Search

Contrary to the emphasis placed on the importance of book reviews as influential drivers of intellectual exchange in the social sciences and humanities, there is a lack of attention by researchers toward the potential of this academic form as a valuable research material and data source. This study aims to bridge this research gap by conducting a bibliometric analysis of 1814 book reviews published in fourteen reputable translation journals during the 2010–21 period. Four major findings were outlined: a slight decline in the number of book reviews in the translation discipline, a propensity among translation journals to favour highly organized yet somewhat mundane book reviews, an evident geographical concentration of contributors toward book reviewing, and prestige and topic biases involved in the proliferation of multiple reviews for a book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this exposition, Melodie Cook, the incoming Book Reviews Editor, outlines how book reviews have been evaluated and written in the past and how JALT Journal is currently making an effort to provide reviewers a platform through which to exercise their critical skills, as well as provide a more interactive experience for readers to engage with book reviews. At the end of the exposition, she provides guidelines for future book reviews to consider when writing book reviews for JALT Journal as we move forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The leading journals in the history of sport publish book reviews which are a longstanding and visible feature of the discipline. Indeed, some journals allocate almost as much space to reviews as to scholarly articles. In this article I analyze and evaluate the contributions that book reviews make to the production of knowledge and to building disciplinary and social cohesiveness in the field. Following Pierre Bourdieu, I argue that book reviews play important roles in communities of professional scholars and the way that members position themselves and engage with, relate to, and judge one another. I illustrate this with a case study of 271 book reviews published in Sporting Traditions (the official journal of the Australian Society for Sports History) between 1984 and 1995. The case study yields two particularly relevant conclusions. First, the level of historiographical analysis presented in book reviews is typically minimal with rigorous, detailed and perceptive analyses uncommon. Second, most reviewers adopt mitigating strategies to temper or dilute their criticisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Andrew Clark's (1949) Invasion of New Zealand by People, Plants and Animals is an exemplar of a "diachronic" or a "vertical themes" approach to the study of geographical change. Within scholarly geographical endeavors such as teaching, research, conferencing, and networking, the significance of book reviews has received limited attention. This paper considers the initial response of reviewers to Clark's monograph and how their reactions might be evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Historiae Scientiarum is the property of Jagiellonian University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studia Historiae Scientiarum is the property of Jagiellonian University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to research on information sharing by drawing on the reader-response theory developed by Louise Rosenblatt. To this end, information sharing is approached by examining how bloggers communicate their reading experiences of fiction and non-fiction books. Design/methodology/approach: The conceptual framework is based on the differentiation between efferent and aesthetic reading stances specified by Rosenblatt. The efferent stance directs attention to what is to be extracted from reading for instrumental purposes such as task performance. The aesthetic stance focuses on what is being lived through during the reading event. Rosenblatt's framework was elaborated by specifying eight categories of efferent reading and six categories of aesthetic reading. The ways in which bloggers communicate their responses to such readings were examined by scrutinising a sample of 300 posts from two book blogs. Findings: The bloggers mainly articulated responses to efferent reading by sharing information about the content of the reviewed books, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Responses to aesthetic reading were mainly articulated by describing how the bloggers experienced the narrative, what kind immersive experiences they had and what kind of emotions were felt during the reading process. Research limitations/implications: As the study is explorative in nature and focusses on a sample of blog posts, the findings cannot be generalised to depict how people share their responses to efferent and aesthetic reading in social media forums. Originality/value: The paper pioneers by examining the potential of Rosenblatt's theory in the study of sharing information about reading experiences in book blogs. The findings demonstrate that the categories of efferent and aesthetic reading can be elaborated further for the needs of information behaviour research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines online book reviewing practices through Henry Jenkins's notion of 'participatory culture' and illustrates the power dynamics and market pressures that shape this participation. While the individuals featured in this article participate in shared affinity spaces around a passion for reading and writing books, they also participate in a publishing industry increasingly reliant on reviews and ratings. I argue that the sabotaging and bullying of authors and reviewers, and the power dynamics reinforced through these tactics, risk being occluded by scholarship that emphasizes the literacy practices fostered through participatory culture over the content and social actions reproduced through them. My analysis of book reviewing practices demonstrates the need to critique the positive imagery evoked by terms like 'participatory', 'affinity', 'online community', 'shared goals', and 'collective knowledge' and to examine these terms within their specific discursive and economic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics, this study explored variational use of nominalization in 600 textbook introductions and 200 book reviews in applied linguistics and medicine. The nominalized expressions were identified in the texts, the frequencies of the nominalization types were counted, and eventually a chi-square test was administered. Analysis of nominalization patterns across the different informational/promotional moves revealed divergent patterns in the two disciplines but insignificant differences across the genres in focus. The density of nominalizations was acknowledged in the applied linguistics introductions and book reviews. However, functional variations in the use of nominalizations were found only in the introductions. As for the proportion of nominalization to grammatical metaphor, results demonstrated a lower tendency towards nominalizing scientific information in the medicine corpus. Further research is needed to see how nominalization is exploited in other genres and other disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studies about Language / Kalbu Studijos is the property of Studies about Language / Kalbu Studijos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present article is a corpus-based contrastive study on mitigation of criticism in linguistic book reviews in English and in Chinese. It is based on the face theory of Brown and Levinson (1987) and follows the framework of Johnson and Roen (1992). The present article shows the following results: (1) at the local level, there are thirteen mitigation devices in the corpus, of which only six have been introduced by previous studies; devices of ‘generalization’ and ‘metaphorical statement’ are specific to the English sub-corpus, whereas ‘omission’ is only found in Chinese; (2) at the global level, English writers maintain an overall supportive tone with praise largely distributed in both openings and closings, whereas their Chinese counterparts sound much impartial. Differences in findings are then explained from perspectives of cultural values and functions of book reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on importance of books and book reviews in the field of cultural geography. It mention about the transformation of book publishing and the projected further role of the book and book review as media and sources of knowledge. Editor mention about the space provided by the books to perform experimental works. It also mention about the diversity in the books.

In this book, more than 50 academics from various disciplines investigate the place of humans in the technological society of the future; it includes over 30 thought-provoking questions and concludes with 10 recommendations for an inclusive robot agenda. It places technology at the service of humans and society. The authors show how the principles of freedom, equality, and solidarity can be upheld and consolidated. These recommendations are designed to establish a path for policy and as well as a path for participants in our society, so that, together, we can derive the maximum benefit from technology while keeping its negative aspects to a minimum. Our future is in our own hands. This initiative is a call for action and evolution—a call to the homo roboticus. Raise Awareness About Technology and Encourage Open Innovation There is considerable fear surrounding technology. As in the history of every disruptive innovation, people are concerned about the consequences of the changes they are seeing around them. Moreover, the innovations are coming at us quickly. This shows that what we need is technological awareness and a public debate about the part we want robots to play in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This brief and commissioned paper reviews ten years of book reviews that have been published in Island Studies Journal (2006-2015). The paper discusses numbers and types of reviews, the nationality of the reviewers, the spatial, thematic and/or disciplinary focus of the books reviewed, using these observations to make critical comments on Island Studies Journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the reader's reception of translated literary texts and to explore the reader's expectations about literary works. For this purpose, three comparable corpora of British, American and Italian online book reviews commenting on the English version of Andrea Camilleri's La forma dell'acqua (The Shape of Water) and on the Italian version of Stephen King's Joyland were assembled and analysed. The way active target language readers perceive and evaluate a translated literary work was then explored by taking the language they actually used in book recommendation websites. The analysis demonstrates that the Anglo-American and Italian readers' reception of the translated text is different, in terms of focus and perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This teaching note argues that one value associated with preparing book reviews for publication is the increased capacity to develop this skill in undergraduate and MSW-level social work students. A book review assignment is presented that has been effective in developing student authors. After graduation, student authors (N = 21) agreed that acceptance for publication improved their self-confidence, increased attention to their studies, and enhanced their practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose:The aim of this article is to examine the development of the book review section of theJournal of Business-to-Business Marketingrelative to changes in the publication industry. Methodology/approach:The analysis compared descriptive categories and content analysis of the book reviews and book review essays across four time periods. The content analysis was conducted using Leximancer, an automatic text analytic tool that codes according to the co-occurrence of main concepts within the text. The time periods relate to the journal volumes: 1–5, 6–10, 11–15, and 16–21. These time periods were tagged within Leximancer indicating the differences and commonalities of the book review content between each time period. Findings:The results indicated that the number of book reviews has fallen over the journal’s life. The following reasons influencing the falling number of book reviews were proposed: changing promotion/tenure criteria for academics over the last 20 years, the different attitudes between academics and practitioners in relation to book content, financial pressures placed on academic publishers, and the changing proportion of the university library budget allocated to procuring books. The results also indicated that the topics covered in the book reviews have changed over the four time periods. These changes are thought to be influenced by the changing “hot topics” business marketing academics are interested in and topics preferred by book publishers. Implications:Although the publishing industry and academic reward systems continue to change, books will continue to be an important outlet for the dissemination of knowledge and academics will continue to publish books. The broader publishing environment and discipline specific trends should be considered when determining publishing approaches. Books offer an alternative avenue for reaching a broad academic audience (rather than those who only read specialized journals) and academics passionate about their research will be motivated to share with a broad audience. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The use of a critical voice in book reviews seems to depend on factors rooted in the discipline community reviewers belong to and on the language and culture which hosts the review. Adopting a cross-cultural perspective, this study analyses 60 book reviews from British and Spanish history journals in terms of the entities and aspects evaluated and the polarity (positive/negative) of the evaluation. Divergences are found in the distribution of positive and negative evaluation, revealing that even if in both cultures positive evaluation is more frequent, in Spanish book reviews negative evaluation is almost nonexistent. Interviews with informants show that these divergences respond to the local character of the disciplinary communities which host the reviews and to a different understanding of what this evaluative genre implies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Chemistry book reviews serve as an aid to collection development, as well as an educational function for bibliographers and subject specialists. This study aims to outline a methodology for locating book reviews for a subject literature and characterizing the books reviewed. Design/methodology/approach – This study utilized UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory to identify chemistry periodicals containing book reviews. Criteria were applied to limit the periodicals identified to those publishing ten or more book reviews in 2009 and held by 25 or more libraries. The books reviewed by the periodicals were characterized in terms of the quantity, subject coverage, overlap, lag time, and compared to chemistry books published in 2009. Books reviewed by the chemistry periodicals were also compared to general science and other periodicals known to contain chemistry book reviews. Findings – A total of 11 chemistry periodicals met the criteria and collectively they published 445 book reviews in 2009. Three chemistry periodicals accounted for 72.1 percent of the chemistry books reviewed, thus following Bradford's Law of Scatter. The LC Classification of the books reviewed ranged widely and QDs only comprised 41.1 percent of the 380 unique titles reviewed. The overlap was low with only 17.5 percent of the chemistry titles reviewed more than once. Books reviewed were generally representative of the chemistry books published based on publisher. Few, if any, chemistry books were reviewed by general science periodicals. Originality/value – This paper provides a methodology that is applicable to other disciplines, as well as updating and expanding previous research by characterizing the subject coverage of books reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is about memories. Dr. Van Leer describes how he became the book review editor of the Journal of Bisexuality. He talks about his book reviews and the Brief Mention reviews he included in each issue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the status of the book review as a form of scholarly publication in the humanities, looking at the role and characteristics of humanities book reviews and at who writes them and why. It examines evidence for the influence and impact of book reviews in the humanities and makes suggestions for the future of the scholarly book review in an online information environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The San José State University Electrical Engineering (EE) Department implemented a skill audit exam for graduating seniors in 1999 with the purpose of assessing the teaching and the students' mastery of core concepts in EE. However, consistent low scores for the first years in which the test was administered suggested that students had little incentive in reviewing for passing the test. To promote the concept that there is a set of basic skills every graduating senior should master, improvements were implemented that included creating an online exam used for review and requiring students to earn a 70% or higher score on an in-class exam that is a requirement for graduation. After the improvements were made, all students demonstrated at least 70% mastery of the core EE concepts as measured by the improved in-class skill audit exam. The details of these improvements are presented. Anonymous survey results of graduating seniors indicate that students feel that preparing for the skill audit exam was a good use of their time and that the exam should be made more rigorous for future students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay surveys some recent trends in the reviewing of research-based books on cinema. The author traces a substantial rise in the number of film books from academic presses, which have taken up titles that trade presses would have issued at earlier periods. The essay goes on to consider the roles and aims of authors, review editors, and reviewers. The essay concludes with some recommendations for improving reviewing, principally through long-form reviews published online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the circumstances of Oscar Wilde's employment by the Pall Mall Gazette, and even less is known about his engagement with its editorial policies. His reviews are often neglected, but when examined are considered in isolation rather than as a contribution to a serial format. The Pall Mall Gazette's structure provides a new context in which to understand Wilde's reviews, which were inevitably shaped by the paper's editorial policies. The paper hired reviewers who could help it maintain a balance between politics and light relief. With an understanding of audience affect and cognition, Wilde employed a range of strategies to manage reader response. The reviews analysed in this article show Wilde exploring the material, and psychological aspects of books and reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To describe and discuss the processes used to write scholarly book reviews for publication in peer-reviewed journals and to provide a recommended strategy and book appraisal worksheet to use when conducting book reviews. Methods: A literature search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and the Index to Chiropractic Literature was conducted in June 2009 using a combination of controlled vocabulary and truncated text words to capture articles relevant to writing scholarly book reviews for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Results: The initial search identified 839 citations. Following the removal of duplicates and the application of selection criteria, a total of 78 articles were included in this review including narrative commentaries (n = 26), editorials or journal announcements (n = 25), original research (n = 18). and journal correspondence pieces (n = 9). Discussion: Recommendations for planning and writing an objective and quality book review are presented based on the evidence gleaned from the articles reviewed and from the authors' experiences. A worksheet for conducting a book review is provided. Conclusions: The scholarly book review serves many purposes and has the potential to be an influential literary form, The process of publishing a successful scholarly book review requires the reviewer to appreciate the book review publication process and to be aware of the skills and strategies involved in writing a successful review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Book Review is an excellent tool both for publicity and collection development. In a country like India, where the regional language publishing is much significant, the local book review media plays an imperative role in this respect. This article reports the results of a quantitative study of the contents of reviews of Bengali titles appeared during the initial five and half years in the new millennium. Four Bengali newspapers with weekly book review pages. one reputed literary magazine in Bengali and a group of twenty little magazines of literary importance have been chosen for study. Reflections of titles and participation of publishers in. local book review media in terms of the comprehensiveness and currency of review, identification of marginalized and prolific titles and publishers in terms of single and multiple appearances including the patterns of reflections of subjects and price of the reviewed titles aic covered in this study. The study reveals that the local book review media is lacking in the comprehensiveness and currency factors. Prolific appearances of titles and publishers in more than one source of review simultaneously are not usual phenomena in local book review media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A total of 143 books were reviewed over the period 1993-2008 in the Book Review section of the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing. The books encompassed a broad array of topics, including the basic marketing mix elements of business-to-business marketing, purchasing, buyer-seller relationships, global marketing, Internet and e-commerce, organization studies, research methodology, strategy and general management, and education. During this period, five review essays provided thematic and comparative evaluations of a set of books. This cumulative index is divided into two sections. The first provides a subject listing of books reviewed and the second is a chronological listing. All book reviews are located at the end of each issue of the journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that book reviews n academic journals tend to be positive but that readers prefer book reviews that include negative and positive evaluation. In this study, the author examines 48 books reviews from three business communication journals to determine whether these reviews are mainly positive. She counts compliments and criticisms, analyzing their location and topics. She also analyzes the force of the criticisms and strategies that reviewers use to mitigate criticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents results of the analysis of 325 book reviews published in Current Science during 2002 to 2005. The analysis shows that around 60% books were original works produced by single, double or multiple authors. The rest were collected works including two journals, corporate works, and a translation. The documents reviewed comprised mostly monographs (90%) followed by annual reviews and others. The largest number of documents reviewed belong to pure sciences (73%), followed by applied sciences (24%), and others (3%). Of the documents reviewed, 52.62% were published abroad and the rest 47.38% in India. Books containing 151 to 350 pages accounted for about 53% of the books. It is noticed that the number of books reviewed per year in Current Science varies from 60 to more than 100. Of the books reviewed, 71 were published from Delhi, 27 from Hyderabad, 24 each from New Jersey and Basel, 21 from New York, and the rest from other places. Publishers responsible for bringing out 321 books (publishers not mentioned in four cases) total 124. Birkhauser Verlag and Princeton University accounted for 26 books each, University Press (India) Ltd 24, Annual Review Inc. 18, MIT Press 13, Springer Verlag 12 books, and others less than 10 books. Prices were not mentioned in about 33% book reviews, possibly because the books did not provide the information. About 47% books were above the price range of Rs 1000. The minimum price of a book was found to be Rs 35 and maximum Rs 14,850. A large number of scientists shouldered the responsibility of reviewing books, foremost amongst them being C. P. Rajendran, M. S. Swaminathan, T. J. Pandian, S. Arunachalam and K. R. Rao. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metadiscourse is the term used for self-reflective linguistic expressions that refer to the evolving text, to the writer, and to the imagined readers of that text. It is based on a view of writing as social engagement and in academic contexts reveals the ways writers project themselves into their discourse to signal their attitudes and commitments to matters in the text and to their disciplinary communities. This paper examines the frequencies and pragmatic purposes of metadiscourse in the relatively neglected academic genre of the book review. On the basis of a corpus of 84 reviews from three contrasting disciplines and interviews with journal editors and reviewers, we describe the ways these writers use metadiscourse to offer a credible representation of themselves and their work in different fields. The analysis shows how metadiscourse use can be seen as pragmatic strategies through which writers shape their social purposes to the formal constraints of the genre and the preferred practices of their disciplines. It therefore suggests how this genre not only draws on readers' familiarity with disciplinary knowledge of the field, but also an interpretive framework that includes appropriate social interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to assess medical journals' conflicts of interest in the publication of book reviews. We examined book reviews published in 1999, 2000, and 2001 (N = 1,876) in five leading medical journals: Annals of Internal Medicine, British Medical Journal (BMJ), Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Lancet, and New England Journal of Medicine. The main outcome measure was journal publication of reviews of books that had been published by the journal's own publisher, that had been edited or authored by a lead editor of the journal, or that posed another conflict of interest. We also surveyed the editors-in-chief of the five journals about their policies on these conflicts of interests. During the study period, four of the five journals published 30 book reviews presenting a conflict of interest: nineteen by the BMJ, five by the Annals, four by JAMA, and two by the Lancet. These reviews represent 5.8%, 2.7%, 0.7%, and 0.7%, respectively, of all book reviews published by the journals. These four journals, respectively, published reviews of 11.9%, 25.0%, 0.9%, and 1.0% of all medical books published by the journals' publishers. Only one of the 30 book reviews included a disclosure statement addressing the conflict of interest. None of the journals had a written policy pertaining to the conflicts of interest assessed in this study, although four reported having unwritten policies. We recommend that scientific journals and associations representing journal editors develop policies on conflicts of interest pertaining to book reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Biotechnology Resource Kit is now available online to members at www. eatright. com/members/career/biotech. html. ADA has added an Online Literature Review to our member's current service of the ADA [...]

The quality of peer-reviewed journals is vulnerable to the absence of declared standards for book reviews. Reviewers should agree to several simple rules before undertaking to review books and while writing them. Sensitivity to an author's aims is one requirement; familiarity with an author's previous and relevant publications is another. Critical judgment is always appropriate, but it can be set apart from an account of the ideas reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suspect Documents: Their Scientific Examination. By Dr. Wilson R. Harrison--The book under review is a very important contribution to the published knowledge on the examination of suspect documents ... Fraudulent [...]

Book Review author [illus. 1] Fictional portrayals of scientists conducting cutting-edge research are rarely found on book shop shelves. On page 128, Jennifer Rohn, a cell biologist at University College [...]

The editors wish to express their appreciation to the following reviewers for their assistance in evaluating material for International Family Planning Perspectives in 2003: Jacob A. Adetunji Sohail Agha Saifuddin [...]

S Shem Black Swan, 1985, £7.99, pp 397 ISBN 0 55299 122 8 Rating: ** The House of God has been hanging over my head from the beginning. When I [...]