Information for Potential Bureau Heads, Coordinators, and Reviewers

Welcome! The Portal has three kinds of staff members (besides the main co-editors): reviewers, coordinators, and bureau heads. Reviewers write about Anglophone science fiction as assigned by the editors; coordinators and bureau heads are points of contact with the editors for specific language communities and regions. The co-editors will also assign themselves to review magazines and collections just as the reviewers do.

Reviewers are assigned one magazine to review once a month no less than three days before the 5th of the month covered by each issue, unless extenuating circumstances apply. When anthologies come in, we will put a call to the reviewers to see who has time to review them. Although we do not wish to limit reviewers to one particular approach, we encourage new reviewers to initially open each review with a paragraph of 400-600 words giving a sense of the totality of the magazine or anthology at hand, and then devote approximately one 300-500 word paragraph to each story in the magazine or collection at hand, avoiding unnecessary synopsis and focusing on what made the story work, or explaining (in a professional and respectful fashion) why it didn't work.

Coordinators should provide at least one article or review a year (preferably two) which either they or a delegate have written; bureau heads should provide at least one article or review a month which they or a delegate have written no less than three days before the 5th of the month covered by each issue, unless extenuating circumstances apply.

Editors will serve as the magazine's point of contact with publications and publishers, and provide reviewers with access to electronic copies of magazines or collections which they will be covering.  If they wish to review additional magazines or collections that they purchase with their own funds, that is their prerogative.

We encourage coordinators and bureau heads to gain gratis access to review material (preferably in electronic form, should they need to delegate their duties), as we do not yet have the funds to reimburse them. If they wish to review materials that they purchase with their own funds, that is their prerogative.

All staff should refrain from sharing electronic review materials with people who are not reviewing them without permission of authors, publishers, or publications who provide said material. We wish to assist authors and editors by not requiring that they provide us with hardcopies for review, and electronic documents also simplify our delegation process. Acting in ways that jeopardize that system is against our best interests. If hardcopy review materials are received, reviewers, coordinators, or bureau heads, or delegates who review said materials can keep those materials as they see fit.

Any money the editors collect at any time in connection with this project in the form of advertising revenues or other fundraising efforts will go to cover the costs of site hosting or publicity in the form of advertisements, posters, or business cards. This policy will not be changed without public notice.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the editors.

Return to main page