Reviews and Review Articles

Reviews and review articles of books and websites

In addition to articles, Op. Cit. also publishes reviews of books and websites that are relevant to its fields of study. The contributions for these sections of the journal must conform to one of the formats described below.

1. Book reviews

Book reviews should refer to works published within the previous twenty-four months. Texts must not exceed 8,000 characters and should include:

a) full bibliographic reference;

b) summary of the work's main arguments; its relation to the author's previous work and to the state of the art in its field; quotation of a few relevant excerpts;

c) critical discussion of the work, assessing whether or not it makes a new contribution to the field, whether it opens up new paths for future research, whether it raises questions that are left unanswered, etc.

2. Review articles

Review essays refer to a group of works (by the same author or by several authors about the same subject), and are typically prompted by the publication of one or more books within the previous twenty-four months. Exceptionally, they may refer to earlier works if they are relevant to current interests (e.g. a Portuguese translation of “classic” works that raises further discussion on particular issues). Texts must not exceed 20,000 characters and must include:

a) full bibliographic reference of the discussed works;

b) in-depth discussion of the state of the art regarding the issue(s) involved, clearly addressing the relevance and contribution of each work to furthering the debate on those issues;

c) personal contribution of the review essay’s author to the elucidation of the issues involved, providing alternative ways of understanding them, etc.

3. Website reviews

Website reviews, published in the journal section entitled “Virtual space,” are critical presentations of websites with content that is relevant to the understanding or discussion of a particular subject or research field. Texts must not exceed 10,000 characters and must present the website in question, highlighting its theme, usefulness, novelty and relevance from a critical perspective, including its merits and/or shortcomings.