Invitation to Reviewers, Authors, and Publishers

COMPARATIVE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AND SOCIETY (CTTS) will publish book reviews as a commitment to the scholarship of technology transfer, and as a commitment to informing readers about the key emerging literature of this large, multidisciplinary field. The purpose of the review is to inform the reader of the content of the book, as well as to provide an evaluation of the book's content and quality. Further, the reviews will bring works of scholarly technology transfer to the notice of the practitioner and the nonacademic public. The journal's goal is to publish five to seven appropriate single book or essay reviews per issue on titles that foster international and multidisciplinary dialogue about issues of technology transfer. Reviews on a single book will be 700 words in length. Essay reviews will be longer and will (a) compare and contrast from three to six books on a similar topic; (b) provide a discussion of the key recent literature on a given issue; or (c) comment on the same selected literature from scholars in different disciplines. Reviews generally will be by invitation only.

The books reviewed will reflect the editorial mission of Comparative Technology Transfer and Society. The journal has two major international audiences: the interdisciplinary technology transfer research community and the practitioners who adopt and implement technology or who deal with the physical, social, or cultural impact of technology adoption. Although reviews will reflect the disciplinary background of the reviewer, each review will also reflect the interdisciplinary nature of this journal by assessing the books' potential interdisciplinary contributions. Reviews will also assess the readability and accessibility of a submission to a multidisciplinary and international audience.

In addition to the appropriate subject content of the book, additional criteria for selecting a title for review will include originality, perspective, scholarship, broad significance, timeliness, and format. As a general rule, non-books (videos, web pages, and software), textbooks, edited collections, reference works, and popular books reviewed in the mainstream press will not be reviewed in CTTS.

As critical as identifying books for review is, it is just as important to identify reviewers to review them. Thus, with the journal's inauguration we are creating a list of reviewers. We are particularly eager to include reviewers from both inside and outside the United States. The attributes we seek in a reviewer are up-to-date expertise in a specialized field of technology transfer, familiarity with the literature of that field and related fields, and a clear, lively prose style. We also seek reviewers who recognize the value of reviewing books as a contribution not only to the development of the scholarship within their discipline, but also to the scholarship of integrating the research of others into the larger intellectual patterns of the field. We are also seeking practitioners and independent scholars, as well as younger scholars new to academic publishing. Interested potential reviewers are encouraged to complete a form on the journal website (http://www.ctt-s.org) that provides information on academic areas of expertise, areas of technology transfer applications, and contact addresses.

Writing an effective, balanced, fair, and informative review in a few hundred words is an art. A good review is written for a specific audience and reflects the knowledge and expertise of the reviewer as well as the reviewed. We expect reviewers to write thoughtful and engaging critiques that provide a description of the book, assess its strengths and weaknesses, and place the book in the context of the field.

The description of the book provides the reader with bibliographic details of the book, the author's credibility, the intended audience, the subject of the book, the purpose of the text, the scope of study, the thesis of the book, and a general overview of its organization. The analysis includes the reviewer's assessment of the originality of the work; the contributions to the field; the achievement of author...