Douglas W. Portmore, professor of philosophy at Arizona State University, is the new editor-in-chief of Ethics.

Previous editors Julia Driver and Connie S. Rosati (both of the University of Texas, Austin) stepped down at the end of 2023.

Professor Portmore had been one of the associate editors at Ethics.

Asked for a statement about his new position, he replied:

Ethics is, I believe, the leading journal in philosophical ethics, and so I’m humbled by the awesome responsibility of taking over for Julia Driver and Connie Rosati. I’m grateful to them for their hard work and excellent leadership over the past five-plus years. I’m especially thankful for their having expertly stewarded the journal through some difficult times during the pandemic.

Ethics is an exceptionally well-run journal. We have a great team of associate and book review editors. And our managing editor, Joseph Muszynski, is superb. Given this, I don’t have any plans to take the journal in any new directions or to implement any major editorial policy changes. I see my task as ensuring that the journal continues both to run smoothly and to enjoy the prestige that it has deservedly garnered. My main focus, then, will be on shortening review times, especially the time for the initial vetting by me, the Editor. I hope to get this down to no more than a couple of weeks and, hopefully, even shorter than that. I’m currently working through a small backlog of submissions that I inherited, but I expect to have it cleared within a month or so.

I want to encourage those with high-quality and important work in ethics to submit their papers to Ethics. I’m committed to making sure that these papers get a fair hearing and that the review process is as quick and efficient as practicable. And I’m open to all work (regardless of methodology, or perspective) in moral, social, political, and legal philosophy. My sole goal is to ensure that what gets published in Ethics is what it is important for people working in these areas to read. That said, I am committed to the work that we publish being accessible to a broad readership within philosophy and beyond. This prevents me from accepting some very high-quality work that is accessible only to a narrow, highly specialized audience.

Lastly, let me remind everyone to direct all questions regarding actual or possible submissions to the Managing Editor, Joseph Muszynski, at [email protected]. Please do not write directly to me or to an associate editor with such questions, as doing so will compromise our triple-blind review procedures.

 You can learn more about Professor Portmore’s research here.