Abstract
It is common within academia to hear that scholars and students should avoid writing book reviews. They are not peer-reviewed, can take a lot of time, and are often considered less prestigious than other forms of academic publishing. However, we make the case—as two scholars with experience as Book and Media Editors––that not only are book reviews a legitimate and important form of academic publishing, but the many benefits of writing book reviews outweigh the reasons for avoiding them. These benefits include having access to cutting-edge books, honing one’s skill in scholarly synthesis and communication, gaining experience with the academic publishing process, and providing service to one’s academic field. In this Writer’s Forum, we illuminate these and more reasons for doing book reviews and encourage readers of all stages of their academic careers to consider writing book reviews.
It is common in academia to hear that students and scholars should avoid writing book reviews. Critics might point out that book reviews are not peer-reviewed publications, so they do not “count” towards tenure and promotion or other milestones in your academic career. Others might reference the time it takes to complete a book review, which you could otherwise use to finish more high-profile projects. Why write a book review when you could work on a peer-reviewed journal article or a grant proposal? Other common reasons to avoid book reviews include the fact that they are not often downloaded or shared as widely as other publications, which means they are not often cited by others. In academia, fewer citations mean slower growth for an impact factor or individual citation indices (e.g., h-index). In Lucas and Murry’s (2007) book New Faculty: A Practical Guide for Academic Beginners, the authors list 15 different types of academic publications in order of “significance” (p. 134). In their list, book reviews are listed 13th just above “newsletter reports” and “in-house papers” (p. 135). According to Caplan (1995), book reviews should be listed last among your publications on your curriculum vitae (CV) in the same category as “newspaper, and magazine articles” (p. 123).
There is some truth to the reasons to avoid book reviews. However, as we argue below, there is a cogent case to be made that the many benefits of writing book reviews outweigh the reasons for avoiding them. If you have been reluctant to write a book review up to now, we aim to change your mind about the value and investment of writing book reviews and encourage you to tackle this important task in service to our academic communities and in pursuit of your scholarly development.
Reasons to Write Book Reviews
Book reviews serve an important function in academia. But they are a lot of work and not everyone is willing to take on the task. We (Crocco and Zarestky) are book review editors and have written several (Crocco, 2016, 2023, 2024; Zarestky, 2017, 2019, 2022). Here is an overview of how we think about book reviews as a legitimate and important form of academic publishing and the many benefits they provide.
Access New (and Potentially Expensive) Books
While many scholars and students have access to well-stocked university libraries, libraries can be slow to acquire the latest books in one’s field. This is especially true with the growing number of academic books published each year. When you approach an academic publisher to request one of their newest books for you to review for a journal, they are often quick to ship a copy to you to review. And while some publishing houses prefer to distribute e-copies of books, most are willing to ship hardcover copies if the reviewer requests them. And, if you are so inclined, you can donate the book to your public or university library upon completion to expand access of the book to others.
Read Deeply or With Dedicated Attention
Sadly, reading a book deeply is becoming a lost art. We live in an age of skimming and scanning because we are often overworked and not incentivized to pause and read. When we take time to thoroughly cogitate upon a book and consider its central arguments, ideas, evidence, and the ways it may or may not further the field, we flex analytical skills that are easily atrophied in the busy world of academia. For early career scholars, part of your job is to learn how to think, not just how to publish. For more established scholars, the time to read a book of interest may feel like a luxury. Largely, processing academic literature is driven by necessity and subject to unpleasant time constraints. Deriving a scholarly product, such as a book review, from the joy of reading an interesting book is a great opportunity to dedicate attention to something that might otherwise not rank highly on the priority list.
Build Your Skills in Scholarly Communication
When you write a review, you must carefully reflect on what you read and communicate in a way that is accountable to others and acknowledges a variety of possible readers. What do you think about the book? How can you frame your reactions and interpretations in such a way that it is of use to others? Further, what will readers think? Is your review helpful and constructive to people who have not yet read the book? How might you or others benefit from the book? How can you frame its utility or value?
What will the author(s) think? Do you have criticisms, and can you frame them in a collegial and constructive manner? If you have a strong negative perception, how can you deliver a frank assessment with kindness? If you love the book, how can you sound appreciative without pandering? These questions and more can help shape your review and your ability to communicate with a scholarly audience, thereby bolstering written communication skills, which is something notoriously lacking in academia (Hunter, 2016).
Synthesize Knowledge of the Field
The best book reviews involve situating the book’s discourse within the existing literature in the field. Book reviews often show how the book adds to existing discourse and where it may have come up short in terms of addressing key challenges. The best reviews synthesize the literature on the topic and demonstrate how the book extends (or fails to extend) scholarship in its area. Ideally you have chosen or accepted a book review based on your own expertise or interests. If so, this may be a straightforward task.
It is also worth noting your expertise or position in the field. A great review has value from a variety of perspectives but may be interpreted differently by readers based on your own scholarly status and level of experience. A review from a new graduate student may be well suited to identify long-held assumptions, emerging perspectives, or a learner’s perspective on use as a textbook. A review from a practitioner or scholar may have a helpful vantage point in pinpointing weaknesses or omissions based on their breadth or depth of prior experience. All such reviews have value.
Provide Service to the Field
Every academic field that publishes books needs people to read them and share what they learned about them to help others decide if they should assign them in their courses, use them in their practice and scholarship, and/or read them for personal edification. Without book reviews, it is a lot harder to make those decisions. Book reviews that explicate key points also spread the new ideas of those books in a more bitesize form that can reach a broader audience and disseminate the ideas.
A member of a hiring committee once told Zarestky that he always noted book reviews on applicants’ CVs. He was looking for people who were intellectually committed to the development of the field and felt that book reviews were one of the best representations of that commitment. This is one reason many of us continue to write book reviews after promotion or tenure.
Gain Experience in the Academic Publishing Process
Academic publishing is notoriously opaque, lengthy, and potentially demoralizing. There are so many steps beyond simply writing. Writing a book review is a great opportunity to experience manuscript submission systems, feedback from editors, copy editing and production processes, and more. Reviews are typically low stakes, and editors in charge of book reviews are often in such a role because they are willing to support and guide new authors. Book review editors are often willing to work with authors through multiple rounds of revision, if needed, and provide guidance regarding both content and writing style.
Further, book reviews invited or approved by the section editor are rarely rejected. Responding to a call for reviews, or pitching a review idea to an editor, establishes a stable and well-defined opportunity. An author who is willing to see the commitment through and engage in a good-faith revision process will almost certainly experience the success of publication.
Improve Your Teaching and Practice
Depending on what book you choose to review for a journal, you might pick a book that has important implications for course content in the fields of Adult Education and/or Human Resource Development (HRD) or that you are considering for adoption in a course you are assigned to teach. The book may also include new evidence that should inform Adult Education or HRD practice in organizations, educational environments, or your own practitioner context. Reading and reviewing a new book in these areas can immediately enhance your teaching and practice. Furthermore, there may be a book in a related field worth reviewing for its ability to generate new ideas for teaching, research, or practice in Adult Education and/or HRD.
Build Relationships
The first book I (Crocco) reviewed in 2016 was by a Thai scholar (Crocco, 2016). I reached out to her after the review was published, and we have become good friends since. This friendship has led to several ongoing professional collaborations. Not many people read academic books—certainly not every page of them in such detail—which means doing so gives you a connection with those authors. These connections built on shared academic interests have the potential to grow into collaborative professional relationships.
Serve as Idea Generation
When you read a new scholarly book with the goal of writing a book review, it is often the case that the book is slightly outside your typical reading and may only be tangentially related to your research interests. Thus, they serve as a great way to build new ideas and innovate about future research directions. They may also synthesize broad topics of academic literature, some of which you may not be familiar with. This can help you make connections with other disciplines and contexts as you develop new and innovative study designs.
Cultivate Confidence to Write Your Own Book
I (Crocco) published my first academic book in 2021 (Crocco, 2021). Despite being in my third year as an Assistant Professor, I had the confidence to do so, in part, because I had done a book review, which demystified the process of writing a book. I learned a lot about how to structure a book-length scholarly argument based on evidence and research. I highly doubt I would have embarked on that project had I not done a book review.
This is not a comprehensive list of the reasons to write a book review. After you write a book review, if you have not already, we hope you will take time to reflect on additional benefits you may have experienced. If you have been convinced of the value of writing book reviews, please reach out to the Assistant Editor for Book and Media Reviews at New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, which is currently Dr. Crocco, and check out the Submission Guidelines for more information (New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, n.d.).
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
None
Author Contribution
Crocco: 50%, Zarestky: 50%.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
