Online Reviews
Welcome to the online review section of the Oral History journal. Here we share reviews of new work from around the world that uses oral history methods or approaches.
For the print version of the OHJ, we also publish more substantial review essays that put at least three books (or films, exhibitions, etc) in conversation with each other.
Publishers, artists, producers, and would-be reviewers should contact the reviews editors, Lucy Newby, Michael Romyn and Fearghus Roulston at [email protected].
Note to publishers
The editorial board of the Oral History Journal would like to express our sincere concern and dismay at the decision of a number of academic publishers to move to a ‘digital first policy’ when issuing review copies of forthcoming publications. We believe that this move not only undermines the principle of mutuality which currently underpins the reviews process, but will have detrimental impacts on the practical process of requesting reviews at academic journals like the OHJ.
Most academics offer review work free of charge, and in return are offered a material copy of the text. We note that academic works are often highly priced publications. Most of our reviews are also written by postgraduate scholars, early career researchers, and independent scholars who often do not have means to purchase these texts. The provision of reviews to academic journals is a crucial means of access to copies, and one which we note also is a crucial avenue of promotion for publishing presses.
Importantly, many scholars with disabilities require material copies in order to ensure the reviews process is accessible. Individual scholars are best able to judge this. It is therefore crucial that our reviewers are able to obtain either a material or digital copy, according to their needs.
We believe that the decision of publishing presses to move to a digital first policy will offer strikingly poor acknowledgement of the time and energy spent by scholars in providing critical engagement with works published by the press. We therefore strongly urge any press who has employed this policy to reconsider their decision and to continue its commitment to recognising the crucial work of reviews in journals like the OHJ.
