Reviewer guidelines

Owned by David Harms
Last updated: Apr 26, 2013

This document provides information for authors wishing to review products for Clarion Magazine.

Reviews are subject to the same style guidelines as feature articles (http://www.clarionmag.com/cmag/authorguidelines.html), but also follow a particular format, which is discussed below. In general, product reviews should be 1500-2500 words in length.

Clarion Magazine is interested in reviews of Clarion-related products including, but not limited to:

  • Templates
  • Classes
  • File Management Utilities
  • Help Utilities
  • Components (LIBs, DLLs, COM/OCX, etc)

Obtaining the software

Unless you already own the software you are reviewing, Clarion Magazine will contact the vendor on your behalf for a copy.

Ownership of the software

Ownership of the software licence after the review has been published is up to the vendor. You may be permitted to keep the licence, or the vendor may require you to uninstall the software.

Writing the review

Include the following sections in your review, in the following order. Some sections may not apply to your particular review.

Introduction to the review

Begin with an introductory paragraph (or possibly several paragraphs). Be sure to include the following information:

  • Product’s main purpose
  • Vendor’s name
  • Clarion versions supported

Major features

List the major features/components of this product, such as:

  • templates (control, extension, utility, etc.)
  • classes
  • LIBs
  • DLLs
  • Demo apps

Include some descriptive material, i.e. rather than a point form list, describe each of the major features in a paragraph or two. What does a particular component (class, template, etc.) do?

Installation

Discuss the installation process - did everything go smoothly? If applicable, did the software adhere to the Clarion 3rd Party Association (C3PA - http://www.c3pa.com) guidelines?

Using the product

In most cases, this section will be the bulk (or at least the largest single section) of your review. Discuss your use of the product. Did you apply it to some real-world problem you were facing? Did you create a sample application to test the features? Were there any areas you didn’t test or explore, and if so why not? Use screen shots where appropriate to illustrate the text.

Performance

Some products may require significant processing power. If appropriate, discuss any performance implications.

Other comments

Feel free to add additional subheadings to cover areas not included in this guideline.

Documentation

What kind of documentation is included? Text? RTF? HTML? Help file? Is it well-organized? Well-written?

Technical Support

What was your experience with the vendors’ technical support (if offered)? How did you get support (telephone, email, newsgroup etc.) and was it prompt/helpful? Do you expect most users will need tech support, or is the product easy to use and bug free?

Summary

What are your overall impressions of this product?

Rating

For each of the following, give a rating from 1 (poor) to 4 (excellent). You can use 1/2 points.

  • Ability to do the task
  • Ease of use
  • Ease of installation
  • Documentation
  • Technical support
  • Black box DLLs/LIBs
  • Overall rating
  • Product information summary
  • Product name, pricing, Clarion versions/template sets supported
  • Product URL
  • Vendor contact information

Vendor feedback

When your review is complete, Clarion Magazine will send a copy to the vendor for commentary. They will not be able to make any changes to the review, but they will have the opportunity to respond to any concerns you may have raised.