Spring 2009
Finding and using book reviews
At some point in your research it will probably become essential for you to locate book reviews. Once you find that perfect book and are considering basing much of your paper upon the research presented in that book, you'll want to check to see what fellow historians are saying about it. Book reviews will help you place the book within the context of other work that's been done.
In general, our library webpage about finding book reviews should give you the info you need for locating a review. I've added some of my own notes below:
- JSTOR - Keeping mind its limitations, JSTOR is an excellent place to search for reviews. Click on "Advanced Search" and click "Review" under Type.
- Project Muse - Also on the Advanced Search page, Project Muse can be limited by "Type". Keep in mind that Project MUSE doesn't index a huge number of history journals.
- Academic Search Premier - Though often not a great choice for disciplinary research, Academic Search Premier can be a very good place to look for book reviews. Do a "Title" search for the title of the book and select "Book Review" under document type.
- Web of Science - Not the easiest in the world to search but I usually find reviews here that I haven't found anywhere else. There are a few ways you can go about limiting your search to book reviews. I think the easiest is to do a title search for your title from the main search screen. Then, when you are viewing your results, click "Book Reviews" under the "Document Types" heading on the left side and click "Refine". This will limit your results to just book reviews.
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