the bigger picture of the document. In other words, it is reminding the reader of the main argument. For most course papers, it is usually one paragraph that simply and succinctly restates the main ideas and arguments, pulling everything together to help clarify the thesis of the paper. A conclusion does not introduce new ideas; instead, it should clarify the intent and importance of the paper. It can also suggest possible future research on the topic.

An Easy Checklist for Writing a Conclusion

It is important to remind the reader of the thesis of the paper so he is reminded of the argument and solutions you proposed.

Think of the main points as puzzle pieces, and the conclusion is where they all fit together to create a bigger picture. The reader should walk away with the bigger picture in mind.

Make sure that the paper places its findings in the context of real social change.

Make sure the reader has a distinct sense that the paper has come to an end. It is important to not leave the reader hanging. (You don’t want her to have flip-the-page syndrome, where the reader turns the page, expecting the paper to continue. The paper should naturally come to an end.)

No new ideas should be introduced in the conclusion. It is simply a review of the material that is already present in the paper. The only new idea would be the suggesting of a direction for future research.

Conclusion Example

As addressed in my analysis of recent research, the advantages of a later starting time for high school students significantly outweigh the disadvantages. A later starting time would allow teens more time to sleep--something that is important for their physical and mental health--and ultimately improve their academic performance and behavior. The added transportation costs that result from this change can be absorbed through energy savings. The beneficial effects on the students’ academic performance and behavior validate this decision, but its effect on student motivation is still unknown. I would encourage an in-depth look at the reactions of students to such a change. This sort of study would help determine the actual effects of a later start time on the time management and sleep habits of students.

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How to End Your Article: 5 Ways to Write a Powerful Conclusion

• April 28, 2024
• 13 Comments

A good article ends with a conclusion that surprises the reader, yet makes sense. Writing an ending that summarizes your ideas is difficult, but not impossible.

Endings are important. So important, in fact, that some writers say a strong ending is more important than a strong beginning. I disagree. If you don’t hook your reader from the start, she’ll never get to the end.

Nevertheless, ending your article on a high note gives it power to stick with the reader forever. Or a really long time. In this article, you won’t find a “one size fits all” tip on how to end your article because it doesn’t exist. You will, however, find the five most effective ways to write a conclusion.

“It is always important to know when something has reached its end,” writes Paulo Coelho in The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession . “Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn’t matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over.”

Sometimes the ending practically writes itself. Other times you have to wrestle that ending to the ground. Either way, you must be alert. Writing a great conclusion is easier when you have a variety of tools and techniques to choose from. Who goes into battle empty-handed? These five tips for ending your article will help you find the right way to say “The End” without coming out and saying…The End.

Whether you’re writing an article for a national magazine or blogging a little blurb, keep the ending at the back of your mind. What impression do you want to leave the readers with? How do you want them to feel, what do you want them to do? As you research, write and revise your article, stay alert to possible endings. Play with different ideas.

5 Powerful Ways to End Your Article

Some writers say the conclusion of an article could work just as well as the introduction – with a slight modification. I think it depends on your article, writing style, and audience.

Your conclusion rounds out the article, ties up the loose ends. It’s not an afterthought. To be powerful, a strong ending has to develop naturally from the article, essay, or chapter. The conclusion has to both surprise readers and make them feel like they should’ve known it was coming all along.

1. End with a quotation that looks back or looks forward

You don’t necessarily want to add anything too new to the end of your article, but you can include a surprising twist. Readers want the same, but different. So do editors and publishers. So, give your reader more of what you’ve been doing in the article — ending with a little poke in the ribs.

“…don’t make the surprise so foreign that it seems out of place and doesn’t tie into the article. If the quote or surprising statement seems out of place, then you only leave the reader confused, and you have lost the value of what you have built throughout the article,” writes Roger Palms in Effective Magazine Writing: Let Your Words Reach the World .

2. Invite the reader to go in a different direction

The most powerful ending neatly wraps up the article  and gives the reader something new to think about. This is difficult for most writers – even seasoned freelancers. Imagine your ending as a fork in the road. Where do you want readers to go? Write two or three different endings, then take a break. Have a nap, visit another world. Now how does the ending feel? Maybe it needs more work, or maybe one of your conclusions does the job.

The bad news is there is no one perfect way to write a powerful ending to your article. This is also the good news! If there was one perfect way to end it, then all writers would use that conclusion. And it would lose its power. You need to find the right ending for your article.

3. Finish with a dollop of something different

“If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on a wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off,” says Paula LaRocque, author of The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well . “If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”

This type of conclusion might involve weaving in (not tacking on) a whole new anecdote, or including a new bit of information that adds to the story you introduced in the lead or body of the article. Many professional freelance writers like to end with a relevant story, a little vignette, something that gives the reader a feeling that the essence of the article or essay was captured.

How do I end my articles? I circle back to the beginning somehow – it depends on the topic, interviewees, audience, article length, and deadline. I often include more information about something I introduced earlier in the article.

“What is this ‘more’ you speak of?”, you ask? It depends on the article you’re writing. That’s the pain and power of writing: so much simply depends on so many things. If you know how to end your article or essay but your writing is flimsy and weak, read  How to Write Powerful Words That Grab Attention .

4. If you must summarize, do it with style

Some endings need to clearly restate and summarize the article’s main argument. Other articles don’t need a summary because there wasn’t a stated theme. Does your article need a summary? Ask it. Ask yourself as the writer. Maybe even ask a beta reader. If you’re arguing for or describing something complicated or new to readers, perhaps a summary is the most powerful way to end the article.

A summary isn’t the most creative   way to end your article, but you can spice it up with different literary techniques. Use sensory details to fire up your writing, or bring an inanimate object alive with personification. Learn different types of  edgy and quirky writing . Sometimes it’s not what you write…it’s how you write it.

Here’s how NOT to end an article:

• “In summary, I would like to say….”
• “The End.”
• “In conclusion, may I reiterate….”
• “I know I said this in my intro and in paragraphs three through thirty, but it cannot be overstated that…”

I take a week to write magazine articles. This allows my brain and the article to tell me how to write a powerful ending. It’s never perfect, but it is as good as I can write it.

5. Circle back to the beginning

The final, most powerful tip on how to end an article: write a conclusion that refers back to your introduction or opening statements. This, says some professional freelance writers, gives readers a feeling of arrival.

You could pick up a word, a phrase, or part of an anecdote from your introduction, and round it out more. Don’t just repeat it; expand on it, color it in, give it some texture and depth. Ideally, leave readers with a hook at the end of your article – something that lodges in their minds so deeply that they can’t forget it right away.

Good writing isn’t just about learning how to end an article with a strong conclusion or conclude an essay with a summary of all your main points. Rather, good writing is about weaving all the aspects of the whole piece together.

Are you writing for a magazine?

In 11 Most Popular Articles to Write for Magazines (Freelance Writing is Easier Than You Think!) I share tips for getting published in magazines.

Getting published in print and online magazines is a lot easier when you know what types of articles editors and publishers need.

I welcome your thoughts on writing good endings – and learning how to listen to your article for the ending it wants to tell. Remember that writing a good ending involves editing and revising; it’s not something you can just tack onto the end.

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13 thoughts on “How to End Your Article: 5 Ways to Write a Powerful Conclusion”

Great article! Your explanation of how to write a conclusion was very clear and informative. I particularly appreciated the tips on summarizing the main points and tying them together to leave a lasting impact on the reader. Thank you for sharing this valuable information with the writing community

Appreciate the encouragement!

Just to say: Paula LaRocque is quoting (or ripping off?!) master playwright Anton Chekhov there (about the gun that must go off). It’s a pretty famous quote from him: he just says “acts” instead of chapters, since he was a playwright. Just sayin’! Thanks for the tips on endings!

17 Ways to Write a Conclusion for an Article

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Conclusions to news articles—or any kind of article for that matter—are important because they wrap up the story and comfortably tell the reader that they've reached the end. Think about any news story or op-ed piece that you thought was well-written and you'll notice it ended with an important or interesting piece of information.

The truth is, everyone has a hard time writing conclusions. But don't fret. This list of seventeen kinds of conclusions will help you polish off your next piece of writing. Bookmark this list, keep it handy, and reach for it the next time your brain is out of fresh ideas.

Reiterate the Main Point

Circling back to your main point is the most straightforward way to wrap up your article. Simply reiterate your main point with slightly different verbiage. It may not seem very creative, but it's logical and it works.

For example, an article about the need for clean energy could end with a statistic about the melting of the polar ice caps.

Summarize Succinctly

Summarizing is different than reiterating. Instead of focusing on the main point, you could wrap up with a quick revisit of your document's body text . 

An article about the nuclear arms race could end with information about the current status of China and North Korea's nuclear arsenal.

Answer Potential Questions

Have you ever read something, gotten to the end, and thought, "So What? Why should I care?" In other words, what is the outcome or consequence of the main points made in the article?

For example, an article about the lack of qualified high school basketball coaches in your area should conclude with statistics about the low percentage of NBA players from areas with unqualified high school basketball coaches.

Send Readers Elsewhere

If your article, essay or blog post is pretty complete and doesn't need a "so what?", nor a reiteration, consider sending the reader in a new direction. It works well for blog posts.

For example, you could end a blog post similar to this article by saying something along the lines of, "Of course, there are plenty of credible blogs out there hiring freelancers. Try checking out any of these," and then list blogs you know are credible.

Issue a Challenge

Spur your readers on by challenging them in some way. Invite them to prove or disprove your point, or to think about the information you presented in a new and innovative way.

Allowing the reader to comment or send a letter  to the editor is always a powerful way to end an article.

Point to the Future

This one tends to be easy. It mentally places your reader in the future while keeping your article in mind. This makes it more likely the reader will use your information or revisit your publication.

For example, if you are writing an article about increasing your freelance writing rates , ask the reader to consider the benefits of doing so—such as more savings, fewer work hours and higher self-esteem. 

Make a New Connection

Ask the reader to consider new information or a new connection birthed by your article. This connects your article to the bigger picture.

For example, an article about a new social media platform could conclude with how this digital offering plugs the readers into what is relevant today, whether they are 26 or 62.

Wrap up a Scenario

If you opened your document with a scenario, story or vignette, revisit that scene. It works well for many types of articles and tends to add interest to weighty information.

For example, if your article is about gun control, go back to your opening scene about Parkland or Shady Hook.

Circle Back

Circling back to your opener or introduction is similar to the wrap-up scenario

L et's say you opened an essay on the Gettysburg Address with a quote from Lincoln. Conclude by letting the reader know that the Gettysburg Address is considered one of the most important orations in American history because it was the official dedication ceremony for the National Cemetery of Gettysburg, on the site of one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles of the Civil War.

End With a Quote

Many writers are partial to pithy quotes . If you can find one that supports your article or essay, feel free to use it—as long as you attribute it properly. You don't want to violate any copyrights .

If your article explores the importance of details in mid-century architecture, end with Mies van der Rohs' famous line, "God is in the details."

Present a Solution

If your article focuses on a problem, use your conclusion to point the reader to a good solution. It works well for political and sociological pieces.

For example, an op-ed about the need to engage more students in the political process could end by mentioning the League of Women Voters, which helps pre-register 16-year-olds.

Suggest Further Reading

If your prose is limited by a word count , offer your reader further resources to continue learning about the subject at hand.

For example, an article about starting a business could send readers to ​their local Chamber of Commerce.

Suggest an Action

It is similar to issuing a challenge but more concrete. For those who write online, this may come in the form of asking the reader to click a link leading to your other pieces about the same subject. 

The importance of leadership to the success of a business could have the reader click on a link to a recent entrepreneur.com story with advice from exemplary leaders.

Point to Great Things

This conclusion works well for pieces meant to be persuasive or to provide a solution or challenge. It entails pointing out the great things that will happen to the readers if they accept and act upon your point of view.

For example, if you are writing an article about the need for people to adopt shelter dogs, let the reader know how many dogs could be saved each year through adoption.

Get Rhetorical

Ask a rhetorical question.

For example: "It's up to you: Do you want to write great conclusions or not?"

Consider the Larger Context

Place your article, essay, blog post or  e-book within a larger context.

If you're writing a how-to piece about conclusions, connect the ability to write conclusions to the advancement of one's career by saying, "Your clients will appreciate the skill that you have in wrapping up your copy, and will hire you again and again."

Switch Gears

Switch gears, and approach the other side of an argument.

For example, you could conclude an article about writer's rates by saying, "Then again, some very good writers prefer not to earn a living through their craft, and prefer being hobbyists, and that's perfectly fine."

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Like Love by Maggie Nelson review – music, passion and friendship

Vibrant essays from the author of The Argonauts touch on art, inspiration, and many of the central dilemmas of our times

“A s a child I had so much energy I’d lie awake and feel my organs smolder,” Maggie Nelson wrote in 2005’s Jane: A Murder . She was a dancer before she was a writer and you can feel the commitment to the fire of bodily motion in her masterpieces: the shimmeringly brutal excavation of girlhood and violence in Jane , the story of her aunt’s killing at the hands of a rapist; the clear-headed yet ecstatic celebration of the transformations of pregnancy and top surgery, and the new kind of family she and her trans partner brought into being in The Argonauts (2015). Her dedication to the material finds the forms it needs; I don’t think she sets out to bend genres. Instead, her high-stakes eviscerations of body settle into radically new forms.

Is this the energy of the rebel or the valedictorian? For decades, Nelson has parted her hair, fastened her top button, won the right grades and grants while throwing herself voluptuously into the counterculture, dreaming of being an “ electric ribbon of horniness and divine grace ” like one of her inspirations, Prince . It’s an American energy – expansive, new, full of power, pleasure, change and motion; a frontier energy, even when she’s writing about New York. We can hear Whitman behind her, and Emerson. “Power ceases in the instant of repose,” Emerson pronounces in Self-Reliance ; “it resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state, in the shooting of a gulf, in the darting to an aim.”

A decade after The Argonauts became the bible of English graduates everywhere, the essays in Like Love arrive to help us understand Nelson’s place in a culture where, to her half-delight, she has become such a powerful voice. Spanning two decades, they range from appreciations of influences including Prince and Judith Butler , to wild, freefalling conversations with figures such as Björk, Wayne Koestenbaum and Jacqueline Rose. There is a passionate, wondering account of her formative half-erotic friendship with the singer Lhasa de Sela . The writing isn’t consistent, any more than her books are. But I like to take my thinkers and writers whole, as she does. The essays offer a kind of composite self-portrait, and illustrate how she thinks, sometimes painstakingly, sometimes with casual jubilance, about some of the central dilemmas of our time.

In the face of the climate crisis, how to avoid “giving in to the narcissistic spectacle of the slo-mo Titanic going down”? In the face of the crisis in feminism, how and whether to move beyond sexual difference? The written exchanges show her interlocutors thinking it through, too. “ You dare to step into the future like no one else atm ,” Björk says. It’s true. This is where all that restless energy is leading. This is why she’s an Emersonian, shying away from nihilism. “There are new lands, new men, new thoughts,” Emerson wrote in Nature , discarding the “dry bones” of his ancestors; “Let us demand our own works and laws and worship.”

In her powerful piece on the artist Carolee Schneemann , Nelson posits her as a female incarnation of Emerson’s self-reliant man. But it’s Nelson herself who proffers new laws and worship – whose project amounts to a practical philosophy of contemporary American culture. In The Argonauts she offers the gift of a future we can somehow share; one that acknowledges the miseries of the present, that has space for dreams, but is obstinately material and in our world. Here, in dialogue with Jacqueline Rose, she proposes that “ Everybody deserves the kind of non-stultifying internal breathing space of fluidity or instability that is attributed to queers, or to women, or whatever.”

Like Love’s title comes from writer and theatre critic Hilton Als ’s vision of a group on the subway not as white women or black men but as mouths that need filling “with something wet or dry, like love, or unfamiliar and savory, like love”. Nelson, too, is drawn to mouths – to orifices in general – as organs of pleasure and pain, and as portals enabling a radical openness.

Because Nelson likes writing about her friends, there’s a kind of homogeneity to much of the book that cumulatively left me feeling a little claustrophobic, longing especially for the roominess of time travel. With the exception of 2009’s Bluets , Nelson’s writing is so located in the postwar world that the past can feel entirely absent. This is her affinity with Emerson and Whitman again – her song to the future – but I wonder if I’m alone in wishing that, alongside those two often acknowledged ancestors, her future could have artists, activists and libertines from earlier centuries informing it, too.

Which is not to say that she’s wrong to write about the people in her circle. The brutality of the present moment may require us precisely to batten down the hatches and commit to extreme solidarity. At a time when institutional life is collapsing, when the pandemic privileged family over friends, when work expands in ways that leave many too exhausted to socialise, Nelson demonstrates what it means to dedicate yourself to a cohort with seriousness and strenuousness. “You, to me, quickly became an inspiration,” she tells the poet Brian Blanchfield , “a brother, a support in times of seriously dark waters, an editor, a lender of excellent and pivotal books, a cheerleader, a colleague, a couch sleeper (and couch mover), a fellow swimmer … a corrupting gambler, (queer) family.” Like Love may be one of the most movingly specific, the most lovingly unruly celebrations of the ethics of friendship we have.

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Introduction, results and discussion, materials and methods, acknowledgements, author contributions.

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Displacement-pressure biparametrically regulated softness sensory system for intraocular pressure monitoring

Equally contributed to this work.

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Yu Cheng, Yifei Zhan, Fangyi Guan, Junli Shi, Jingxiao Wang, Yi Sun, Muhammad Zubair, Cunjiang Yu, Chuan Fei Guo, Displacement-pressure biparametrically regulated softness sensory system for intraocular pressure monitoring, National Science Review , Volume 11, Issue 6, June 2024, nwae050, https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwae050

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High intraocular pressure (IOP) is one of the high-risk pathogenic factors of glaucoma. Existing methods of IOP measurement are based on the direct interaction with the cornea. Commercial ophthalmic tonometers based on snapshot measurements are expensive, bulky, and their operation requires trained personnel. Theranostic contact lenses are easy to use, but they may block vision and cause infection. Here, we report a sensory system for IOP assessment that uses a soft indentor with two asymmetrically deployed iontronic flexible pressure sensors to interact with the eyelid-eyeball in an eye-closed situation. Inspired by human fingertip assessment of softness, the sensory system extracts displacement-pressure information for soft evaluation, achieving high accuracy IOP monitoring (>96%). We further design and custom-make a portable and wearable ophthalmic tonometer based on the sensory system and demonstrate its high efficacy in IOP screening. This sensory system paves a way towards cost-effective, robust, and reliable IOP monitoring.

High intraocular pressure (IOP) has been found to be associated with the abnormal circulation of aqueous humor and the monitoring of IOP has been an effective strategy to prevent eye-related diseases, including the acute angle-closure glaucoma [ 1 ], the second leading cause of irreversible loss of vision worldwide [ 2 ]. Currently, reducing IOP, the only known quantifiable hazard factor, is an effective method to prevent optic nerve damage and vision loss [ 3 , 4 ]. Therefore, daily and point-of-care monitoring of IOP is crucial to eye health, especially for glaucoma screening in high-risk groups [ 5 ].

The evaluation of IOP first originated from palpation to feel the hardness of the eyeball, credited to William Mackenzie [ 6 ] who discovered eyeball hardness as a feature of glaucoma in 1830. Considering the subjectiveness of palpation, objective approaches for snapshot-based IOP detection have been explored nowadays, among which the gold-standard medical measurement in hospitals is based on the Goldmann applanation tonometry that uses an indenter to directly interact with the cornea [ 7 ]. Despite the high accuracy, this technique is unavailable for daily use because of its reliance on a bulky benchtop device as well as professional clinicians [ 8 ]. In contrast to in-office assessments, portable home tonometers that provide convenient IOP monitoring are becoming popular. However, these devices often suffer from large errors (>5 mmHg) and discomfort since they still utilize an indentor to directly contact with the cornea [ 9 ]. Wearable soft contact lenses are another alternative that enables wireless and real-time monitoring of IOP with miniaturized integrations [ 10–13 ]. The lenses, however, may partly hinder vision, and like other direct cornea-interaction techniques, can introduce a risk of infection or abrasion to the corneas, not even mentioning the complexity and dedicated sensing and electronic modules for untethered readout and that a significant proportion of the population cannot wear contact lenses [ 10 , 11 ].

Here, we develop a palpation-type sensory system, which uses two asymmetrically deployed iontronic flexible pressure sensors with a high sensitivity of 736.1 kPa –1 integrated into a soft hemispheric indentor to interact with the eyelid of a closed eye for real-time and high-accuracy IOP evaluation. Inspired by softness assessment with a human fingertip, this sensory system detects the softness (in this work we use the term softness because the system can discriminate deformable materials only) of the eyeball by extracting force and displacement information measured by the two sensors during the interaction between the soft indentor and the eyelid. The high-performance sensors enable a quick and easy capture of the feature information to construct a machine-learning model for softness evaluation. This system is operated without any damage or contamination to the cornea, while the testing accuracy and testing consistency are far higher than that of commercial tonometers, and it shows high robustness and efficiency under different temperatures, humidities, and loading conditions. A custom-made, portable, wearable ophthalmic tonometer based on the sensory system has been further developed and has exhibited high efficacy in IOP monitoring and screening.

Design and working principle of the tonometer

Our sensory system for softness test is inspired by the human sensory system, which often feels softness by touching an object with a fingertip. The nerves and the brain are also involved in signal transmission and information processing, respectively. Mechanoreceptors of a human fingertip are distributed on a curved surface. The feeling of softness often involves a group of mechanosensors that ‘detect’ both pressure and displacement upon pressing. The central part of the touch often has a higher pressure than the marginal part. A relatively homogeneous distribution of pressure in addition to a large displacement give a feel of high softness of the object, while a larger central-to-marginal pressure difference and a smaller displacement give a feel of ‘hard’ (Fig.  1a ).

Design and principle of the portable IOP tonometer. (a) Mechanism for the feel of softness by a human fingertip. (b) Structure of the indentor. Two sensors are integrated on the sphere surface. (c) Muti-segment displacement control of the indentor. (d) Deep learning enabled intelligent sensing system. (e) Schematic of the portable IOP tonometer.

Here, we design a finger-like indentor for softness sensing. Unlike general approaches that pay much effort to detect numerous physical parameters while the detecting range is often limited ( Fig. S1 and Note S1 ), in the indentor, we use two sensors with asymmetric deployment—one (sensor #1) placed on the pole of an elastomeric hemisphere, and the other (sensor #2) placed at an angle of 25° to the principal axis (Fig.  1b ), to detect the contact pressures and deflection from the center. Only two sensors are needed to collect the pressure information for softness sensing because of the symmetry of the hemisphere and the uniformity of the contact. The detailed fabrication of the sensors is described in Fig. S2 . When the indentor is pressed against and makes contact with a soft object, featured sensing information—contact force as a function of displacement can be captured (Fig.  1c and Fig. S3 ), while the two sensors show pressure to displacement response. This system can recognize softness based on a pressure-displacement coupled algorithm (Fig.  1d ). We further design a wearable IOP tonometer based on the sensory system, for which the signal is transmitted to a cellphone and the result of IOP evaluation is reported in a mobile phone app (Fig.  1e ).

Properties of the pressure sensor

The sensor consists of an ionic active layer (poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP)-1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([EMIM][TFSI])) ( Fig. S4 ) sandwiched in between a flat polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-gold (Au) electrode and a microstructured PI (polyimide)-Au electrode (Fig.  2a ), governed by the iontronic sensing mechanism [ 14 ]. The PI membrane has a microstructure (called graded intrafillable architecture [ 15 ]) ( Fig. S5 ) that leads to both high sensitivity (736.1 kPa –1 in 0–60 kPa, and 310.1 kPa –1 in 60–300 kPa, Fig.  2b ) and a rapid response-relaxation speed (response time: 5.4 ms, recovery time: 6.4 ms, Fig. S6 ). Our iontronic sensor exhibits a high sensitivity and a wide working range; such high sensing properties are crucial to the performance of the sensory system.

Sensing properties of the sensors. (a) Schematics showing the cross section of the iontronic sensor and its working principle. (b) Response of the sensing unit to pressure in the range of 0 to ∼300 kPa. (c) Distinct capacitive signals of the two sensors when touching steel (modulus: ∼200 GPa) and velvet (modulus: <1 kPa) at a same displacement of ∼0.1 mm. (d) Contact force as a function of displacements (at 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0 mm) by touching seven materials with different Shore hardness values. (e and f) Capacitance as a function of displacement for sensor #1 and #2 by touching the seven different samples. (g and h) Signals of the two sensors when they are in contact with a piece of block (87 HA) in a multi-segment displacement mode over 100 cycles.

When the hemisphere makes contact with a target object at a given displacement, each sensor records a pressure that is dependent on the softness of the object. For example, the signal of touching a piece of hard steel (Young's modulus E ∼200 GPa) varies substantially from that of touching soft flannel ( E <1 kPa) in terms of the shape of the signal and the pressure-difference between the two sensors (Fig.  2c ). Furthermore, the contact force increases with displacement when the indentor presses on soft materials with different Shore hardness values of 30, 40, 48, 62, 72, 80, and 87 HA (Fig.  2d and Fig. S7 ). We further record the capacitance-displacement curves of the two sensors. Such data provide rich information to distinguish objects with different Shore softness values for us to further establish an efficient deep learning model (Fig.  2e and f ). In addition, the iontronic pressure sensors were verified to have high working stability, either in cyclic loading-unloading with a fixed peak pressure (over 5000 cycles, Fig. S8 ), or with each cycle a set of different displacements (Fig.  2g and h ). The high stability might be derived from the high compression endurance of the PDMS hemisphere ( Fig. S9 ) that guarantees data reliability.

Deep learning enabled softness classification

We construct a neural network based on deep learning for softness classification. It has been verified that high-quality small data in combination with effective algorithms can serve as a powerful tool to construct a high-performance deep learning system [ 16 ]. A one-dimensional convolution neural network (1DCNN) with multiple channels was selected to construct a deep learning model by extracting and enlarging the features of the datasets (Fig.  3a ), updated through backpropagation until the training loss is minimized ( Fig. S10 ). Note that 1DCNN is commonly used in the field of intelligent sensing and has proven to be effective in deriving features from time-series data [ 17–21 ]. Detailed parameters used for this network are given in Table S1 . The feature dataset is collected using the hemispheric indentor to press seven samples with different Shore hardness values (30, 40, 48, 62, 72, 80, and 87 HA) at five characteristic displacements (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0 mm). This method is defined as ‘multi-segment displacement control’, for which characteristic data are collected at stepwise displacements. For each sample, 100 sets of data were collected with each set containing 10 characteristic peaks from the two sensors (five for each sensor). The peaks were extracted from time series, resampled and converted into 10 separate channels. Consequently, within one single data sample, data points that correspond to the contact approximately align across channels. There are a total of 700 sets of data, containing 7000 characteristic peaks (one peak per channel). Sixty percent of the data is used for training, 20% for validation, and 20% for testing.

Construction, accuracy, and efficiency of the deep learning model for the sensory system. (a) Structure of a one-dimensional convolution neural network model used in this work. (b) A single dataset of the softness sensor touching objects with different softness values. Comparison of the distinguishability, efficiency, and accuracy of deep learning models using (c–e) displacement-pressure model and (f–h) only force-controlled model. Panels (c) and (f) show one-dimensional points after dimensionality reduction through t-SNE. Panels (d) and (g) show the accuracy of training and validation with different numbers of epochs, and panels (e) and (h) show confusion matrix of softness recognition.

The softness of the objects can be well evaluated using the featured dataset under a multi-segment displacement control (Fig.  3b ). T-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) was utilized to visualize the data. The t-SNE method can reduce the dimensionality of extracted features and display the results in a 2D space, as shown in Fig.  3c . It shows that the normalized data of multi-segment displacement control from different samples can be well distinguished ( Fig. S11a and Note S2 ). Therefore, sample points of the same object are clustered closely together, indicating that the hemispheric indentor is capable of accurately sensing the softness of objects through displacement control. Such a small but high-quality dataset contributes to the high training efficiency of the model—a validation accuracy of 99.3% is achieved within only 18 epochs (Fig.  3d and e ). The validation accuracy and training accuracy are similar, which means that the training model is adaptive to unknown data. Therefore, our model has a high generalization ability.

The results of force-control mode (using a single parameter of force) reported in the literature were compared with that of our multi-segment displacement control [ 22 , 23 ]. With the absence of displacement parameters, data points are poorly clustered (Fig.  3f ) because all the samples with different hardness values give similar outputs ( Fig. S11b and c ) and undistinguishably normalized data ( Fig. S11d ). Without displacement control, validation accuracy is much lower than the training accuracy (Fig.  3g ), indicating low generalization ability. As a result, a much lower testing accuracy (78.6%, Fig.  3h ) is achieved. We thus conclude that the introduction of displacement information substantially increases the classification accuracy.

Note that the two-sensor deployment and the multi-segment displacement strategy both help achieve a high accuracy in evaluating softness. The classification accuracy drops to 95.7% when using only sensor #1, and to 92.9% when using only sensor #2 ( Fig. S12a and b ). Likewise, the number of displacements used in the indentor-sample interaction also affects the accuracy: the model gives a 97.1% accuracy for the case of four displacements, and further decreases to 96.4% when only a single displacement is used ( Fig. S12c and d ).

Our sensory system, which consists of the indentor (with both force and displacement control), data collection, and the deep learning model, can be used for high-accuracy recognition of soft objects. We select 20 objects from soft elastomers in laboratories to leathers, foods, foams, and to many other commonly seen objects for our test ( Fig. S13a and b ). The training of the model is completed in only ∼12 epochs ( Fig. S14a ), and the clustering of t-SNE data points shows well-defined borders that are separated from each other ( Fig. S14b ). Accordingly, the classification accuracy reaches 99.25% ( Fig. S14c ). Such a model trained in only a few epochs while exhibiting a high recognition accuracy signifies a low computational cost as well as a high working efficiency, which is one to two orders of magnitude higher than that in previously reported sensory systems based on deep learning [ 17–21 , 24–27 ] ( Fig. S15 and Table S2 ).

The high performance of the sensory system is contingent upon several factors: highly sensitive sensors that provide precise data, a specially designed data acquisition method that yields multi-feature data, and an elaborately designed deep learning model. While sensory systems based on flexible sensors and machine learning have already been reported [ 28 , 29 ], existing work often uses sensors to measure simple contact force (or pressure) [ 24 , 30 ], for which the data often fail to reflect the spatial characteristics of the object (caused by deformation), leading to a suboptimal training efficiency.

Reliability and robustness of the sensory system

Our sensory system exhibits high robustness under complex working conditions, including varied humidities, temperatures, and loading speeds of the indentor (Fig.  4a ). The indentor is first placed in a confined space for which the working humidity can be tuned. We show that there is no substantial change in the shape and magnitude of the signal for both sensors at relative humidity (RH) values of 52%, 67% and 89% RH ( Fig. S16a–c ). Correspondingly, the t-SNE data points remain well clustered and distinguishable ( Fig. S16d ), and the model gives a classification accuracy of at least 98.6% under different humidity conditions (Fig.  4b and Fig. S17a–c ), and 98.6% under random humidity ( Fig. S17d ). The humidity-insensitive behavior stems from the hydrophobic nature of the ionic material used in this work ( Fig. S18 ).

Reliability and robustness of the sensory system. (a) The sensory system for softness evaluation and its application under complex working conditions. Classification accuracy of the sensory system under different humidity conditions (b), loading speeds (c) and temperatures (d). (e) Effect of the number of displacements used on accuracy.

The classification accuracy is also insensitive to the loading rate of the indentor. The amplitude of the signal does not change with the loading rate, when the rate changes randomly in the range from 2.5 to 20 mm min –1 to interact with a sample of 30 HA and at a displacement of 1 mm ( Fig. S19a–c ). Because of the high-quality data sets collected in a displacement-control manner ( Fig. S19d ), an equally high classification accuracy of higher than 99% (Fig.  4c and Fig. S20a–d ) is maintained. The result is related to the high response-relaxation speed of the sensors.

Although both the sensing properties of the sensor and the softness of materials may change with temperature, the sensory system remains effective in the identification of objects as temperature changes from room temperature to 60°C. Iontronic sensors often exhibit higher signal amplitude at higher temperatures ( Fig. S21a ) because of the increasing ion mobility [ 31 ], and this change can compensate for the change in signal in a temperature-changing process. For example, the signal corresponding to the sample of 30 HA at 60°C is similar to that of the sample of 40 HA at 40°C ( Fig. S21b ). The experimental results indicate that changes in temperature do not affect the ratio between the peak values measured at different displacements ( Fig. S21c ). The multi-segment displacement design ensures that the deep learning model not only considers the absolute values of each peak, but also the relationship between the peaks. Since one peak is converted to one channel, the design enables cross-calibration between channels. We thus trained a neural network based on the mixed data collected under varying temperatures (30, 40, and 50°C). The t-SNE plot reveals well-clustered data points ( Fig. S21d ), and the model classification accuracy is higher than 98% under different temperatures (Fig.  4d and Fig. S22a–d ). We repeated the training process by using fewer displacements to further investigate the effect of the cross-validation, and the results show that the classification accuracy decreases with the decreasing number of displacements (Fig.  4e ), verifying the necessity of temperature calibration through multi-segment displacement control.

Portable IOP tonometer

We have designed and custom-made a portable and wearable IOP tonometer (Fig.  5a and b ) based on our sensory system. The tonometer has binocular indentors with displacement controllers ( Fig. S23a and b ) that are integrated into a 3D-printed headset shell, and two adjustment screws that help align with the eyeballs (Fig.  5c ). Our portable tonometer costs only about 200 USD, which is more cost-effective compared with that of commercial portable tonometers (e.g. ICARE IC-100, which costs about 2000 USD). We have also designed a program to control the tonometer ( Fig. S24 ). The signals are collected and processed using a circuit board, of which the details can be seen in the Methods section. Data are used to train a deep learning model serving as an ‘AI brain’. In real-time testing, data are sent to the ‘AI brain’ to make a classification and results are returned to the user via a mobile app ( Fig. S25 ). In the tonometer, each indentor uses two sensors for pressure detection at three displacements of 1, 2, and 3 mm, using a micro linear meter that has a displacement accuracy of 0.2 mm.

Structure of the portable tonometer and its application in IOP assessment. (a) Schematic diagram of the IOP assessment using our portable tonometer. (b) Photo of the portable IOP tonometer. (c) Components of the portable IOP tonometer. (d) Schematic of IOP evaluation by touching an eyelid using the indentor. A soft bilayer is used to simulate the eyelid. (e) Accuracy of softness classification when using an artificial eyelid of different thicknesses of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 mm. The case of no artificial eyelid is also involved. (f) An example showing the measured signals from the two sensors of an indentor and the final assessment using our system. (g) Deep learning results of IOP assessment. (h) Results of the jet measurement-based IOP tonometer (Non-Contact Tonometer NCT-200) from a subject. (i) Comparison of results between our portable IOP tonometer and a portable IOP tonometer (ICare IC100).

Our sensory system can detect the softness of a material even if it is covered by another thin layer of a softer material—which is similar to the case when an eyeball is covered by an eyelid, allowing our system to conduct palpation on closed eyes for IOP monitoring (Fig.  5d ). We used a layer of Ecoflex 00–30 (Young's modulus: ∼60 kPa) as the top soft layer that analogues an eyelid and placed the soft layer on samples of different hardness values. Here, we use a stable and softer elastomer (Young's modulus: 70 kPa, Fig. S26a and b ) for the hemispheric indentor to protect the eyeballs (Young's modulus: >70 kPa) [ 32 , 33 ] and also to reduce the discomfort to the users. The sensing components exhibit an effective modulus of 340 kPa, and the sensor can survive at a radius of curvature down to 1.1 mm ( Fig. S27a–b ). The magnitude of force is within 0.6 N (30 kPa) during the IOP testing, and the force that causes eye pain is about 1 N [ 34 ]. Our IOP tonometer will not injure the human eyes. Our experiment shows that the signal magnitude decreases slightly with increasing thickness of the artificial eyelid at a small displacement, and this phenomenon becomes negligible as the displacement increases because the deformation is determined by the harder materials ( Fig. S28a and b ). The final classification accuracies under different thicknesses of the artificial eyelid maintained >97% (Fig.  5e and Fig. S29a–d ). Similar results were obtained when the modulus of the artificial eyelid changes ( Fig. S30a and b , Fig. S31a–d ). The result indicates that the existence of eyelids will not have a substantial impact on the assessment of softness under large indenting displacements. In addition, our simulation shows that the indentor can also collect characteristic signals of curved objects to meet the needs of data acquisition on eyeballs ( Fig. S32 ).

Users have their eyes closed during measurement, and get rapid feedback with the IOP assessment displayed in a mobile app (Fig.  5f , Fig. S33 and Movie S1–S3 ). There are three possible results for the assessment: normal (corresponding to 10–18.5–mmHg), above normal (18.5–21 mmHg), and high pressure (>21 mmHg). Three hundred data sets of 50 eyeballs (from 8 females and 17 males, with ages ranging from 20 to 60, Table S3 ) were used in the deep learning model for IOP assessment. The tested IOP values were in the range of 10 to 29 mmHg. Because there is often a low proportion of people suffering from high IOP, the presence of the minority classes (‘above normal’ and ‘high’) in the dataset can significantly affect the performance of the deep learning model, resulting in data imbalance. The entire dataset was split into training (70%), validation (15%), and test sets (15%) while retaining the original data distribution. An oversampling algorithm, synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE), was applied to restore the balance of the training set. SMOTE creates synthetic minority class samples by interpolating new samples between existing ones in a feature space [ 35 ]. This algorithm balances the training set and prevents the deep learning model from being biased towards the majority class (normal IOP). Detailed parameters used for this model are shown in Table S4 .

The kappa coefficient is a statistical measure used to quantify inter-rater reliability or agreement in classification tasks. By accounting for the likelihood of random agreement and penalizing biases towards large categories, it is particularly useful in contexts where imbalances may exist within the dataset ( Note S3 ) [ 36 ]. A value of kappa coefficient close to 1 is indicative of high agreement. In our case, the determined kappa coefficient is 0.92 (Fig.  5g ), which not only signifies that our model is highly reliable but also coincides with the model's impressive overall accuracy of 96.7%.

We have further verified the practicability and reliability of our portable tonometer in random tests and repeated experiments. Ten subjects were randomly selected for the validation of our system. Measured using a jet measurement-based commercial tonometer (Non-Contact Tonometer NCT-200), six out of the ten subjects fall in the normal region, while two subjects are in the ‘above average’ region, and the remaining two in the high IOP region. The IOP results assessed using our tonometer match well with that measured using the Non-Contact Tonometer NCT-200 ( Fig. S34a and b ). A volunteer subject was selected to verify the repeatability and accuracy of our portable IOP tonometer. The IOP values of the left and right eyes are determined to be 17 and 18 mmHg, respectively, using the NCT-200 tonometer in hospital (Fig.  5h ). The values indicate both eyes are in a normal condition. We then used our tonometer to measure each eye for 10 times, and the results given were all normal, exhibiting a consistency of 100% compared with the results of the NCT-200 tonometer. Further, we used a widely used commercial portable IOP tonometer based on rebound measurement (ICare IC100) to detect the IOP values, while this facility gives significantly dispersed results with high standard deviations of 2.15 and 3.07 for the left and right eyes (inset in Fig.  5i and Fig. S35 ), and corresponding accuracies are 10% and 40% (Fig.  5i ), respectively. The results indicate that our portable IOP tonometer exhibits far higher repeatability and consistency compared with commercial wearable devices.

In this work, we demonstrate a palpation-type sensory system, which is inspired by the palpation of fingers, for IOP assessment based on asymmetric, two-point displacement-pressure control and deep learning. Our simple yet effective design can extract both displacement and pressure information, allowing for the capture of subtle changes in softness of materials. A small-dataset solution was used to deal with the softness classification problem in complicated conditions (with varied temperature, humidity, displacement, or an additional soft layer), and it shows high accuracy and high efficiency (over 99% accuracy within only 18 epochs) due to the capability of the system to capture rich feature information. Our study shows that improving the characteristic quality of sensing signals is a desired way to enhance the training efficiency and classification accuracy instead of making a larger and more complex machine learning model. Benchmarking our custom-made wearable tonometer, the results show high efficacy, reliability, and repeatability, compared with existing commercial wearable devices.

Detailed materials and methods are available in the Supplementary data .

The authors thank Prof. Jin Zhang and Mr. Shuiqing Chen for providing the signal acquisition circuit board.

The work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (T2225017 and 52 073 138), the Science Technology and Innovation Committee of Shenzhen Municipality (JCYJ20210324120202007), the Shenzhen Sci-Tech Fund (YTDPT20181011104007) and the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory Program (2021B1212040001).

C.F.G., C.Y. and Y.C. conceived the idea and designed the research. Y.C. performed the majority of the experiments. Y.C. and Y.F.Z. analyzed the sensing properties. J.X.W. performed the mechanical simulation. Y.C. and Y.F.Z. performed the deep learning and analyzed the results of deep learning. J.X.W and Y.S. produced the microstructured electrode. F.Y.G. and J.L.S produced the ionic gel. C.Y. and Y.F.Z produced the portable intelligent IOP tonometer. C.F.G., C.Y. and Y.C. drafted the manuscript, and all authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest statement . None declared.

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Application and progress of inorganic composites in haemostasis: a review

• Published: 04 April 2024
• Volume 59 , pages 7169–7192, ( 2024 )

Cite this article

• Hanjie Shao 1 , 2   na1 ,
• Xiang Wu 1 , 2   na1 ,
• Junjie Deng 2 , 3 , 4 ,
• Yanyu Yang 2 , 3 , 4 ,
• Wen Chen 1 ,
• Keqing Li 1 ,
• Xuanzhen Xie 1 ,
• Hao She 1 ,
• Wei Jian 5 ,
• Hong Li 1 &
• Jingyun Ma   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0004-1827-0372 1  

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Uncontrolled bleeding has long been a major challenge for the health care system. Bleeding, whether caused by trauma, genetic disease, surgery, or medications, can cause life-threatening damage or even death. Inorganic haemostatic materials, while effective in haemostasis, tend to be less biocompatible. In recent years, inorganic composite haemostatic materials have received widespread attention for their ability to rapidly stop bleeding and for their low biotoxicity. This review focuses on the haemostatic mechanisms of silicate minerals (zeolite, montmorillonite, and bioglass), silica (mesoporous silica and diatomaceous silica), polyphosphates, inorganic carbon materials (graphene and carbon nanotubes), metal-containing materials (metal–organic frameworks) and related composite haemostatic materials. In this review, not only the preparation of various inorganic composite haemostatic materials but also their haemostatic mechanisms and haemostatic effects are described in detail. At the end of the review, we summarize the advantages and disadvantages of inorganic composite haemostatic materials and introduce their challenges and prospects.

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(Reproduced with permission from reference [ 43 ]. Copyright [2021], [Springer Nature]), b Schematic diagram of the hemostatic mechanism and heat conduction of Z-CGS. c Hemostasis experiments in a rat arterial injury model. d Hemostasis time of different hemostatic materials in the rat arterial injury model. * P  < 0.05, ** P  < 0.01. e Infrared images of the hemostatic process of zeolite in the arterial injury model. The subscripts indicate the time of action on the wound. f Infrared images of the hemostatic process of Z-CGS in the arterial injury model. The subscript indicates the time of action on the wound. g Effect of different hemostatic materials on wound temperature changes in a rat arterial injury model [ 24 ]. (Reproduced with permission from reference [ 24 ]. Copyright [2019], [American Chemical Society]).

(Reproduced with permission from reference [ 60 ]. Copyright [2018], [John Wiley and Sons]). d Schematic diagram of the design principle of the hemostatic sponge [ 73 ]. (Reproduced with permission from reference [ 73 ]. Copyright [2019], [Royal Society of Chemistry]). HAS Human serum albumin, PEG-(SS) 2 Polyethylene glycol disuccinimide succinate, BG Bioglass, REC Rectorite, CTBA Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, OREC REC modified by CTBA, QC Quaternized β-chitin, QCRs Organic complex made of QC and OREC, BACNFs Carboxylated brown algae cellulose nanofibers.

(Reproduced with permission from reference [ 82 ]. Copyright [2020], [Elsevier]). c The main components and functions of the PDA/SiNP [ 90 ]. (Reproduced with permission from reference [ 90 ]. Copyright [2018], [Elsevier]). TA Tannic acid, AAm Acrylamide, PAAm Polyacrylamide, MBAA Methylene bisacrylamide, KA Kaolin, APS Ammonium persulfate, PAAm-TA-KA Hydrogel made of TA, PAAM and KA (1,2,3 represents different levels of KA), PDA Polydopamine, SiNP Silica nanoparticle.

(Reproduced with permission from reference [ 20 ]. Copyright [2022], [Elsevier]).

(Reproduced with permission from reference [ 99 ]. Copyright [2020], [John Wiley and Sons]). CDD-TBA CS/diatom-biosilica hemostatic airgel, DB Diatom-biosilica, PDA Polydopamine, TBA T-butanol solution.

(Reproduced with permission from reference [ 124 ]. Copyright [2020], [American Chemical Society]). b Schematic of the preparation of HA-DA/rGO [ 125 ]. (Reproduced with permission from reference [ 125 ]. Copyright [2019], [John Wiley and Sons]). c Schematic of the preparation of CS/G/CNT [ 133 ]. (Reproduced with permission from reference [ 133 ]. Copyright [2019], [Elsevier]). GM Gelatin methacrylate, GO graphene oxide, QCSG Functionalized quaternized chitosan with glycidyl methacrylate, HA-DA Hyaluronic acid-grafted-dopamine, rGO reducing GO, CNTs Carbon nanotubes, PDA Polydopamine, CS Chitosan, G Gelatin-dopamine.

(Reproduced with permission from reference [ 136 ]. Copyright [2019], [Springer Nature]). CNFs carbon nanofibers.

(Reproduced with permission from reference [ 146 ]. Copyright [2019], [John Wiley and Sons]). b Differences in the synthesis of cubic and spherical particles [ 150 ]. (Reproduced with permission from reference [ 150 ]. Copyright [2019], [Ivyspring International Publisher]). CD-MOFs A metal–organic framework consisting of cyclodextrin and potassium. AgNPs Silver nanoparticle. GRGDS Polypeptide with sequence Gly-Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Ningbo Public Welfare Science and Technology Program (2021S106), SRIP Research Project Fund of Ningbo University (2023SRIP1921, 2023SRIP1940), Research and Innovation Foundation of Ningbo University (IF2023059), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. LTGY24B050001), Zhejiang Medicine and Health Science and Technology Program (Grant no. 2024KY283), and General Surgery Clinical Key Specialty Construction Project of Zhejiang Province (No. 2023-SZZ).

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Hanjie Shao and Xiang Wu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

Ningbo Medical Center Li Huili Hospital, Health Science Center, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315000, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

Hanjie Shao, Xiang Wu, Wen Chen, Keqing Li, Xuanzhen Xie, Hao She, Hong Li & Jingyun Ma

Zhejiang International Scientific and Technological Cooperative Base of Biomedical Materials and Technology, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315201, People’s Republic of China

Hanjie Shao, Xiang Wu, Junjie Deng & Yanyu Yang

Ningbo Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Ningbo, 315300, People’s Republic of China

Junjie Deng & Yanyu Yang

Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325035, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

School of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

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Contributions

HS and XW drafted the manuscript. JM, WJ and HL performed the literature revision. JD, YY and WC collected and drew the images, KL, XX and HS collected and made the form information. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Co-first author 1–HS: Conceptualization, Writing—Original Draft, Writing—Review & Editing, Project Administration, Co-first author 2–XW: Conceptualization, Writing—Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing, Project Administration. Co-first author 3–JD: Investigation, Data Curation, Visualization. Co-first author 4–YY: Investigation, Data Curation, Visualization. Co-first author 5–WC: Investigation, Data Curation, Visualization. Co-first author 6–KL: Investigation, Data Curation, Visualization. Co-first author 7–XX: Investigation, Data Curation, Visualization. Co-first author 8–HS: Investigation, Data Curation, Visualization. Co-corresponding author 1–WJ: Conceptualization, Supervision, Project Administration, Funding Acquisition, Writing—Review & Editing, Resources. Co-corresponding author 2–HL: Conceptualization, Supervision, Project Administration, Funding Acquisition, Writing—Review & Editing, Resources. Co-corresponding author 3–JM: Conceptualization, Supervision, Project Administration, Funding Acquisition, Writing—Review & Editing, Resources.

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Correspondence to Wei Jian , Hong Li or Jingyun Ma .

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Shao, H., Wu, X., Deng, J. et al. Application and progress of inorganic composites in haemostasis: a review. J Mater Sci 59 , 7169–7192 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-024-09595-4

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Meta AI tested: Doesn’t quite justify its own existence, but free is free

Meta’s new large language model, Llama 3 , powers the imaginatively named “Meta AI,” a newish chatbot that the social media and advertising company has installed in as many of its apps and interfaces as possible. How does this model stack up against other all-purpose conversational AIs? It tends to regurgitate a lot of web search results, and it doesn’t excel at anything, but hey — the price is right.

You can currently access Meta AI for free on the web at Meta.ai, on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and probably a few other places if those aren’t enough. It was available before now, but the releases of Llama 3 and the new Imagine image generator (not to be confused with Google’s Imagen ) have led Meta to promote it as a first stop for the AI-curious. After all, you’ll probably use it by accident since they replaced your search box with it!

Mark Zuckerberg even said he expects Meta AI to be “the most used and best AI assistant in the world.” It’s important to have goals.

A quick reminder about our “review” process: This is a very informal evaluation of the model , not with synthetic benchmarks but just asking ordinary questions that normal people might. We compare the results to our experience with other models, or just to what you would hope to get from one. It’s the furthest thing from comprehensive, but it’s something anyone can understand and replicate.

Why it’s impossible to review AIs, and why TechCrunch is doing it anyway

We’re always changing and adjusting our approach, and will sometimes include something odd we found or exclude stuff that didn’t really seem relevant. For instance, this time, although it’s our general policy not to try to evaluate media generation (it’s a whole other can of worms), my colleague Ivan noticed that the Imagine model was demonstrating a set of biases around Indian people. We’ll have that article up shortly (Meta might already be onto us).

Also, as a PSA at the start, you should be aware that an apparent bug on Instagram prevented me from deleting the queries I’d sent. So I would avoid asking anything you wouldn’t want showing up in your search history. Also, the web version didn’t work in Firefox for me.

News and current events

First up, I asked Meta AI about what’s going on between Israel and Iran. It responded with a concise, bulleted list, helpfully including dates, though it only cited a single CNN article. Like many other prompts I tried, this one ends in a link to a Bing search when on the web interface and a Google search in Instagram. I asked Meta, and a spokesperson said that these are basically search promotion partnerships.

(Images in this post are just for reference and don’t necessarily show the entire response.)

To check whether Meta AI was somehow piggybacking on Bing’s own AI model (which Microsoft in turn borrows from OpenAI), I clicked through and looked at the Copilot answer to the suggested query. It also had a bulleted list with roughly the same info but better in-line links and more citations. Definitely different.

Meta AI’s response was factual and up-to-date, if not particularly eloquent. The mobile response was considerably more compressed and harder to get at the sources of, so be aware you’re getting a truncated answer there.

Next, I asked if there were any recent trends on TikTok that a parent should be aware of. It replied with a high-level summary of what creators do on the social network, but nothing recent. Yes, I’m aware that people do “Comedy skits: Humorous, relatable, or parody content” on TikTok, thank you.

Interestingly, when I asked a similar question about trends on Instagram, I got an upbeat response using marketing-type phrases like “Replying with Reels creates conversations” and “AI generates new opportunities” and “Text posts thrive on the ‘gram.” I thought maybe it was being unfairly positive about its creator’s platforms, but no — turns out it was just regurgitating, word for word, an SEO bait Instagram trends post from Hootsuite .

If I ask Meta’s AI on Instagram about trends on Instagram, I would hope for something a little more interesting. If I wanted to read chum, I would just search for it.

History and context

I asked Meta AI to help me find some primary sources for some research I’m supposedly doing on Supreme Court decisions in the late 19th century.

Its response relied heavily on an inoffensive but primary-free SEO-ed up post listing a number of notable 19th-century decisions. Not exactly what I asked for, and then at the end it also listed an 1896 founding document for the People’s Party, a left-leaning party from that era. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the Supreme Court, but Meta AI cites this page, which describes some justices as holding opposite views to the party. A strange and irrelevant inclusion.

Other models provided context and summaries of the trends of the era. I wouldn’t use Meta AI as a research assistant.

Some basic trivia questions, like who won the most medals in the 1984 Olympics and what notable events occurred that year, were answered and cited sufficiently.

It’s a little annoying that it gathers its citation numbers at the top and then the links at the bottom. What’s the point of numbering them unless the numbers pertain to certain claims or facts? Some other models will cite in-line, which for research or fact-checking is much more convenient.

Controversy

I asked Meta AI why Donald Trump’s supporters are predominantly older and white. It’s the kind of question that is factual in a sense but obviously a bit more sensitive than asking about medal counts. The response was pretty even-handed, even pushing back on the assertion inherent to the question.

Unfortunately, it didn’t provide any sources or links to searches for this one. Too bad, since this kind of interaction is a great opportunity for people to learn something new.

I asked about the rise of white nationalism as well and got a pretty solid list of reasons why we’re seeing the things we are around the world. Meta AI did say that “It’s crucial to address these factors through education, empathy, and inclusive policies to combat the rise of white nationalism and promote a more equitable society.” So it didn’t adopt one of those aggressively neutral stances you sometimes see. No links or sources on this one, either; I suspect they are avoiding citations for now on certain topics, which I kind of understand, but also this is where citations are most needed?

I told Meta AI that my (fictitious) nine-year-old was developing a rash after eating a cupcake and asked what I should do. Interestingly, it wrote out a whole response and then deleted it, saying “Sorry, I can’t help you with this request right now,” and told me that I had stopped it from completing the response. Sir, no.

So I asked it again and it gave me a similar answer (which you see above), consisting of perfectly reasonable and general advice for someone looking to handle a potential allergic reaction. This was likely one of these retrospective “whoops, maybe I shouldn’t have said that” type rollbacks where the model only realizes what it’s done too late.

Same for a question about supplements: It gave an even-handed and reasonably well-sourced answer, including common dosages, costs and questions around efficacy.

In mental health, its advice around anxiety and medication was predictably straightforward and safe (basically, “I’m not a doctor, consult a pro”), and when I asked who I should call if having serious trouble, it listed the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK) and a crisis text line (741741) among other things. No links or sources, though. A reasonable and humane response.

When I had Meta AI summarize a recent article I wrote , it kind of just picked important-sounding sentences to repeat from it, mostly word for word. That’s not wrong, exactly, but I wouldn’t say it’s a summary.

And when it did tweak a sentence, it slightly changed the meaning: Originally I wrote that Intuitive Machines “will almost certainly be firing on all cylinders to take on what could be a multi-billion-dollar contract.” The summary says the company “will almost certainly be taking on what could be …” which could mislead some to think that IM is a shoo-in rather than a company that will strive for that contract. In fairness, I could have phrased it more clearly myself.

When I asked it to do the same thing in fewer than words, it did better — kind of.

The summary was more concise, but it brought in a claim from Musk that Starship could return samples from Mars in five years — something I specifically didn’t include in my article because he makes lots of unsubstantiated claims like that. The AI must have gotten this from the other four articles it cited, for some reason, in the “summary” of mine. If I ask for a summary I don’t expect a model to bring in outside information to add onto it.

Marketing copy suggestions for an imaginary clothing brand I claimed to be promoting were exactly what you’d expect, which goes to show how rote this task is becoming. No doubt Meta in particular has an endless supply of captions like this to train on. Pity the marketers — their hard work penning millions of pithy pitches for their brands has defined a style at which AI has become quite adept.

When asked for some farmer jokes, it gave some real stinkers:

Why did the farmer’s chicken go to the doctor? Because it had a fowl cough! And here’s another one: Why did the farmer take his pig to the movie theater? To see “Babe”!

Meta has positioned its AI as a first layer for casual questions, and it does work. But for the most part it seemed to just be doing a search for what you ask about and quoting liberally from the top results. And half the time it included the search at the end anyway. So why not just use Google or Bing in the first place?

Some of the “suggested” queries I tried, like tips to overcome writer’s block, produced results that didn’t quote directly from (or source) anyone. But they were also totally unoriginal. Again, a normal internet search not powered by a huge language model, inside a social media app, accomplishes more or less the same thing with less cruft.

Meta AI produced highly straightforward, almost minimal answers. I don’t necessarily expect an AI to go beyond the scope of my original query, and in some cases that would be a bad thing. But when I ask what ingredients are needed for a recipe, isn’t the point of having a conversation with an AI that it intuits my intention and offers something more than literally scraping the list from the top Bing result?

I’m not a big user of these platforms to begin with, but Meta AI didn’t convince me it’s useful for anything in particular. To be fair it is one of the few models that’s both free and stays up to date with current events by searching online. In comparing it now and then to the free Copilot model on Bing, the latter usually worked better, but I hit my daily “conversation limit” after just a few exchanges. (It’s not clear what if any usage limits Meta will place on Meta AI.)

If you can’t be bothered to open a browser to search for “lunar new year” or “quinoa water ratio,” you can probably ask Meta AI if you’re already in one of the company’s apps (and often, you are). You can’t ask TikTok that! Yet.

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Book Review: Memoirist Lilly Dancyger’s penetrating essays explore the power of female friendships

This cover image released by Dial Press shows “First Love” by Lilly Dancyger. (Dial Press via AP)

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Who means more to you — your friends or your lovers? In a vivid, thoughtful and nuanced collection of essays, Lilly Dancyger explores the powerful role that female friendships played in her chaotic upbringing marked by her parents’ heroin use and her father’s untimely death when she was only 12.

“First Love: Essays on Friendship” begins with a beautiful paean to her cousin Sabina, who was raped and murdered at age 20 on her way home from a club. As little kids, their older relatives used to call them Snow White and Rose Red after the Grimm’s fairy tale, “two sisters who are not rivals or foils, but simply love each other.”

That simple, uncomplicated love would become the template for a series of subsequent relationships with girls and women that helped her survive her self-destructive adolescence and provided unconditional support as she scrambled to create a new identity as a “hypercompetent” writer, teacher and editor. “It’s true that I’ve never been satisfied with friendships that stay on the surface. That my friends are my family, my truest beloveds, each relationship a world of its own,” she writes in the title essay “First Love.”

The collection stands out not just for its elegant, unadorned writing but also for the way she effortlessly pivots between personal history and spot-on cultural criticism that both comments on and critiques the way that girls and women have been portrayed — and have portrayed themselves — in the media, including on online platforms like Tumblr and Instagram.

For instance, she examines the 1994 Peter Jackson film, “Heavenly Creatures,” based on the true story of two teenage girls who bludgeoned to death one of their mothers. And in the essay “Sad Girls,” about the suicide of a close friend, she analyzes the allure of self-destructive figures like Sylvia Plath and Janis Joplin to a certain type of teen, including herself, who wallows in sadness and wants to make sure “the world knew we were in pain.”

In the last essay, “On Murder Memoirs,” Dancyger considers the runaway popularity of true crime stories as she tries to explain her decision not to attend the trial of the man charged with killing her cousin — even though she was trained as a journalist and wrote a well-regarded book about her late father that relied on investigative reporting. “When I finally sat down to write about Sabina, the story that came out was not about murder at all,” she says. “It was a love story.”

Readers can be thankful that it did.

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