Metapsychology Online Reviewer Guidelines

Metapsychology Online Reviews (http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/) ISSN 1931-5716

Editor: Christian Perring, Ph.D. (cperring at yahoo dot com)

Guidelines and FAQ for Metapsychology Reviewers:

GENERAL STATEMENT: We aim to make Metapsychology a high quality book review site that will last for the foreseeable future. We want to publish thoughtful and informed reviews written by reviewers knowledgeable about the issues discussed. Readers should want to return to the site regularly, able to expect interesting and useful reviews. To our knowledge, Metapsychology is one of the only sites on the web devoted to thoughtful and informed reviews of books in mental health for a general audience.

The Funding of Metapsychology Online

Metapsychology has a long standing relationship with CenterSite.Net, the publishers of the Mental Help Net website (http://www.mentalhelp.net), a well established and respected Mental Health education website and community. This relationship works as follows: CenterSite provides hosting and technical services for Metapsychology, and in exchange, Metapsychology allows CenterSite to republish some of the Metapsychology reviews on Mental Help Net and within CenterSite's network of hosted public mental health and employee assistance websites. The key word above is "some". The reviews Metapsychology shares with CenterSite all have the following characteristics:

1) the author of the review has given informed consent for his or her reviews to appear within CenterSite's website network

2) the review fits within categories which are relevant to CenterSite's mission and reader interests. Reviews of sexually explicit materials do not appear on CenterSite, for instance, even though authors of these reviews may have given informed consent for such reviews to appear there. Similarly, reviews of philosophical works seldom are appropriate for CenterSite and are not selected for inclusion even though they could be included.

Centersite.net is a for-profit business. However, Metapsychology has editorial independence and the editor of Metapsychology is not a paid employee or consultant of Centersite, LLC. Metapsychology derives some income from advertising revenue and sales through Amazon.com as an Amazon Associate.

Action Item for Review Authors:

Please email the Metapsychology Editor with an explicit "Yes -- I give informed consent for CenterSite to republish my reviews" or "No -- I do not give informed consent for CenterSite to republish my reviews" so that informed consent can be documented.

All consent messages will be honored without question. However, please do carefully consider your reasons for denying your consent for republication, if that is your bias. It is not at all a problem if several reviewers deny republication. However, if a majority of reviewers were to do so, it could cause Metapsychology's relationship with Centersite to be altered. Dr. Perring (the Metapsychology Editor) and Dr. Dombeck (the Editor-in-chief for CenterSite and Mental Help Net) would both prefer this not to occur.

Author Style Guidelines

AUDIENCE: We aim at a general well-educated readership, comparable to that for the New York Times Book Review. So reviews should not contain jargon, and should explain any necessary technical terms.

LENGTH: Regular reviews should be roughly 400-1000 words long. They can be longer if the book merits it (for example if it is a collection of articles by different authors) or if the reviewer has an especially well thought out criticism or comment to make. They can also be shorter, especially if the reviewer can find nothing good to say about the book!

BALANCE: It is important for reviews to be balanced. The reviewer can still express strong opinions, but these should be explained and justified, and the reviewer should acknowledge both the strengths and weaknesses of the book. It is essential that there be no hidden agendas behind reviews; books should not be praised for personal gain or criticized to settle personal vendettas. Reviewers should receive no direct financial or equivalent gain for praising books. Please use high praise only when the book you are reviewing is unusually good, and clearly stands out from comparable books.

CONTENT: All reviews should explain the main themes of the book, the book's intended audience, and the level of technicality of the writing.

FORMAT and STYLE: Please avoid using footnotes. If you refer to other books or articles, include the full reference at the end of your review, so the editor can include the information as appropriate. Since this is not an academic journal, we do not require any particular style (APA, MLA, etc). Keep abbreviations to a minimum and use straightforward language. Keep sentences short unless they need to be long, and use simple words unless longer words are necessary to convey your meaning.

LINKS & HTML FORMAT. Please do not put your own links in your review. If you want links included in your review, give the editor the URL of the web page you want a link to.

DEADLINE: You will be assigned a deadline for your review, about 3 months after you receive the book. If you are unable to meet this deadline, please notify the editor as soon as possible. If you are not able to write the review, please return the book. PLEASE, NOTIFY THE EDITOR IF YOU WILL MISS A DEADLINE. DO NOT SIMPLY ASSUME IT IS ACCEPTABLE TO MISS THE DEADLINE AND DO NOTHING. If you have missed the deadline, we will still be interested in your review.

YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION. Along with your first review, you should send a paragraph about yourself: a few sentences that will appear about your alongside your review. You should also specify any e-mail address or home page URL that you would like to appear linked to your name.

WHAT BOOKS CAN BE REVIEWED? The main criteria are that the book be available in print and that its content is connected to mental health. We are especially interested in reviewing books that have been recently published. We encourage reviews that focus on ethical, social, and philosophical issues.

WHERE DO I GET THE BOOKS TO BE REVIEWED? For your first review, you should review a book that you have already read. Once you have written one review for Metapsychology, if you are interested in writing more reviews, we will send you a list of books that publishers have sent us to be reviewed, and if any of them interest you, we will send you one of those books. You should write your review of that book within a month of receiving it.

You may find that you are not interested in any of the books on our list. You can still choose other books to review. You can either again choose a book that you already own, or else you can ask us to get a review copy from a publisher. We are generally able to get publishers to send us review copies of recently published books. It can take several weeks, sometimes longer.

HOW DO I SEND MY REVIEW? You should send your review in e-mail to the editor. The best format is as an attachment, in Rich Text Format or as a Word (PC not Macintosh) document. If you cannot send it that way, we can attempt to decipher other formats.

WILL MY REVIEW AUTOMATICALLY BE PUBLISHED? No. It will be read by the book review editor. The editor may ask you to make some changes in your review. We reserve the right to make minor changes to your review for length or style without your permission. We will consult with you over any changes in content or major changes in style.

CAN I CHANGE MY REVIEW AFTER IT IS PUBLISHED? Yes. One of the advantages of the web is that reviews can indeed be changed after they have been published on the web. We can correct typographical errors, and even publish second thoughts or alternative views about a book. Contact the review editor if you want to make some changes.

CAN I CHANGE MY PERSONAL BIOGRAPHICAL PARAGRAPH AFTER MY REVIEW IS PUBLISHED. As a rule, we do not update reviewer's personal information as they get new jobs, get promotions, and publish new books. As with other publications, the personal information tends to become dated with the passage of time. It would not be feasible to update the personal information of every reviewer.

Late updated: 2/2/08