Some notes on 20 years of book reviews in Prometheus

After considering several alternative ways of approaching the task of 'reviewing book reviews', this paper presents some descriptive data on the book-reviewing function in Prometheus during the 20-year period from 1983 to 2002. It is shown that the average annual number of reviews is approximately 32 and that there is approximately one review article per annum. The proportion of total pages devoted to the book-review function is also calculated. A disaggregated analysis of the books reviewed, in terms of the five themes of Prometheus, i.e. Technological Change, Innovation, Information Economics, Communication and Science Policy, is also presented.