At the AEJMC meeting in August, I was proud to run around telling everyone that I'd reduced time in review at the Journal of Public Relations Research to about 65 days for 2011-12. Unfortunately, you won't be hearing that for 2012-13.
First, the special issue on nonprofit PR, guest edited by Denise Bortree of Penn State, attracted a whopping 34 entries, about twice what I'd told her to expect, which meant that I had to hold off sending anything out for review for general issues until she'd found reviewers for each manuscript. Then, when she finished, I was in the middle of my real estate nightmare and the submissions sat around for another couple of weeks.
After a wild flurry of sending out invitations to review for more than 25 general issue submissions, I find that there are exactly 17 of 93 people on the Editorial Board who don't already have a manuscript in hand or have completed a review in the last month. And lots of other scholars have been pressed into action as well.
So thanks to everyone who's reviewing in the next 4-6 weeks (and if you've got a little spare time feel free to volunteer for another), and thanks to authors for their patience. I know that before I was editor, it never occurred to me to wonder why reviews sometimes take so long, but the truth is that it's not always the reviewers' fault!
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