dambrosi@TESLA.CS.ORST.EDU (Bruce D'Ambrosio) (01/18/89)
Call for reviewers/book suggestions: AI magazine is interested in publishing objective reviews of books in several categories: 1. Dissemination of recent research results to the AI community. 2. Engineering aspects of delivering AI to the "real world." 3. Teaching texts. 4. Social, economic, political, and philosophical aspects of AI. Book reviewing, like paper refereeing, is an invaluable community service that is largely unrecognized and unrewarded (you do get to keep the book!). The ideal review is a critical evaluation of the contribution of a book, and serves to put the work in perspective of ongoing developments in AI. Those who feel they would like to contribute in this way to the vitality of the AI community are invited to communicate with me, either by email or usmail, briefly stating their interests and the types of book (or specific titles) they might be interested in reviewing. The ideal reviewer will vary according to the type of book. For example, a book describing recent research results might best be reviewed by someone familiar with the research area, and who preferably either has ongoing research in that area or experience in attempting to apply research in the area to practical problems. Engineering texts (I mean those concerned with building real systems, even in "non-engineering" areas such as finance) are often best reviewed by those with experience in the difficulties of engineering real systems, whether they work in research or development. A book review is a significant time commitment: one must not only read the book, but also compose a review. This is not meant to discourage, but to forewarn. To aid in completing reviews, we encourage setting a deadline, and will work with a reviewer in developing a publishable review. A list of books recently received can be found in the current issue of AI magazine (contributed reviews were inadvertently omitted from the current issue, and will resume in spring). Suggestions are welcome regarding appropriate books for review, both in the form of modifications to the above categories and specific titles. Bruce D'Ambrosio Book Review Editor, AI Magazine Oregon State University Computer Science Building, Rm 100 Corvallis, OR 97331-3902 dambrosi@cs.orst.edu