On the basis of the industrial interest of the oxovanadium phosphate catalysts, current research effort in this field is focused mainly on the development of synthetic strategies directed towards obtaining open-framework materials. There is a growing body of work describing preparations using hydrothermal procedures under a diversity of conditions. A great number of new solids, whose nets range from lamellar arrays to micro- and mesostructured organizations, has been prepared in last years. In this context, the applicability of concepts and procedures from the zeolites chemistry to systems involving transition elements is critically analyzed.