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What does an editor—especially a new and inexperienced one—think about? Obviously he is preoccupied with manuscript quantity and quality. He thinks about all those who do so much for the Journal: his editorial board, his secretary, the willing referees, the publisher, and the printer. And while he works in the evening, his wife monitors la crise d'énergie, and brings the 11 PM sherry into the study with all the latest news.
One preoccupation is publication schedules. As I pondered this, and tried to put myself in the place of the author who has labored and brought forth both data and manuscript, I decided to review my own experiences, not as editor, but as contributor. For many years I have kept notes on the fate of manuscripts submitted by me to various journals, and these form the basis for this little exercise. The question, simply stated, is how long does