From the Editor.

The article focuses on the book reviewing process employed by various publications for their articles. The outside review process is essential both to the integrity of publication decisions and to the quality of what appears. The thoughtful, often lengthy, written comments of outside reviewers usually serve well to explain reasons behind negative decisions to those whose work is not accepted and greatly aid those whose work is accepted subject to revision. Problems with the review process are few, but two merit attention. The first is delay. While most reviewers return their evaluations within a month or less, a minority take two months or more. The second problem, which fortunately characterizes only a small handful of returned reviews, occurs when a reviewer loses sight of the fact that goals of the review process are two: to aid the editor in deciding whether to publish a particular manuscript, and to help an author appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of his or her work so that the work may be improved if the piece is publishable with revision or so that the author may better appreciate what the standards of the profession demand if the work is not salvageable.