Annual Reviews is a nonprofit publisher founded in 1932 that provides comprehensive reviews of topics in 45 different disciplines. Their reviews, written by subject experts, summarize primary research literature and highlight significant contributions in a given field. Notable scholars are selected by Annual Reviews to form editorial committees which select topics for review. The reviews summarize current understanding of a topic, including what is well supported, what is controversial, what remains to be addressed and possible avenues for future research.

Both students and researchers will appreciate and find topic summaries from Annual Reviews to be helpful. Students, for example, will gain a comprehensive overview of a topic as they begin research in a subject area that is unfamiliar. For instance, a number of our students are interested in the history of mass incarceration: “The Origins of Mass Incarceration: The Racial Politics of Crime and Punishment in the Post-Civil Rights Era” by Beckett and Ming Francis (2020) provides a clear and thorough overview of research on mass incarceration (see image). Annual Reviews includes article metrics and citation alerts, listing articles that cite their review, a feature which researchers might appreciate. Researchers who want to remain current in their field will find Annual Reviews helpful. Researchers who are looking for an introduction to a field that is new to them and who wish to connect this new field to an area they are working on will also find Annual Reviews to be useful.

Users will need to use their John Jay email login credentials to access Annual Review remotely. Please visit https://bit.ly/annualReviews to start searching and reading reviews.

-- Karen Okamoto