1. Definitions:
A. A Book
notice is a short description of a book's content, typically about 500
words in length. In the near
future, book notices will no longer be published in the print journal Language, but will instead appear
online at the eLanguage website. Readers of Language may volunteer to write a book notice by submitting a
request for the book to the Book Notice Editor. At present, the Review Editor (Natsuko Tsujimura)
also acts as the Book Notice Editor. (Once book notices begin being published online at the eLanguage website, the editorial
process for book notices may change; updated information on any such changes
will be issued shortly.) Unsolicited
book notices are allowed, but in sending an unsolicited notice, the author of
such is taking the risk that the book in question may have already been
assigned to someone else.
Sample book notice of edited volume: Battistella
notice on Mugglestone 2000
Sample book notice of authored volume: Battistella
notice on Crystal 2001
B. Book reviews are 1200-2000 word pieces that summarize the content of the volume, assess its quality, and note
its contribution to the field. Book
reviews, unlike book notices, will continue to appear in the print journal Language rather than online at the eLanguage website. Book reviews are
not usually assigned to volunteers, but instead are commissioned by the
Review Editor in consultation with the Editor and Associate Editors of Language. The journal typically
publishes about 50 reviews each year. Unsolicited reviews are discouraged.
However, Language will entertain requests, suggestions, or proposals
from potential reviewers and consider these on a case-by-case basis. Such
individuals should first contact the Review Editor (Natsuko Tsujimura).
C. Review articles are longer pieces that are called for by
some "event", such as the publication of a particularly important
book or a series of books that are related, or by a need to provide a
summation over some topic of crucial interest. These are commissioned by the
Journal Editor (rather than the Review Editor) and are subject to the peer
review process. Review articles are rather infrequent, and unsolicited review
articles are generally not accepted. Individuals wishing to propose a review
article should first contact the Journal Editor (Greg Carlson). Review articles, like book reviews, will
continue to appear in the print journal Language rather than online at the eLanguage website.
2.
Editing: For any book review accepted for publication in Language,
the editors reserve the right to make alterations in punctuation, phrasing,
and wording, as well as to make minor cuts, in order that the item be in
keeping with the journal's requirements regarding style and usage. The same
is true of any book notice accepted for online publication at the eLanguage website. Authors are asked
to proofread their contributions thoroughly before submission to either
venue.
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3. Formatting
- The cover page:
Each book notice or review should have a cover sheet on each copy,
providing the following information:
(i) the title and author(s)/editor(s) of the book,
(ii) whether it is a notice or a review,
(iii) complete contact information for the review/notice author (postal
address, fax number, phone number, and e-mail address),
(iv) (for student authors) the name of the faculty supervisor who has
reviewed and approved it (see #7 below), and
(v) an accurate word-count for the book notice or review
(in MS Word "word count" utility is found in the
"Tools" menu; in Wordperfect, "word count" is found
in the "File" menu, by selecting "Properties" and
then the "Information" tab).
- The first page of
the review/notice should contain a header with the citation
information arranged into a single paragraph and punctuated as follows:
[title]. Edited by/By [full name of author(s)]. [series title (if any)].
[publication city/state (country)]: [publisher], [publication year]. Pp.
[no. of pages]. [ISBN]. [price].
Examples:
The mind doesn't work that way: The scope and limits of computational
psychology. By Jerry Fodor. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000. Pp. 126.
ISBN: 0-262-06212-7. $25 US.
The handbook of linguistics. Ed. by Mark Aronoff and Janie Rees-Miller.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2001. Pp. xvi, 824. ISBN:
0-631-20497-0. $132 US.
Format for price information: Use the dollar amount unless none
is available. In such a case, provide the price listed by the publisher
in local currency (i.e., do not try to convert currencies). The price
should be listed in only one currency. If there is a choice between
listing paperback or hardbound prices, please provide the paperback
price (this is the default). If the book is hardbound, please indicate
do with the abbreviation "(Hb)" after the price. Prices should
be given in whole units, without decimal points, if possible (e.g. $109
and not $109.00).
- The name and
affiliation of the reviewer is handled differently depending
upon whether it is a review or a book notice. For full reviews, this
information is inserted on a single line following the header paragraph
and preceding the body of the review (separated by spaces), as follows:
Reviewed by NAME, AFFILIATION.
For book notices, this information follows the text of the notice on a
separate line, in square brackets:
[NAME, AFFILIATION]
- The body of the
review/notice should be double-spaced throughout, and should
provide full first names of all scholars mentioned (except for people
who publish under initials only). Please use a type size no smaller than
12 characters per inch.
·
Submitting a book review: Two
copies of each submission should be sent to the Review Editor.
Alternatively, the submission may be e-mailed as a Word, Wordperfect, rtf, or
pdf attachment to langrev@indiana.edu. (Caution!: for reviews that contain phonetic fonts and/or special symbols, it is
advisable to send along a hard copy so that the characters in the e-version
can be checked.)
·
Submitting
a book notice: Henceforth, book
notices must be submitted as Word, Wordperfect, rtf, or pdf attachments. At present, book notices should be
submitted to the Review Editor, at langrev@indiana.edu;
please note, however, that the address for submitting books notices will
change soon.
For further information, refer to the Style Sheet .
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4. Timing: Book reviews should be completed within
six months of receiving the book, and book notices within three months.
Requests for additional books will not be considered if the individual
making the request has outstanding book notices or reviews that have not been
submitted to and accepted by the Review Editor.
5. Numbers: The number of singly authored reviews
and book notices by any one reviewer may not exceed 10 per year. Also, a
single reviewer may appear as the (co-)author on as many as 15 submissions in
one year. This means that in addition to 10 singly-authored reviews/notices,
a reviewer may additionally have 5 co-authored reviews/notices in one year.
(These limits are subject to change, and reviewers are advised to check with
the Review Editor if they approach these limits.)
6. Duplication: Undertaking to write a book review
for Language entails a commitment on the part of the reviewer not to
publish a review of the same book elsewhere without the express permission of
the editors of Language. The
same is true of book notices submitted to eLanguage.
7. Student authors: Academic advisors for students
writing notices should be versed in academic reviewing for journals like Language and able to offer students counsel about the content, tone, and style of
their notices. The student author of a book notice should include in their
cover letter the name of the faculty supervisor who has reviewed and approved
it.
8. Conflicts of interest: Who should not review whose
book? Individuals should not undertake
to review or write a notice for a book to which they have contributed, which
they have refereed for a publisher, or for which they have written publicity
statements that appear on dust jackets or promotional literature. Further,
the writer of a book notice or review ought not to be the mentor, mentee, or
close associate of the author/editor. In addition to these obvious conflicts
of interest, Language cautions prospective reviewers against taking on
a project that would cause the objectivity of the notice/review to be
questioned (e.g. don't review your brother-in-law's book).
9. Negative reviews: Occasionally, a reviewer
finds it necessary to express a negative opinion about a book in his/her
notice or review. When this is the case, it is important for the reviewer to
maintain a professional tone and to avoid gratuitously offensive comments.
The author of a negative review (or notice) is also encouraged to send a copy
of it to the author of the book when it is submitted to Language (or
to eLanguage) for publication. This
is done in order that book authors not be surprised, and infuriated
needlessly, when a (deservedly) negative review appears. This also gives
authors a chance to inform the reviewer of any factual errors in their review
or notice. It should be noted here that the journal rarely publishes replies
to negative reviews, and only when the reply is likely to advance some useful
scholarly dialogue. In such instances, the review and its rejoinder are
usually published in the same issue. (See the FAQ: Are
responses to reviews published? )
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10. Returns: Individuals who have been
commissioned to write a book review or who have volunteered to write a book
notice should not hesitate to return the book, if it should turn out to be
"not what was expected". The Language Reviews office does not have a "no return policy". In fact,
it would be preferable, if you feel uncomfortable pursuing the notice or
review, that you return the book to us within a couple of months. In this
way, it can be put back on the next book notice list or another review can be
commissioned for it.
11. Information for Authors and Book Publishers: The official policy of Language regarding the receipt of publications is published in the journal in the
Recent Publications section and is as follows:
"This list acknowledges recent works (except
offprints of single articles) that appear to bear on the scientific study of
language. The receipt of individual books cannot be separately acknowledged,
and no book can be returned to the publisher. Note especially that, by
accepting a book, the Editor implies no promise that it will be reviewed in
this journal."
What this means is that we will publish the bibliographical
information for works received. Some items on this list are selected by the
editorial board of the journal for full review (and these reviews are
commissioned by the Review Editor). The other items on the list are published
as a "list of books currently available for 500-word Book Notices"
(the Book Notice List) and posted here on the Language Book Reviews website.
Individuals in the discipline are invited to request these books in exchange
for writing 500-word book notices. Books that are not assigned for review or
for book notices cannot be returned. In selecting books to send to the
journal, publishers are advised to consult the most recent Book Notice List, which is usually representative of
the type of publications that are sent out for reviews and notices. It may
also be helpful to consult the tables of contents on the Language website http://www.lsadc.org/info/pubs-lang-toc.cfm , where one may see a full list of those books that have been reviewed and
noticed in the journal. In the future,
books for which notices have been published in eLanguage will be listed online at the eLanguage website.
What Language and eLanguage cannot do, as a matter of policy:
1. Neither Language nor eLanguage will solicit individual books from publishers for review. Authors concerned
about getting their works into the Recent Publications and the Book Notice
lists should make certain that their publisher's marketing department has
sent a copy to the Language Book
Review office. Publishers who wish their linguistics selections to be noted
in Language or in eLanguage should make certain to send
relevant books to us.
2. Language does not send copies of book notices and reviews to
publishers or authors (see policy #12 below). The Book Review office simply
does not have the staff or resources to do this, nor will the staff of eLanguage be able to do this in the
future.
12. Offprints and copies of the journal: Language does not provide gratis offprints of anything published
in the journal (including articles), nor do we provide free copies of the
journal to review and notice authors. There is simply no way to do this
if we are to keep the cost of the journal reasonable for the membership of
the LSA, for whom the journal is primarily intended. If you join the
LSA, you will receive a subscription to Language free with your membership. The cost of LSA membership including the
annual subscription to the journal ($65.00/yr regular membership and
$25.00/yr for students) is less than the cost of a subscription alone to most
journals. So you might consider this. Membership information can
be found at: http://www.lsadc.org/info/mem-index.cfm Alternatively, it might be helpful to know that electronic access to Language is available through via
JSTOR and Project Muse. If you have access to these electronic
resources (usually through a university library), you can get a nice copy of
your contribution that way. In the
near future, all book notices will be published online at the eLanguage website rather than in the
print journal; thus, authors of book notices will be able to access digital
versions of their notices at this website.