Selection Policy
Subject Guidelines
History of Science & Technology–Sports & Physical Education
(Subject arrangement is in alphabetical order, not magazine order)
History of Science & Technology: Historical and biographical treatments of significant worldwide events, developments, and persons are broadly reviewed. Works treating relatively obscure events and people are avoided because they generally are of interest only to graduate readers. Historical and biographical works in astronautics, astronomy, biological sciences, chemistry, earth sciences, engineering, mathematics, and physics are covered in this section.
Humanities: This section includes general, interdisciplinary, or multidisciplinary works that treat two or more of the subjects constituting the subdivisions of this section (i.e., Art & Architecture, Communication, Language & Literature, Performing Arts, Philosophy, Religion).
Information & Computer Science: Works on computers and society and computer literacy are selected, as are those on computer design and architecture, systems analysis, database management, information storage and retrieval, and Internet design, development, and history. Books on computer programming, computer languages, and equipment may be reviewed; publications used as manuals to accompany specific languages, software, or hardware generally are not selected. Books on specialized topics such as robotics, artificial intelligence, printing technology and desktop publishing, and other computer applications are selected if they contain treatments geared to undergraduates. Professional library publications are not reviewed.
Language & Literature: The general heading in this section includes histories of languages; introductory works on sub-languages (e.g., regional speech and dialects), language acquisition (including second-language acquisition), semantics, phonology, linguistics, and semiotics; and works treating the literatures in more than one geographic or language subsection. Publications reviewed under the literature subsections (listed at the end of this section) include critical works focusing on individual authors (both canonical writers and secondary/minor writers relevant to the expanding canon), and their bodies of work; literary history and periods; genres; scholarly biography; belles lettres; folklore; and oral history. Multicultural, interdisciplinary, and gender-related studies are likely to be reviewed. Original literary works (novels, short-story collections, and plays) are rigorously screened for literary merit to meet one or more of the following criteria: debut work of an individual writer; first appearance in English translation of the work of an individual writer; work by an established writer that marks a significant departure from the author’s usual style or subject; critical edition of a standard literary work studied in undergraduate literature courses. Volumes of contemporary poetry are not reviewed. Anthologies of previously published literature are selected if they are a first or unusual presentation of a little-studied topic or a previously dispersed literature.
Language & Literature Subsections
African & Middle Eastern, Asian & Oceanian, Classical, English & American, Germanic, Romance, Slavic.
Mathematics: Works of interest include areas in pure and applied mathematics, fundamental mathematics, algebra, analysis, number systems, topology, geometry, probability, statistics, and other undergraduate fields. Rigorous treatments of mathematical recreational subjects are also reviewed.
Performing Arts: Works reviewed in this general (interdisciplinary) section and the subsections (listed below) include historical and critical works, technical aspects of the performing arts, and learning manuals designed for aspiring performers at the undergraduate level. Biographies are judged in terms of scholarly intent and inherent importance of the subject. Largely or wholly pictorial works are given low priority unless they have historical value or potential. Recordings (CDs, tapes, videos) are not reviewed unless they accompany a printed source selected on its own merits.Musical scores are not reviewed unless they are historically significant and are part of a critical edition.
Performing Arts Subsections
Film, Music, Theater & Dance.
Philosophy: This section reviews introductory materials focusing on history, interpretation, and critique of major philosophers, philosophical problems, and philosophical schools. Works exhibiting philosophers “doing philosophy” at a level accessible to undergraduates are also encouraged, as are works teaching critical thinking about philosophical issues, contemporary or otherwise. Landmark editions and translations of important works will be reviewed selectively. Philosophy of a particular subject field, such as philosophy of science, will be considered here if not reviewed in their subject area. In addition to works written in English, translations are also included within the scope of this section.
Physics: Works dealing with mathematical physics, atomic and nuclear physics, cosmology, biophysics, relativity, solid and fluid mechanics, physical aspects of thermodynamics, optics and acoustics, and electricity and magnetism are broadly reviewed. Preference is given to introductory works in advanced disciplines that make the subject accessible to undergraduates.
Political Science: One general category and four subcategories have been delineated. The general political science category includes works on methodology, quantitative analyses, handbooks, and treatises on the scope and future of the discipline. Publications of an interdisciplinary nature, such as works on political psychology, environmental politics, political communication, or politics and technology, may also be reviewed in this category.
Political Science Subsections
Comparative Politics: Includes works on the internal politics, public policy, public administration, and laws of individual political systems; it also includes comparisons among polities or some of their elements. Works with a regional focus and area studies may also be reviewed here.
International Relations: Includes works on the relations among nations, international theory, international organizations, diplomacy, globalization, international human rights, and international law. Volumes on foreign policy, arms control, peace efforts, and security will also be reviewed in this category.
Political Theory: Includes all works of a theoretical or philosophical nature. Individual political philosophers, the history of political philosophy, theories of the state, ideologies, and new theoretical directions will all be reviewed.
United States Politics: Includes works on the three branches of government, public policy, public administration, criminal justice, and law. Certain works on US foreign policy may be included if they focus on the formation or decision-making aspect of foreign policy.
Psychology: This section includes reviews of resources in all the major disciplines of psychology, including social and behavioral, developmental, educational, clinical, experimental, physiological, genetic, neurological, and organizational psychology; resources focusing on methods and techniques; biographical and historical works; and scholarly, well-documented treatments of parapsychology. Studies of psychiatry and psychoanalysis are screened carefully for usefulness to undergraduates. Mental disorders are generally treated under Health Sciences.
Reference: Editors select titles that will be useful in reference work from all the disciplines Choice covers. Reference titles consist of bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, directories, indexes, statistical compendiums, atlases, and the like. The general printed works guidelines that prefer new titles to revisions, serials, and other continuations are especially important in reference selection because of the high proportion in reference publishing of revised editions and continuations. Standard reference works that are frequently revised may be reassessed at intervals, especially if there is evidence of significant change (new editor, new publisher, changes in editorial policy), if a British or European work is receiving its first distribution in North America, or if the work is not listed in the most recent edition of Guide to Reference Books. Continuations will ideally be accorded a pro forma review at the publication of the first volume and surveyed on completion of the set (usually marked by release of the index volume). For important sets, longer or team-written reviews may be commissioned; the resulting review is often published as a feature.Volumes issued in ongoing series and published in a standard format by well-known reference publishers may from time to time be listed without reviews in a sidebar in the Reference section.Suitability for end use by undergraduates is less vital in selecting reference materials than in the subject literatures, since undergraduate reference collections serve faculty as well as students, and since smaller libraries may need more specialized bibliographies and indexes in referring students to resources beyond local holdings.
Reference Subsections
General, Humanities, Science & Technology, and Social & Behavioral Sciences.
Religion: This section reviews materials that promote the academic study of diverse faith traditions throughout the world, whether established major religions, new religious movements, or newly recognized religious expressions. Reviewed works will generally describe, explain, analyze, or critique religion in its philosophical, historical, psychological, sociological, political, or scientific dimensions. Books on doctrinal and practical theology and on sacred writings are reviewed selectively. Since undergraduate years are often a time in which individuals explore and evaluate religions beyond their previous immediate experience, introductory discussions of various religious faiths are selected when they are not proselytizing in nature and when they contribute positively to living in a global society.
Science & Technology: This section covers a wide area dealing with interdisciplinary topics and concerns. Political, social, and philosophical issues concerned with advances and developments in science and technology are reviewed in this section. Other major areas reviewed include environmental and conservational aspects of science and technology, forecasting and future studies, works on inventions and scientific apparatus and equipment, and scientific and technological aspects of naval, military, and aeronautical fields.
Social & Behavioral Sciences: This section includes general, interdisciplinary, or multidisciplinary works that treat two or more of the subjects constituting the subdivisions of this section: Anthropology; Business, Management& Labor; Economics; Education; History, Geography & Area Studies; Political Science; Psychology; and Sociology.
Sociology: Works reviewed in this section address the theory, analysis, and history of societal relationships and issues.Included are all major subdivisions of sociology, e.g., criminology; social problems; social work; marriage and family; demography; social change/social movements; community studies; sociobiology; applied sociology; and statistics at the undergraduate level. Preference is given to works of personal authorship, although symposia and edited collections, especially those treating new areas of interest, will be reviewed selectively. Popular works in newly developing fields of inquiry and self-help works may be reviewed selectively.
Sports & Physical Education: This section reviews materials that support the needs of students majoring in widely varied physical education and human performance areas, and that promote lifelong health and physical activity for all individuals. Historical, psychological, and sociological treatments of sports for individuals, teams, and in society are emphasized. Biographical works and technique and how-to books are reviewed selectively, and preference is given to sporting activities and figures popular in North America.
Interdisciplinary indexes are provided in the magazine and as searchable fields in Choice Reviews Online to enhance access to publications in major multidisciplinary areas. Interdisciplinary indexes include African and African American Studies; Asian and Asian American Studies; Classical Studies; Electronic Resources; Environmental Studies; Food and Agriculture; Gay and Lesbian Studies; Latino/a Studies; Middle Eastern Studies; Native American Studies; Urban Studies; Women’s Studies.
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