Bibliographies are the last thing authors finish and the first thing specialists check. That asymmetry costs books more goodwill than almost anything else in production.
What reviewers actually look at
Referees routinely scan the reference list before reading the introduction. It tells them, in thirty seconds, whether you are in conversation with the field or working beside it.
Consistency beats completeness
A slightly shorter list rendered consistently reads as authoritative. A longer one with three citation styles fighting each other reads as rushed, regardless of the scholarship behind it.
Give us the data early
Send your references as structured data rather than formatted text and typesetting becomes a non-event. Send a Word document with hand-typed entries and we will both spend a fortnight on it.
