While not strictly ``guidelines,'' the following essay discusses the role of book reviews in the JFA.
Curtis Runnels
The Place of Book Reviews in the Professional Literature (Entire essay)
21 (1994) 357--360


JFA Guidelines for Book Reviews

Review Preparation

Reviews in the JFA may be 1500 words or more in length and are expected to be critical and analytical in order to place the book under review in context.

Book reviews, normally solicited by the Book Review Editor, will not, of course, require all of the details of manuscript preparation involved for a research report. The manuscript for a book review should be double-spaced throughout. Any references should follow the system given below. Footnotes and illustrations should not be used.

Deadline

Book reviews are due three months after receipt of the book.

Offprint Policy

Offprints of book reviews will be supplied gratis to authors of book reviews as they are available on press overruns. We can promise some offprints, but cannot predict the quantity.

Electronic Media

Reviewers should provide, in addition to the formatted printout of their manuscript, a Microsoft Word document as an e-mail attachment which may be sent to
jfa@bu.edu

Format

1. Manuscripts must be typed double-spaced throughout (from the first word to the last), on one side only of paper measuring 8.5 inches by 11 inches. Do not use single space or space and a half. Margins on both sides, top, and bottom should measure at least 1 inch. All manuscript copy, including references, is to be typed in upper and lower case letters. The use of all capitals or bold face is inappropriate.

For queries about style and other aspects of good manuscript preparation not covered here, the reviewer is encouraged to consult The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edn. (University of Chicago Press, 1993).

2. Books being reviewed should be cited in the manner of the examples given below, followed by the reviewer's name and full mailing address.

Migrations in Prehistory: Inferring Population Movement from Cultural Remains

IRVING ROUSE. 202 pages, 30 figures, bibliography, index. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986. $20.00 clothbound. ISBN 0-300-03612-4.

Reviewed by John Doe, Department of Archaeology, Deck University, Archer City, TX 76351.

Population Growth and Social Complexity: An Examination of Settlement and Environment in the Central Maya Lowlands

ANABEL FORD, editor. Arizona State University Anthropological Research Papers 35. 201 pages, 28 figures, 37 tables, 19 plates, 4 appendices, bibliography, index. Tempe: Arizona State University, 1986. $12.50 paper. ISBN 0-9611932-5-5.

Reviewed by Patsy Parker, Pre-Columbian Studies, Dumbarton Oaks, 1703 32nd Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20007.

3. Quotations from the book under review require page citations and should be given in square brackets (e.g., "The author states 'The excavation is complete' [p. 18].") There is usually no need to provide the author's last name within the brackets, and the year of publication will not be provided. The square brackets signify that the source of the quotation is the book under review.

The first time the name of an author of a work under review is mentioned, please provide the name as it appears on the title page of table of contents of the work. For instance, "Daniel Deck's chapter is especially interesting." Subsequent mentions of the same individual should use only the last name, unless there is the possibility of confusion ("The chapter by Rufus Smith takes a different view from the one by Rebecca Smith.").

The goal is for any author of the book under review who is named be afforded their full name. The authors of other works that are being cited will, of course, have their full names provided in the bibliography. We want to avoid awkward passages such as "The chapters by Deck, Smith, Grosvenor, and Kolchak are grouped together." Under such circumstances, the reader of the review may have no convenient way of determining the full name of a contributor to the work under review.

2. The Journal uses the scientific format for bibliographic citations (e.g., "Smith 1960: 124--125"), with full references appearing in alphabetical order at the end of the article. The use of "et al." is restricted to text citations of works for which there are more than three authors; the full citation should include the names of all authors. First names of authors and editors should be used if they appear on the title page of the original publication. Bibliographic citations should be accurate and complete with respect to the following: titles and subtitles; full spellings of periodicals; dates; names of publihers and places of publication for books; full page numbers for papers in periodicals or collected works ("ff." is not adequate); and that all works cited in the review (and only those cited in the review) appear in the bibliography.

Article
Simmons, Alan H., and Gary O. Rollefson
1984 "Neolithic 'Ain Ghazal (Jordan): Interim Report on the First Two Seasons, 1982--1983," Journal of Field Archaeology 11: 387--395.

Book
Watson, Patty Jo, Steven A. LeBlanc, and Charles L. Redman
1984 Archeological Explanation: The Scientific Mthod in Archeology. New York: Columbia University Press.

Unpublished Dissertation or Thesis
Earle, T. K.
1973 "Control Hierarchies in the Traditional Irrigation Economy of Halelea District, Kaua'i, Hawaii," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Published Dissertation or Thesis
Reitz, Elizabeth Jean
1979 Spanish and British Subsistence Strategies at St. Augustine, Florida, and Frederica, Georgia, between 1563--1783. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Florida, Gainesville. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms.

Monograph in a Series
Granger, Joseph E., Jr.
1978 Meadowood Phase Settlement Pattern in the Niagara Frontier Region of Western New York State. Anthropological Papers, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan 65. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.

Article in an Edited Book
Brain, Jeffrey P.
1978 "Late Prehistoric Settlement Patterning in the Yazoo Basin and Natchez Bluffs Region of the Lower Mississippi Valley," in Bruce D. Smith, ed., Mississippi Settlement Patterns. New York: Academic Press, 331--368.

x

Publication in BAR (British Archaeological Reports)
Belli, Paolo
1987 "Costruzioni circolari di Creta," in Miriam S. Balmuth, ed., Studies in Sardinian Archaeology III: Nuraghic Sardinia and the Mycenaean World. BAR International Series 387. Oxford: B.A.R., 129--134.

Ancient Works
Vitruvius
De architectura (The Ten Books of Architecture). M. H. Morgan, trans. New York: Dover 1960.

Reprints
Cobo, Bernabe
1964 Historia del Nuevo Mundo. (Originally published 1653.) Biblioteca del Autores Españoles, vols. 91, 92. Madrid: Ediciones Atlas.

Reviews should be sent to
Editor
Journal of Field Archaeology
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Boston University
Boston, MA 02215
jfa@bu.edu
Tel: (617) 353-2357
Fax: (617) 353-6800

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abw@bu.edu