學術論文一般可以分為理論性論文、實證性論文以及回顧性論文，其中理論性論文與實證性論文相對於回顧性論文在學術研究上的貢獻較為明確，而回顧性論文在學術上的貢獻較具爭議。回顧性論文具有整合的特質，學者通常可以透過回顧性論文快速地認識特定領域的發展。知識隨著時間累積與創新，回顧性論文是否為知識傳播的關鍵實乃值得一究。
主路徑分析與集群分析為利用書目引證探討知識脈絡與知識群組之兩個重要的分析方法。主路徑分析利用以文獻引用關係產生之引證網路圖，透過演算法從龐大的引證網路中找出核心知識流動路徑以及關鍵學術文獻。透過主路徑分析方法有助於快速掌握科學與技術領域相關研究中重要的學術文獻。集群分析方法透過演算法將大量資料分門別類，提示研究範疇中次領域的知識分類。回顧性論文在主路徑分析與集群分析中，因其特性，常影響以上兩種分析的結果。中介角色分析以五種中介角色探討知識傳播中的媒介關係，本研究以電子旅遊之學術文獻進行中介角色分析和統計分析，探討回顧性文獻於該領域知識脈絡所扮演之角色，藉此解釋何以回顧性論文對主路徑分析及集群分析的影響。
本研究發現回顧性論文在知識傳播中是不可或缺的角色，其藉由多元性的文獻引用吸引讀者閱讀多方面的知識而達到知識傳播的效果。回顧性論文有如知識傳播之樞紐，連結廣泛知識，因此對主路徑分析與集群分析產生舉足輕重之影響。

Academic articles are endowed with different roles when the researchers adopts different approaches to express the research outcome. Most of the academic article can be divided into three types, i.e. theoretical researches, empirical researches, and review researches. Theoretical and empirical researches always have specific focuses and evidence so the contribution in knowledge is more concrete than review research. In contrast, the contribution of review researches are controversial. As knowledge has accumulated by all different types of research by time, review researches have the characteristic of integration, in which we can quickly understand the development of some research fields. Whether the review research is playing a critical role in the process of knowledge diffusion drives us to explore further in this study
This study applies several methods to explore the path of knowledge development and the role of review papers. The main path analysis is used to discover the core knowledge flow trajectory and critical academic articles. Edge-betweenness clustering classifies a large number of data into several groups. Brokerage analysis explores the mediated relation in knowledge diffusion by five broker types. We collect the academic articles in the field of electronic tourism as our research context, and explores the role of review articles in knowledge diffusion. The dataset includes 1202 papers which are collected from SCOPUS database.
This study finds that review articles are indispensable in the knowledge diffusion process. Review articles urge readers on studying diverse knowledge to achieve the result of knowledge diffusion. Review researches link extensive knowledge such as the pivot of knowledge diffusion and integrate knowledge cross sub-field thus play a critical role in knowledge diffusion

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