The book peer review process

A helpful guide to our book peer review process.

Choosing reviewers

All book proposals at Emerald go through a rigorous (single, anonymous) peer review process – this means you won’t know the name of the reviewer, but they will be aware of your identity. 

We may use the reviewers you suggested in your proposal, or we may draw on our own list of contacts.

We aim to send you feedback within 4-6 weeks.

What do book proposal reviewers look for?

We ask reviewers to answer a list of questions to help us understand the value your work might bring to the field. They deliver their answers in the form of a short, templated report.

The questions we ask reviewers

  • Please write, in your own words, a short synopsis of the work. What are the main ideas within the work? What makes it original, groundbreaking or thought provoking?
  • How would you assess the research content of the proposal? What does it contribute to the field? Is the proposal comprehensive in its coverage of the subject area? In your opinion, is anything missing?
  • What are the proposal’s strengths and weaknesses? Is the book logically structured? If this is an edited work, is the coverage of the topic fluid and comprehensive, and is the coverage of the topic coherent?
  • Do you have any additional thoughts or recommendations that you would advise the author(s) to take into consideration as they revise the manuscript? Please feel free to offer specific feedback.

Your next steps

If the reviews are positive and the series editor or publisher approves your proposal, you will be sent a contractual offer for publication. Or, they might invite you to revise and resubmit the proposal once any points raised in the review have been addressed.

Understand the publishing process

See all the steps in our book publishing process and download our helpful infographic. 

View publishing step by step

Get your manuscript ready

Read our author guidelines on how to prepare your manuscript for submission.

Prepare your manuscript

Manuscript support services

We work in partnership with Editage who can help you with language editing and translation, visuals, consulting, or anything else required to get your research submission-ready. 

Visit Editage

Related topics

Submit your proposal

Complete a book proposal form and submit it to your commissioning editor.

Find out how to submit

Get ready to publish

Read about our different book formats, ethics guidelines, your rights as an author or learn about editing a book series.

Get ready to publish