Book reviews should address scholarly works published within the last three years and represent current research in LIS, archival studies, or records management. Reviews should identify the core question of the work, summarize the answer posited by the author, and contextualize the work within current academic research or practice. Book Reviews should be written in a formal, precise, and economical style.
View a list of suggested titles for review here. This is not an exhaustive list; authors are free to review any title that falls within the journal’s scope.
Here is an example book review that was published in the SRJ
Source Quality/Significance
- Work reviewed is current (published within 3 years), is topically relevant to the scope of the journal, and does not duplicate existing reviews. While we accept reviews from books of the author’s choosing, we direct authors to our recommended booklist, linked here
Length
- Book Reviews may be between 500-1500 words in length, excluding reference, tables, figures, and any appendices.
Contents:
- A concise summary of the content.
- Identifies the work’s core question(s) and thesis/theses, and any important sub-theses (arguments).
- Summarizes key findings and the author’s conclusion.
- Offers a faithful representation of the author’s project, distinct from the reviewer’s critique.
- Includes relevant details about the author.
- The work is contextualized within current LIS scholarship.
- Critical assessment of the content
- Assesses evidence provided by the author to support conclusion(s), analyzing the strengths and weaknesses.
- Identifies gaps in the work.
- Uses examples where appropriate.
- Reflects a critical reading of the work reviewed.
- The author’s voice is distinct from that of the author being reviewed.
- Maintains a critical tone appropriate for scholarly review.
- Recommendation
- Whether or not readers would value the work overall for
- Its relevance to LIS practice or practical application,
- its distinct elements,
- its authenticity and overall quality,
- the author’s ideas and arguments, as well as
- practical issues, such as, readability and language, organization and layout, indexing, and the use of non-textual elements.
- Whether or not readers would value the work overall for