Worksheet for Providing a Review of a Peer-Reviewed Journal
Use this form
to provide a review of a peer-reviewed journal
for Prof. Wendy Laura Belcher's free website,
*Reviews of Peer-Reviewed Journals in the Humanities and Social Sciences* at
https://journalreviews.princeton.edu/journals-reviewed/

The purpose of this website: "We give you the scuttlebutt on academic journals—aiding you in selecting the right journal for publication—in reviews that are sometimes snarky, sometimes lengthy, always helpful."

*****Instructions****
1. To get a sense for the genre, go to the website and read the reviews for Camera Obscura, boundary 2, and Journal of the American Academy of Religion.

2. Identify a journal you would like to review. Make sure that a review of it does not already appear on the website. If the review there is extremely short, you can go ahead and review it again.

3. Either online, or by looking at print issues, gain access to the last five years of issues. All reviews must be produced by deeply reading the journal and getting a sense for broad trends, specific arguments, and forms of structure.

4. Read the table of contents for the last five years. You can identify trends from reading nothing but the titles, such as a journal turning from one general interest to another (e.g., from ecocriticism to minor language literature). Write down what you see.

5. Read abstracts for all the articles over the past five years (or, if there are many, at least thirty) and modify or expand your list of trends accordingly.

6. Read at least fifteen introductions. How do they work? How long are they? What do they start with? Where does the argument appear and do the arguments have any commonalities? How many citations does each have? Are certain theorists consistently named? What are their claims for significance and where do they appear? What methods are used?

7. Skim ten other articles that interest you. How long are they? How are they structured? How many citations do they have? What kind of structure does they have? How do they present evidence?

8. Pick three to five articles and read them carefully. Do they confirm what you have already noticed? Review the questions above.

9. Pick one article you really like and outline it so that you understand how it is structured at a deep level.

10. Read what the journal says about itself on the website, especially its submission guidelines and any editor's articles about the journal itself. Collect the information needed below about methods of submission, page lengths, etc.

11. Use this form to write up your findings. Only those reviews that are careful, thorough, and thoughtful will be posted on the website.
Email address *
Your Name (which will not appear with the review, as all are anonymous to protect the reviewers and ensure honest reviews) *
Your answer
Your Institution *
Your answer
Your Status *
If Writing This for a Course, at What Institution and What Is the Instructor's Name?
Your answer
Name of the Journal You Are Reviewing *
Your answer
WEBSITE
The following information should be collected at the journal's website:
What Is the Journal's Author Guidelines or Submission Guidelines Web Address? *
Your answer
How Many Issues Does the Journal Publish Each Year? *
What Is the Journal's Current Volume Number and Year (e.g., Vol. 33 2019)? *
Your answer
Is the Journal Peer-Reviewed?
Does the Journal State Any Word Limits for Articles?
Does the Journal State Any Page Limits for Articles?
What Citation or Documentation Style Does the Journal Use? *
Does the Journal Require Abstracts and, If So, Does It Require They Be a Certain Word Length? *
Who Publishes the Journal? *
By What Method Should Articles Be Submitted to the Journal? *
What Is the Journal's Scope?
What Is the Journal's Discipline and Field (check all that apply)? *
Required
Does the Journal Require You to be a Registered Member of Their Association to Submit to or Publish in It? *
Does the Journal Require that You Pay a Fee to Submit to It or Publish in It?
Does the Journal Offer Prizes for the Best Graduate Student Articles Published in Its Pages?
Is the Journal Open Access? *
Is the Journal Online? *
Who Is (Are) the Main Editor(s) of the Journal (not the editorial board)?
Your answer
What is the Journal's JCR Impact Factor (if it has one)?
What Is the Journal's SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)(if it has one)?
Your answer
What Is the Journal's GSM (Google Scholar Metrics)(if it has one)?
Your answer
Does the Journal Have Any Upcoming Special Issues? What Are the Topics?
Your answer
What Is the Journal Acceptance Rate? (This is often very tough to find, so it not essential)
Is There Any Other Information that the Journal Provides or Asks for?
Your answer
ARTICLES
The following information can only be collected by carefully studying the articles in the journal.
How Many Research Articles Does the Journal Publish Each Year (do not count book reviews or editors' columns)? *
How Many Citations Do Research Articles in the Journal Tend to Have?
Do the Research Articles in the Journal Have Notes? *
If the Research Articles Have Notes, about How Many Do They Have?
Do Articles in the Journal Have Subheadings? *
What Is the Actual Average Word Count of Articles in the Journal (i.e, average of articles in one or two recent issues)?
Your answer
What Content Trends Do You Notice in the Research Articles Published in the Journal in the Past Five Years (e.g., switch in focus)?
Your answer
What Did You Notice about the Introductions to the Journal's Research Articles (e.g., how long are they)?
Your answer
What Did You Notice about the Arguments of the Journal's Research Articles (e.g., how early did the arguments appear)?
Your answer
What Did You Notice about the Claims to Significance of the Journal's Research Articles?
Your answer
What Did You Notice about the Methods of the Journal's Research Articles (e.g., mostly quantitative or theoretical)?
Your answer
What Articles in the Journal Particularly Shaped This Review? (name three or more)
Your answer
Who Are the Authors of Articles in the Journal?
EXPERIENCE
Only answer the following questions if you have submitted an article to the journal.
If You Yourself Have Submitted an Article to the Journal, What Was the Time to Publication? (i.e., the time between you receiving a decision and the article coming out in print)
If You Yourself Have Submitted an Article to the Journal, What Was the Turn Around Time? (i.e., the time between submission and decision)
One sentence review of the journal (which must start "For those interested in publishing articles that...") *
Your answer
Longer review of the journal (200 to 800 words; put all material directly from the publisher’s website in quotation marks; you can repeat from answers above if you want) *
Your answer
Is There Any Other Information that You Have about the Journal?
Your answer
Comments or Questions for Prof. Belcher? (These will not be posted online at the review site).
Your answer
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