Review Guidelines

How to review for New Voices in Japanese Studies

i. Review a specific publication

If you have a specific book or article you would like to review, you can submit your Review Proposal via our online form. The editors will review the request and advise regarding acceptance. If a book review request is accepted, NVJS will make efforts to source a review copy of the book from the publisher. Note that NVJS cannot guarantee availability of requested publications for review. Note also that sourcing journal articles for review purposes is the author’s responsibility.

You may wish to consult our lists of recent Japan-related books for ideas.

NVJS Japan Book Lists: 2020 Book List | 2019 Book List | 2018 Book List

ii. Register your interest

If you are interested in reviewing for NVJS but have no specific publication in mind, you can register your details on our Reviewer Database and NVJS will contact you if a relevant publication becomes available for review.

Review Guidelines

i. Subject Matter

NVJS accepts reviews of academic books and articles from the humanities, social sciences or related fields that are about Japan or feature a significant Japan-related component. Reviews of the following publications are welcome:

1. recent academic books in English,
2. recent academic books in Japanese, or
3. recent academic articles in Japanese which contribute to key debates in Japan-related scholarship

Reviews of more than one publication are also considered.

ii. Word Count

Book reviews should be around 1,000 words, and article reviews should be around 600-800 words. This word count includes footnotes but not the references list. Footnotes should be kept to a minimum.

iii. Writing Quality

All manuscripts must be checked thoroughly to ensure that they are free from spelling and gramatical errors prior to submission.

Submissions from non-native English speakers are welcome; however, only submissions in English will be accepted. Contributors who are not native English speakers must have their manuscript proofread by a native or native-level speaker for grammar, spelling and readability prior to submitting.

Submissions with poor grammar, spelling and readability will not be considered for publication.

iv. Format and Style

A review manuscript should include:

1. Your name, university and current candidacy status
2. Title and author of book/article being reviewed
3. Bibliographical information (publisher, date of publication, no. of pages, ISBN, DOI, direct link to publication)
4. References to the review publication in the form of page numbers in parentheses.
5. References to other publications using the author-date style detailed in the NVJS Style Guide.

All submissions must be edited to conform with the NVJS Style Guide prior to submission.

How to Submit a Review

i. What to prepare

You will need the following items in order to submit.

1. Edited and formatted manuscript (MS Word .doc or .docx file, clearly named)
2. Review Cover Sheet (MS Word / 770 kb)
3. Copy of academic transcript

ii. Sending your data

Notes

i. Editorial decisions

Final decisions regarding the selection of reviews will be made at the sole discretion of The Japan Foundation, Sydney based on quality of work, suitability and subject matter.

The Japan Foundation, Sydney reserves the right to edit submissions.

ii. Licensing

Work published in NVJS is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), with attribution requested for the author and The Japan Foundation, Sydney.

Enquiries

Please contact:

Latest Volume

‘Beyond Japanese Studies’
Special Issue