tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2971081717687612908.post5726458098604258518..comments2024-03-18T05:08:29.201-07:00Comments on Publishing Archaeology: The book review crisisMichael E. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03942595266312225661noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2971081717687612908.post-91855220746716095342011-09-25T06:33:07.130-07:002011-09-25T06:33:07.130-07:00Mitch-
While I acknowledge the relevance of your ...Mitch-<br /><br />While I acknowledge the relevance of your three points, the fact is that many journals manage to maintain a large and healthy program of book reviews. So I am more interested in the specific factors that generate low numbers of book reviews in New World archaeology, rather than the general factors that affect all book review operations.Michael E. Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03942595266312225661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2971081717687612908.post-91848737902452111612011-09-23T20:24:38.733-07:002011-09-23T20:24:38.733-07:00How about these reasons, Michael:
-journals have f...How about these reasons, Michael:<br />-journals have fixed page counts for economic reasons; the more pages devoted to reviews mean fewer devoted to articles that actually help scholars toward tenure<br />-books have to be reviewed before they can appear in the review section. Any book review editor can tell you that there are a large percentage of books sent to reviewers that never result in reviews.<br />-book review editors in most journals change every 2 or 3 years. We have a database of about 2000 journals that we use. There is no way we can keep track of the book review editors on all of them. And it is a very rare day that we actually hear from a journal that the book review editor has changed. Sometimes, it's on the website, but that's often inaccurate. So it's not always easy to get the book there. <br />-the worst possible case for you, Michael, is that no one liked the book and rather than send it out to be trashed, they just didn't. I doubt that is the case here, but it happens.Mitch Allenhttp://www.lcoastpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2971081717687612908.post-56447057094162712122011-09-20T17:16:39.685-07:002011-09-20T17:16:39.685-07:00Folklore studies reached a point like that that yo...Folklore studies reached a point like that that you describe for anthropological/Americanist archaeology. Borrowing a simple model from Bryn Mawr Classical Review and The Medieval Review (both now ancient projects by internet time measurement), my colleagues started Journal for Folklore Research Reviews (JFRR) as a spin off from the Journal of Folklore Research. I know that you are not up for another DIY project for yourself, but it is my belief that this is a viable way forward if there was community interest. The number of subscribers (its free) are huge and the levels of appreciation that the community in folklore has for this effort is great. If it can be done with library-based publishing infrastructure support for preservation, even better. We once faced a situation in which only a handful of books were reviewed and the reviews appeared many years after their subjects. Now, a JFRR review is very likely and will probably very soon after the book. <br /><br />There are other issues to be debated, like graduate students as reviewers and service to the profession burdens, and institutional support, etc. I just mention this BMCR/CR/JFRR model because for at least three fields, it has proven to be a successful strategy for dealing with your problem.Jason Baird Jacksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03608128772284323399noreply@blogger.com