Difference between research articles and review articles
Research articles and review articles are indeed part and parcel of any research work particularly the doctorate thesis written by students who are seeking the highest qualification in their concerned fields. Although research articles and indeed reviews are very common in research journals, not many people can give a clear differentiation though there is a very important distinction among the two.
This article will however set the record straight by giving an in depth analysis of the two in order to point out the major differences. In definition, a research article can be described as a coherent description of the activities conducted during a given research project. It describes the activities that the concerned researcher undertook in order to come up with his or her final report. Review articles on the other hand simply are used to give a description of what the concerned researcher was doing or did while presenting the findings of his research work found in his final report. In other words it focuses on the findings more than it does on the research method
When it comes to the ownership rights of either, it is important to observe that research articles are primarily the work of the researcher and therefore he or she is entitled to all the ownership rights. A review article is normally an analysis of the whole research project or in other words a critic that is usually done and owned by an external party other than the original researcher.
It is also important to note that many of the research articles are produced to be presented in serious platforms and academic assessment committees as opposed to review articles which are basically a show of proficiency by concerned authors in the field in question. Another distinction can also be drawn from the fact that most review articles are normally products of researched work and are based on second hand information. Contrary to this, many research articles are characterized by published first hand findings.
In summary, the major point that we should emphasis is that research articles aim at developing new inventions and findings and later publish them in writing as opposed to review articles that are generally centered on personal contribution on a given research project and its findings.