What makes a good book review?

Abstract

The Media Reviews section in Journal of Advanced Nursing functions as: an ‘alert’ for potential readers; high quality peer review and feedback for authors and publishers; ‘advertising’ for publishers. First, we would expect you to have knowledge of a subject area. We ask that you tell us about your position and academic background, to establish that you are a credible reviewer for a book. Second, you should be interested in reviewing for JAN! We would expect you to review one or two books per year. There is no payment for a review, but you can keep the book and your name and position will appear in Journal of Advanced Nursing. You should be able to venture an opinion about the text. We rely on the opinions of reviewers and expect a fair, balanced and interesting review from you. If you would like to become a media reviewer, please e-mail Laura Kingsbury at Blackwell Publishing ([email protected]) giving her a list of your three key interests, and also give details of your position and qualifications, and contact postal and e-mail addresses. If you have not published previously, reviewing a book can be a good way of getting into print for the first time. Have a look at the Media Reviews sections of recent editions of JAN before you begin reviewing a book to get a feel for what published reviewers write. A good review should be informative, engaging and opinionated. It should be informative, in that it tells readers what the book is about. Using electronic databases to conduct literature searches frequently identifies JAN book reviews, and searchers will be influenced about reading a book as a result of your review. They will want to know what the book is about, so include some information on what the chapters and/or sections contain, as well as the basic structure of the book. Your job is to provide a summary of the subject matter. For example, Pothier (JAN 48, 315) started her review of a book on delirium with the statement: This interesting and clinically relevant book gives a thorough discussion of delirium and its significance in palliative care. Thus, she skilfully summarized its content so that, if I worked in a palliative care setting, I would know whether this book was likely to be of interest to me. Next, a review should be engaging: you only have a very small number of words (no more than a page of A4 text with 12 point font, which amounts to about 500 words), so it needs to be succinct and reader-friendly. Close referencing or quoting from the book is not advised unless absolutely necessary. You may like to refer to other sources, but try to keep these to one or two references. A book review is more akin to journalism than academic writing, and short words and simple sentences usually work best in this context. For general advice on writing readable English, consult the information on the JAN website at (http://www.journalofadvancednursing.com/default.asp?file=guidereadibility) Lastly, a review should be opinionated. Readers want to know what you thought of it. Was it good or bad? Was it interesting and informative, or leaden and irrelevant? In your opinion, is it to be recommended or not? To whom would you recommend it? For example, in the issue of JAN mentioned above, Cockayne opened his review of a book on community nursing with the statement: ‘This book is a fascinating read’, adding later that it is ‘challenging and thought-provoking’. This was his opinion; as we have not read the book we rely on the reviewer's opinion and so do JAN readers. However, try to keep a sense of balance and a logical approach in your review. It is appropriate to offer a reasoned, critical analysis of the strengths and weakness of a book; it is not acceptable to be rude about authors and their scholarship simply because you do not agree with them, or even because your own research or clinical interests are opposed to theirs. A book review might contribute to the debate on this, but JAN Forum is a more appropriate place than the Media Reviews section for such an exchange of views.