Help Wanted: New Product Reviews

Forrest M. Mims III

There was a time when amateur scientists built most of their scientific tools. Some of us still do. But today an unprecedented variety of parts, tools and instruments with scientific applications are available at a fraction of their previous cost--if they were available in the first place.

Shawn Carlson and I recently received the same announcement about a new line of high-powered light-emitting diodes. There followed some e-mails between us about the need to post new product announcements and more book reviews in The Citizen Scientist.

This is where you come in, for my duties as editor don't leave time for writing reviews and my choices might not be yours. So the obvious solution is for the readers of The Citizen Scientist to contribute concise reviews of products, instruments and books that will be of interest to the amateur science community.

Planning Your Product Review

Your review will receive a much higher priority if it doesn't require significant editing or back-and-forth e-mails to clarify details and the like. So here are the steps to follow to prepare a review suitable for publication in TCS:

1. Does the new product or instrument have one or more applications that will interest amateur scientists? If you can think of any specific applications, be sure to list them.

2. Reviews are not advertisements, so prepare an objective review. Flame throwing reviews are not suitable for TCS, but product disadvantages and excessively high pricing deserve mention.

3. A sharp photo or two will be very helpful. It's OK to use a photo provided by the vendor or manufacturer so long as you acknowledge the source. If you want to make the photo yourself, be sure to use a camera that provides a sharply focused image, especially if the subject of the photo is small. Also, be sure the object is properly illuminated.

Organizing Your Product Review

Organize your review like this:

Title

For example: New Product Review: The Acme Infrared Thermometer

John Smith

Your name (we don't use anonymous articles in TCS).

Introduction.

Describe the product or instrument.

Applications.

What can it do? What problems can it solve?

Price and Availability

Give the price and where the product can be purchased.

Conclusion

What are your thoughts about the product.

Writing Tips

Your review can be as short or as long as you like. Many products may need only a sentence or two under each subhead. Others may need several paragraphs.

Your review will receive the highest priority if it is organized as described above and if it is well written.

Capitalize only proper nouns. For example, John Smith discovered a new element (not Element) in his garage chemistry lab (not Chemistry Lab) on the same day he saw a turkey vulture (not Turkey Vulture).

Punctuation marks are usually inserted within quotation marks. For example, Jane Doe said, "We found an albino snake." (not "...snake".).

Book Reviews

Are you aware of a book that would be of high interest to amateur scientists? The publication date is irrelevant. What matters is the importance of the book.

Mike Dziekan wrote a very nice review of The Drunkards Walk – How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow that appeared in the May 2010 The Citizen Scientist. Mike included the books ISBN and a photo of the dust jacket. Just follow his lead, and you'll be ready to send your review to TCS.

Your Turn

Please send your product and book reviews here. I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible unless I'm in the field.

Comments about editorials and any other content in The Citizen Scientist are welcome and should be sent to "Backscatter ." Please include your name and the title and date of the article or column about which you are writing. Comments may be lightly edited for style and grammar. Please indicate if you do not want your comment published. Editor.
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The Citizen Scientist (04 June 2010).