Publishing

Can I publish a paper?

Sure you can! And even if you don't succeed, you'll learn from the experience of trying, and may even get some useful comments on your work in the process.

Three Steps to Publishing Heaven:

Step 1: Write a paper

Write a draft of a paper. Ask your supervisor to comment on it. Present it to Philosophy Society. Improve it. Show it to your supervisor again. And so on. When you've got it into a polished state, progress to Step 2.

Step 2: Choose your journal

There's a handbook called Guidebook to Publishing Philosophy in the RSSS Philosophy Program Administrator's office which lists most of the international philosophy journals and gives information about how long each journal typically takes to review papers, what percentage of submissions get accepted, etc. This can help you decide which journal to send your paper to. Bear in mind:

• The subject matter of your paper: Which journals tend to publish papers on this topic? Where were the papers you refer to in your paper published?
• The length of the paper: Some journals have no word limit; others have a generous word limit; others publish only very short papers.
• The prestige of the journal: In general the better the reputation of the journal, the harder it is to get your paper accepted there (although of course there are exceptions to this rule). There's no harm in aiming high; although if the in the referees' or editor's view the standard of your paper falls well short of that required by the journal, you are unlikely to get lengthy and helpful feedback.

Once you've decided on the journal, find a recent copy in the library and follow the submission instructions. Send it off and forget about it. If you don't hear anything back for an unreasonably long time, chase it up. (How long is unreasonably long? If the journal sends you notification that your submission has been received, it may include an estimate of reviewing time. Chase it up when that expires. Otherwise, give them, say, three or four months.)

Step 3: My paper got rejected... now what do I do?

There are two basic categories of rejection:

• Resubmission invited: If the editor rejects the paper but invites you to resubmit it once you have addressed the criticisms raised by the referees, DO IT. If you manage to convince them that you have addressed the criticisms, they are very likely to publish the paper.

  Sometimes criticisms are good ones. Sometimes they aren't. Don't try to amend the paper to take account of what you regard to be bad criticisms; just deal with the good ones. Once you've done that, write a covering letter to the editor spelling out briefly how you have amended the paper in the light of the referees' comments. If you are ignoring a criticism because you don't think it's any good, say why in the letter. Send it off and forget about it.

• Resubmission not invited: Don't despair. The refereeing process is a highly subjective one. Just because two particular referees for Journal X thought your paper was confused and misguided, it doesn't at all follow that the referees for Journal Y won't think it's clear and insightful. Decide for yourself whether the paper needs changing in the light of the comments. Then send it somewhere else straight away - and forget about it.

Book reviews

Book reviews don't count for that much, but they do count for something. Respectable journals want their book reviews to be professional, well written and philosophically interesting; so having one published shows that you are capable of meeting these standards, and that's important if you have no, or almost no, other publications.

You are unlikely to be asked out of the blue to review a book, unless you know the editor or reviews editor of a journal personally; so you will have to procure an invitation...

1. Pick your book: Pick a book that has been published relatively recently and which you actually want to work on, or have worked on already. Reviewing can be time-consuming and difficult, and you don't want to waste time and effort on something you're not very interested in.
2. Get an invitation: Approaching the reviews editor directly generally doesn't work unless you happen to know them already (though it can do). Editors want their book reviews to be good - and if they don't know you from Adam they're unlikely to give you the benefit of the doubt. (Book reviews are generally not refereed.)

A better strategy is to ask around your supervisor, advisors or other members of staff. Someone is bound to either be or know the editor or reviews editor of an appropriate journal, and may well not mind approaching the journal on your behalf, putting in a good word for you and asking if the book is available for review. Remember to check that the journal has not already published a review of the book before you ask someone to do this for you. If the journal wants you to write the review, they'll normally send you a free copy of the book and give you around three months to write it.