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Evaluating Manuscripts in Political Science

Guidelines for a Developmental Review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2020

Phyllis Fisher*
Affiliation:
Houghton Mifflin Co.

Extract

A developmental review is a request for advice from experts and potential adopters of the book. Basically, we ask the reviewer to help us evaluate and shape the manuscript by telling us honestly and directly what's good about it and what's not so good.

We commission three kinds of reviews.

We occasionally ask well known scholars to serve as expert advisors, providing bibliographies, abstracts of articles, and outlines. They read draft chapters and then reread them. The point of their efforts is to help a nonexpert author gain expertise. Remuneration is generous by publishing standards: about $500 per chapter. The expert advisor can expect to have his or her name associated with the book when it's published. This kind of reviewing is relatively rare in political science.

In another kind of expert review, we ask specialists to prepare outlines and provide bibliographies and do one careful reading. The fee is usually $250 per chapter.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1987

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