Feminist Economics Book Reviews
The Book Review Editor will solicit reviews and review essays of feminist books (or sets of articles) in economics, feminist reviews of non-feminist books and textbooks in economics, and reviews and review essays of books (or sets of articles) from other disciplines of interest to feminist economists. Reviews of films may occasionally be included as well.
Policy on Book Reviews
Feminist Economics publishes book reviews and review essays on topics of interest to our readers. Journal space is limited to reviews of books that merit our attention. If, after reading the book, you feel that either the book or a review of it would have little or no value for our readers, please inform the book editor. If you feel the book should still be reviewed, even if the review would be highly negative, there should be a strong justification for this, such as that the book has received a lot of attention elsewhere or is viewed by some in the profession as important.
A good book review for Feminist Economics has several essential ingredients:
- A short summary of the book’s contents: Describe the major contribution made by the book, draw out two or three important themes, or discuss one or two valuable things that you learned from reading the volume. It can be useful to describe the form of arguments used (heterodox, institutional, mainstream, empirical, or theoretical). Long and detailed summaries should be avoided. Collections of essays by different people can be challenging to review; it is not necessary to describe every essay in a volume. Instead, highlight the overall contributions and discuss a few of the key articles. If Feminist Economics readers would benefit, the book should be briefly compared to other literature on the same subject.
- A description of the book’s intended audience and the book’s success in addressing that audience (examples of intended audiences might be first-year undergraduates at US institutions, the international academic community, European policymakers). For books aimed primarily at the US market or that of another country, please say whether or not the book is likely to be of interest to an international audience.
- An evaluation of the quality and importance of the book from a feminist point of view: If the book is explicitly feminist, the review may comment on its importance, or “fit” within the literature. Reviewers may also call attention to missed opportunities without suggesting that the author should have written a totally different book. For a book that is not explicitly feminist, reviews should note why it would interest feminist economists and point out (if necessary) discussions and assumptions that run counter to feminist ideas.
- The book review section provides a key forum for keeping scholars aware of new publications and generates dialogue on feminist and economic discourse. If you wish to write a critical book review, please keep in mind that journal policy requires a civil tone accompanied by thorough explanation. Any negative criticism should be framed in a constructive way and in proportion to the overall project, rather than allowing harsh criticism of one or two smaller details within the overall project to consume the whole review. Negative comments should make specific points about where the book is lacking, citing examples of things left out, distorted, or where the full body of other work on this topic has not been considered. Reviewers should avoid using negative labels or assertions to characterize books, but rather let the specific details about what is missing make the point. Further, negative book reviews should be written in the full context of work on the subject and consider whether redeeming qualities. Books without redeeming qualities do not merit the space of a review unless the book is otherwise garnering much attention in the field, warranting the journal to publish a review.
- Reviews for Feminist Economics must conform to the journal’s Policies on Statistical Reporting, Orienting Papers for an International Audience, Human Subjects, and Conditions of Submission, and Style, as outlined on the journal’s website.
International Orientation
Feminist Economics is an international journal, with over half of its readers and institutional subscribers living outside the US. It is therefore important that book reviews be oriented to a broad international audience rather than to just the audience of any specific country.
Style Guidelines
The book review manuscript should be 1000 to 2000 words and double-spaced (including all notes and references). American style spelling and punctuation should be used.
Manuscripts must conform to the Style Guidelines found under Submission of Manuscripts at www.feministeconomics.org. Consult the Style Guidelines regarding format of quotations, treatment of numerals, reference and in-text citation format, and so on. Special note: if a quotation is at the end of a sentence place the closing quotation marks, then the page reference followed by a period. [e.g., “End of quotation” (p. 12).] Please see other book reviews in Feminist Economics for correct citation of the book under review. The order for the heading is Title, Author. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date. # pp. ISBN: #. Price. Be sure to include the ISBN and price, which can generally be found from the publisher’s web page. Please list your name, affiliation, address, and email address at the end of the review (right adjusted) before any notes or references.
Review Process
Feminist Economics uses the Manuscript Central (MC) online submission system. If you do not yet have an MC account with Feminist Economics, you will need to create one. (You will be asked for an email address, phone numbers, and a mailing address.) You will subsequently submit your review when you complete your submission, and you should submit it through the journal’s MC site at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rfec, at which point you will be asked for an 80–100-word biography.
Manuscript Central was designed with article submissions in mind, and thus, there are a few questions that may appear when submitting a book review that do not make a lot of sense. For example, you may be asked for a manuscript title, abstract, keywords, JEL codes, or a running header. Please answer as follows: for title, use the full citation of the book you are reviewing as described below; for abstract, enter “n. a.” for not applicable; for keywords, enter “book review,” “feminism,” and “economics” or choose words that are appropriate for the review; for JEL codes, randomly or deliberately choose categories in the left-hand column and click on the right-hand column; and for header, enter “Book Reviews.” (Only the title and the running header will ever appear in print.) The Feminist Economics office staff does its best to answer these questions in advance, but occasionally, they are inadvertently left for the author.
Once you submit your review, you will receive comments and suggestions from the book review editor. After receiving approval from the book review editor, all accepted manuscripts for Feminist Economics also go through a style editing process. The style editor may have additional suggestions related to style and clarity, which the journal office will communicate to you.
Reviews for Special Issues
If your review is for a special issue of the journal, please indicate the name of the issue in the appropriate field when completing your online submission. The guest editors will let you know if there are any particular requirements such as length, focus of the review, and particular issues to discuss for the special issue. If you have general questions (e.g., the correct format for citing a webpage) or publisher-related problems (e.g., my copy of the book has some pages missing) please contact the Book Review Editor.