Dear Book Reviewer:
Thank you very much for contributing to Religious Studies Review. We are excited about your review. Please be so kind as to observe the following guidelines when writing your review:
- Include a balanced summary of the book’s content and place it in the context of current scholarly debates, indicating who the intended readership of the book is, and whether book successfully addresses this audience. Elements of assessment may include the author’s expertise, quality of evidence and argument, relation to other works or significance to field. Brevity requires a focus on the features of the book that most require evaluation. All reviews must have evaluative content. Edited volumes must also have evaluative reviews. Simply listing the authors of the articles will not suffice.
- Notes are due to your Area editor within three months of receipt of book or as directed by your Area Editor. Do not email them to the CSSR office or to the Booknote Editor. If uncertain about whom to send the note, contact the CSSR office (cssr@rice.edu).
- Please limit your review to a strict maximum of 250 words, with 200 words or less a desideratum.
- At the top of your review, the header should read as follows (please note style and punctuation of text: title in bold and all caps; author in small caps,):
TITLE OF BOOK (all caps):
SUBTITLE (all caps).
By, Translated by, or Edited by First Name, Initial or Middle Name, Last Name.
Title of Series, number of volume in series.
Place(s) of publication:
Publisher(s), (if a book publisher abroad has a North American distributor, include this information in parenthesis)
Date of publication.
Pp. Roman + Arabic; plates, illustrations, maps (number of plates, etc., not needed).
Price (if price is not available, indicate N.p.; if there are both cloth and paper editions, include both), otherwise if you have the price for just one then you do not need to include ‘cloth’ or ‘paper.’
Composite Example:
A VERY COMPELLING BOOK TITLE: SUBTITLED CLEARLY. By Susan Q. Author. Edited by Marc B. Editor. Series Name, 13. City, ST: Publisher, 2007. Pp. xvi + 486; plates, maps. Cloth, $69.00; paper, $14.95.
BOOK TITLE: SUBTITLED CLEARLY. Edited by Marc B. Editor. Series Name, 13. City, ST: Publisher, 2008. Pp. xvi + 486. $59.00.
- Double‑space all text, and use ample margins (at least 1.5″) left and right. Use a single space, not two spaces, at the end of sentences.
- The text is to be a single paragraph with an indent at the beginning of the body of the note.
- No page references to the book under review should be used even if a direct citation.
- Eliminate first names of well-known scholars referenced (Calvin, Luther, Freud, Eliade); use initials for those less known or with duplicate last names (R. Niebuhr, H. R. Niebuhr, J. Donne, D. Sarma).
- For brevity’s sake, do not repeat full name of author or of book under review.
- For enumerating lists, use 1), 2), 3), etc. within a sentence (run-in lists)
- If the review references a book that we have reviewed in a prior RSR, cite the prior issue and page number (e.g., RSR 25:123).
- No periods used for US, UK, BCE, CE, etc.
- Avoid pejorative terminology (“cults,” “heretical”) and potentially libelous language. Use gender-inclusive language.
- Reviews will be edited by the Area Editor, Booknote Editor, and a copy editor for style and content.
- The following must be included at the end of the review:
Your name and location (either their primary school affiliation or the city, ST in which you are located) in italics and both lines indented. Keep information minimal.
Example:
Andrew Fort
Texas Christian University
If you are not attached to an institution, give your city, state.
Thank you for sharing your time and expertise in providing your review and for your consideration in following these guidelines.
Religious Studies Review
CSSR Executive Office
Rice University
PO BOX 1892
MS-156 Houston, TX 77251-1892
phone: 713-348-5721
fax: 713-348-5735