How to Write an Online Review for The American Archivist's Reviews Portal
Here are specific guidelines for preparing online reviews for The American Archivist's Reviews Portal:
- Reviews should be 500–750 words in length. The Reviews Editor reserves the right to edit for length.
- For standard monographs, the reviewer must identify title, author or editor(s), city of publication, publisher, date of publication, number of pages, ISBN number (properly formatted), cloth or paper, and price.
- For all other materials (software, web pages, or other resources), reviewers must supply as complete a citation as possible, based on guidelines found in the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. If you have questions about citing source information, please contact the Reviews Editor.
When reviewing the resource:
- Discuss the author’s credentials and background.
- Briefly describe the material, providing a simple overview and summary.
- All reviews are a personal statement. Discuss your reaction to the resource, its strengths and weaknesses.
- Respond to the author’s thesis and opinions.
- Discuss the resource within an archival context, its relationship to archives and its significance for the discipline.
- Evaluate the resource as a whole in terms of its usefulness to archivists and users of archives materials.
- Do not focus on minor typographical or factual errors unless the work is significantly compromised.
