In academia, a survey article is a paper that is a work of synthesis, published through the usual channels (a learned journal or collective volume, such as conference proceedings or collection of essays). It stands outside the usual run of research papers, for two reasons: it is not presented as the author's original research, but as a survey or summary of a field; and it is not necessarily subject to the same degree of peer review. Sometimes short survey articles appear in the guise of book reviews, where the context of the book is summarised first, often at greater length than is devoted to the book. Plato is credited with the inception of academia: the body of knowledge, its development and transmission across generations. ... In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. ... In scientific publishing, a paper is a scientific article that is published in a scientific journal. ... Peer review (known as refereeing in some academic fields) is a scholarly process used in the publication of manuscripts and in the awarding of funding for research. ...

The treatment in a survey article is often more sketchy than would be accepable in a textbook, and the topic or sub-field chosen one in which recent work seems to require summary. In its objectivity, a survey article may lie somewhere between a personal essay, and an encyclopedia article. The intention is to give rapid access to material scattered over many papers. Some fields, such as theoretical physics, depend quite highly on such surveys to bring recent progress into focus, on a time scale of around 18 months to two years. Theoretical physics employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics, as opposed to experimental processes, in an attempt to understand Nature. ...