Editor’s Report for 2022

Volume CVIII (2022) consisted of 912 pages. It published sixteen articles, one essay in the series “Journeys in Church History,” one ACHA Presidential Address, two miscellanies, one Forum Review Essay, two review essays, eighty-seven book reviews, and five obituary notices.

The sixteen articles were distributed as follows: one general, two medieval, five early modern, three late modern, one American, three Latin American, and one African. Of the sixteen articles, nine came from authors outside the United States (one from Chile, one from the Czech Republic, one joint authorship from Croatia, one from Israel, four from Poland, and one from Tanzania). An author from England provided the “Journeys in Church History” essay and one from Poland a miscellany essay. Subsidies allowed five authors to exceed the page limits. The editor is grateful to His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan and to Professor Emeritus Paul F. Grendler for their generous gifts in support of the journal.

During the Covid period over three hundred books piled up in the office awaiting reviews. To bring this number down to a manageable level, books published before 2017 were listed in the Other Books Received section and donated to Mullen Library. With the help of a returnig staff, the processing of books for review has resumed. The eighty-seven book reviews published in the 2022 volume were distributed among the following areas: general and miscellaneous (eight), ancient (four), medieval (twenty-seven), early modern (eight), late modern (eight), American (sixteen), Latin American (thirteen), and Far Eastern (one). The authors of the book reviews came from institutions in the following countries: the United States (sixty-five or 75 percent), England (nine or 10 percent), Scotland (three or 3 percent), and one each from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, and Poland. One of the review articles was by an Australian resident.

As the table below reveals, the editors received twenty-five article submissions during 2022. They fell into the following categories: general (one), early modern (nine), late modern (six), American (seven), and Latin American (two). Of these twenty-five articles, four were published, three accepted for publication, five rejected, one withdrawn, and twelve are in the process of being evaluated and revised. Of the thirty-one articles submitted in 2021, twelve were published, twelve were rejected, three withdrawn, and four are still pending.

The editorial staff functions efficiently. While Msgr. Robert Trisco continues to be responsible for the Book Reviews, Periodical Literature, and Other Book Received sections, he is assisted by Dr. Robin Darling Young regarding books on ancient topics, by Dr. Jennifer Paxton for books in the medieval area, and by Dr. Julia Young for Latin American books. They have been ably assisted by the graduate student Ms. Julia Sedlack who will leave her post in December. The processing of book reviews has been placed on the Scholastica platform. Ms. Madelyn Reichert continues to serve as a careful copy editor. For their excellent service to the journal, the editor is deeply appreciative.

The Board of Advisory Editors has provided invaluable advice on a number of important issues. The editor is grateful to Dr. Simon Ditchfield of the Univeristy of York for rejoining the Board. Dr. Christopher Korten of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań has graciously agreed to join the Board. And to Father Stephen Schloesser, S.J., a special word of thanks for stepping in to assist when needed. Last year the annual Board meeting was conducted by Zoom and so too was this year’s meeting.

Table 1.

Manuscripts submitted in 2022

Table 2.

Book reviews published in 2022