Guidelines for Book Reviewers

We have limited space for reviews in the journal: please keep to the length and the deadline requested by the Book Review Editor.

Please include all bibliographical information at the head of the review:

Author. Title. City: Publisher, date. Number of pages. (if present) Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Price. Cloth. (and/or) Paper. Or "No price reported."

Most items set off by a period/full stop, as in this sample:

Chris Abotchie. Social Control in Traditional Southern Eweland of Ghana. Relevance for Modern Crime Prevention. Legon: Ghana Universities Press, 1997. Distributed by African Books Collective Ltd., Unit 13 Kings Meadow, Ferry Hinksey Rd., Oxford OX2 0DP. vi + 154 pp. Photographs. Bibliography. Index. $18.00. Paper.

At the end of the review, please note your name, your institution (if affiliated) and city, and your e-mail address.

Format Requirements:

Reviews should be double-spaced, aligned left, with all margins at least 1 inch (2.5cm). Please send your review in a Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) file as an e-mail attachment to asr-book@mtholyoke.edu.
Include page references for all quotations. In general, for production reasons avoid footnotes or endnotes and references to other sources in your book review. If, however, such citation is necessary, please cite that author and title in the text of the review, then include in parentheses the publisher, date of publication, and possible page reference.
For a review essay, citation of references should follow the Style Guide for the ASR, available at http://www.umass.edu/anthro/asr/style_guide.rtf. Review essays may include occasional notes, but please be parsimonious; in such cases do not use footnote/endnote programs but manually type in notes at the end.

Please don't be afraid to make reviews lively and provocative: African Studies need not be a "dismal science"! The ASR encourages engaged writers and readers.

Many thanks for taking the time for this important service; the ASR and the profession generally are in your debt. We all rely on thoughtful and informed reviews to follow current scholarship.

Download a copy of these guidelines.