Tagging Book or Product Reviews
In tagging a book or product review, there are two parts to the material to be
captured:
- The review content, tagged as an article, complete with article metadata (<article-meta>), a body (<body>) containing the text of the review, and, potentially, back matter (<back>); and
- Information identifying the book or product being reviewed, tagged using the <product> element within the article metadata (<article-meta>).
All information in <article-meta>, other
than within the <product> element, describes
the review article itself, not the book (or other product) being reviewed. While the text
below primarily describes a book or product review, reviews for software, websites,
journal articles, issues of journals, laboratory or electronic equipment, DVDs, or other
things can be tagged similarly.
Identifying the Review
On the <article> element, the
@article-type attribute should identify
the article as a product review, with a value such as “book-review” “software-review” etc.
Best Practice: An article that reviews research findings in a particular domain
should be tagged article-type="review-article".
Titles in Reviews
The title of the object being reviewed is tagged inside <product>, typically as a <source> element, but using other elements as
appropriate. (See Titles in
Citations.)
There are several common styles of article title (<article-title>) for reviews. The title of the
article may be:
- The book or product title such as Moby Dick,
- A generic phrase such as “Book Reviews”,
- A generic phrase such as “Book Reviews:” followed by the title of the book or product (“Recent Reviews: Moby Dick”), or
- A descriptive or catchy title concerning the book or product (“Whale of a Tale”).
Even if the title of the article is the same as the title of the book, that
information is recorded in two different places, once as the <article-title> in the article metadata (<article-meta>) and once as
the <source> inside <product>.
For some journals, the generic phrase like “Book Reviews” may be an
article category or eyebrow title added by the publisher rather than part of the title of the
article. For other journals, an author may be instructed to add “Software Review” or similar to the text of
the article title.
Author(s) of the Article and Book
The author of the review should be tagged as the author of the article
(<contrib>). The authors of the product
being reviewed should be included only within <product>, using <name>,
<person-group>, or <string-name> as appropriate. For more guidance, see
Tagging Names in Citations.
Since the <product> element has textual
content, it is very like a <mixed-citation>, and the same type of considerations apply.
Metadata for the Reviewed Object
In many book or product reviews, the <product> element commonly includes:
- Bibliographic information about the book or product cited, such as the book title (<source>), <edition>, <isbn>, or <elocation-id>;
- Its <price>; and
- Its <size>.
The attribute @product-type names
the type of product being reviewed, for example, “book”, “software”, “article” (journal article), “issue” (journal issue), “website”, “film”.
Best Practice: Since the metadata specified within the <product> element applies to the book or product
being reviewed, information concerning other products (for example, products the
author might mention for comparison to the primary product), should not be mentioned
within the <product> element, but only in
the actual body of the review.
Sample Reviews
<article dtd-version="1.1"
article-type="product-review"
xml:lang="en"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
<front>
<article-meta>
<title-group>
<article-title>Software package solves everything</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group>
<contrib>
<name><surname>Piez</surname>
<given-names>Wendell A.</given-names></name>
</contrib>
</contrib-group>
<product>
<name><surname>Mxytlpk</surname>
<given-names>Abelard Q.</given-names></name>
<source>Conflagration</source>
<year iso-8601-date="2002">2002</year>
<publisher-name>Venusian Codewrights, Inc.</publisher-name>
<price>$3.95</price>
</product>
<abstract>
<p>A software review</p>
</abstract>
</article-meta>
</front>
<body>
<p>This program will answer all your genome questions. It
searches the Web for genetic information of all kinds,
correlates it with all other information available anywhere,
and reports all functions of a particular genome segment
in all known species. And, it’s only $3.95.</p>
</body>
</article>
<article dtd-version="1.1"
article-type="book-review"
xml:lang="en"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" >
<front>
<article-meta>
<title-group>
<article-title>New book walks you through Washington’s
vegetation</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group>
<contrib>
<name><surname>Gaylord</surname>
<given-names>Tonya R.</given-names></name>
</contrib>
</contrib-group>
<product>
<name><surname>Lapeyre</surname>
<given-names>Deborah A.</given-names></name>
<name><surname>Usdin</surname>
<given-names>B. Tommie</given-names></name>
<source>Wildflowers of the Washington Area</source>
<year iso-8601-date="2002">2002</year>
<publisher-name>Lippman, Ltd.</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Bethesda, MD</publisher-loc>
<isbn>0-23-8675-309</isbn>, includes a CD-ROM,
<price>$19.95</price> (Used 12.50 when available)
</product>
<abstract>
<p>A glowing book review</p>
</abstract>
</article-meta>
</front>
<body>
<p>A must read. Far better than
<mixed-citation>
<person-group>
<name><surname>Aristotle</surname></name>
</person-group>’s
<source>Politics, Poetics, and Wildflowers, Illustrated</source>
</mixed-citation>.</p>
</body>
</article>
Reviews in Citations
When a review is cited in a bibliography, the @publication-type attribute on the <element-citation> or <mixed-citation> element should be used to distinguish
it: publication-type="review"
When a brief review is provided as part of a bibliographic citation for a book or article
(that is, within an <element-citation> or <mixed-citation>), the reviewing text is not tagged as a review or as a
product, but should instead be tagged as an <annotation>.