Utilitas Pausing Submissions, Bringing on More Editors
The philosophy journal Utilitas is temporarily halting submissions.
An announcement posted on the journal’s website today states: “We would like to apologise for the current delays in reviewing and accepting new submissions. We are currently between editorial teams, and will be pausing submissions until we are able to manage the backlog that has occurred as a result of this.”
One of the journal’s editors, Christopher Woodard (Nottingham), is stepping down. He informs me that the publisher, Cambridge University Press, is seeking to increase the number of editors at Utilitas.
It has not yet been announced how long the pause in submissions will be.
In discussing the reasons for the backlog, Professor Woodard mentioned the difficulty of combining editorial duties with the increasing duties of academic life. I don’t know the statistics for Utilitas but editors at other journals have mentioned increases in the number of submissions over the past several years. (It may also, in this case, be worth recalling this recent post about cuts at Nottingham.)
It could be useful to hear about other journals that are struggling with these and related issues, and the steps they have taken to cope with them.
Related:
“What Can Journals, Publishers, and Authors Do Now to Improve the Publication Process in Philosophy?”
“JESP to Pause New Submissions”
“Journal of the History of Philosophy Stops Accepting Papers in Early Modern”
“Moratorium and New Editors at Mind“
It’s challenging. ETHICS has been getting more and more submissions each year. This year we’ve had 378 submissions so far, and we’re still a day away from July 2, which is the halfway point in the year. So, I expect to receive at least two more submissions before then. If this keeps up, we’ll get about 760 submissions this year. Fortunately, though, things usually slow down a bit toward the end of the calendar year. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we finally exceed 700 submissions in 2026.
Have you noticed any obvious AI papers or hallucinations, Doug?
Yes, a few.
Good luck!
Interesting. There are fewer and fewer jobs and, presumably, fewer and fewer professional philosophers, and yet more submissions. I suppose every graduate student now submits to journals as a matter of policy thereby increasing the pool of submissions. (And/or the remaining philosophers submit significantly more per head than before.)
Fewer and fewer new jobs but has the total gone down in absolute terms? Or just the rate of increase?
I wonder if the number of philosophers is decreasing. If by “professional” we mean those with faculty positions, then maybe. But if we mean those of a qualified education / background who are interested in research, contemplation, and publication (etc.), then I wonder if the “independent researchers” have kept the numbers of the discipline up.
Yes, that might be. I must admit I never thought that that number would be high. Journals must see these numbers, though, since they ask for affiliation. (But then again, many people who don’t have jobs, still have affiliations.) Still, I would be surprised if this was the explanation for the increased number of submissions.
Perhaps there are fewer and fewer jobs in the US, but the philosophical community extends beyond the US. Another reason could be that more and more non-US philosophers submit to these journals. For example, it has become increasingly important in Europe to have publications ins peer-reviewed journals. 20 years ago, you could become a professor with no publications in English, but this is hardly possible any longer. And I think the situation is quite similar in China, for example. So it might just be the result of internationalization.
Yes, this has to be a big part of the answer. The change over the past decade regarding this in both European and Latam philosophical communities (for instance) has been very obvious.
Publications in English peer-reviewed journals is very valuable here in China, but I think it’s not (yet) true that you cannot become a professor with no publications in English.
That being said, there are definitely more and more people submitting from China.
I’ve had a paper under review for eight months and no reviewers have been assigned, so I’m very sympathetic to the backlog issue. Would it be helpful for authors to suggest possible reviewers? This is standard practice in adjacent disciplines (political science), and I wonder whether it might help clear the backlog in a timely fashion.