journals
TagWays to Increase Diversity of Authors in Philosophy Journals
A recent series of articles on diversity and philosophy journals at the Blog of the American Philosophical Association (APA) culminates today with various suggestions for how editors can improve the diversity of authors they are publishing. (more…)
Hypatia and other Journals Successfully Tricked Into Accepting “Fake” Papers (Updated)
Three writers, working as a team and using pseudonyms, produced and submitted to academic peer-reviewed journals 20 “fake” papers—papers written with the intent to spoof certain areas of research and trick or embarrass editors and reviewers working in those areas. Seven of the papers were accepted, and four have already been published. (more…)
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 ..
Derogatory Language in Philosophy Journal Risks Increased Hostility and Diminished Discussion (guest post) (Update: Response from Editors)
The following is a guest post* from Sophie Allen (Keele), Elizabeth Finneron-Burns (Warwick), Jane Clare Jones, Holly Lawford-Smith (Melbourne), Mary Leng (York), Rebecca Reilly-Cooper (Warwick), and Rebecca Simpson, concerning two articles recently published in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. (more…)
Journal of Ethics Founding EIC Steps Down after 23 Years
J. Angelo Corlett, professor of philosophy at San Diego State University, founded the Journal of Ethics in 1995 and has served as its editor-in-chief since then. In an editorial in the journal last month, he announced he was stepping down as editor-in-chief and made some remarks that readers might find of interest.
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…)
Self-Citation and Anonymous Review
How should you go about preparing an article for anonymous peer-review if you cite yourself in your article? There are a couple of issues here that suggest that mere redaction is not usually enough. (more…)
New Journal: “Precollege Philosophy and Public Practice” (corrected)
A new journal, “Precollege Philosophy and Public Practice,” will have its inaugural issue in winter 2019. It will be an annual, interdisciplinary, online and open-access journal. (more…)
Medical Ethics Journal Infected by Anti-Vaxx Fraud (guest post by Christian Munthe)
The “Insanely Low Acceptance Rates” of Philosophy Journals
The dirty secret of philosophy is that we have insanely low acceptance rates—often well under 10% —for papers. This low rate is only defensible if you think that publication in philosophy has the kind of inductive risk that any false positive leads to society’s catastrophe. Nobody thinks that. (more…)
Peer Review or Perish: The Problem of Free Riders in Philosophy (guest post by Elizabeth Hannon)
“Here’s a radical suggestion, using the only weapon/motivational device editors have: If someone fails to fulfill their duties as referee, the journal will not accept submissions from that referee.” (more…)
Do Journals Favor Affiliated Authors?
“Do academic journals favor authors who share their institutional affiliation?” That’s the central question of a recent study, which finds evidence that suggests the answer is “yes.” (more…)
Journal of History of Philosophy Lifts Moratorium on Early Modern Submissions
Late last year, the Journal of the History of Philosophy (JHP) had announced that it would not be accepting new submissions on early modern philosophy and would be treating “revise and resubmit” verdicts on manuscripts as rejections. JHP editor Jack Zupko (Alberta) has now announced that these measures are no longer in effect. (more…)
The Most Popular Philosophers in the “Absurdly Narrow Canon” of Philosophy
Which figures in the history of philosophy are philosophers today paying most attention to? In a recent editorial in the British Journal for the History of Philosophy (BJHP), editor Michael Beaney (KCL, Humboldt) surveys recent publications to identify what changes have taken place in who is popular among historians of philosophy, and what changes he thinks should b..
Diversity in Philosophy Journals
The Pacific Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA) will include a session on diversity in philosophy journals, with several speakers and an additional panel consisting of representatives from nearly 20 academic philosophy journals. (more…)
Springer Agrees To China’s Demand To Censor Its Journals
Springer Nature, possibly the world’s largest academic publisher, has agreed to demands from the Chinese government to block access in China to more than a thousand articles, according to reports at Financial Times and The New York Times.
Are Women Philosophers Underrepresented in Top Ethics Journals? (guest post)
The following is a guest post* by Maggie Dalecki (Manitoba), Meena Krishnamurthy (Michigan), Shen-yi Liao (Puget Sound), and Monique Deveaux (Guelph), based on research presented in “The Underrepresentation of Women in Prestigious Ethics Journals,” forthcoming in Hypatia. (more…)
A Desk Rejection Scorecard (guest post by Antti Kauppinen)
The following is a guest post* by Antti Kauppinen, currently an Academy of Finland Research Fellow at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Tampere, and soon to be (as of 2018) Professor of Social and Moral Philosophy at the University of Helsinki. It’s about improving desk rejection: the practice of editors at academic journals rejecting papers without ..
Bypassing The Journals
In the lively and still ongoing discussion of “The Publication Emergency,” a few commenters suggest the use of an online archive for posting papers. See this comment from Jc Beall. In a related comment written at about the same time as Beall’s, jdkbrown says: (more…)
The Publication Emergency (guest post by J. David Velleman)
The following is a guest post* by J. David Velleman, professor of philosophy at New York University. It discusses the problems that arise from graduate students publishing more and more, and presents a pair of suggestions for how to improve matters. (more…)
Quality Control, Methodological Bias, and Persistent Disagreement in Philosophy
Recently, mainstream philosophy journals have tended to implement more and more stringent forms of peer review (e.g., from double-anonymous to triple-anonymous), probably in an attempt to prevent editorial decisions that are based on factors other than quality. Against this trend, we propose that journals should relax their standards of acceptance, as well as be les..
Women in Philosophy Journals: New Data
There are new findings on the presence of women in academic philosophy journals:
- Though approximately 25% of philosophy faculty in the United States are women, only 14-16% of the articles that appear in the discipline’s top journals are by women.
- Journals which do not use anonymous review seem to have a higher percentage of women authors than journals which ..
What Philosophy Journal Decisions Look Like
Sometimes a picture is worth a million words, or at least a number of numbers. Writer Natasha M. Frost has created a visual representation of publication decisions made at a number of academic philosophy journals, as reported by authors at the Blog of the APA’s new journal survey site: (more…)
Systematic Discrimination in Peer Review: Some Reflections (guest post by by Kyle Powys Whyte)
“As these issues of peer review and editorial review continue to arise every year, I hope people increasingly address the systematic problems—taking into consideration the ongoing history of discrimination and the thorough reforms that need to take place in the world of academic publication.”
The following is a guest post* by Kyle Powys Whyte, Timnick Chair in ..
The Latest Philosophy Papers
A new website has been launched that lists new philosophy articles as they are published. The site, called The Philosophy Paperboy, is the creation of Andrea Raimondi, graduate student in philosophy at the University of Nottingham, with web design by Lorenzo Cataldi. It’s searchable, and currently tracks over 400 journals. (more…)
A Way To Increase Transparency In Academic Publishing
How can we make journal editing more transparent? That’s the question of a timely article in the recent issue of Metaphilosophy, “Why not Open the Black Box of Journal Editing in Philosophy? Make Peer Reviews of Published Papers Available,” by Caroline Schaffalitzky de Muckadell and Esben Nedenskov Petersen (both of the University of Southern Denmark).
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Citation Patterns Across Journals (guest post by Brian Weatherson)
“Anything can happen in a small sample, but it was enough to suggest to me a hypothesis: There is no such thing as a generalist philosophy journal.”
The following is a guest post* by Brian Weatherson, Marshall M. Weinberg Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan. It originally appeared at his blog, Thoughts, Arguments, and Rants.