The New Commentary Section: A Venture into the Middle Distance

In this issue, the journal introduces a new feature, the commentary. Beginning with Jacalyn Duffin's "Religion and Medicine, Again," a single essay will appear quarterly, keyed to one of the research articles in that issue. These short commentaries will pick up and expand on the themes in the chosen article. A commentary might, for example, suggest how the research article speaks to present-day concerns in medicine or public health. The author of a commentary may wish to note how the article reflects general changes in our field of history; or suggest how the research article could be used in teaching, whether in the undergraduate classroom or the hospital conference room.

The commentaries will strive to capture the midrange implications of our work—somewhere between the ambitions of grand, programmatic history, and the methodologically precise case studies that are the familiar format. The commentary section will offer a new forum in which to introduce discussion of these midrange issues. We hope to engage a range of readers who may not be full-time historians of medicine, but are drawn to this research because of its ability to speak to questions about disease, health, biological sciences, and healing. The commentaries may also be an attractive portal to the journal for an increasing number of readers who browse the contents online.

Academic journals such as the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences find themselves in the midst of rapid change in digital publishing. In the effort to take advantage of new technologies, we must equally take care to hold onto the practices that define our enterprise. I believe that peer review is the most critical of these practices. The members of the journal's editorial board have agreed to serve as the authors of the commentaries and will also provide peer review for their colleagues' commentaries. The board adds these responsibilities to its customary role as the first line of reviewers for submitted articles. In expanding the board's traditional functions, in a period of significant change, we hope to engage their expertise and wisdom in guiding the journal out onto these wide, new plains.