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[amador]

A colleague of mine has asked me if I would review his new book for a major journal in our field.  The problem I see is that there's currently an article of mine under consideration there and I wouldn't like to be perceived as "trying too hard" to have my name in their pages.

Should I contact the associate editor (whom I know from a couple of brief conversaton) volunteering to review that book?  I would like to express that concern, but I'm also worried about possibly breaching blind peer review in doing so.

Advice?

[oatmeal]

The short answer to this question is that you should not review the book. Editors at journals like to select reviewers and some journals specifically state that they do not want unsolicited reviews of a book. I would urge you to not review your colleague's book; it seems raises a red flag to me, and your colleague should really not ask you to review it for a journal. It would got out about this it would look bad for both of you. Thus, I would suggest that you graciously decline.

Now, you can certainly volunteer to review other books for the journal and they might select you for a different book. I had a book review and an article in the same journal at the same time (by chance) and it is fine. Good luck with the book reviews.

[shamu]

As Oatmeal suggested, you should recuse yourself from reviewing your colleague's work. The fact that you have a paper under review in the journal is actually not the issue; it sounds like the issue may be that you were solicited to write a review by the author of the book. Here are some points to consider: Did the author ask you to write a review because s/he would expect you to write a positive one? Would your colleague be happy if you wrote a negative review? Why did s/he ask you to write the review? Did s/he ask opponents and proponents of her/his work to write reviews? These are just some questions that would occur to me, were I in the same situation.

[jerseyjay]

I would probably not do this.

(You don't actually have to decline because nobody has offered you the chance to review the book. By doing nothing you make sure you won't get the assignment of reviewing the book. If the journal review editor asks you to review the book, then explain what you've said here and let him decide if he still want you to.)

If you are at all close to the colleague--either in a professional or personal way--then I wouldn't review the book (UNLESS you are BOTH really big names in the field, in which case any bias is already on the table). If colleague just means, a fellow professor who researches something similar, then I don't see a problem per se, but it is weird that your colleague urged you to review the book. In the latter case, I would be sure to mention to the book review editor that your colleague suggested you review the book. My guess is this wouldn't get very far. 

I don't think the problem is blind review, since book reviews are not blind (the reviewer puts his name on the review and knows who the book's author is). Nor do I see a conflict in reviewing books for a journal and submitting an article. The two are likely run by different editors and one will not have any influence over the other. Nor do I think that there is necessarily a problem with asking to review a book for a journal. I've done this quite a bit--email the book review editor volunteering to review a book and include a short résumé of my research and attach my CV. Half the time, they say yes. A quarter of the time, they say it is already being reviewed by somebody else. Another twenty per cent they say they have a process to select reviewers and I should submit my CV to their pool. Five per cent, I never hear back. But again, I don't think this is the main thing about your proposal.

[amador]

Aw, my bad.  I did not describe the situation properly.  It went like this:
-My colleague (A) sent information about his new book to a small listserve.  The email was definitely promotional, he was asking people to put it in their libraries' shopping list and it looked like he was fishing for reviewers, which I personally don't mind.
-Shortly afterwards, another colleague who edits journal Z mentioned that he was looking for a reviewer for that volume.  I volunteered because a book review is something I do not have in my portfolio yet, and because I do want to read that book anyway.
-In another later email, editor of Z and author (A) told me that the review had been entrusted to someone else.  Actually, author A told me that he had asked someone to do that review for that journal, which I admit does raise a red flag.
-In writing Author A, I insisted in reviewing the article nonetheless and suggested BIG journal X, among others.
-Author A replied telling he would really be happy if I would ask the associate editor of journal X to send that volume to me for review.

Yes, my colleague is definitely scheming in his self-promotion, but I don't mind coming along because I do think highly of his work (not so highly of his people skills).  What I certainly don't want is to do something unprofessional or looking too eager to have my name in journal X (which I am, but it's not the end of the world if that doesn't happen).

However, if more senior people believe this colleagues' attitude raises some flags, I can distance myself from the whole think.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[systeme_d_]

Friendly promotion of one's book on a listserv is perfectly fine, in my estimation.  It's a bit self-serving, but that's the way of the world.  All book promotions are self-serving, but authors are expected to assist in marketing these days.

However, fishing for reviewers treads a very problematic line, and unabashed solicitation of reviewers for one's own book is utterly beyond the pale.  (I believe you erred in volunteering to flog his work for him in BIG Journal X.  What would you have done if you found it necessary to write a very negative review?)

If I were you, I would immediately disassociate myself from this unethical adventure in entrepreneurism.

An addendum: Note your language here: 

In another later email, editor of Z and author (A) told me that the review had been entrusted to someone else.

   The word "entrusted" is supposed to work the other way round.