A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit.[1]
A book review may be a primary source, an opinion piece, a summary review, or a scholarly view.[2] Books can be reviewed for printed periodicals, magazines, and newspapers, as school work, or for book websites on the Internet. A book review's length may vary from a single paragraph to a substantial essay. Such a review may evaluate the book based on personal taste. Reviewers may use the occasion of a book review for an extended essay that can be closely or loosely related to the subject of the book, or to promulgate their ideas on the topic of a fiction or non-fiction work.
Academic book reviews are both a form of academic service and a contribution to the academic literature.[4] They are frequently published as a section or part of academic journals.[5] They help the profession understand what has been happening in their profession, and work on the emerging intellectual challenges of their field.[4] However, not all academics are incentivized to take on the work required in a book review, because they are often not rewarded for that work.[4] Book reviews can be used to predict which monographs are likely to have subsequent citations.[5]
Newspaper reviews became prominent in the 18h century, as a form of reader responses.[6]
In academic criticism, popular book reviews in newspapers and magazine reviews are often used to evaluate the relative audience and impact of books during a period.[6]
^Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (2011). "Book reviews". Scholarly definition document. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Archived from the original on September 10, 2011. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
^Reynolds, L. D. and N.G. Wilson (1991). Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature (3rd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 321. ISBN0-19-872145-5.
Chen, C. C. (1976), Biomedical, Scientific and Technical Book Reviewing, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ.
Ingram, Helen M.; Mills, Penny B. (1989). "Reviewing the Book Reviews". PS: Political Science and Politics. 22 (3): 627. doi:10.2307/419632. JSTOR419632.
Katz, Bill (1985). "The Sunny Book Review". Technical Services Quarterly. 3 (1–2): 17–25. doi:10.1300/J124v03n01_03.
Lindholm-Romantschuk, Y. (1998). Scholarly book reviewing in the social sciences and humanities. The flow of ideas within and among disciplines. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
Miranda, E. O. (1996), "On book reviewing", Journal of Educational Thought, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 191–202.
Motta-Roth, D. (1998), "Discourse analysis and academic book reviews: a study of text and disciplinary cultures", in Fortanet, I. (Ed), Genre Studies in English for Academic Purposes, Universitat Jaume, Castelló de la Plana, pp. 29–58.
Nicolaisen, Jeppe (2002). "The scholarliness of published peer reviews: A bibliometric study of book reviews in selected social science fields". Research Evaluation. 11 (3): 129–140. doi:10.3152/147154402781776808.
Nielsen, Sandro (2009). "2. Reviewing printed and electronic dictionaries: A theoretical and practical framework". Lexicography in the 21st Century. Terminology and Lexicography Research and Practice. Vol. 12. pp. 23–41. doi:10.1075/tlrp.12.04nie. ISBN978-90-272-2336-4.
Rampola, Mary Lynn (2010). "Critiques and book reviews", A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, Sixth Edition, pp. 26–28.
Riley, L. E. & Spreitzer, E. A. (1970), "Book reviewing in the social sciences", The American Sociologist, Vol. 5 (November), pp. 358–363.
Sabosik, Patricia E. (1988). "Scholarly reviewing and the role of choice in the postpublication review process". Book Research Quarterly. 4 (2): 10–18. doi:10.1007/BF02910823. S2CID144380238.
Schubert, A.; Zsindely, S.; Telcs, A.; Braun, T. (1984). "Quantitative analysis of a visible tip of the peer review iceberg: Book reviews in chemistry". Scientometrics. 6 (6): 433–443. doi:10.1007/BF02025830. S2CID32648183.
Snizek, W. E. & Fuhrman, E. R. (1979), "Some factors affecting the evaluative content of book reviews in sociology", The American Sociologist, Vol. 14 (May), pp. 108–114.
Spink, Amanda; Robins, David; Schamber, Linda (1998). "Use of scholarly book reviews: Implications for electronic publishing and scholarly communication". Journal of the American Society for Information Science. 49 (4): 364–374. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(19980401)49:4<364::AID-ASI6>3.0.CO;2-3.