One of the concerns that has been raised by both boards of the journal (the Board of Directors and the Board of Editorial Consultants) is that of gender parity (or lack thereof) in the articles it publishes—a problem that is troublingly evident in this issue: only one of the authors is a woman, while the other seven are men. The gender breakdown found in the previous year’s issues is only slightly better: June 2022 had one out of five articles written by women; September, one out of five; December, two out of five; and March 2023, two out of eight—generating an overall percentage of 28 percent women and 72 percent men. (My hope is that the September issue will actually lean in favor of women contributors.)

One strategy for addressing the imbalance has been for the editorial team to work with authors on submissions that are promising but not ready for publication, helping them identify possible avenues for improving and revising the essays. Of course, I hope we do as much for all essays with promise, not just for certain subgroups.