Book Review Instructions

JRRE Book Review Instructions for Authors

The current book review editor for JRRE is Dr. Karen Eppley, Penn State (keppley@ksu.edu).  
We encourage those interested in contributing reviews and publishers interested in sending 
books for review contact Dr. Eppley. 
JRRE is interested in publishing reviews of scholarly books from multiple disciplinary 
perspectives that contain an explicit focus on rural education and/or the interrelationships 
between rural communities and rural education.  We suggest that authors interested in 
contributing a book review to JRRE examine previously published book reviews to gain a better 
sense of appropriate organization and substance.  Book reviews for JRRE should discuss both the 
substance and the intellectual merit value of the reviewed book.  You may find the following 
questions useful in preparing the review: 
 Does the book have a clear thesis/methodology?
 Does the book make significant intellectual contributions?
 What is book’s main audience?  How well will it serve that audience?
 What is the quality of the author’s research and sources?
 Is it well written and clearly organized?
 Would the book be suitable for graduate or undergraduate courses?
The entire review including footnotes, indented matter, and references should be double spaced 
and approximately 800-1400 words.  Essays reviewing several related works may be longer.  
The review should be headed using the following format: 
Learning to Leave: The Irony of Schooling in a Coastal Community. M. Corbett. Black 
Point, NS: Fernwood Publishing, 2007, 297 pp., ISBN 10:1-55266-229-2. 
The review should conclude as follows: 
Reviewed by [name of reviewer] 
[Affiliation of reviewer] 
If you have agreed to review a book, as requested by JRRE, please submit your review by the 
due date indicated on the accompanying letter.  If you cannot submit your review by that date, or 
if you decide that the book you have agreed to review does not merit a review in JRRE, please 
notify the editor immediately.   
JRRE will edit your review primarily for style, grammar, consistency, punctuation and spelling.  
Every effort will be made not to change the content or views in your review.