Publishing

Flipping the System: One Possible Solution to the Publishing Odyssey (guest post by Felix Bender)

In the following guest post*, Felix Bender (CEU / Amsterdam) surveys some proposed solutions to our current time-consuming, backed-up, overcrowded system of publishing academic articles, as well as some problems with them, before offering up an interesting solution of his own. (more…)

Editorial and Advisory Board of Journal Resign En Masse

“We recount our small act of resistance here because we think there may be lessons for the wider academic community.” (more…)

The Inefficiencies of Traditional Academic Writing

Most of the words in an average, considered-well-written paper are in some sense superfluous: for the right audience, you can usually boil it down to a few statements. (more…)

Trade Publishers: You Need To Fact-Check Philosophy, Too

As you all know, Kant’s moral philosophy includes the idea of universalization. (more…)

Refereeing Papers About Your Own Work

A graduate student in philosophy writes in with the following query:

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Philosophy Journals: A Crowdsourced Guide for Authors

Philosophers, are you tired of googling and clicking and scrolling to find out which journal is the right one for the manuscript you just finished? (more…)

Translation Plagiarism in Philosophy

“Many readers—from peer reviewers to journal readers—are underprepared to discern that a plagiarizing work has already appeared in print in another language under different authorship.” (more…)

Do Academics Overestimate the Importance of Journal Prestige?

A recent study of academics in the United States and Canada found that when it comes to choosing where to submit their work for publication, they “most value journal readership, while they believe their peers most value prestige and related metrics such as impact factor.”

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How to Write a Referee Report (guest post by John Greco)

The following is a guest post* by John Greco, who is currently Leonard and Elizabeth Eslick Chair in Philosophy at Saint Louis University, but will soon be taking up the McDevitt Chair in Philosophy at Georgetown University. It first appeared at The Philosopher’s Cocoon.

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PhilPapers Publishes Its First Book

In a move that may signal disruptive changes to academic philosophy publishing, PhilPapers, the free, massive, online philosophy database, has published its first book—an open-access edited collection. (more…)

A White Paper on Publication Ethics in Philosophy

A project that “seeks to foster greater awareness among humanities scholars and editors about ethical issues in publishing, with a focus on the discipline of philosophy” (previously) last week published a white paper with its initial findings and recommendations. (more…)

Stanford University To Stop Funding Its University Press (Updated)

Stanford University Provost Persis Drell has announced that the university will no longer be providing financial support to its university press, according to Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education. (more…)

Are Spam Filters Blocking Referee Requests?

A philosopher wrote in to share a lesson she learned recently. (more…)

Publishing Your Philosophy Book with Open Access

Some academic publishers offer authors of monographs an “open access” option. For a fee, the publisher will make a version of the text available online, free to anyone. (more…)

The Best Reviewer/Editor Comments You’ve Received

Last week people shared their horror stories on “The Worst Reviewer/Editor Comments You’ve Received“. But refereeing papers and editing journals is crucial and often underappreciated work, and, as some noted, sometimes the comments can be extremely helpful or encouraging or otherwise appreciated. (more…)

Who’s Down With QPPs? (Questionable Publication Practices) (guest post by Mark Alfano)

The following is a guest post * by Mark Alfano (Australian Catholic University & Delft University of Technology).

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Stakeholder Refereeing for Controversial Ideas: Replies to Some Criticisms

I appreciate the responses, here and elsewhere, to my idea of using stakeholder refereeing as an alternative to the pseudonymous authorship policy planned by the Journal of Controversial Ideas. (more…)

Solidarity Instead of Pseudonymity: an Alternative Strategy for “Controversial Ideas”

Last week we discussed the planned Journal of Controversial Ideas, which will allow its authors to protect themselves from possible negative professional and social consequences of their writings by using pseudonyms. There was a hint of paradox: the proposal to create such a journal was itself so controversial that perhaps it would have been better published pseudon..

What Is the Best Type of Open Access for Philosophy and Other Humanities Disciplines? (guest post by Roberta Millstein)

The following is a guest post * by Roberta L. Millstein, professor of philosophy at the University of California, Davis. (more…)

Philosophy Publishing and Europe’s New Open Access Requirement

Last week, eleven national funding agencies in Europe, along with the European Commission and the European Research Council, announced the creation of “cOALition S,” which set forth what is being called “Plan S,” an initiative requiring that any academic publications, including books, resulting from research they fund “be published in compliant Open Access Journals ..

Should PhD Students Embargo Their Dissertations?

Most universities offer PhD students the option to embargo their dissertations, usually for up to two years. During the embargo, access to the official dissertation is restricted. Its content is not placed online, and if someone wanted to read it, they would likely have to go to the library of the university at which the degree was earned and view the hard copy whil..

A Plea for More Short Journal Publications (guest post by Avram Hiller) (updated w/ reply to comments)

“The marginal increase in overall enlightenment that arises from the additional time philosophers use to perfect long articles (and for readers to read them) is in many cases less than what could be achieved by using our time in other ways.” (more…)