Publishers:

Please, email our Senior Editor, Lucinda Mosher, if you wish to see a book reviewed in our journal. She will work with you and the reviewer directly in making sure a review copy is delivered to the proper address.

Reviewers:

You  may download a list of books for which we are seeking reviews.

JIRS Book Review Guidelines

Purpose
A book review provides the potential reader with a brief introduction to a publication—its topic, its structure, the author’s method, and its possible uses.

Content
A review will contain either praise or criticism—and in most cases will contain some of each. In any case, some evidence should be mentioned. (If a book seems to merit criticism only, please contact the Book Review Editor before proceeding to write.)

A review should also offer guidance as to what audience(s) will make best use of the book under review. Possibilities: professional specialists, students (undergraduate or graduate), general readers.

Length
JIRS book reviews should be 600–1200 words. The exception: a “book review-essay” may be as long as 3000 words. This format is most appropriate for mounting an extended comparison of two books on a similar topic or for situating a publication in a complex context. Reviewers who wish to write in this format should discuss their idea with the Book Review Editor before proceeding.  

Style
Adhere to the Seventeenth Edition of the Chicago Manual of Style; conform to US spelling and punctuation conventions; use Times New Roman, 12 pt, font; double-space the body of your review. Do not use individuals’ titles. (That is, simply write about “John Smith,” not “Prof. John Smith.”) It is appropriate to include brief quotations from the text under review. Cite the source page-number(s) in parentheses: for example, (p. 4) or (pp. 4–5). Reviews should not have footnotes or endnotes.

Format
Title: Subtitle. By Author Name. Edited by Editor Name. Translated by Translator Name. Series. Number of volumes. Edition. City: Publisher, year. Number of front matter pages + number of pages. ISBN. Price, hardback; price; paperback; price, eBook.

[EXAMPLE: Christians, Muslims, and Mary: A History. By Rita George-Tvrtković. New York: Paulist Press, 2018. xviii + 254 pp. ISBN: 978-0-8091-5328-2. $27.95, paper.]

The body of your review. . .

Your Name
Your institution (if appropriate to your situation)
Your location

Example
Modern Muslim Theology: Engaging God and the World with Faith and Imagination. By Martin Nguyen. Religion in the Modern World. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. xii+207. $95.00 (cloth); $34.00 (paper); $32.00 (eBook).

As can be expected of entries in this series, this book …

Lucinda Mosher
Hartford Seminary
Hartford, Connecticut

Submitting a Review
DO NOT save your review as a PDF. Do save your review in MS Word (doc, docx). Label your review file like this: Author by Reviewer.docx. Example: Nguyen by Mosher.docx

Submit your review file via the online submission platform located at https://irstudies.org/index.php/jirs/submission/wizard. Once you login or create a new account, navigate to the submission wizard (“Make a Submission”). Then select “Book Reviews” for the “Section.” In the “Comments for the Editor” please indicate that your submission is a book review, including the bibliographic information as detailed above.

Deadlines
The JIRS accepts reviews at any time. However, the book review editor may commission a review for a specific upcoming issue. In such cases, the reviewer and editor will concur on a deadline.