problems with JOH

I have read several comments both positive and negative regarding a paper that submitted approximately 2 months ago for JOH publication. One thing to keep in mind is that 3 major U.S. holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years) fell during that time. The members of the editorial board are all volunteers who take time out their busy days to read and edit papers sent by the the Editor-in-Chief. The paper is usually sent to several JOH editorial board members or others within the scientific community who are experts in the subject submitted by the author. Although we are given about 3 weeks to edit the paper, sometimes this may not always be possible. The publishing of manuscripts for any journal takes time and does not happen over night. Some journals may take up to a year or better. Once the paper is edited by the reviewers, the paper is returned to the Editor-in-Chief, who pulls all the comments together and sends these comments back to the author(s). The Journal must then wait for the author to respond and resubmit the manuscript to the Journal. Then there are final preparations of which I do not know all the details. I do know that the JOH is encouraging electronic submission of manuscripts. Electronic submission can be completed faster than snail mail, especially for manuscripts received "across the pond".

If any author feels that they are having a problem, then the problem should be addressed directly to the Editor-in-Chief and not aired on Histonet. My experience as a member of the JOH editorial board, is that every effort is made to publish all manuscripts of NSH members. I know that I have spent many hours on an authors manuscript, to help the author get the paper shaped up for publication.