H-Net Book Reviews: Enhancing Scholarly Communication with Technology

This article traces the development of the book reviews on H-Net and focuses on features such as length, content, style, timeliness, and format, as well as the aims and expectations of H-Net book review editors. A study was conducted comparing reviews appearing in a print journal with similar reviews published by an H-Net network. The study also examines the academic status of the authors of electronic reviews and compares this to the authors of print reviews. Drawing on findings from the study, as well as interactions with faculty and scholars using the H-Net resource, it is concluded that there are some significant differences between print reviews and e-reviews.