Review Guidelines

Overview

H-Empire seeks to bring together scholars and others interested in sharing resources, research and questions concerning the origin, development, working and decline of empires, rather broadly defined across academic disciplines and professional interests, chronological time periods, and geographical regions. While the H-Empire editorial team is interested in all books on empire, we have a preference for books of a comparative or transnational nature. We also have an interest in linking qualified reviewers with works across the traditional bounds of national, regional, and “area” fields of study.

What H-Empire Reviews

H-Empire generally reviews monographs and edited volumes of a scholarly nature but does occasionally review “popular” books, films, and exhibits. If you would like to recommend a particular title for review, please contact the book review editors. In accordance with H-Net guidelines, we do not accept unsolicited reviews.

Standards for Reviewers

Reviewers must subscribe to H-Empire. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer for H-Empire, please complete our reviewer interest form and send a vitae to the book review editors. Your H-Net profile also allows you to express interest in reviewing for us. The H-Empire editorial team will consider all qualified reviewers. According to H-Net Review Standards, “a ‘qualified reviewer’ is generally understood to be one: (a) who has completed or who is engaged upon the final stages of a terminal graduate education [e.g. you have passed your qualifying exams or have defended a dissertation proposal], as appropriate for their field, or (b) someone with demonstrated expertise in a specific field.” Independent scholars and qualified reviewers with a non-academic affiliation (e.g. government, archives, etc) are welcome to contribute.

H-Net Statement on Professional Standards

Reviewers should be mindful of any conflicts of interest that may arise as a consequence of their agreeing to review a particular scholarly work for an H-Net list. A conflict of interest arises when an individual's personal interest or bias could compromise (or appear to compromise) his or her ability to act in accordance with professional obligations. Reviewers should identify and, where appropriate, recuse themselves from reviewing any work in which a conflict of interest or the appearance thereof arises. An individual should normally refuse to participate in the formal review of work by anyone for whom he or she feels a sense of personal obligation, competition, or enmity.

H-Net Copyright Statement

All reviews commissioned by H-Net are the exclusive property of H-Net. Reviews are considered a work made-for-hire and, as such, all copyright rights shall be owned by and be in the name of H-Net. H-Net in turn grants review authors the right to reprint their reviews in any format that they choose, without the payment of royalties, subject to giving proper credit to the original publication on H-Net. H-Net permits all of its reviews to be copied for non-profit educational use provided proper credit is given to the review author and H-Net. Reviewers should not agree to write a separate review of the same work for a print journal. Any conflicts arising out of the review process will be adjudicated by the Editorial Board of that list under the guidelines established by the H-Net Charter.

Guidelines for Reviewers

Content (H-Net): Reviews should include a brief summary of the scope, purpose, and content of the work and its significance in the literature of the subject. For multimedia reviews, evaluate the significance in relation to similar multimedia products and relevant literature. Many readers will depend on your summary for substantive information on a topic, so it is important to be precise and clear. Reviews should go beyond description to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the work, paying attention to the use of sources, methodology, organization, and presentation. Comments on the appropriateness of the work for university classes would also be helpful.

Length: H-Net recommends that reviews for a single work not exceed 1,750 words. The H-Empire editors generally follow this recommendation.

Editing (adapted from H-German): The H-Empire review editor will not interfere with the substantive content of a review or the critical judgment of a reviewer except in order to prevent ad hominem attacks or other violations of the rules of scholarly discourse. Final versions of reviews are published only after the permission of the reviewer has been received.

Style:
• Please title your review. According to H-Net guidelines, the title is “specifically not” the title of the book.
• All text should be left-aligned and single-spaced.
• Citations from the book under review should be identified parenthetically (p. 27). Do not abbreviate inclusive page numbers, e.g. pp. 227-230 not pp. 227-30.
• Endnotes in H-Net reviews should follow Chicago Manual of Style guidelines. Please use them sparingly.
• See the complete H-Net style sheet.

Timeline. We kindly ask that you submit your review in a timely manner. From the time you receive your book in the mail, please submit your review for editing within 90 days. Once the H-Empire review editor has submitted your review to H-Net for copyediting, it may not be returned for 30 days or more. Thus, time is of the essence if we wish to publish our reviews ahead of more traditional mediums. If you are unable to complete your review, please notify the H-Empire review editor and return the book to:

H-Net Reviews
141h Old Horticulture
506 East Circle Drive
East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1115

Submission. H-Empire reviews are submitted, edited, and published through the H-Net Reviews Management System For more information, click on “Instructions for Reviewers” from the “Information” menu.

Author Response. The H-Empire editors may solicit a response from the author or authors of the work under review.

To learn more about H-Net's review guidelines and standards, please visit: http://www.hnet.org/reviews/home.php