CEH Editorial Policy

Central European History (CEH) is a scholarly journal dedicated to advancing knowledge of central Europe’s multifaceted history. Established in 1968, it features original research articles, essays, fora, and reviews of recent works in the field. It is published quarterly.

CEH rejects, in all of its publishing and editorial practices, any discriminatory or prejudicial treatment that targets a person’s identity on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, social class, age, religion, country of origin, citizenship status, or academic or professional status. The journal encourages submissions from as diverse a range of scholars as possible.

CEH is governed by the Central European History Society.

The role of CEH’s editor

The editor’s foremost role is to help advance knowledge and research in the field of central European history by striving always to maintain and where possible improve the quality of the work the journal publishes. That entails fortifying the integrity of the peer review process, supporting the journal’s authors and reviewers, and maintaining an excellent relationship with the journal’s publisher, Cambridge University Press.

Editorial / peer review process

The editor carefully reads each submission the journal receives. After deciding whether a particular submission is suitable for the journal in disciplinary, thematic, temporal, historiographical, and other terms, the editor clears that submission for peer review and recruits readers with the appropriate expertise to evaluate it. These expert readers (generally 2 – 3, depending on a variety of factors) return reports to the editor after a period of roughly 6 – 8 weeks. Depending on those reports, the editor either 1) accepts the manuscript, 2) sends the manuscript back to the author for revisions, or 3) alerts the author that the submission cannot be considered further. In the case of manuscripts that have been revised in line with the guidance of the reviewers and the editor, the editor may at their discretion either accept the revised manuscript forthwith or send it once again to readers for further external peer review.

CEH peer review process policy maintains the anonymity of both author and reviewer.

We adhere to Cambridge University Press’ Publishing Ethics for Academic Research.

Book reviews

To protect the integrity of the review process, the journal does not accept self-solicited reviews. It discourages the practice of reviewers reviewing books they have already written or podcasted about in another venue, except in very rare circumstances (e.g., a prospective reviewer is the only person qualified or available to take on the task of reviewing a certain work).

The editorial board

The editorial board of the journal is charged with advising the editor on a variety of topics, including individual submissions, appropriate peer reviewers, and more generally the direction the journal takes as the field evolves. Board members are always welcome and warmly encouraged to bring ideas to the editor for consideration (special issues, fora, etc.)

Board members are appointed by the current editor and serve at the discretion of that editor, for a term of three years. At the discretion of the editor, individual members can be retained for longer periods in some cases.

CEH’s editor strives to appoint and maintain an editorial board whose effectiveness is in part predicated on its diversity.

The board meets once a year at the German Studies Association annual meeting. Members are expected to appear at that meeting as often as possible, though it is also understood that, because members are geographically scattered and have different academic schedules, not all can always meet in person.

Meetings of the board seek to foster open and inclusive discussions. In the same spirit that CEH rejects discriminatory and prejudicial treatment in all of its publishing and editorial practices, so too does the journal insist upon non-discriminatory and respectful behavior among its editorial board members.

CEH’s editor seeks actively to involve board members in the peer review and other editorial procedures as appropriate.