No Editorial Team For 8 Months, But Wiley Keeps JPP Open for Submissions
“The Journal of Political Philosophy (JOPP) is currently undergoing changes to its editorial team and reviewing processes. As a result, the journal is experiencing a delay in processing manuscripts. If you submit your manuscript to JOPP, it will be received by our Editorial Office, but publication will be delayed. Thank you for your patience and support.”
So reads a statement on the homepage of the Journal of Political Philosophy (JPP) the editorial team of which resigned en masse last December to protest Wiley’s interference in its editorial operations and to launch a new journal, Political Philosophy. (Story here.)
JPP hasn’t had any editors since the end of 2023 (at least there has been no academic in those positions; I’m not privy to whether they’ve assigned an employee to handle work for the journal). Wiley’s search for a replacement editor has failed. So what is this “Editorial Office” which will supposedly receive submitted publications?
The ambiguity of the statement may give the impression to authors who haven’t followed the past year’s events that JPP is still operating. It’s not. It may suggest the possibility of the journal resuming operations soon. But given that thousands of scholars pledged to to not cooperate with Wiley in regard to JPP, and that there has been no word from Wiley or anyone else about the editor positions being filled, this is also likely not true. (Perhaps people are being misled by this Wiley page, which still lists Robert Goodin as the journal’s editor.)
According to one source, over 300 manuscripts have been submitted to JPP this year. Who is submitting those manuscripts? Likely, it’s people not sufficiently plugged into professional networks to know what has happened to the journal. By keeping submissions open, Wiley is taking advantage of these people. Why?
(If for some reason you are one of the people whose manuscript is in limbo at JPP and want to withdraw it, one option may be to contact Wiley’s director of Social Sciences & Humanities Journals, Rebecca Walter ([email protected]).)
… And if you do withdraw a paper submitted to the online limbo formerly known as the Journal of Political Philosophy, you should then strongly consider submitting it to the very same editorial team at the new online entity known as Political Philosophy.
I imagine that you may not get much of a response from Wiley if you email them about withdrawing your paper. You should not think that you need to hear back from them before proceeding with your next step (whether that is at Political Philosophy or elsewhere).
Zombie journal.