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Policies of the Communications Section (Letters to the Editor)

Letters must pertain to something in the American Historical Review. Publication is at the discretion of the editor.

The editor prefers to publish an exchange of letters. Thus an opportunity to reply will be offered to the person(s) referenced in the letter.

Letters will be entered on disk, edited for house style and possible libel, and sent to the person referenced for a reply. When the section is arranged (chronologically), the letters will be proofread by staff.

Usually, no proof will be sent to the letter writer. No proof will be sent to the replier. The editors are the final arbiters of grammar, length, usage, and legal problems.

Letters concerning reviews are limited to about 700 words; letters concerning articles are limited to about 1000 words.

If the original letter is less than 700 or 1000 words, the person replying may still use up to the limit. If the person referenced is on leave or researching abroad, reasonable efforts will be made to contact him or her. We will wait up to six months for a reply to arrive, confirm the address, send a reminder, then a reminder with a deadline. Eventually, if no reply arrives, we will publish the original letter alone, notifying the person referenced.

Both parties to an exchange will be notified when letters will appear in the next issue.

Letter writers do not receive advance copies of the published letters. The original letter writer is not entitled to see the reply letter before publication under any circumstances.

If letter writers are members, they will see their letter in their copy of the issue. If letter writers are not members, they will not receive special copies of their printed letters.

The editor is neutral between the two parties to an exchange of letters. Editing for house style includes correct grammar for both letters, including first names of people mentioned, supplying dates for books mentioned, providing a full reference to the AHR item mentioned. Some inquiries may be made to letter writers if references are unclear.

Editing for possible libel means that no libelous statements that make the journal vulnerable to a lawsuit will be published.

Footnotes are not used in this section of the journal. All AHR quotes are checked against the original for accuracy. We prefer no honorific titles, such as Mr., Professor, or Dr. that could be meant sarcastically. No titles or ranks will be used in the signature block except Emeritus and Emerita. Chicago Style is followed in the use of ellipsis in quotes. The editors do not usually allow the author of a book to quote from other reviews of his or her book

The mailing address for sending letters to the Editor: Robert A. Schneider, Editor, American Historical Review, 914 E. Atwater Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47401. Email address: ahr@indiana.edu.

In terms of copyright, the letters become the property of the American Historical Association.