CASID / ACÉDI

Interested in reviewing a book for the CJDS? You can now sign up to review books identified by the CJDS editors right from the CASID website.  All you need to do is follow the instructions below.  Note: you must have a user account on CASID's website to sign up to review a book.

Finding a book

CJDS editors provide CASID with a listing of books they would like to have reviewed.  The list of books needing review can be found in various places.  The CJDS Main Page contains a short list of recently posted books needing review , but you can also access the complete list here as well.  These lists contain all the recently posted items that have not yet been signed up for by a reviewer.  

Signing Up

If you find a book that you would like to review, follow the book title link to its own page.  You will see a more complete listing of its bibliographic information.  Just above the title should be a "Workflow" button.  Clicking on this button will take you to the books Workflow page, which allows you to change its status from "Listed" to "Under Review".  Doing so will automatically send an email to CJDS staff notifying them of the change, as well as who has made the change.  Once the status has changed, the item will no longer show up in the list of Books Needing Review.  

Writing a Review

The CJDS, like most major peer-reviewed journals, has guidelines on how to write a book review.  You can download the complete guidelines here.  In brief, however, you should note the following:

General Guidelines

Reviews should:

• Be mindful of the audience, which is interdisciplinary and international. Avoid technical jargon and overly specialised language which may be unfamiliar to a wider audience.
• Ideally be of 1000 words in length. Longer reviews will be returned for revision unless they are double reviews.
• Provide a balanced, critical analysis of the work in a thought-provoking and engaging style.

Particular Considerations

• The focus of the review should be on the academic contribution of the work to the topic and scholarship in the field and/or its significance to policy or practice.
• If the work is an edited volume or includes chapters by different authors, the review should focus on the overall theme and content. Reviewers can focus on chapters that they find particularly significant, explaining the significance in the context of the work or topic.
• Comment on the intended audience and who would find the work useful, and provide a brief background of the author/editor.
• Outline the main thesis and major objectives and how effectively they are achieved. Highlight particularly original content.
• Place the work within the current thinking, scholarship, and policy context as appropriate, providing a comparison with other works. Readers are particularly interested in how the work adds to or breaks new ground in the knowledge base.
• Analyse the soundness of methods (if appropriate).
• The review should conclude with implications for research, policy, or practice as appropriate.

Formatting

• Reviews should be double-spaced on 8.5” X 11”paper with 1” margins.
• Use in-text citations for references. Refer to CJDS/RCED journal style.
• The header of the review should include: Author(s) or editor(s) first and last name(s) (indicate if it is an edited book); title of book; year of publication; place of publication; publisher; number of pages; price (indicate paperback or hard cover) if available; ISBN. If the work is an electronic document, provide permanent URL and retrieval date.
• At the end of the review, please include reviewer’s first and last names; institution and affiliation; email address.

Submitting your Review

Reviews are expected within six weeks of receipt of the book/document by reviewers. Earlier receipt of reviews will permit faster publication in upcoming issues.

Please submit completed reviews to cjds@uottawa.ca with a copy to the Review Editor electronically as a Microsoft Word document. The subject heading of the email should state the review number and the title of the work. You can find this code on the book's detail page under the heading "CJDS Code".

If the Review Editor approves your review, he/she will change the Workflow status on CASID's site to reflect a completed review, and the review will be made available on the site as well.

Good Luck!!