Call for Book Nominations for BBS Mutiple Book Review

This is a Call for nominations for BBS Multiple Book Review. In the past, Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) had only been able to do 1-2 BBS multiple book treatments per year, because of our limited annual page quota. BBS's new expanded page quota will make it possible for us to increase the number of books we treat per year, so this is an excellent time for BBS Associates and biobehavioral/cognitive scientists in general to nominate books you would like to see accorded BBS multiple book review. (Authors may self-nominate, but books can only be selected on the basis of multiple nominations.) It would be very helpful if you indicated in what way a BBS Multiple Book Review of the book(s) you nominate would be useful to the field (and of course a rich list of potential reviewers would be the best evidence of its potential impact!). ------------------------------------------------------------------ BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (BBS) Multiple Book Review BBS offers authors the service of Multiple Book Review to authors of important new books on which it is judged that international, interdisciplinary peer feedback will be useful to the cognitive and biobehavioral science community. Instructions for Authors and Commentators Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) is a unique scientific communication medium, providing the service of Open Peer Commentary for reports of significant current work in psychology, neuroscience, behavioral biology or cognitive science. If a manuscript is judged by BBS referees and editors to be appropriate for Commentary (see Criteria below), it is then circulated to a large number of commentators selected (with the aid of systematic bibliographic searches) from the BBS Associateship* and the worldwide biobehavioral science community, including individuals recommended by the author. Once the Commentary stage of the process has begun, the author can no longer alter the article, but can respond formally to all commentaries accepted for publication. The target article, commentaries, and authors' responses then co-appear in BBS. Continuing Commentary and replies can appear in later issues. CRITERIA FOR ACCEPTANCE: To be eligible for publication, a paper should not only meet the standards of a journal such as Psychological Review or the International Review of Neurobiology in terms of conceptual rigor, empirical grounding, and clarity of style, but should also offer a clear rationale for soliciting Commentary. That rationale should be provided in the author's covering letter, together with a list of suggested commentators. A BBS target article can be (i) the report and discussion of empirical research that the author judges to have broader scope and implications than might be more appropriately reported in a specialty journal; (ii) an unusually significant theoretical article that formally models or systematizes a body of research; or (iii) a novel interpretation, synthesis, or critique of existing experimental or theoretical work. Occasionally, articles dealing with social or philosophical aspects of the behavioral and brain sciences will be considered. MULTIPLE BOOK REVIEW: The service of Open Peer Commentary will be primarily devoted to original unpublished manuscripts. However, a recently published book whose contents meet the standards outlined above may also be eligible for Commentary. In such a BBS Multiple Book Review, a comprehensive, article length Precis by the author is published together with the commentaries and the author's response. The author must confirm the commitment of his publisher to provide the review copies for those reviewers who have been selected and have agreed to do the review by the deadline (minimum number 25 needed in the NY office of BBS/CUP). In special cases, Commentary will also be extended to a position paper or an already published article dealing with particularly influential or controversial research. Submission of an article implies that it has not been published or is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Multiple book reviews and previously published articles appear by invitation only. The Associateship and professional readership of BBS are encouraged to nominate current topics and authors for Commentary. In all the categories described, the decisive consideration for eligibility will be the desirability of Commentary for the submitted material. Controversiality simpliciter is not a sufficient criterion for soliciting Commentary: a paper may be controversial simply because it is wrong or weak. Nor is the mere presence of interdisciplinary aspects sufficient: general cybernetic and "organismic" disquisitions are not appropriate for BBS. Some appropriate rationales for seeking Open Peer Commentary would be that: (1) the material bears in a significant way on some current controversial issues in behavioral and brain sciences; (2) its findings substantively contradict some well-established aspects of current research and theory; (3) it criticizes the findings, practices, or principles of an accepted or influential line of work; (4) it unifies a substantial amount of disparate research; (5) it has important cross-disciplinary ramifications; (6) it introduces an innovative methodology or formalism for consideration by proponents of the established forms; (7) it meaningfully integrates a body of brain and behavioral data; (8) it places a hitherto dissociated area of research into an evolutionary or ecological perspective; etc. In order to assure communication with potential commentators (and readers) from other BBS specialty area, all technical terminology must be clearly defined or simplified, and specialized concepts must be fully described. NOTE TO COMMENTATORS: The purpose of the Open Peer Commentary service is to provide a concentrated constructive interaction between author and commentators on a topic judged to be of broad significance to the biobehavioral science community. Commentators should provide substantive criticism, interpretation, and elaboration as well as any pertinent complementary or supplementary material, such as illustrations; all original data will be refereed in order to assure the archival validity of BBS commentaries. Commentaries and articles should be free of hyperbole and remarks ad hominem. STYLE AND FORMAT FOR ARTICLES AND COMMENTARIES: Target articles must not exceed 14,000 words (and should ordinarily be considerably shorter); commentaries should not exceed 1000 words, including references. Spelling, capitalization, and punctuation should be consistent within each article and commentary and should follow the style recommended in the latest edition of A Manual of Style, The University of Chicago Press. It may be helpful to examine a recent issue of BBS. BBS has a new policy of temporarily mounting on-line the manuscripts submitted for refereeing (with the author's permission) on the BBS Web Site [http://bbs.cogsci.soton.ac.uk] as "BBS Submitted Manuscripts Under Review," accompanied by a flag indicating that the author holds the copyright. The purpose of this is two-fold: (1) to accelerate and facilitate the refereeing process and (2) to establish priority publicly for submitted manuscripts while they undergo refereeing. Please indicate with your submission whether you authorise BBS to archive your submitted manuscript on the Web during refereeing (it is not compulsory). After refereeing is completed, your manuscript will be withdrawn, and if it is accepted, the final draft will be archived for potential commentators in BBS's Preprint Archive. All submissions must include an indexable title, followed by the authors' names in the form preferred for publication, full institutional addresses, email addresses and WWW URLs. Target article authors must also provide numbered headings and subheadings to facilitate cross-reference by commentators. Two abstracts, one of 100 and one of 250 words, should be submitted with every target article. The shorter abstract will appear one issue in advance of the article; the longer one will be circulated to potential commentators and will appear with the printed article. A list of 5-10 keywords should precede all target article texts. Notes, acknowledgments, appendices, and references should be grouped at the end of the target article or commentary. BBS has a new policy that commentaries and responses now also require Abstracts: ~60 words, summarizing as specifically as possible the content of your contribution. Illustrations: Tables and figures (i.e., photographs, graphs, charts, or other artwork) should be numbered consecutively. Every table should have a title; every figure, a caption. At least one reference in the text must indicate the appropriate location. (For sizes, see below) References: Bibliographic citations in the text must include the author's last name and the date of publication and may include page references. Complete bibliographic information for each citation should be included in the list of references. Please also include the WWW URL for any paper for which it exists. Examples of correct style are: Brown(1973); (Brown 1973); Brown 1973; 1978); (Brown 1973; Jones 1976); (Brown & Jones 1978); (Brown et al. 1978). References should be typed on a separate sheet in alphabetical order in the style of the following examples. Do not abbreviate journal titles: Freeman, W.J. (1958) Distribution in time and space of prepyriform electrical activity. Journal of Neurophysiology 2: 644-66 http://cogprints.soton.ac.uk/abs/neuro/199806009 Dennett, D.C. (1991) Two contrasts: Folk craft versus folk science and belief versus opinion. In: The future of folk psychology: Intentionality and cognitive science, ed. J. D. Greenwood, Cambridge University Press. http://cogprints.soton.ac.uk/abs/phil/199804005 Bateson, P. P. G. & Hinde, R. A., eds. (1978) Growing points in ethology, Cambridge University Press. Preparation of the manuscript The original, double-spaced target article plus eight single-spaced, double-sided copies must be submitted, along with a screen-readable, web-ready electronic version sent by email or on disk or deposited in the BBS Archive on the Web. The entire manuscript, including notes and references, must be typed double-spaced (1/4" space between lines) on 8-1/2 by 11 inch paper, with margins set to 70 characters per line (not "justified") and 25 lines per page, and should not exceed 50 pages. Pages should be numbered consecutively. Commentators should submit their original plus two copies, as well as a screen-readable electronic version sent by email or on disk. It will be necessary to return manuscripts for retyping if they do not conform to BBS format. Each table and figure should be submitted on a separate page, not interspersed with the text. Tables should be typed to conform to BBS style. Figures should be ready for photographic reproduction; they cannot be redrawn by the printer. Charts, graphs, or other artwork should be done in black ink on white paper and should be drawn to occupy a standard area of 8-1/2 by 11 or 8-1/2 x 5-1/2 inches before reduction. Photographs should be glossy black-and-white prints; 8 by 10 inch enlargements are preferred. All labels and details on figures should be clearly printed and large enough to remain legible even after a reduction to half size. It is recommended that labels be done in transfer type of a sans-serif face such as Helvetica. Send all submissions, plus a screen-readable, Web-ready version by email, Web submission or on disk to: Stevan Harnad, Editor Behavioral and Brain Sciences Electronics and Computer Science Department University of Southampton Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM bbs(a)ecs.soton.ac.uk http://bbs.cogsci.soton.ac.uk In case of doubt as to appropriateness for BBS commentary, authors should write to the editor before submitting eight copies. EDITING: The publishers reserve the right to edit and proof all articles and commentaries accepted for publication. Authors of articles will be given the opportunity to review the copy-edited manuscript and page proofs. Commentators will be asked to review copy-editing only when changes have been substantial; commentators will not see proofs. Both authors and commentators should notify the editorial office of all corrections within 48 hours or approval will be assumed. Authors of target articles receive 50 offprints of the entire treatment, and can purchase additional copies. Commentators will also be given an opportunity to purchase offprints of the entire treatment. ___________________________________________________________ *Individuals interested in serving as BBS Associates are asked to write to the editor.