Minireview Instructions

A minireview provides a concise, focused review of the literature related to a question of current interest in the scientific community. Often, reading a well-written minireview is the fastest way to get up to speed on a particular topic that is making news. Partly because they are short and usually relatively easy reading, minireviews are often very widely read. Sometimes minireviews also raise questions or suggest new hypotheses or attempt to reconcile conflicting data that has recently been published. Writing a minireview is a good way to organize your thoughts and summarize the knowledge you have obtained about a particular topic that you have acquired from reading the literature and thinking and discussing with others and is a good exercise in scientific writing.

Minireview should have the following organization:

Title. The title of a review article should be clear, concise and comprehensible to all readers with the purpose of quickly identifying the focus of the reported work.

Author. For all authors who have made substantial contributions to the work, first name, middle initial(s) and last (family) name must be provided. Below this information the institutional address should be written in a separate line in the following format: department, organization, street/P.O. box, city/town and zip code/postal code, country.

Brief Abstract. Summarize what the minireview is about as concisely as possible Introductory paragraph Provide necessary background/context for the reader. Should indicate or hint at why the chosen topic is important and timely.

Body of the minireview. This section should contain the most relevant aspects and achievements in the reviewed scientific area. The review itself should not be an assembly of detailed information but present a summarization of critically selected and evaluated literature which should reflect the most important findings. It may be subdivided with short, informative headings.

References. In general authors are obliged to perform literature searches and to cite original publications describing closely related work.

Additional guidelines. Submit your minireview, typed, doublespaced, with pages numbered, using 12 point font (Arial), 1 cm. or 1.25 cm. margins and 2 cm. spaces. The suggested length for the minireview is approximately 5 pages (including Figure(s) and References). Include a reference list at the end - approximately 15 references suggested.