Journal of World Sociopolitical Studies

Thank you for choosing WSPS. We appreciate your expertise in reviewing books for our journal. These guidelines guarantee a smooth flow of your work. WSPS welcomes reviews that interests the scope of the journal and interests of our readers.

Obviously, the journal functions with commitments from different people. We expect the book reviewers to follow the same set of standards. The preferred time for a review to be completed is three months. If you cannot deliver the review on an agreed deadline, contact the journal at (wsps@ut.ac.ir) and ask for an extension. We will offer a new deadline that works for both sides. If, for any reasons, you see yourself unable to review the book, feel free to inform us, and you will also need to return the book to office of journal (see the address in our website) as soon as possible.

Once ready to review for WSPS, please, follow these steps.

1. Visit this page (Books for Review) to see what books are available for review. Make sure to select unassigned titles. If you prefer to review a book that is not listed in our website, but you feel it meets the scope of WSPS, visit (Contact Us) page and give us your suggestion. We will review the suggestions and will contact you if it meets our standards.
2. Create a profile on WSPS website. Make sure your contact information (phone number and email) and the address are completely filled.
3. Read these guidelines quite carefully. It will be helpful to both sides if you know your commitments and that of ours.
4. Depending on the availability of a book either in paper or electronic, WSPS will send the copy to you. This stage can take 1-6 months (for paper copies). Once you received the copy, please send us a confirmation note.
5. Start reading and enjoying the book! At this stage you have almost two full months. This stage usually needs less time for serious readers and is actually the easiest part of your task.
6. Start writing your review. Please, follow the content and formatting guidelines. You have one full month to develop your review. In case of any questions, feel free to contact us.
7. Submit your review file using your WSPS profile.
8. The book review editor, in consultation with the editor-in-chief, will go over your review. They may sometimes make suggestions for revisions. Revise and resubmit your review.
9. Once we receive your final manuscript, and depending on the theme of the coming issues, your review will be edited and assigned to an issue. It will then undergo different production stages, including layout and proofing. The production stage might take 2-6 months. Be patient!
10. Before publication, you receive a proof version of your work. Read it carefully and let us know if there are any errors or typos. You are not allowed to make any revisions at this stage.

Book reviews for WSPS should be written in formal style following the academic conventions in writing. Contractions, exclamations points, dangling structures and the like must be avoided. So must be an offensive language that might harm and/or undermine the credibility of an academic book. Critical comments are particularly welcome as long as they serve the methodological shortcomings and unintended biases of a potential volume.

WSPS follows APA (6^th ed.) for citation and referencing. Each review will be 1000-1200 words and it will consist of four main parts: introduction; description; analysis; evaluation and conclusion.

A. INTRODUCTION:

This is an optional section in your review. You may quickly open up the floor to your review while giving some insights on the author, the available scholarship in the literature, and the gap this title fills. Write no more than 200 words.

 B. DESCRIPTION:

This is a clear-cut review or summary of the whole book. You may provide the summary thematically, or follow a chapter-by-chapter description. You can also include some highlights, but try to avoid any evaluations here. Simply explain what is inside a book and how it looks like. 300-400 words are ideal, though this is not strict.

C. ANALYSIS:

Here you need to focus on smaller parts of the book and provide in-depth analyses of a book’s contributions in terms of concepts, assumptions, limitations and so forth. Ideally, you will utilize your expertise besides other sources in the literature to expose the depth of a work. Remember that analysis is not value-laden. A maximum of 400 words suffices.

 D. EVALUATION/CONCLUSION:

Here you judge the work and the views of its author(s) and/or editor(s). Pros and cons are discussed and your own expert opinion tells the reader about the significance of a book. You will also highlight the goals and if the writer(s) were able to achieve them in their book. Offering constructive criticism is fine as long as it helps improve the quality of a book. Avoid personal attacks and pugnacious phrases even if there are strong shortcomings. Instead, offer how future scholarship can fill the gaps in a work. You may write up to 200 words here.

Formatting Your Book Review

1. The typeface needs to be Times New Roman, 12 pt.
2. Begin the review by providing detailed bibliographic information of a book as follows.

e.g.: The Homelessness Industry: A Critique of U.S. Social Policy, by Elizabeth Beck and Pamela C.  Twiss. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2018. 287 pp. $78.50 cloth. ISBN: 9781626377417

1. End the review with your name, affiliation and email.
2. You should neither use indentations nor headings in your review.
3. Cite only direct quotations from a book. We use in-text citations (page number(s) only).
4. Do not use endnotes and footnotes.