Guidelines for Authors of Educational Material Reviews

Part of JNEB's mission is to provide its readers with accurate, timely, and useful reviews of nutrition and health-related materials for personal or professional selection and recommendation. Thank you for volunteering to review one of our new resources. In general, JNEB does not invite the same reviewer more than twice per year to allow for greater diversity of reviews.

The resource will be shipped to you via UPS or emailed to you. Please be sure your mailing address and email are correct.

You will have 30 days from receipt of the resource to complete the review. If you cannot complete the review in a timely manner you may ask for an extension. If you find you cannot complete the review, you are responsible for sending the resource back to the Editorial Assistant for New Resources. Failure to submit a review or return the resource will result in the author being removed from the reviewer list for future reviews.

We have developed the following guidelines to assist you in preparing your review:

General Format

1. Start your review by copy/pasting the bibliographic data and summary provided in the Title Block of the proposal information sheet. This information should remain exactly as it appears there and be single spaced.
2. Insert a page break.
3. Double-space the body of your review, using a 12-point font and 1-inch margins. Apply consecutive line numbers to the document, beginning with page 1 (this feature can be found under the "Layout" tab of "Page Setup" in most versions of Microsoft Word).
4. Aim for a length of 350 to 600 words; 600 words is the maximum. The word count also includes the bibliographic data and summary referenced in number 1 above and your name, title, and institution which should be added at the end of the review.
5. If you refer to other publications, citations should follow the system described in the American Medical Association Manual of Style (10th ed. New York: Oxford University Press; 2007). Helpful examples can be found on JNEB’s author guidelines.
6. LAST PARAGRAPH OF THE REVIEW: End the review with your name including degree(s) and certification(s), title and/or institution/affiliation, and mailing address including zip code.
7. Submit your review to your author account in JNEB's Editorial Manager https://www.editorialmanager.com/jneb under "My Accepted Invitations."

Content

1. Try to attract the reader's attention in the opening paragraph making a declarative statement or placing the book in the context of current trends and interests.
2. Summarize and evaluate the material (about 20% of your review should summarize, and about 80% should evaluate).
3. Your summary should include, but not be limited to:
• An overview of the content and subjects covered.
• A description of the intended audience.
• Mention of anything unique about the format, use of graphics, etc.
4. Your evaluation should include, but should not be limited to:
• Commendation of strengths and tactful criticism of weaknesses, with examples.
• Assessment of timeliness, originality, accuracy, organization, readability, usefulness, references, graphics and/or appropriateness for intended audience.
• Suggestion of specific improvement(s), if appropriate.
• Website reviews should remark on the experience as a user navigating the website, indicating particular sections/pages emphasized (if applicable), if only a portion of the website is evaluated; also note pertinent hyperlinks.
5. Avoid direct quotes, except for very short phrases.
6. In your closing remarks, include comments about the overall soundness or usefulness of the material. Briefly (one or two sentences) describe how it could be used by JNEB’s readers and in what setting(s). If appropriate, state the specific type(s) of nutrition professional(s) the material would be best suited for.
7. Professional language, rather than jargon, should be used. Be careful to indicate that a statement is your opinion; use references for facts within the review.
8. Your review will be edited for length, clarification, accuracy and consistency, if necessary. It will be returned to you for revisions, if necessary.