APTA Book and Literature Review - BasicOffering

Books and Book Reviews

Doody's Book Reviews^TM collects information on approximately 3,000 book and software titles each year from over 250 of the world's leading publishers of professional level healthcare publications. Expert reviews of about 2,000 of the titles each year are prepared by a network of more than 5,000 academically-affiliated healthcare professionals.

For each specialty, there is an Editorial Review Group Chair (ERG Chair) who coordinates reviews of titles in his/her field. The Chairs work with over 5,000 academically-affiliated clinicians who prepare a formatted review and fill out a ratings questionnaire for each title. The reviewer's name and affiliation appear with each review.

Unique to the review process is the Doody's Star Rating that accompanies each review. The stars correlate to the numerical ratings that are derived from an 18-point questionnaire completed by the reviewer in the course of assessing the title. The questionnaire highlights 16 different elements (such as the authority of the authors, and the quantity, currency, and pertinence of the references) of the title. The reviewer must rate each element essentially on a 5-point scale.

When the reviewer's responses are entered into Doody's system, a rating is automatically calculated. The highest rating a title can receive is 100 and the lowest is 20. When plotted, the ratings produce a bell-shaped curve on the high end of the 20-100 scale, which makes sense in light of the quality control publishers exercise before investing in the publication of a new title or a revision.

The numerical scores result in 1- to 5-star ratings and titles that fall into each category can be described as follows:

5 stars (97-100)	Exceptional title with nearly flawless execution
4 stars (90-96)	Outstanding title, with minor problems in execution
3 stars (69-89)	Very good title, but usually with one or more significant flaws
2 stars (47-68)	Average title, usually with several flaws (or one major flaw) or significant weakness versus its competition
1 star (<47)	Substandard title

With more than 20,000 books reviewed from 1993 - 2006, only 8% of the titles have received 5 stars, while 11% have received 2 stars or less. The rating system helps ensure that each review is as fair and as objective as possible. Thus, Doody's Book Reviews^TM incorporate a good blend of quantitative and qualitative analysis in the reviews. As a result, they have become well known around the world for reflecting a timely, expert, unbiased approach to rating medical publications.