Find Reviews of Scholarly Books
• Periodical Indexes – Many journals provide book reviews. When searching, limit the Document Type to Book Review; Entertainment Review; Film Review; Poetry Review; Product Review, etc. as available.
• CHOICE – A journal of reviews of academics books for libraries. Full-text online access is available through ProQuest Research Library
• ATLAReligion with Serials (EBSCO) – contains the Index to Book Reviews in Religion (IBBR). When searching, limit the Publication Type to “Review”
Biblical Literature:
• Review of Biblical Literature - reviews of books in biblical studies and related fields.
Christian Book Reviews:
Literature Reviews:
• The Bryn Mawr Classical Review - book reviews for classical resources from 1990 to present of.
• H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences
• The Medieval Review - reviews from 1993 to 2009. For reviews since 2009 go to IU Scholar Works Repository
Philosophy Book Reviews:
• Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
Science Book Reviews
General Book Reviews
Finding Reviews
Reviews serve as a literary critique of a book, article, essay, movie, etc. usually based on the item's content, form and style. From the reviewer's perspective, reviews are a way to analyze, summarize and interpret the content of the material. From the reader's perspective, reviews are a way to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of the item, better understand the significance of the item, and determine whether the item is worth reading. Reviews can be found in a variety of sources, such as magazines, journals and the internet. Be aware that reviews will differ in their level of scholarship and in their ability to be objective. Scholarly Reviews will focus less on summary and more on critical analysis of content and purpose, while less scholarly reviews will tend to be a mere repetition and summary of the material's content.
Worldcat.org can be used as an evaluation tool by looking at the number of libraries that own the item. If many libraries own it, it’s more likely to be well respected in the field. Also, looking at who owns the item can be a clue as to its scholarship that is, if mostly academic libraries own the item, it’s probably more scholarly than if mostly public libraries own it.
Resources for College Libraries (RCL) - Contains a core list of hand-selected print and electronic titles chosen by subject-expert editors and contributors. This database is used by academic librarians as a tool for identifying the best academic resources for their respective libraries; you can do the same for your research papers.
© Janet Tillman/The Master’s University, 2010-2012, permission is granted for non-profit educational use; any reproduction or modification should include this statement.
Last updated July 2015.
General Music Reviews
• Worldwide Music Internet Resources
• All Reviews CD & Music reviews
Classical Music Reviews
• Fanfare
Reviews of Web Resources:
• The Scout Report – Contains critical annotations of carefully selected websites or online resources in each of two categories: Research & Education, and General Interest.