The Centre for the Review of Academic Books, or CRAB, is an independent research centre founded by Byron Hyde in 2025 based upon pilot initiatives in 2024. We aim to promote the practice of book reviewing and to introduce early career scholars to academic publishing. We pair early career researchers with experienced mentors who guide them through the process of writing and publishing a book review.
About CRAB
Our Mission
Academic book reviewing has become an increasingly neglected practice within scholarly publishing, yet reviews serve an important function: they evaluate new research, contextualize contributions within their fields, and help scholars identify relevant work. At the same time, early career researchers face mounting pressure to build publication records in an intensely competitive job market. We address both challenges by promoting book reviewing as a legitimate form of academic contribution and by pairing early career scholars with experienced mentors who guide them through the process. This model offers a practical entry point into academic publishing—a manageable project that results in a scholarly publication without requiring the time investment of a full research article.
Meet Our Team
Byron Hyde
Founder & Director
I've reviewed >70 books for academic journals, including Science, Governance, AI & Society, Public Health Ethics, Public Administration Review, Dao, and Asian Studies. I've occasionally reviewed for public outlets like the Asian Review of Books. I'm also the reviews editor of Silva Iaponicarum, a journal of Japanology.
Bangor University
Racha Hyde
Operations Manager
I'm a nutrition researcher and consultant working on women's health and athlete performance. I provide admin support to the Centre for the Review of Academic Books and the Kendo Research Centre.
Oxford Brookes University
Our History
The hardest part of reviewing a book is reading it and thinking about it—writing the review is the easy bit. Reading groups in the humanities and journal clubs in the sciences are a routine part of academic life. Students and staff meet at universities around the world to discuss literature, but these discussions don't produce any outputs. Given the publish-or-perish pressures that make it more important than ever for early career academics to build publication records, and the declining practice of book reviewing, we saw this as a missed opportunity.
Before it was formalized as a centre, the Centre for the Review of Academic Books began as an initiative run by Byron Hyde as a professional service to the institutions with which he was affiliated. It started as a national initiative in philosophy with the British Postgraduate Philosophy Association, then became a regional but multidisciplinary initiative at Bangor University, and was later formalized as a Student Selected Component at North Wales Medical School. After testing and refining the model through these pilot projects, it was finally institutionalized as the Centre for the Review of Academic Books.
Our Programmes
The Standard Programme
You'll be paired with an academic mentor who has extensive experience publishing book reviews. Together, you'll choose a book of mutual interest that has been published by a university press or academic publisher within the last three years (the newer the better).
With support from the centre's operations manager, your mentor will then contact academic journals to find a publisher for the review. This can be a time-consuming process—ranging from a few days to several months, depending on how quickly journal editors respond.
While a publisher is being sought, you and your mentor will begin reading the book. You'll agree on a discussion schedule together. For example, you might meet to discuss one chapter each week, tackle several chapters at once every few weeks, or even discuss the entire book in a single meeting. The schedule will depend on your confidence level, your mentor's availability, and the book's length and difficulty.
Once you've finished discussing the book, you'll meet with your mentor to draft the review. Your mentor will explain the anatomy of a book review and walk you through the tacit norms of reviewing, such as the principle that "praise is free, criticism is expensive." Together, you'll create a paragraph-by-paragraph skeleton structure of the review, with notes about what will go in each paragraph.
From there, further discussion typically happens via email. You'll draft the book review and send it to your mentor, who will edit it and provide comments where appropriate. Your mentor will return the review to you, either for approval or further amendments. Once the review is finalized and you're both satisfied with it, your mentor will submit it to the journal editor. If the editor requests changes, your mentor will continue working with you to revise the manuscript.
Your mentor will handle the agreements and proofreading process, and they'll let you know when your review is published.
The Expanded Programme
In this programme, you'll write two reviews. The first is written in the same way as the standard programme. After completing it with your mentor, you'll write a second review—this time as lead author.
Your mentor will teach you how to correspond with journal editors to get a book review solicited. Once you've secured a commission, you'll have just one meeting with your mentor to discuss the book and draft the review. This time, you'll take the lead, though your mentor will be there to support you when needed.
After the meeting, you'll draft the review and send it to your mentor. At this stage, you'll likely need only minimal input from them. You'll be responsible for submitting the final review to the editor who commissioned it, making any requested revisions, and handling the journal's agreements process. Throughout, your mentor will be available to answer questions.
Fees & Waivers
The standard programme costs £100. The expanded programme costs £150.
We don't expect early career scholars to pay these fees themselves. Like summer schools, conference registrations, or article processing charges, your institution should have funds available to help cover the cost of participating in a CRAB programme. Alternatively, there are numerous academic societies with grant programmes to which you can apply.
We have some institutional agreements in place that allow early career scholars to participate in our programmes for free. Visit our projects page to see our active agreements.
For students without access to funding, we occasionally have fee waivers available for our standard programme. To be considered for a fee waiver, you'll need a letter from your supervisor or head of department confirming that no institutional funds are available to you. To apply, complete a standard programme application and select "yes" under the question that asks if you're applying for a fee waiver. Then send the letter from your supervisor and a short personal statement explaining your financial need to the centre's director and operations manager at b.hyde@bangor.ac.uk.