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From the Book Review Editors

From the Book Review Editors In the same spirit as previous editorials (Colombijn 2021; Bloembergen et al. 2022), we thought it informative at this juncture to cast some light on this journal’s book review section. Susi Moeimam has been a review editor since 2005, with Tom Hoogervorst joining the board in the same capacity in 2017. In addition, Andrew Gebhardt has presided over language editing since 2010, with a focus on the style and mechanics of the sentences and paragraphs, sharpening and clarifying wherever possible to help the author’s voice come through as compellingly and smoothly as possible. Ellen Sitinjak has worked for BKI since 1992 and assumed charge of review-related logistics in 2003. Harry Poeze, in his rubric that concludes every issue, discusses the steady stream of Dutch books on Southeast Asia (primarily the Netherlands Indies). He has single-handedly carried out this job for almost thirty-five years (see Poeze 1988) and we lack the words to express our admiration.Susi and Tom are jointly responsible for seeking out reviewers and inviting them to discuss recently published academic monographs and edited volumes. In keeping with the scope of this journal, we prioritize works in the humanities and social sciences that appeal to general interests. Despite a historically rooted gravitation towards Indonesia, our interests encompass all of Southeast Asia, its connections to other regions, and its diasporas. Reviews are in English, but books written in a variety of languages are eligible for review.Whereas article submissions are author-initiated, book reviews are typically commissioned by the journal’s editors. For this reason, we have come to adopt an informal modus operandi, handling the entire process by way of direct communication rather than the online portal that is used for BKI articles. Susi Moeimam is primarily based in Jakarta and Tom Hoogervorst in Leiden. From these hubs, we mobilize our networks every week to enlist reviewers we know personally, through others, or through their writing. We also welcome marketing managers and aspiring reviewers to alert us to books that may have escaped our attention.Early-career scholars, including those without prior experience of publication, are especially encouraged to submit reviews. Many a junior colleague seems to appreciate our holistic way of editing the content, style, factual knowledge, and language. (Some senior ones, by contrast, appear to tolerate it, at best.) It is a useful exercise for young scholars to try their hand at a book review, which must be under 1500 words, before diving into the deep end with a full article. Regrettably, the boom in accreditation in higher education and the resulting publish-or-perish mentality has sparked a tendency to submit co-authored reviews, sometimes by as many as four people and often featuring more senior or prominent academics. We strongly discourage this. A book review should reflect the expertise of an individual reviewer as much as that of the reviewed author or editor. At any rate, in many institutions, the credit points that can be claimed for book reviews are much lower than those awarded for regular articles. The true appeal of writing reviews, besides its importance for keeping academic debates alive and as a contribution to scholarly inspiration, lies in increased visibility and academic experience, along with the prospect of a complimentary book.Thanks to one of us being based in Jakarta, the number of book reviewers and reviewed books from Indonesia has increased significantly. We deem it crucial to keep abreast of Indonesia’s publishing landscape, despite the challenges that come with such a commitment. Unlike Singapore and Thailand, academic publishers in Indonesia rarely send review copies abroad. The reasons for this include the prioritization of domestic markets, the rising cost of paper, and the unreliability of international postage. New regulations on import taxes have made the international transmission of books through Pos Indonesia, Indonesia’s state-owned postal service, considerably more complicated than a decade ago. At present, the most straightforward way to keep BKI’s review section infused with Indonesian publications is by regularly browsing bookshops in Jakarta, Surabaya, and other big cities; assessing new books for content, general relevance, quality of editing, page numeration, and typos; making a preselection and, in some cases, delivering the books to Leiden personally. Over the past seventeen years, Susi Moeimam has almost single-handedly and at considerable expense volunteered to take on this task.The Covid pandemic introduced some unexpected new challenges. What some of us originally considered an opportunity to salvage unfinished writing projects soon led to inflated workloads, writer’s block, and burnout. As for logistics, an inordinate number of parcels sent to and from the Netherlands, Indonesia, and elsewhere mysteriously disappeared. Courier services eventually became our only option to ensure that books reached their reviewers. Around the same time, the European Union (and Australia) started to haphazardly levy import taxes on formerly tax-exempt review copies. The larger British publishers are likely to respond by opening branches on the continent, but for the time being, we are not able to review as many UK publications as is desirable. Colleagues working for other journals report similar experiences with some larger US presses.In one instance known to us, the faltering postal service during the pandemic was instrumentalized to justify a trend that had already made its appearance and has not gone away since: the refusal by some publishers to impart free hard copies for review. We must state the obvious here: to write a review is unpaid labour, often carried out by non-tenured academics who receive little credit for it, that leads to concrete publicity for a given publication. If it is their preference, it seems only natural to compensate these colleagues in the form of a complimentary copy of the product that they help promote, regardless of whether it ends up on the shelves of local libraries or in the hands of students. Some publishers have cited environmental reasons for refraining from distributing printed review copies. This is a concern we take seriously; at the request of reviewers, we are happy to send out e-books instead of hard copies. But we also note that real sustainability involves an industry-wide move towards eco-publishing, while a reduction of hard copies for review is counterproductive.Another reason to caution against the e-book format is the prospect of where things might be headed next. Aside from a preference for page-flipping as one of the cornerstones of reading, reviewers may be incapable of using e-books for medical, infrastructural, and technological reasons. It has been dispiriting to learn that some publishers refuse to make exceptions even for the market segments in question (Price and Price 2020:83). One spokesperson has gone so far as to proclaim, in effect, that real books will soon be a thing of the past. (At this point we pictured an estate agent blustering that houses are the contemptible relics of obsolescence.) And while traditional e-books may still be passed from one person to another, some new models now print the email address of the intended recipient on every page, diagonally, and seemingly in the biggest font available. We have also more than once been steered towards online portals that only provide temporary access to the book assigned for review. Regarding such abominations from the world of commercial publishing, perhaps the less said, the better. At least we can afford to be somewhat picky amidst today’s profusion of academic output while still keeping our review section reasonably representative of what appears on the market.On a final note, we would like to thank everyone who has published reviews with us over the years, allowing BKI’s readership to keep track of the fascinating field that is Southeast Asian Studies. We realize that not all institutes acknowledge the writing of book reviews as a legitimate academic pursuit. It has been an important part of our job to urge people to deliver on time, but equally to exercise leniency if this proves necessary. While authors and publishers may regret seeing a book being sent out but not reviewed, editors are often among the first to learn about the myriad of obstacles faced by fellow academics. We have heard countless stories of why a review could not be finished on time, or at all. In almost every instance no blame was to be assigned, at least not to the reviewer. On rare occasions, the approached reviewers simply had nothing positive to say about a book, in which case a collective decision was made to cancel the review. In general, however, the high success rate and low rejection rate of reviews fill us with ample excitement for the future.The Book Review EditorsTom Hoogervorst, Susi Moeimam and Andrew Gebhardt http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Bijdragen tot de Land-, Taal- en Volkenkunde Brill

From the Book Review Editors

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References (3)

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0006-2294
eISSN
2213-4379
DOI
10.1163/22134379-17901014
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In the same spirit as previous editorials (Colombijn 2021; Bloembergen et al. 2022), we thought it informative at this juncture to cast some light on this journal’s book review section. Susi Moeimam has been a review editor since 2005, with Tom Hoogervorst joining the board in the same capacity in 2017. In addition, Andrew Gebhardt has presided over language editing since 2010, with a focus on the style and mechanics of the sentences and paragraphs, sharpening and clarifying wherever possible to help the author’s voice come through as compellingly and smoothly as possible. Ellen Sitinjak has worked for BKI since 1992 and assumed charge of review-related logistics in 2003. Harry Poeze, in his rubric that concludes every issue, discusses the steady stream of Dutch books on Southeast Asia (primarily the Netherlands Indies). He has single-handedly carried out this job for almost thirty-five years (see Poeze 1988) and we lack the words to express our admiration.Susi and Tom are jointly responsible for seeking out reviewers and inviting them to discuss recently published academic monographs and edited volumes. In keeping with the scope of this journal, we prioritize works in the humanities and social sciences that appeal to general interests. Despite a historically rooted gravitation towards Indonesia, our interests encompass all of Southeast Asia, its connections to other regions, and its diasporas. Reviews are in English, but books written in a variety of languages are eligible for review.Whereas article submissions are author-initiated, book reviews are typically commissioned by the journal’s editors. For this reason, we have come to adopt an informal modus operandi, handling the entire process by way of direct communication rather than the online portal that is used for BKI articles. Susi Moeimam is primarily based in Jakarta and Tom Hoogervorst in Leiden. From these hubs, we mobilize our networks every week to enlist reviewers we know personally, through others, or through their writing. We also welcome marketing managers and aspiring reviewers to alert us to books that may have escaped our attention.Early-career scholars, including those without prior experience of publication, are especially encouraged to submit reviews. Many a junior colleague seems to appreciate our holistic way of editing the content, style, factual knowledge, and language. (Some senior ones, by contrast, appear to tolerate it, at best.) It is a useful exercise for young scholars to try their hand at a book review, which must be under 1500 words, before diving into the deep end with a full article. Regrettably, the boom in accreditation in higher education and the resulting publish-or-perish mentality has sparked a tendency to submit co-authored reviews, sometimes by as many as four people and often featuring more senior or prominent academics. We strongly discourage this. A book review should reflect the expertise of an individual reviewer as much as that of the reviewed author or editor. At any rate, in many institutions, the credit points that can be claimed for book reviews are much lower than those awarded for regular articles. The true appeal of writing reviews, besides its importance for keeping academic debates alive and as a contribution to scholarly inspiration, lies in increased visibility and academic experience, along with the prospect of a complimentary book.Thanks to one of us being based in Jakarta, the number of book reviewers and reviewed books from Indonesia has increased significantly. We deem it crucial to keep abreast of Indonesia’s publishing landscape, despite the challenges that come with such a commitment. Unlike Singapore and Thailand, academic publishers in Indonesia rarely send review copies abroad. The reasons for this include the prioritization of domestic markets, the rising cost of paper, and the unreliability of international postage. New regulations on import taxes have made the international transmission of books through Pos Indonesia, Indonesia’s state-owned postal service, considerably more complicated than a decade ago. At present, the most straightforward way to keep BKI’s review section infused with Indonesian publications is by regularly browsing bookshops in Jakarta, Surabaya, and other big cities; assessing new books for content, general relevance, quality of editing, page numeration, and typos; making a preselection and, in some cases, delivering the books to Leiden personally. Over the past seventeen years, Susi Moeimam has almost single-handedly and at considerable expense volunteered to take on this task.The Covid pandemic introduced some unexpected new challenges. What some of us originally considered an opportunity to salvage unfinished writing projects soon led to inflated workloads, writer’s block, and burnout. As for logistics, an inordinate number of parcels sent to and from the Netherlands, Indonesia, and elsewhere mysteriously disappeared. Courier services eventually became our only option to ensure that books reached their reviewers. Around the same time, the European Union (and Australia) started to haphazardly levy import taxes on formerly tax-exempt review copies. The larger British publishers are likely to respond by opening branches on the continent, but for the time being, we are not able to review as many UK publications as is desirable. Colleagues working for other journals report similar experiences with some larger US presses.In one instance known to us, the faltering postal service during the pandemic was instrumentalized to justify a trend that had already made its appearance and has not gone away since: the refusal by some publishers to impart free hard copies for review. We must state the obvious here: to write a review is unpaid labour, often carried out by non-tenured academics who receive little credit for it, that leads to concrete publicity for a given publication. If it is their preference, it seems only natural to compensate these colleagues in the form of a complimentary copy of the product that they help promote, regardless of whether it ends up on the shelves of local libraries or in the hands of students. Some publishers have cited environmental reasons for refraining from distributing printed review copies. This is a concern we take seriously; at the request of reviewers, we are happy to send out e-books instead of hard copies. But we also note that real sustainability involves an industry-wide move towards eco-publishing, while a reduction of hard copies for review is counterproductive.Another reason to caution against the e-book format is the prospect of where things might be headed next. Aside from a preference for page-flipping as one of the cornerstones of reading, reviewers may be incapable of using e-books for medical, infrastructural, and technological reasons. It has been dispiriting to learn that some publishers refuse to make exceptions even for the market segments in question (Price and Price 2020:83). One spokesperson has gone so far as to proclaim, in effect, that real books will soon be a thing of the past. (At this point we pictured an estate agent blustering that houses are the contemptible relics of obsolescence.) And while traditional e-books may still be passed from one person to another, some new models now print the email address of the intended recipient on every page, diagonally, and seemingly in the biggest font available. We have also more than once been steered towards online portals that only provide temporary access to the book assigned for review. Regarding such abominations from the world of commercial publishing, perhaps the less said, the better. At least we can afford to be somewhat picky amidst today’s profusion of academic output while still keeping our review section reasonably representative of what appears on the market.On a final note, we would like to thank everyone who has published reviews with us over the years, allowing BKI’s readership to keep track of the fascinating field that is Southeast Asian Studies. We realize that not all institutes acknowledge the writing of book reviews as a legitimate academic pursuit. It has been an important part of our job to urge people to deliver on time, but equally to exercise leniency if this proves necessary. While authors and publishers may regret seeing a book being sent out but not reviewed, editors are often among the first to learn about the myriad of obstacles faced by fellow academics. We have heard countless stories of why a review could not be finished on time, or at all. In almost every instance no blame was to be assigned, at least not to the reviewer. On rare occasions, the approached reviewers simply had nothing positive to say about a book, in which case a collective decision was made to cancel the review. In general, however, the high success rate and low rejection rate of reviews fill us with ample excitement for the future.The Book Review EditorsTom Hoogervorst, Susi Moeimam and Andrew Gebhardt

Journal

Bijdragen tot de Land-, Taal- en Volkenkunde – Brill

Published: Mar 21, 2023

There are no references for this article.