Handbook Articles: In Defense of the Synthesis Article.

The article discusses academic reference works, arguing that articles in handbooks may serve as useful synthetic contributions to academic disciplines. The author says that writing and contributing such articles allows authors to further their own research. Other topics include the links between new subfields and academic disciplines, publisher guidelines for synthesis articles, and the differences between synthesis articles and primary research articles. Synthesis articles are said to point the way toward future research rather than merely summarizing previous scholarship.