Welcome to the DMIN 851-854
Research Help Page
For the Book Review assignment, students will need to:
* Note that this assignment is scaffolded, which means there are various individual steps leading towards a final project goal. That end goal is to get two reviews submitted (i.e., received but not published) to two journals.
To fulfill step #1, search for books on the JFL main page by selecting the Book tab and entering in some search terms related to your topic of choice.
Next, limit your search to the last 24 months, using the date options on the left side of the screen. Add other refinements to your search to narrow down the results to the relevant materials.
Sometimes, a book is so new that the library does not have it yet. Consider looking at Amazon.com for brand new titles.
A second method to fulfill step #1 is to go to Ebook Central, and then search for your topic again, limiting the results to the last 24 months. This site may yield different results from the main JFL page, due to a different search algorithm. Sometimes it will provide resources that don't include the topic in the title, but rather in a chapter or section within some book related to your topic.
To fulfill step #2, we go to a database of journal articles to find out which journals tend to publish the most frequently on your topic or subject matter.
For topics that are more straight-forward theology, divinity, or biblical studies, then try the ATLA Religion Database. However, for topics on general leadership principles, or for topics that cross over into other disciplines (e.g., biblical counseling plus psychology), we suggest going to one of the popular databases, like EBSCO Quick Search or ProQuest Central.
Run a very generalized search on your topic. You could limit to just book reviews but try searching for your topic under both articles and reviews first. If desired, you could check the Peer Reviewed box as this will limit the results to those types of journals. Be aware, several theological journals are published by smaller schools and are not peer reviewed; these will not appear as options if the peer-reviewed filter is selected.
In some cases, you may want to narrow the publication date down to the last 10 years. This step will assist in knowing that the journal is still in publication.
After searching for topic, and using some basic filtering, now look for the filter option of Publication. For examples, using EBSCO as a search engine, look on the left side of the results screen for "Publication" and click there.
Now, click the blue colored "Show More" to bring up a list of journals. This list is arranged by frequency of articles in each different journal.
From here, select several titles from the list that regularly publish articles or book reviews on your topic.
Some other ideas are to pick a narrow or specific database to search from. For example, the Theological Journal Library has some cross-over with ATLA, but also some unique theological journals (although this database does not have the Publication limiting feature). Or try a database that specializes in business, nursing, behavioral sciences, or other areas.
To fulfill step #3, try simply searching for the journal on your favorite Internet browser. Most journals have a webpage that identifies their product and provides the necessary information for completing a portion of the assignment. Once you have located the journal's webpage, scan around for something that says: Guidelines, Submissions, or Instructions for Contributors. Also look out for contact information, such as the editor's email.
You can also try looking for journals on your topic at UlrichsWeb. This site will detail if the journal is current or still in publication. It also gives some general descriptions of the typical content or subject matter covered by that journal. To learn more about the journal, do a random survey of articles by selecting the link to the journal, and examining article titles from a variety of volumes.
A third tactic is to pull up any volume of that journal and look at the first page(s) for the editors or contact information.
For example, check out this page for submissions to the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society: Instructions to Contributors.
The assignment will possibly require reaching out to the journal editor for more information or for questions on whether they accept unsolicited reviews. Please note - this portion of the final assignment may take some time to complete.
Once you have found a journal that accepts reviews, be sure to take a look at several reviews already printed by that journal. Identify any commonalities in organization or format. Then adjust your draft to match how other reviews are typically written in that publication.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Many journals will not accept "unsolicited" reviews. Part of this DMin micro-project is learning how to overcome this barrier and to persevere until you find a journal that will at least allow you to submit a review.
There are various reasons for this phenomenon. (1) The journal may simply have a policy against unsolicited reviews. Very often such journals only publish articles or reviews from members of their organization or faculty at their school. (2) The journal may require contributors to have already earned their terminal degree, while not accepting reviews from doctoral candidates. There may be an approval process here, in which case prospective contributors must first establish their academic credentials or theological alignment before any submissions will be considered. (3) In other cases, the journal editor may receive books from different publishers and then limit published reviews to only those specific titles. Sometimes these editors are looking for contributors to select one of those books and to offer a review, but they are not open to reviews of other books not already provided by the publishers.
Journals currently Not accepting unsolicited reviews (updated periodically):
Bibliotheca Sacra
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Calvin Theological Journal
Christian Century
Evangelical Review of Theology
Interpretation: Journal of Bible & Theology
Journal of Biblical Counseling
Religious Studies Review