In this episode, Yelena and Robert discuss the benefits and drawbacks of writing short reviews. Yelena mentions The New Yorker's regular Briefly Noted reviews, which prove without a doubt that writing skill matters in the short review. Robert then interviews H-Diplo review editor Seth Offenbach about Seth's process for determining review length and what he looks for in a review. H-Net Reviews does not stipulate a program-wide word count, but we tend concur with Seth's opinion that 1,200-1,500 words is usually best. Don't miss this conversation if you are a reviewer wondering how to go about
This is the first of a two-part episode about professionalism in academic book reviewing. In this episode, Robert and Yelena look at H-Net's guidelines for professionalism and speak with H-Net copyeditors Basia Nowak and Charlotte Weber about two reviews that constructively critique the books under review.
Listeners can take a closer look at H-Net's Guidelines for Reviewing here. The section on professionalism states:
Whether the evaluation of a work is favorable or unfavorable, reviewers should express criticism in courteous, temperate, and constructive terms. Reviewers are responsible for