EDITORS’ REPORT SEPTEMBER 2013

The JOURNAL’s year has been gratifyingly uneventful. The editorial team Martha Bailey, Tim Guinnane, Paul Rhode, and myself have been hard at work. The book reviews continue to flow to the JOURNAL with a pleasing regularity. The JOURNAL editors have dealt with a raft of submissions nearly identical to the previous year. Our colleagues may well wonder whether we are the first economy to converge to a steady state. The transition to in-text author-date citation went off without a hitch. We owe particular thanks to the authors whose articles were included in the January 2013 volume. They had to change their references at the last minute (often having put them in the old style at the conditional accept stage). The change seems to be simplifying the production process leaving our production editor, Sabrina Boschetti (at Caltech) with more time to deal with the increasing flow of online appendices. She and Fan Fei (at the University of Michigan) have been tireless in streamlining the editors’ work. We also benefit from the advice and tireless refereeing of our editorial board (and the nearly 200 referees that contributed their expertise). This year Karen Clay, Oscar Gelderblom, Sumner LaCroix, Jochen Streb, and Werner Troesken have come to the end of their term, our appreciation for their help is profound. The board has been augmented with Ran Abramitzky, Hoyt Bleakly, Carlos Marichal, Chiaki Moriguchi, and Kirsten Wandschneider. They will each serve a four-year term. Gillian Greenough continues as our liaison with Cambridge University Press and her help in the editing and distribution process is keenly felt.

The number of submissions to the JOURNAL (Figure 1) rose insignificantly to 127 from 126 last year. Both numbers fall comfortably between 98 the nadir of 2008/2009 and 158 our 2007/2008 apex. The reorganization of the two offices into a Eurasia office and a Rest of the World office (Africa, Americas, Australasia) has done surprisingly little to shift the balance of work. The Eurasia office continues to handle about 60 percent of the new submissions. Should the status quo persist, the editors may consider going to a different system that equalizes the work load and ex-ante acceptance probabilities. The distribution of topic areas in Table 1 remains broad and quite similar to that of the recent years. In terms of geographical area, the decline of submissions listing North America seem to have been arrested and there has been a surge in submissions dealing with Asia (see Table 2). Given the noisy nature of the data, conclusions about the direction of the discipline seem foolhardy.

The only major innovation is that the JOURNAL’s authors seem to believe that the twenty-first century is already part of economic history. Eleven percent of the articles include our century in their period categories. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries now account three-fourth of the papers in Table 3. As coverage shifts further back in time, the share of papers falls off as has long been the case. To put the response time statistics in Table 4 in context, our goal is to have a decision back to the author(s) within 90 days. Table 4 shows that our average and medians for the past several years have ranged between 70 and 90 days. This year our performance has been as good as any in recent years—overall median response time of 62 days (80 days for first submissions). Six authors had to wait six months or more (and we hope they accept our apologies). Both our improvement at the median and the rare cases of heavy delay are to lay the feet of our large crew of referees.

The publication rate in Figure 2 is the number of refereed papers and notes published in the current year divided by the number of new papers submitted in the previous year. The publication rate peaked at 45 percent in 2000 and fell to a low around 20 percent in 2009. This year's 26 percent (30 articles and 4 notes versus 126 papers) is right on the long-term trend. Additionally, the editors have suggested and the EHA board of trustees has approved that data sufficient to replicate the results in the accepted articles in this JOURNAL must be archived. We are working with ICPSR to finalize the process. The new rules would read:

As soon as possible after acceptance, authors are expected to deposit their data, programs, and sufficient details to permit replication with ICPSR. Questions regarding any aspect of this policy should be forwarded to the Journal Editor.

There are three rationales for this change. First, it is part of a general effort at great research transparency in the social sciences and the EHA should join that effort. Second, finding the data needed to replicate controversial papers should not be difficult. Finally, many data sets end up getting lost and it behooves the EHA as the leading association of economic historians to use its resources to avoid such unfortunate outcomes.

Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, California Institute of Technology

FIGURE 1

NEW SUBMISSIONS IN YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1988–2013

TABLE 1

NEW SUBMISSIONS BY WORLD AREA, BROKEN DOWN BY TOPIC, JULY 2010–JUNE 2013

Note:

The numbers include new submissions only. The totals equal the number of new submissions received because a paper is classified in only one topic category. In the latest year, the Americas office had 60 total submissions, 50 new and 10 resubmitted. The office for the rest of the world had 101 total submissions, 77 new and 24 resubmitted.

TABLE 2

REGULAR ARTICLE NEW SUBMISSIONS BY REGION, 1 JULY 2009–30 JUNE 2013

Note:

The numbers include new submissions only. Totals exceed new submissions because a paper can be classified as pertaining to more than one region.

TABLE 3

REGULAR ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS BY PERIOD, 1 JULY–30 JUNE 2010–2011, 2011–2012, AND 2012–2013

Note:

The numbers include new submissions only. Totals exceed submissions because a paper can be classified as pertaining to more than one period.

TABLE 4

TIME BETWEEN SUBMISSION AND EDITOR'S DECISION (in days)

Notes:

Does not include submissions that were pending as of August 1, 2013.

FIGURE 2

PUBLICATION RATE, 1997–2013

Notes: Publication Rate for 2013 is the refereed number of articles and notes published between July 1 and June 30 of 2013 as a percentage of the number of new submissions between July 1 and June 30 of 2012, and similarly for prior years. Presidential addresses and book reviews are not included. In years prior to 1997, the June issue of the JOURNAL was devoted to publishing papers presented at the annual Economic History Association meetings, so the meaning of publication rates differed. Sources: Author's computation from colonial budgets.

Referees for the year were:

• James Adams

• Brian A'Hearn

• Robert Allen

• Lee J. Alston

• Carlos Alvarez Nogal

• Leticia Arroyo Abad

• Jeremy Atack

• Gerben Bakker

• Molly Ball

• Joerg Baten

• Luis Bertola

• Hoyt Bleakley

• Dan Bogart

• Maristella Botticini

• Leah Boustan

• Sue Bowden

• Fabio Braggion

• Leah Brooks

• Erik Buyst

• Colleen Callahan

• Charles Calomiris

• Bruce Campbell

• Forrest Capie

• Mark A. Carlson

• Marco Casari

• Eric Chaney

• Latika Chaudhary

• Livia Chitu

• Gregory Clark

• Karen Clay

• Metin Cosgel

• Gary Cox

• Neil Cummins

• Tomas Cvrcek

• Guillaume Daudin

• Adeline Delavande

• Tracy K. Dennison

• Mark Dincecco

• Taryn Dinkelman

• Jeremiah Dittmar

• Mauricio Drelichman

• Martin Dribe

• Alan Dye

• Michael Edelstein

• Barry Eichengreen

• Shari Eli

• Victor Jorge Elias

• David Eltis

• John C. Emery

• Stanley Engerman

• Rui Esteves

• Giovanni Federico

• James Fenske

• Daniel Fetter

• Alexander Field

• Price Fishback

• Marc Flandreau

• Robert Fleck

• Juan Flores

• Dennis Flynn

• Caroline Fohlin

• Jonathan Fox

• Carola Frydman

• Marilyn Gerriets

• Ugo Gragnolati

• Rowena Gray

• David Greasley

• Avner Greif

• Timothy Guinnane

• Bishnupriya Gupta

• Theresa Gutberlet

• Stephen Haber

• Christopher Hanes

• Anne Hanley

• Walker Hanlon

• Leslie Hannah

• C. Knick Harley

• Bernard Harris

• Ron Harris

• Edwyna Harris

• Mark Harrison

• Josh Hausman

• Pierre-Cyrille Hautcoeur

• Alfonso Herranz-Loncán

• Benjamin Hicklin

• Eric Hilt

• Philip Hoffman

• Michael Huberman

• Joseph Inikori

• Douglas Irwin

• Gonzalo Islas

• Lakshmi Iyer

• David Jacks

• Andrew Jalil

• Taylor Jaworski

• Saumitra Jha

• Shawn Kantor

• Ian Keay

• Morgan Kelly

• Lionel Kesztenbaum

• Duol Kim

• Gerhard Kling

• Elisabeth Koll

• Michael Kopsidis

• James Kai-sing Kung

• Timur Kuran

• Sumner La Croix

• Naomi Lamoreaux

• Markus Lampe

• Ryan Lampe

• John Landon-Lane

• Chulhee Lee

• Margaret Levenstein

• Gary Libecap

• Trevon Logan

• Debin Ma

• Jakob Madsen

• Thomas Maloney

• Robert Margo

• Andrei Markevich

• Pablo Martin-Aceña

• Joseph R. Mason

• Noel Maurer

• Robert McGuire

• David Meyer

• Peter B. Meyer

• Guy Michaels

• Melinda Miller

• Kris Mitchener

• Carolyn Moehling

• Lyndon Moore

• Petra Moser

• Aldo Musacchio

• Steven Nafziger

• Suresh Naidu

• Kanda Naknoi

• Tom Nicholas

• Pilar Nogues-Marco

• Nathan Nunn

• Alessandro Nuvolari

• Cormac Ó Grada,

• Kerry A. Odell

• Sheilagh Ogilvie

• Alan L. Olmstead

• Martha L. Olney

• Kim Oosterlinck

• Kevin O'Rourke

• Sevket Pamuk

• Laura Panza

• Heejin Park

• Luciano Pezzolo

• Florian Ploeckl

• Clayne Pope

• Natacha Postel-Vinay

• Jonathan Pritchett

• Stephen Quinn

• Ahmed Rahman

• Scott Redenius

• Angela Redish

• Paul Rhode

• Gary Richardson

• Mary Rodgers

• Jonathan Rose

• Joshua Rosenbloom

• Jean-Laurent Rosenthal

• Joan Ramon Rosés

• Peter Rousseau

• Tirthankar Roy

• Jared Rubin

• Mohamed Saleh

• Laura Salisbury

• Veronica Santarosa

• Ken Scheve

• Max-Stephan Schulze

• Andrew Seltzer

• Martin Shanahan

• Carol Shiue

• Tuan-Hwee Sng

• Kenneth A. Snowden

• Jochen Streb

• Koleman Strumpf

• William Summerhill

• Nathan Sussman

• Richard Sutch

• Richard Sylla

• Alan M. Taylor

• Jason Taylor

• Shane Thompson

• Giovanni Toniolo

• Daniel Treisman

• Gail Triner

• Francesca Trivellato

• Werner Troesken

• Jan Luiten Van Zanden

• Francois Velde

• Nancy Virts

• Daniel Waldenstrom

• Patrick Wallis

• Marianne Wanamaker

• Marianne Ward

• Simone Wegge

• Marc Weidenmier

• Jacob Weisdorf

• David C. Wheelock

• Sven Wilson

• Susan Wolcott

• Noam Yuchtman

• Ben Zamzow

• Peter Zeitz

• Nicolas Ziebarth