International Association of Facilitators

Group Facilitation:
A Research and Applications Journal

Book Review Guidelines

Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal presents critical and comparative reviews of recent and classic books related to group facilitation. These guidelines include recommendations for writing and submitting a review, information about the review cycle and reviewer qualifications.

Writing the Review

When writing a review, please include:

- overall impression of the book

- the highlights and structure of the book

- for whom the book would be appropriate

- what you found particularly helpful, unclear, weak

- your personal learning, if any

- particular benefits to you in your facilitation, if any

- value of the book for facilitators, if any

- significant contribution of the book, if any, to the field of facilitation

- your recommendation of "must read" portions of the book, if any

- a summary or wrap-up of your reading experience.

In addition:

- provide definitions of terms, acronyms, references, and background summary statements where appropriate.

- where necessary, be sure to include complete citations and attributions.

- identify specific texts (usually a sentence or phrase) for possible use in pull quotes.

- publisher; ISBN designation; price ($US); where to purchase (i.e all major bookstores or telephone number for direct ordering if the book is not widely available commercially).

- background about the book author: facilitation experience and/or other writings.

What we are looking for:

- people familiar with the conceptual and practical sides of facilitation and who are willing to spend the time required to write interesting and thought provoking reviews.

- reviews of books that address facilitation and related issues, such as consensus decision making, participatory problem solving and group decision-making.

- in-depth and critical reviews that help readers decide whether or not the books reviewed are ones that they should consider reading.

- comparative reviews of two or more books that differentiate, compare and contrast the books and thoroughly examine the strengths and weaknesses.

- reviews that place the book in the context of other literature.

Submitting a Review

Reviews are typically between 1,000 and 3,000 words. Submissions should be sent via email in Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or Rich Text (RTF) format.

If you are interested in being considered as a possible book reviewer for the Journal, please send a writing sample of 500 - 1000 words to Stephen Thorpe, Editor

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