EDITORS' REPORT, SEPTEMBER 2007

This marks my last report to the members of the Association as co-editor of the Journal of Economic History. Effective 1 July 2008, Price Fishback becomes the new North American editor and my co-editor, Phil Hoffman, will be delivering these reports. Time flies when you are having fun, and I find it hard to believe that my term is almost up—but it is and it will soon be time to go.

New submissions to the Journal declined again during the year ending 1 July, falling from 125 in the previous year to 117. Much more startling, however, is the decline in submissions to the North American office. The previous year the North American office received a total of 61 submissions compared with 89 to the International office. This year, I received a total of 49 submission—only 34 of them new—whereas Phil received 105—more than twice as many—of which 83 were new. Whether this is simply a random occurrence of an event in the far left tail of the distribution is uncertain, but it is clear that there has been an unmistakable shift towards non-North American topics for some time now. Consequently, we have reallocated some responsibilities and the North American office will henceforth handle all papers dealing with the Americas—North, Central, and South. I know that, at times, I have thought I was overworked and stressed out by this job—I don't even want to think how Phil must feel.

Figure 1

TREND IN NEW SUBMISSIONS, 1987/88–2006/07

Source: The yearly totals were taken from the published Editors' Notes.

Table 1

ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS BY WORLD AREA, BROKEN DOWN BY TOPIC, JULY 2004–JUNE 2007

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 North American office had 49 total submissions, 34 new and 15 resubmitted. The International office had 105 total submissions, 83 new and 22 resubmitted.

Phil and I share one pet peeve regarding submissions: many are poorly written and sometimes incomplete. We spend much of our time literally editing papers word by word, line-by-line—some of them several times. Perhaps we are overly picky but we have also had many referees voice this same complaint. Does it sway their judgment on a paper? Who knows, but please have others read through submissions and comment, not only upon the content but also on the presentation before you send them to us.

In the very near future the editorial offices will be 100 percent electronic and largely automated. Virtually all submissions, refereeing, and decision-making in recent years have been handled electronically using e-mail. Over the past nine months or so though, we have been working with Cambridge University Press to implement ScholarOne as an electronic interface. This will deliver copy to the editors while simultaneously generating acknowledgments to the authors. It will allow us to assign referees who, in turn, can accept or reject assignments. It will automatically follow up with them—incessantly—should they miss a deadline and badger the editors for a decision when the necessary information is available. Our referee and author pools are already signed up on the system (though you won't be able to access it until we go live). The system should be operational by the time that you read this report.

Many other journals, of course, already have similar systems in place so lots of you are already familiar with them. They are a boon. They can also be a curse. For example, Bob Margo, Fred Bateman, and I recently had a piece accepted by a journal using such a system but the editor requested some minor and fairly straightforward changes—like dropping 20 percent of the text—same kind of thing that Phil and I ask. Unfortunately, when the editor made his decision, checking “Accept” sent the manuscript to typesetting rather than back to us for the needed changes, and recalling it from the production process proved far from simple. So we have learnt from this experience, and the best that you can hope for before your paper goes to the Production Editor will be a conditional acceptance.

Table 2

REGULAR ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS BY REGION, 1 JULY–30 JUNE

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 2004–2005, 2005–2006, AND 2006–2007

Note:

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

The profession goes through fads and fancies as the topical distribution of submission shows. Interestingly, these are rarely the same topics across the International and the North American offices. Two topics, labor and money/macro, account for more than two-thirds of the new submissions to the North American offices. Forty-six percent of the International Offices submissions are in Political Economy (which accounts for almost 30 percent of the office's total) and finance. Labor and money/macro were also important last year among the North American submissions but industry and international finance topped the charts then at the International Office.

In terms of region of interest, the decline in research on North America is the only clear trend with perhaps some growth of interest in Western Europe. Research interest in the nineteenth century also continues to wane.

Mean decision times have edged down to 88 days for all submissions and 89 days for new submissions. However, while median turnaround time for all submissions is unchanged from last year, median turnaround time has increased sharply for new submissions. My interpretation of these data are that we are doing better at making the quick decisions about whether or not a paper is suitable for the Journal and stands an fighting chance of making it through the refereeing process. We are also doing a better job at getting a few laggard referees to respond more quickly to our pleas but we are apparently giving more forbearance on getting the reports back from referees reasonably promptly. It will be interesting to see how these statistics change when we go to ScholarOne and many of the reminders are pre-programmed.

Table 4

ACCEPTANCE AND TURNAROUND

Note:

The acceptance figures include new submissions and resubmissions.

The JEH remains very selective; last year 28 papers were accepted out of 154 manuscripts or about 1 in 5. Acceptances out of the North American office were higher last year—one in four—but frankly I think that I received some very good manuscripts last year.

We have been assisted in our activities by others: Bill Collins has handled the book reviews out of the North American office despite serving as senior staff economist on the President's Council of Economic Advisors this past year, and we have been assisted in our duties by Linda Carter. Alan Miller has handled book reviews out of the International Office, and Sabrina Boschetti has assisted with tasks there.

We have both been assisted by literally hundreds of referees during the past year whose services are gratefully acknowledged in this issue of the Journal. We have also been assisted by our Editorial Board who provide counsel and extraordinary refereeing services at the drop of a hat either when a referee lets us down or we want another opinion. William Collins, Dora Costa, Steve Quinn, Paul Rhode, Joachim Voth, and Susan Wolcott finish their terms at the end of this year. I note too that Larry Epstein was also a member of the Editorial Board until his sudden, unexpected death earlier this year.

Joining the Board in 2007 were Price Fishback, Stephen Haber, Carol Shiue, and Marc Weidenmier. Other appointments to Board will also be made. However, any appointments that I make to represent North American topics will be made in consultation with our new incoming North American editor, Price Fishback.

I want to thank the Association for giving me this opportunity to serve as editor of the Journal and I thank you all for submitting so many good papers and for being so diligent in your duties as referees. You have made this both a fun as well as an educational experience.

Referees for the year were:

• Marina Adshade, Dalhousie University

• Douglas Allen, Simon Fraser University

• Robert Allen, University of Oxford

• Lee J. Alston, University of Colorado

• George Alter, Indiana University

• James E. Anderson, Boston College

• Martha J. Bailey, University of Michigan

• Dudley Baines, London School of Economics

• Theo Balderston, University of Manchester

• Jörg Baten, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen

• Robert Bates, Harvard University

• Daniel Benjamin, Clemson University

• Michael A. Bernstein, Tulane University

• Margaret Blair, Vanderbilt University

• Hoyt Bleakley, University of Chicago

• Howard Bodenhorn, Lafayette College

• Daniel Bogart, University of California, Irvine

• Rod Bohac, Brigham Young University

• Michael Bordo, Rutgers University

• Leah Platt Boustan, University of California, Los Angeles

• George Boyer, Cornell University

• Elizabeth Brainerd, Williams College

• Loren Brandt, University of Toronto

• Garland Brinkley, Touro College

• Stephen Broadberry, University of Warwick

• John C. Brown, Clark University Worcester

• Warren Brown, California Institute of Technology

• William Brown, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Richard C. K. Burdekin, Claremont McKenna College

• Carsten Burhop, University of Münster

• Louis P. Cain, Northwestern University

• Charles Calomiris, Columbia University

• Bruce M. S. Campbell, The Queen's University of Belfast

• Ann Carlos, University of Colorado

• Mark Carlson, Federal Reserve Board

• Linda Carter, Vanderbilt University

• Elizabeth Casio, Dartmouth College

• Youssef Cassis, University of Geneva

• Mark Casson, University of Reading

• Ben Chabot, University of Michigan

• Siddharth Chandra, University of Pittsburgh

• Gregory Clark, University of California, Davis

• William J. Collins, Vanderbilt University

• Metin M. Cosgel, University of Connecticut

• Dora Costa, University of California, Los Angeles

• Nicholas F. R. Crafts, University of Warwick

• Timothy Cuff, Westminster College

• Tomas Cvrcek, Vanderbilt University

• Sami Dakhlia, University of Alabama

• Tracy Dennison, California Institute of Technology

• John Devereaux, City University of New York

• Mauricio Drelichman, University of British Columbia

• Leonard Dudley, University of Montreal

• Colleen A. Dunlavy, University of Wisconsin, Madison

• Gerald P. Dwyer Jr., Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

• Alan Dye, Barnard College

• Michael Edelstein, Queens College, City University of New York

• Bernard Elbaum, University of California, Santa Cruz

• Stanley L. Engerman, University of Rochester

• Alvaro Ferreira da Silva, Universidade Nova de Lisboa

• Joseph P. Ferrie, Northwestern University

• Alexander J. Field, Santa Clara University

• Price Fishback, University of Arizona

• Valpy Fitzgerald, University of Oxford

• Marc Flandreau, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris

• Dennis Flynn, University of the Pacific

• Nancy Folbre, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

• Larry Ford, University of California, San Diego

• Rainer Fremdling, University of Groningen

• Gerald Friedman, University of Massachusetts

• Jan Glete, Stockholm University

• Reuven Glick, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

• Claudia Goldin, Harvard University

• Oliver Grant, University of Oxford

• George Grantham, McGill University

• William Greene, New York University

• Paul R. Gregory, University of Houston

• Avner Grief, Stanford University

• Wayne Grove, LeMoyne College

• Farley Grubb, University of Delaware

• Timothy Guinnane, Yale University

• Steve Haber, Stanford University

• Michael R. Haines, Colgate University

• Susan Hamill, University of Alabama

• Anne Hanley, Northern Illinois University

• Joan Hannon, Saint Mary's College of California

• Mary E. Hansen, American University

• C. Knick Harley, University of Oxford

• Ron Harris, Tel Aviv University

• Timothy J. Hatton, University of Essex

• Pierre-Cyrille Hautcoeur, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales

• Alfonso Herranz-Loncan, University of Barcelona

• Sarah Hill, California State University, Fullerton

• Boyd Hilton, University of Cambridge

• Christopher Hoag, Coe College

• Sara Horrell, University of Cambridge

• Michael Huberman, University of Montreal

• Jane Humphries, University of Oxford

• William K. Hutchinson, Vanderbilt University

• Douglas Irwin, Dartmouth College

• David S. Jacks, Simon Fraser University

• John James, University of Virginia

• Mark Kanazawa, Carleton College

• Shawn Kantor, University of California, Merced

• Anders Karlsson, London School of Economics

• Jonathan Katz, California Institute of Technology

• Ian Keay, Queen's University

• Zorina, Khan, Bowdoin College

• Rod Kiewiet, California Institute of Technology

• Sukkoo Kim, Washington University, St. Louis

• Alexander Klein, CERGE-EI, Prague

• Daniel Klerman, University of Southern California

• John Komlos, University of Munich

• Timur Kuran, Duke University

• Angel Kwolleck-Folland, University of South Florida

• Sumner LaCroix, University of Hawaii

• Pedro Lains, Universidad de Lisboa

• Naomi R. Lamoreaux, University of California, Los Angeles

• John Lampe, University of Maryland, College Park

• John Langdon, University of Alberta

• Marc Law, University of Vermont

• Chulhee Lee, Seoul National University

• Carol S. Leonard, University of Oxford

• Timothy Leunig, London School of Economics

• Margaret Levenstein, University of Michigan

• James B. Lewis, University of Oxford

• Gary D. Libecap, University of California, Santa Barbara

• Peter Lindert, University of California, Davis

• Katherine Livingston, Vanderbilt University

• Trevon Logan, Ohio State University

• David Ludden, University of Pennsylvania

• Christine MacLeod, University of Bristol

• Andrea Maneschi, Vanderbilt University

• Robert A. Margo, Boston University

• Joseph Mason, Drexel University

• Michael McAvoy, State University of New York, Oneonta

• Margaret McConnell, California Institute of Technology

• Robert McGuire, University of Akron

• Bernardo Meuller, University of Brasilia

• Boris N. Mironov, Institute of Russian History

• Kris James Mitchener, Santa Clara University

• Carolyn Moehling, Rutgers University

• Jon Moen, University of Mississippi

• Joel Mokyr, Northwestern University

• Chiaki Moriguchi, Northwestern University

• José Morilla-Critz, Universidad de Alcala

• Neville Morley, University of Bristol

• Matthias Morys, University of Oxford

• Petra Moser, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Reinhold C. Mueller, Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia

• John E. Murray, University of Toledo

• Aldo Musacchio, Harvard Business School

• Martin Myant, University of Paisley

• Myung Soo Cha, Yuengnam University

• Stephen Nafziger, Williams College

• Larry Neal, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Tom Nicholas, Harvard Business School

• Tomas Nonnenmacher, Allegheny College

• John Nye, George Mason University

• Patrick O'Brien, London School of Economics

• Kevin O'Rourke, Trinity College, Dublin

• Lawrence Officer, University of Illinois, Chicago

• Sheilagh Ogilvie, University of Cambridge

• Tetsuji Okazaki, The University of Tokyo

• Alan Olmstead, University of California, Davis

• Martha Olney, University of California, Berkeley

• Kim R. R. Oosterlinck, Universite Libre de Bruxelle

• Richard Overy, University of Exeter

• Jordi Palafox, Universidad de Valencia

• Michael Palairet, The University of Edinburgh

• Şevket Pamuk, Bogazici University

• Robin Pearson, University of Hull

• Edwin Perkins, University of Southern California

• Karl Gunnar Person, University of Copenhagen

• Luciano Pezzolo, University of Venice

• William H. Phillips, University of Georgia

• Thomas Piketty, Paris School of Economics

• Richard Pomfret, Adelaide University

• Gilles Postel-Vinay, EHESS, INRA

• Mark Potter, University of Wyoming

• Leandro Prados de la Escosura, Universidad Carlos III

• Jonathan B. Pritchett, Tulane University

• Stephen Quinn, Texas Christian University

• Rossitsa Rangelova, Bulgarian Academy of Science

• Dominic Rathbone, King's College, London

• Thomas G. Rawski, University of Pittsburgh

• Angela Redish, University of British Columbia

• Paul Rhode, University of Arizona

• Gary Richardson, University of California, Irvine

• David Ringrose, University of California, San Diego

• Albrecht Ritschl, London School of Economics

• Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, California Institute of Technology

• Peter L. Rousseau, Vanderbilt University

• Richard Salvucci, Trinity University

• Walter Scheidel, Stanford University

• Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, London School of Economics and Political Science

• Loren Schweninger, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Andrew Seltzer, University of London

• Carol H. Shiue, University of Colorado

• Richard Sicotte, University of Vermont

• John Siegfried, Vanderbilt University

• Alexandre Skiba, University of Kansas

• Fred Smith, Davidson College

• Mark Spoerer, University of Hohenheim

• David Stasavage, New York University

• Richard H. Steckel, Ohio State University

• Richard J. Sullivan, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

• William Summerhill, University of California, Los Angeles

• Nathan Sussman, Hebrew University

• Donald Sutherland, University of Maryland

• Dhanoos Sutthiphisal, McGill University

• Richard Sylla, New York University

• Rick Szostak, University of Alberta

• Alan Taylor, University of California, Davis

• Peter Temin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Antonio Tena, Universidad Carlos III

• Melissa Thomasson, Miami University of Ohio

• William R. Thompson, University of Indiana

• Mark Toma, University of Kentucky

• Adam Tooze, University of Cambridge

• Manuel Trajtenberg, Tel Aviv University

• Gail Triner, Rutgers University

• Werner Troesken, University of Pittsburgh

• William Tsutsui, University of Kansas

• Richard W. Unger, University of British Columbia

• Steven W. Usselman, Georgia Institute of Technology

• Jesus Viejo, Tecnológico de Monterrey

• Jacob Vigdor, Duke University

• Richard Von Glahn, University of California, Los Angeles

• Hans-Joachim Voth, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

• Hannes Wagner, London Business School

• Richard Waller, Bucknell University

• John Wallis, University of Maryland

• Scott Wallsten, Progress and Freedom Foundation

• Peter Wardley, University of the West of England, Bristol

• David Washbrook, University of Oxford

• Warren Weber, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

• Simone Wegge, City University of New York

• Marc D. Weidenmier, Claremont McKenna College

• David Weiman, Barnard College

• Mark Weinstein, University of Southern California

• Robert Whaples, Wake Forest University

• David C. Wheelock, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

• Eugene White, Rutgers University

• David Wier, University of Michigan

• Susan Wolcott, State University of New York, Binghamton

• Gavin Wright, Stanford University

• Robert Wright, New York University

• Mary Yeager, University of California, Los Angeles

• Madeleine Zelin, Columbia University