Scholarly Book Reviewing in the Social Sciences and Humanities: The Flow of Ideas Within and Among Disciplines (Contributions in Librarianship and Information Science, vol. 91)

This study explores the flow of information within and among academic disciplines in the social sciences and humanities through analyses of the patterns of scholarly book reviewing. An elite sample of scholarly monographs published by university presses between 1971 and 1990 was used. Beginning with Derek de Solla Price, the measurement of communication within the disciplines of science has been ongoing. In the present book that field of inquiry is summarized and provides a basis for examining the flow of information in the social sciences and humanities.

Explores the flow of information within and among academic disciplines in the social sciences and humanities through analyses of the patterns of scholarly book reviewing.

Booknews

Analyzes patterns of scholarly book reviewing generated by an elite sample of scholarly monographs published by university presses between 1971 and 1990 in order to explore the flow of information within and among academic disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Such communication patterns have been widely studied for the natural sciences, but not for the fields targeted here. Lindholm-Romantschuk assumes the disciplines and the links between them to reflect social constructs rather than inherent characteristics of the information. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Contents......Page 6 Introduction......Page 8 1 The Social Study of Science......Page 12 2 Disciplinarity: The Nature and Structure of Scholarly Disciplines......Page 34 3 Book Reviews: Evaluative Systems in Scholarship......Page 46 4 Book Reviews: Data and Analysis......Page 56 5 Scholarly Book-Reviewing Journals......Page 66 6 Information Flow: Direction, Volume, and Speed......Page 96 7 Two Case Studies: Marchand’s Advertising and Weber’s Peasants......Page 130 Conclusion......Page 140 Bibliography......Page 148 Index......Page 156