GUIDELINES FOR BOOK REVIEWERS

Contents

Book reviews should summarize the book’s central features (including its subject matter, organization, and argument structure), evaluate it critically, judging its strengths and weaknesses, and analyze its contributions to the relevant scholarly fields. The logic and the writing should be clear and consistent, and free of grammatical and spelling errors.

Formatting

1. The word count should fall within a range of 600-800 words (excluding the bibliographic information and reviewer information).
2. At the head of the review, provide the following bibliographic information (please follow exactly): author/editor(s), book title, place of publication, publisher, year of publication, and number of pages. For example: LAWLER, Michael G.: Marriage and the Catholic Church: Disputed Questions, Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002. – XIII, 226 p.
3. At the foot of the review, please indicate your name, followed by your city. For example: John Doe, Leuven
4. After the initial mention of the author’s full name, all subsequent references are to be by initial only, followed by a period, e.g. L. or L.’s. 
5. Bold typefaces and underlining are to be avoided
6. For emphasis the italic typeface should be used. 
7. Any diacritical marks or accents should be rendered correctly.
8. Reviews may not contain footnotes.
9. Make sure that your review has been proofread for any typos or errors.

Quotations

1. If direct quotations from the book are made, please ensure that these are accurate and that the page reference is supplied (in parentheses) after the quote, using the bare number only, no "p." or "pp." or "S.".
2. If other works are mentioned in the review, please provide the full citation within the text – i.e., author/editor(s), book title, place of publication, publisher, year of publication, all in parentheses.
3. Avoid citing your own work, unless there is an absolutely compelling reason to do so (keep it limited to the absolute minimum).

Language

Book review manuscripts are accepted in the four languages of our journal, i.e. English, French, German, and Italian (preferably the language of the book under review).

We ask reviewers who do not write in their native language to have their texts revised by a native speaker before submitting it to our journal.

Editing

1. The editors reserve the right to edit book reviews for length, clarity, style, or tone prior to publication in order to ensure that all reviews meet our editorial expectations and reflect the seriousness with which we take the book reviews.
2. If required, we will contact you with any questions regarding clarifications of substantive points, or corrections of technical matters.
3. Once your review is formally published an electronic copy of your review will be emailed to you.
4. Permission to post the review on personal or departmental websites is granted.
5. Marriage, Families & Spirituality accepts requests to review forthcoming books.

Reviews should be sent to intamsreview@intams.org.