Volume 26, Issue 3, May - June 2012
Published by the Air Force Research Institute, Air and Space Power Journal is the professional journal of the US Air Force and a leading forum for worldwide airpower dialogue. The English language version of the Journal (ASPJ–English) fosters intellectual and professional development for members of the Air Force and the world’s other English-speaking militaries.
ASPJ–English publishes original, thought-provoking, previously unpublished articles in two main categories: those that undergo peer review and those that do not. Peer-reviewed pieces, published as “Features,” represent fully researched and thoroughly documented scholarly articles ranging from approximately 4,000 to 5,000 words in length. Non-peer-reviewed articles, which appear as “Views,” are significantly shorter than “Features,” ranging from 1,500 to 2,500 words in length. “Views” typically express well-thought-out and developed opinions about airpower topics; include minimal, if any, documentation; and may resemble editorials.
Please submit articles that examine operational and airpower-related topics relevant to the Air Force. Because the Journal serves an international audience of airpower leaders, thinkers, and enthusiasts, your articles must be entirely unclassified, nonsensitive, and releasable to the public.
Your articles should be concise, straightforward, and well structured, including an introduction, a problem statement or thesis, an analysis of the problem or thesis, a solution or recommendation, and a conclusion. Active voice should predominate, and you should avoid overusing jargon and “mission specific” language since doing so reduces clarity and reflects a lack of original thought. Titles should catch a reader’s attention rather than serve as an executive summary or overview of the article.
We will edit all submissions in accordance with the standards set forth in AU-1, Air University Style and Author Guide, available at http://aupress.au.af.mil/digital/pdf/book/au-1.pdf.
Because ASPJ–English is a scholarly journal, you should include documentation in the form of endnotes formatted in accordance with the guidance found in AU-1, Air University Style and Author Guide (see above). Do not include bibliographies, lists of works referenced, or appendices.
If you wish to include tables, figures, charts, or other graphics in your article, they should either be your own original creations or reproduced from noncopyrighted sources. If you wish to use copyrighted tables or illustrations, you should assure that such usage is permissible under the doctrine of fair use (see Appendix C, “Copyright,” in AU-1, Air University Style and Author Guide). Otherwise, you must obtain a formal (written) release from the copyright owner and provide us with a copy of the release. Articles published in ASPJ–English become part of the public domain. If we accept your article, we will submit it to the Air University public affairs office for security and policy review prior to publication.
Your submission should include the article, an abstract, a biographical sketch, and an official photo (head shot). For examples of these items, see any of the current articles on the ASPJ–English website. Please limit attachment sizes to two megabytes or less.
E-mail all of this material to ASPJ–English at aspj@maxwell.af.mil. We prefer documents formatted in Microsoft Word, but we may accept other file types. Network security software on the .mil domain occasionally deletes e-mail attachments without our knowledge. Therefore, you will receive an acknowledgment of your submission within seven to 10 days. If you do not receive an acknowledgement, please contact us by e-mail at aspj@maxwell.af.mil or by telephone at DSN 493-2949 or commercial (334) 953-2949.
The ASPJ–English editorial board will review your submission as soon as practical—ideally within a few weeks. If warranted, we will then send your article to a subject-matter expert (or “referee”) for peer review—a process that takes several more weeks. If you wish to check on your article’s status or if you have any questions regarding our article review and publication process, please contact us by e-mail at aspj@maxwell.af.mil or by telephone at DSN 493-2949 or commercial (334) 953-2949.
The English language version of Air and Space Power Journal (ASPJ–English) encourages its readers to submit for publication reviews of books of professional interest, especially those about airpower and national defense. ASPJ–English receives a number of such books from publishers, furnishing them free of charge to individuals who agree to complete a review in accordance with the Journal’s specifications.
For a list of titles, please see books awaiting review. Contact us by e-mail at aspj@maxwell.af.mil to let us know about your interest in the program and to request a book. We recommend that you specify at least two alternative titles in case your first choice is not available.
No later than 60 days after you receive the book, please e-mail the review to us (as a Microsoft Word file) at aspj@maxwell.af.mil. If we accept the review, we will edit it in our house style and prepare it for publication on the Air Force Research Institute’s website (http://afri.au.af.mil/reviews.asp), a process that typically takes about two months. We may also include your work as a featured review on the ASPJ–English website.
Please assure that your review is an analytical examination of the book, not a mere summary. You should address such matters as the type/genre (e.g., biography, anthology, history, monograph, novel, etc.), the author’s main argument, the book’s level of authority/credibility, its strengths and weaknesses, its suitability for ASPJ–English’s audience, and your overall assessment of the work. Certainly, we encourage you to write with spirit, in a style that will inform and enlighten (and even entertain) our readers. If you paraphrase or quote directly from the book, locate those passages by following them with the page number(s) in parentheses—for example, (p. 72)—but do not include citations of other sources by means of footnotes or endnotes. Please keep your review between 400 and 1,000 words—the more concise, the better, but use as much space (within a 1,000-word limit) as you need to give the book a fair and honest review.
Although we insist on high-quality reviews, we do not print only laudatory ones. We have an obligation to inform our readers about books that stir high expectations but promise more than they deliver. If you’re not impressed with the book, say so, but if you challenge the book’s style, content, authority, objectivity, and so forth, back up your assertions with facts and examples.
In the heading of your review, please include the title, author, publisher (online link to the publisher, if known), publisher’s address, year of publication, number of pages, price, format (i.e., hardcover or softcover), and ISBN:
The Intelligence Wars: Lessons from Baghdad by Steven K. O’Hern. Prometheus Books (http://www.prometheusbooks.com), 59 John Glenn Drive, Amherst, New York 14228-2197, 2008, 292 pages, $25.98 (hardcover), ISBN 978-1-59102-670-9.
Following the text of the review, flush right, please include your name and location in boldface and italics, respectively:
Lt Col Stephen C. Price Jr., USAF
US European Command, Stuttgart, Germany
For examples of published book reviews, please view the Air Force Research Institute Book Review Page.