Social Science History seeks two or more subject and/or methodology experts for every paper entering peer review. We attempt to render a decision on each submission as quickly as possible. Current median time is 15 weeks. Because the range of expertise on which we depend is broad, and the availability of qualified reviewers varies, the review process sometimes extends longer.

The emphasis in the mission of the journal is to provide a home for projects and publications that reach beyond the historical case study to address topics of larger importance to an interdisciplinary group. In judging, for example, whether an empirical article is of theoretical import, it is not sufficient that the analysis is embedded within theory but the results must have importance for expanding and developing upon past theoretical arguments. Similarly, historical studies are most aligned with the mission of the journal when they are explicitly comparative and the comparative research design has some salient features which speak to our general understanding of socio-historical phenomena.