How to Write an Article Review in Logistics: Meet Some Common Recommendations

In general, college and university students, who have logistics classes, usually deal with the aspects like product distribution. Speaking more precisely, students research, learn and analyze a great number of terms in the areas of inventory managements, international logistics and supply chain strategy. They learn how to properly plan effective product distribution as well as study the existing methods of traffic and transportation management techniques. As for the other elements of the discipline, they include protective packaging, inventory control and customer service.

When college students receive the task to write an article review in logistics, they get confused because they don’t know where to start. In our guide, we will start with the definition of the article review. What is it? First of all, an article review is a type of writing where the author’s job is to summarize and assess the article that was written by someone else. In other words, you just take any article and tell your readers what you honestly think about it and how it fulfils the requirements of the logistics field. The article review writing includes a logical evaluation of the article’s central theme, supporting arguments and suggestions for future research.

It is important to understand what the main parts of the article review are and how you have to arrange them. In order to write a great article review in logistics, you have to first prepare. The preparation stage includes some steps that the author of the paper has to take:

Step 1. Understand the Meaning of ‘Article Review’. First of all, you have to know who is going to read your article review, if they are logistics experts or students just like you.
Summarize the most important ideas of the article, positions, arguments and findings. Besides, you will have to critique the overall effectiveness of the material and its contributions to the field. Keep in mind that if, for example, you write an article review on ‘Globalization, international transport and the global environment: a research and policy challenge’ article written by logistics expert Peter Nijkamp, you will have to only respond to the research done by him, but never provide your own. Just like professor Nijkamp, you will have to restate that globalization is a ‘vague term’ and go on with your review strictly following the structure and content of the original document. In addition to it, you will have to just summarize and evaluate the article.

Step 2. Organize the Article Review. Before you start writing, you will have to decide on the organization of your article in order to understand how to read it.
We’ve outlined some steps for you to take to write a good article review:

• Sum up the article. It involves important claims, points and information in the original document.
• Talk about the positive things. It includes the insight observations and some good points made by the author.
• Find the contradictions, visible gaps and all the errors in the article that its author did. What is more, decide if available data or research is enough to support the author’s claims. Search for all the questions in the article that are unanswered.

Step 3. Check the Article Quickly. Check the article’s title, introduction, abstract, the body, the headings, how the author opens and ends the paragraphs. Quickly go through the first several paragraphs and read the conclusion part to see how the author ends up his work.

After this quick check, you can begin to read the article entirely and thoughtfully.
Step 4. Do the Careful Reading. Thoughtful reading plays an important part in the process of article review writing in the subject of logistics. You have no right to skip this stage or not take it seriously.

Step 5. Write down the article using your own words. It is important to mention all the central points of the work in a logical and clear manner. Read your short summary in order to see if it includes any meaningless items. For instance, if you review the article ‘Research of Logistics and Regional Economic Growth’, written by Ana Wang, you will have to make sure that your review covers an analysis of regional GDP growth, the leading role of regional logistics and the role that logistics will play in the economy of a particular region in the future. Do not include any additional background or information about the author of the article. Make sure to provide only clear information that is on the case.

Step 6. Do the Outline. When you finish your summary outline from the Step 5, it is important to categorize the most important aspects like possible contributions to logistics, some cases of effective writing and parts that should be improved in the article that you are reviewing. What is more, you have to identify all weaknesses and strengths. For example, one of the advantages could be the way the article’s author supports each of his or her statements (in the article ‘Research of Logistics and Regional Economic Growth’ that we mentioned, the author provides various tables, uses co-integration test, and applies ‘marginal’ in the issues studied). At the same time, a gap may be that the research done by the author doesn’t seem complete and lacks results that would let the readers draw their conclusions or be absolutely informed on the current state of affairs.

When you are done with the preparation stage, it is the right time to write the review. Here are the steps that the writing process includes:

Step 1. Write down the Article Review Title. It is your right to decide what title you are going to use – an interrogative, a descriptive or a declarative. The choice of the title for the article review is caused by the focus of the paper. Using an appropriate style, you will have to write down the citation of the article that you study. This text should be placed right after the title. For example, if your college professor requires you to use the MLA citation style, your citation will look like this:
Cheng, G.P., Liu, W., Xie, C.W., Zhou, J. “The Contribution of Logistics Industry to Economic Growth Based on Logis Model. International Conference of Information Science and Management Engineering.” Hudson Quarterly 61.2 (2010): 134-69. Print.

Step 2: Identify the Article Studied. Your task is to do it by stating the following things (with examples):

• The article title – Strategies for a Global Logistics and Economic Hub: Incheon International Airport.
• The article’s author – Harper Lee and Hanna Yang.
• The title of the journal – Journal Transport Management.
• Year of publication – 2007.

This should be written within the first paragraph. For instance, this piece will have to look like this: The report, ‘Strategies for a Global Logistics and Economic Hub: Incheon International Airport,’ was written by Harper Lee and Hanna Yang, a Health officer. 2000.

Step 3. The Introduction. The introduction is the opening part of the article review that you should begin with the identification sentence. Your introduction also include the main themes of the articles studied. Make sure to write down the claims and arguments of the author as well.
When it is time to write an introduction for the article review, the author has no keep in mind the following things:

1. You will most likely have to build the thesis yourself. More often than not, articles in logistics or any other subject include no evident thesis statement, while the argument might have more than one choice.
2. Never write your statements using “I”.
3. Write using “she” or “he” (the third person).
4. Use formal academic style of writing.
5. Make sure to provide from 10% to 25% of text for your introduction.
6. End up your introduction with a thesis statement that addresses the issues given above. For example, your arguments might look like this: “Even though the article entails some good points, the work actually includes certain misinterpretations of information and bias from other logistics experts’ analyses on the causes of insufficient transport infrastructure investments in road transportation, railway transportation, airline transport and telephone lines”.

Step 4. Prepare the Article Summary. Write the main arguments, the key points and all the findings, but do not copy any of those – you have to use your own unique words. As well, you will have to show your readers how the article that you review supports each of the claims and give your conclusion.
When you are at the writing stage, you have to pay attention to:

• Divide your text into several paragraphs. The length of each will depend on the instructions provided by college or university professor.
• Provide specific statistics, examples and background details that the logistics professionals are aware of.
• Write down the central points of every section.
• Include the author’s direct quotes, but don’t overdo with them.
• In order to avoid any unpleasant moments, check your summary a couple of times and correct every error that you see.

Step 5. Write Your Critique. Using your own points of view, write about how successfully the author or the article addressed his or her topic. Besides, you have to also tell what you think about usefulness or thoroughness of the explanation of the subject that you found in the article. State how important the article and the author’s contributions are to the area of logistics. Write down the main points and arguments in the article.

Do not forget to mention if the author’s points also helped with the argument. Write if you find any sort of bias. Let your readers know if you personally agree with the author of the article. If you do, tell them why you decide to support him or her. If you don’t, explain your reasons. Finally, specify what kind of audience could possibly take advantage of the article and information given in it.

Step 6. Write the Conclusion of the Article Review. All the main points of the article should be summarized in one paragraph (the conclusion). Provide your personal points of view about how accurate, significant and clear the article is in your conclusion. What is more, you have an opportunity to also give comments about the implications of this written work. The logistics experts might find it useful in their future researches. It is important to remember that conclusion shouldn’t include too many words. It takes no more than 10% of your overall article review.

Step 7. Reread Your Article Review, Proofread and Edit it. Even if you are not a professional writer and your knowledge in logistics is far from what people call perfect, there is still something that you can do to give your professor a nicely arranged review. Reread what you have just written in order to see if you did any punctuation, grammar, spelling, style or any other kind of mistakes. You still have time and chance to correct any inconsistences. All information blocks that are not related to your topic or don’t include any important information should be removed.

Keep in mind that for a good article that your professor will appreciate, you have to identify and discuss up to four critical things that you found in the article. Thus, your paper will look full and consistent.