Book reviews and book prices: guides to the world of books

F&L: Does a classic book review affect the reputation of reviewers?

Barbara Stolberg Rellinger: Since authors do not receive a fee to review, but only the book itself, a mention of reputation is an important argument for gaining them to review the book. Writing reviews for well-known journals is token capital, especially for young people who have not yet made a name for themselves in their field of research. They also benefit personally because they will have to read relevant books anyway for the benefit of their own research, often doing so more thoroughly for review.

F&L: Given the large number of publications in the humanities, how are the ones selected to be reviewed in a specialized journal?

Barbara Stolberg Rellinger: This is handled differently by the editors. I can now only speak of the “Journal of Historical Research” of which I am the editor. It differs from many others in that it has a very detailed review section for a very specific disciplinary subsection, the history of Europe in the late medieval and early modern period. This is a reasonably manageable area, so that almost all printed German qualification papers can be looked at. We require brochures for relevant publishers, including those of English-speaking university publishers, twice a year and are systematically checked. All studies with an academic claim are then requested for review. We aim to obtain as much current research as possible in our specialized sector. Otherwise we will have problems with selection. This claim means that our review section is becoming more and more detailed as more and more are being published. This is at the expense of the facility. We try to control the large number of new publications to be discussed by focusing on studies rather than reviewing the vast anthology and conference volumes, because the content of studies is often duplicated in them.

“The briefing provides the advantage of being able to discuss new, less important releases briefly, while important releases can be discussed in more detail.”

F&L: What has changed in the classic revision system?

Barbara Stolberg Rellinger: Again, I’m only talking about my journal: we expand what we offer our readers by commissioning research overviews in a relevant current research field, for example globalization or body history. We ask a scientist with the appropriate experience to write a group discussion. All relevant new publications can then be ordered and more international publications can also be included. Such a group discussion provides the advantage that new, less important releases can be discussed briefly, while important releases can be discussed in more detail. At the same time, it is ranked in the current search state. In our experience, this is a particularly good way to change the review system a bit.