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  2. Journals
  3. Australian Journal of Environmental Education
  4. Journal information
  5. Book review info
  6. Book review guidelines
Book review guidelines

Processes

  • Typically the AJEE Book Review Editor will source books and then source people to review them.
  • If you are interested in reviewing a book, get in touch with the Book Review Editor.
  • The Book Review Editor will provide you the list of currently available books, and you can choose from one of them.
  • The Book Review Editor will then post the book to you, and you then have 3 months to submit the book review.
  • You keep the book that you review.
  • If you have a book in mind that you would like to review, let the Book Review Editor know, and this may be possible.
  • If you are an author, editor or published with a book that you would like to get reviewed, again, contact the Book Review Editor and they will let you know if that book would work for the journal.

Guidelines for writing a book review

If you are invited to review a book for the journal, the following guidance will hopefully be useful. The following are some characteristics of academic book reviews generally, which may be useful when thinking about what to do and how to structure yours. They are not rules and there is no perfect formula. Creative approaches are valuable too.

  • Book reviews typically state the book’s main objective/s close to the beginning of the review.
  • Book reviews typically detail some of the main findings, arguments or strategies used by the author/s to achieve their aim. Sometimes this proceeds as a chapter-by-chapter summary, but this is not necessarily the best way to discuss the book you are reviewing.
  • Book reviews typically situate the book in relation to similar books, or the debates or issues it is addressing, and discuss what – if anything – this book/argument offers that is distinct from existing ones.
  • Book reviews typically evaluate the book – that is, they make some claim about the quality or strengths/weaknesses of the book.
  • Book reviews sometimes state whether they would recommend reading the book, and if so, to who and for what purposes.

In AJEE specifically:

  • the review should be between 750 – 1200 words.
  • it can be particularly valuable if the book review explores how the book might be useful to environmental education (broadly defined, including either or both research and practice).
  • it is beneficial if the review is accessible to a range of readers (i.e. try to avoid using complex academic jargon except where necessary).

Feel free to read some past book reviews in AJEE; if you do not have access, the Book Review Editor can forward you some examples.

Formatting your book review

Please start your document with the following information as the heading:

  • Book title
  • Author names, Place of publication: Publisher, year
  • Reviewed by Reviewer, attribution/institution (if relevant)

See the example below:

Example Book Review Title

At the end of your document, please include a short bio of yourself, the reviewer (up to 100 words).

Submitting your book review, and processes post-submission

  • Once your book review is ready to submit, please follow this link to ScholarOne Manuscripts: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ajee.
  • You will need to create an account if you do not already have one, and then follow the instructions within there to upload your document.
  • This will send a notification to the Book Review Editor, who will consider your review and, if it is worthy of publication, provide feedback or suggestions on how to improve it, if relevant.
  • This is then forwarded to the journal’s editor/s, who make a decision and return this, with any relevant feedback, to you.
  • If your review is acceptable but requires revisions, you then have time to make any improvements and resubmit.
  • If accepted for publication, your review will most likely be published via Firstview, i.e. on the journal’s website, before being allocated to an issue of a journal.