A primary article is the one most often thought of in lay-person’s thought. A primary
article is an article that started off with a hypothesis. This hypothesis was then meticulously
tested many innumerable times to provide data to prove or disprove its validity by a scientist and
their supporting scientists and graduate students. This data then had to be organized, analyzed,
and visualized in different ways to support the results of the research. All of this was then
packaged neatly with explanations, figures, topical discussions, and data to provide a primary
article for publication.
A review article looks at many of the existing primary articles within a niche part of a
field of study to provide an overview of, or a “review” of the overarching research and data
about that niche field of study. While it does not aim to capture all of the research on a particular
topic, it provides a solid starting point for anyone wishing to learn more about the scholarly
knowledge of the matter.
Peer-review is the second test along a scholarly article’s path to publication. The first step
is the submission of the article, and the preliminary read of the article performed by the Journal’s
editor. The editor will then send the article to other scientists working in a similar field discussed
by the article for them to review the methodology, results, and data. These people because they
work in the same field, are called “peers” but can also go by “referees” since they are judging the
article. These peers will read through the article and give their recommendations to the editor as
to whether to reject, revise, or accept the article. The editor then makes the final decision as to
the fate of the article.
The paper written by Germino-Watnick et al (Hemopoietic Stem Cell Gene-Addition) is
the review article, mainly from the fact that it describes the research and results performed by
others in the field of Stem Cell Gene-Addition for Sickle Cell Disease. The other paper, by
Newby et al on the base editing of stem cells in mice, is a primary article describing not only the
research performed in extreme detail, but also explaining the results of only their own
experiments performed in their lab.