TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Importance of Book Reviews
Writing Book Reviews
Sources for Book Reviews
Book reviews are an important information source. This page includes links to information explaining why they are important, how they are written, and where you can find them.
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The Importance of Book Reviews
Book Reviewing as an Important Scholarly Activity [Editorial]. John W. Fleenor. Personnel Psychology. Winter 2004. Vol. 57, No. 4; p. 1036-1037. Alternate link 
Book Reviews and Scientist-Practitioner Currency: A Critical Lever. Robert G. Jones, John Fleenor & Lynn Summers. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist. Apr 2004. Vol. 41, No. 4. HTML PDF
Use of Scholarly Book Reviews: Implications for Electronic Publishing and Scholarly Communication. Amanda Spink, David Robins and Linda Schamber. Journal of the American Society for Information Science. Apr 1998. Vol. 49, No. 4; p. 364-374.
Writing Book Reviews
Getting Started in Book Reviewing. Bryan Aubrey. The Writer. Nov 1991. Vol. 104, No. 11; p. 18-20, 28.
Reading and Writing Book Reviews Across the Disciplines. James Hartley. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. Jul 2006. Vol. 57, No. 9; p. 1194-1207. Alternate link
Writing Book Reviews HTML PDF
(Indiana University Writing Tutorial Services)
Writing Book Reviews
(University of Waterloo Library Guides)
Sources for Book Reviews
The following is a selected list of online and "hard copy" resources providing citations to, excerpts from, or the full text of book reviews of possible interest to NPS personnel. Please note that this list is not intended to be comprehensive. Additional sources of book reviews are available to some personnel through DoD service portals and resources at local public libraries.
AcqWeb's Directory of Book Reviews on the Web. Free sites containing reviews of academic & popular books. Date coverage varies.
Air University Library Index to Military Periodicals. 1988-present. English language military and aeronautical periodicals.
Include the phrase "book reviews" as part of your search.
Amazon.com. Often includes excerpts from published "editorial" reviews as well as reviews from the site's customers.
Book Review Digest Hard copy: 1920-2003 Reference Stacks AI 3 .B68
This tool provides the complete reference, a brief summary of each book indexed as well as references to sources that have done a review. A synopsis of each review is included. It is organized by author but also has indexing by title and subject.
Book Review Index Hard copy: 1965-2006 Reference Stacks AI 3 .B7
This source is organized by author and has an index by title. It provides references to book reviews.
Booklist 1997-present
Published by the American Library Association; includes "recommended-only reviews of books, audiobooks, reference sources, video, and DVD titles."
Type book title, author, or subject in the "Search for articles within this publication" box.
Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries 1987-present
"The premier source for reviews of academic books, electronic media, and Internet resources of interest to those in higher education." Click here for information about their selection policy.
Computing Reviews
1984-present
Top ranked professionals review the best books & articles in Computing literature.
Click on Search, then select Simple search, then select "Type" Whole Books pull-down menu. (You can also use Advanced search and then click on the Whole Books check box.) Then type in your search term(s).
Ebsco Our subscription covers primarily business & social sciences.
Select one or more databases, then click on the "Advanced Search" tab. Scroll down and limit to "Document Type" Book Review.
EconLit 1969-present
"Published by the American Economic Association, [EconLit] provides bibliographic coverage of a wide range of economics-related literature."
In Advanced Search, use the pull-down menu to select Publication Type and enter "book review" in the search box.
Global Information System 1997-present
Intelligence & analysis for senior policymakers, intelligence officials and military researchers.
Click on "Essential Reading: New Books Received" in the left-hand column.
Global Newsbank 1995-present
Articles from international sources covering politics, economics, culture, business, science, technology, and the environment.
Click on "more search options," then type BOOK REVIEWS in the Topics field and search for books by author, title, or key word(s)]
H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences 1993-present
Books and multimedia resources reviewed by scholars in the social sciences, arts & humanities.
Latin American History Reviews
Military History Network Reviews
History 1997-present
Peer-reviewed quarterly journal of historiographical essays engaging recent history publications. Reviews address all periods, places, subfields, and themes.
Type in title or keyword(s) in the "Search for articles within this publication" box.
History Today 1988-present
Covers prehistory to the present day.
Go to ProQuest & select ProQuest Research Library. Type "History Today" in the Publication Title field, and under Document type, select Review.
Journal of Economic Literature 1969-present; both online and hard copy (call no. PERIODICAL J4722)
American Economic Association quarterly containing "survey and review articles, book reviews, an annotated bibliography of newly published books, and a list of current dissertations in North American universities."
Use Find eJournals. In the Ebsco database, you can limit your search to "document type" book review.
JSTOR
Core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences and sciences. Good source for reviews of older books; does not generally have reviews from the past two to five years.
Use Advanced Search & select the "Review" check box.
Law and Politics Book Review (University of Maryland) 2002-present
In-depth reviews of books on the legal process and politics.
LexisNexis Academic Universe: Book, Movie, Music, Play, and Video Reviews 1979-present
LexisNexis Academic Universe: Book Reviews only 1985-present
MathSciNet 1936-present
Reviews from Mathematical Reviews and Current Mathematical Publications
Under “Publication Type,” select Books.
Military Periodicals (1998-present)
Approximately 25 military magazines, from Air & Space Power Journal to Surface Warfare.
Click on “Customized” tab, then type BOOK REVIEWS in the Topics field.
New York Review of Books 1963-present
Reviews books covering "major contemporary intellectual, political, scientific, and artistic developments and debates," as well as "classics" (fiction & non-fiction) & children's books.
New York Times Book Review 1981-present
Reviews books on "major contemporary intellectual, political, scientific, and artistic developments and debates," as well as classics & children's books. May require that you set up an account (free).
New York Times Book Review Index Hard copy: 1896-1970 ABSTRACTS AI21 .N49
Indexed by book author, title, byline, subject, and "category" (literary genre)
Parameters (US Army War College Quarterly) 1996-present
Reviews of biographies, anthologies, etc. written by senior military officers & scholars.
Project Muse
Covers over 380 high quality humanities and social sciences journals.
Use Advanced Search & select the "Review" che
ProQuest
Business, social science, news, military affairs, computing, telecommunications, science.
Click on More Search Options, then select Review/Book review in the Document type field & enter an author, title, keyword, etc. in the Search box.
PsycINFO 1960-present
"International literature in psychology and related disciplines."
In Advanced Search, select Publication Type "Review-Book" and type in book author, title, or topic.
Reference and Research Books News 2000-present
Primarily "reference and scholarly works in the social sciences and the humanities."
Type book title, author, or subject in the "Search for articles within this publication" box.
San Francisco Chronicle Book Review 1995-present
Scroll down for the "Search" function.
Times [of London] Literary Supplement
Worldwide coverage of "the work of the twentieth [and twenty-first] century's leading writers and thinkers."
Archive: 1994-present with one week lag time
Web of Science--via Web of Knowledge 1965-present
Scholarly works in the sciences & social sciences.
Click on Advanced Search button, then under Restrict results by any or all of the options below, select Book Review. Type a search using one of the suggested field tags followed by an equal sign (=) and your search term(s). Use the "Get It!" button to get full-text.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts 1975-present
International relations, law, and public administration/policy.
In Advanced Search, use the pull-down menu to select Publication Type and enter "book review" in the search box.
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