Hi, I am a graduate student in bioinformatics and have to submit a review article for my assignment in this semester. I have no idea on how to do this as I haven't done it before. Can somebody please guide me through the process.
Read some other reviews to determine structure and format (and pay attention to assignment guidelines). Pick a topic and start compiling notable papers - use a reference manager (e.g. Zotero, Endnote, etc). Write a draft/outline composed of section headers. Find one or more experts to determine if there are any major gaps in your planned sections. Keep the scope reasonable, both in breadth and depth.
Darken the page - start writing. Keep it simple and make an effort to keep language concise and clear. The point of a review is to provide a fairly comprehensive overview of the current state of a given field or topic - this includes outstanding questions and contradictory data.
Presumably, the assignment is to help you learn how to write scientifically, dig through the literature, and synthesize an overwhelming amount of information into something that's easily ingested. If the assignment is to actually submit said review to a journal, note that most reviews are by invitation.
You already have many useful and specific suggestions, to which I will add a few that are broader.
It is easiest to write a review in a field where one has expertise. It is very difficult to become an expert in any field of science in one semester, so I suggest you pick something you know well. If you don't have a specific bioinformatics expertise, then I suggest you pick something that interests you. For this endeavor being interested in learning is the second best to actually being an expert.
Once you select a field, the easiest way to learn how to write reviews is to read other reviews. Like in any other area of life, we first learn by imitation and eventually develop our own style. You will probably want to read some minireviews to learn how to present a narrow point of view, and normal length of reviews to see how conflicting points of view are presented.
I suggest you start building the database of papers early, and add your own comments to each paper. They can be short, something like confusing, repetitive, super innovative, or detailed like a very daring hypothesis that challenged the existing notions in the field and has largely been proven correct. It is important to start building some kind of structure early as that will eventually help you in structuring your own thoughts.
I am writing this under an assumption that this is just a school assignment. It is very difficult for a novice to write a scientifically sound review in a single semester. One can learn the facts and to single out the best papers, but good reviews contain a synthesis of work that usually comes only after being in the field for longer than one semester.
I have found the SoTA method to be useful
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40037-022-00725-9
The journal with a high proportion of review articles is Briefings in Bioinformatics. It might be a good idea to just search for "A review of..." articles to get some examples.
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Thank you for the tips. I'll make sure to follow the steps.