The Philosophers' Cocoon

How should "handbook" chapters (etc.) differ from journal articles?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I'd love to hear people's thoughts on how a handbook article should (or could?) look different to a paper published in a journal? Or even whether people feel that one should write differently for edited volumes than for journals?

I've heard people make passing comments suggesting that something different is expected. But I'm not entirely sure what the difference should be.

I think the obvious difference here is that handbook pieces should focus more on providing an overview of the literature on a topic than original argumentation. However, having written one myself, one may also be expected to provide an "opinionated" survey of the area one is writing on, which may permit more in the way of original argument than, say, an encyclopedia entry. As for edited volumes, I don't get the sense that they do (or should) differ much from journal articles. 

What do readers think?

Publications that 'opened doors' (especially outside of academia)?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

can people share stories about specific publications that they know opened doors for them, especially for opportunities outside of academia?

Good question! Do any readers have any helpful experiences to share?

Publishing regrets?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I was wondering if people can share stories about things that they regret publishing, or they they regret publishing how they did.

Interesting query. Do any readers have any stories to share?

Book proposal questions (and examples?)

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

In the mid-term future, I'm planning to write a book that will synthesise material from ~4 or 5 articles I've published in journals. I have some draft material for the manuscript, feel good about the book's place in the market, and am excited about writing it, but I feel somewhat confused about the whole book proposal process. I don't know very many people who've recently published books on the choosier presses to ask for advice, either.
I know that there has been some general book proposal advice given on here before, but does anyone know if anyone has ever publicly shared a successful book proposal they wrote for one of the big presses in philosophy? And does cold-emailing really stand a chance of success for e.g. OUP?

Do any readers have any helpful tips and/or successful proposals they can link to or are willing to share?

Good citation practices?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

What's the purpose of citations in papers?

I'm having trouble determining the line between over-citing and losing my tone (and risk just saying what other people are saying) but also under-citing (but feel like I'm doing something wrong).

I want to make nods to the literature and earn my way into a conversation through citations - but often, there just aren't people saying exactly what I'm saying and I lose my reader when I try to manipulate citations to fit my project.

Any thoughts would be helpful on people's views of citing other work in philosophy papers!

Good question. I've made my own views on this clear before: I think (A) the purpose of citations is to provide an accurate scholarly record of relevant work that has appeared before yours on a given topic, and (B) under-citation is a bigger problem than over-citation.

Against (A), I've heard some say that they only cite works that actually influenced them. However, I think this clearly misunderstands the purpose of citations, as it presupposes that there are no normative requirements on what constitutes sound scholarship. If one doesn't read the literature and you then publish a paper saying, "I'm the first to give argument X" when other people have given that argument before, but you don't cite any of it because you didn't read it and it didn't influence you, you've done something wrong. You've misrepresented the scholarly record, presenting yourself as providing a novel contribution that isn't novel (you've reinvented the wheel). This is why, in all scientific disciplines, one is expected to begin with a literature review. Yet, in philosophy, I've routinely seen scholars (both junior and senior) give examples on social media of their work not being cited by someone who gives a very similar argument several years later. I've also seen cases as a referee where people haven't cited anything after the year 2000 on a topic, even though there's a ton of work relevant to their argument. Although one obviously cannot read everything, one does have an obligation to be generally aware of what is out there and do due diligence in determining whether someone has given your argument (or something close to it) before. Of course, mistakes may be made, and you may miss something. But if your work cites widely, you've at least shown good-faith effort--whereas if you only cite a small number of sources and a simple PhilPapers search reveals that some of the top results for a keyword search on your topic provide arguments similar to your own that you don't cite, then I think that's a problem.

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours?

Fellowships in different political traditions?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

The last two academic years I was a fellow in a program funded by a libertarian/classical liberal center. I have greatly enjoyed the program and found it to be intellectually open and energizing, as well as a great opportunity to talk to other phd students from a variety of disciplines. It has also provided a very very helpful boost to my meager graduate stipend. The format of the fellowship was 3-4 colloquia throughout the year with read-ahead discussion sections during each one. Despite my enjoyment of the program, I'm curious if anyone knows of a similar style of fellowship that focuses on a different tradition (e.g. social democracy).

Do any readers have any tips?

Students missing exams due to travel?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

After not teaching for a while, I am teaching three courses this semester. In each of the courses I have had at least one student email mid semester to inform me that they will miss an exam due to travel. In three of these cases, the students asked if they could take the exam earlier or later than the scheduled date.

Is this normal behavior now?? And how do I preemptively discourage these kinds of requests - is more specific syllabus language enough (if it works at all)? I would like to hear of others' experiences and strategies.

I've experienced this too, and I don't know of any good way to preemptively prevent it aside from building policies against it into the course syllabus. Yet, despite this, I still get these kinds of requests. It does seem to me to be increasingly common behavior from students.

What do readers think? Any tips for the OP?

Transferring PhD programs after your dream supervisor leaves?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I'm a first year PhD student working with my dream supervisor. However, they are moving to a different school and I am really not sure what I should be doing - without my supervisor, the university really has just one other person I could work with and they are not in my department.

My supervisor has said a transfer to his new institution isn't possible after asking about it at his job talk/negotiations. He has said it would be possible to be a "visiting student" there and still work with him - possibly going back and forth between the two departments (they are in different cities roughly 7 hours away). The solution seems quite disappointing to me - I am only at this department because he was here, and staying here even if I get to visit his new department and possibly TA there as well does not seem the same as being a student there. I'm sure he could be on my committee from almost anywhere really if that's the case. The cost of living is also much higher in his new city and my funding would still be the same.

I guess my question is how should I approach a transfer to another department? Since it is April now, I wouldn't be able to start in September presumably. I am also not sure how transfer credits work - I have an MA as well and if I transfer for 2026-2027 academic year, would I have to re-start all my coursework again? Should I be applying as a regular PhD applicant or contact a professor I want to work with and explain my situation? Staying here is really out of the question - there is no one in the philosophy department I could work with or even take courses with. Leaving after 2 years to a new department only to start from the very beginning, for another 5-7 year program, seems like I just threw a few years doing coursework (albeit with a stipend so I recognize how lucky I still am).

I'm sorry this happened to the OP. I transferred PhD programs after two years due to similar circumstances (not just one but three faculty I wanted to work with were hired away by Rutgers). In my case, even though I had completed two years, the department that I transferred into only accepted 3 courses (or one semester) of transfer credit, and I had to complete some requirements that I had already completed at my previous program. That wasn't great, and I ended up spending a lot more time in grad school than I imagined I would. In the end, things worked out, but it was far from ideal. I wish I had better advice but the OP, but this at any rate is what I did.

Do any readers have any helpful tips or experiences to share? 

Best practices for cold-emailing people?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

What are the best practices for cold-emailing someone whose work you admire but that you don't know personally (especially if you're still early career)?

What does everyone think?

Tips for R&Rs with top-5 journals?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

Can we get updated advice or pointers on doing R&Rs for top-5 journals?

Does anyone have any helpful tips?

Tips for someone interested in doing book reviews?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I expect this has been covered before, but I'd keen to write a few book reviews for journals. Set aside the point that this is not especially valuable on a C.V., I simply like the idea of doing it. Also, it seems a nice way of engaging with - and (hopefully )making yourself known - to people who are doing important work in your field of research.

Question: How do people go about doing this? I've looked at some journals that publish book reviews, but they don't provide any information (e.g., a list of books available for review or how to go about reviewing a book).

Do you write the review and then submit it? Do you agree with the journal to write the review before doing so?

Books can be very expensive - can you expect journals to provide books?

I'm not sure how to go about seeking book review opportunities, but as for the other questions, yes, journals provide reviewers books and you normally agree to write the review before doing so. 

Do any readers have any other tips for someone interesting in seeking out review opportunities?

We Should Disaggregate Philosophy’s Graduate Admissions, Placement, Tenure and Promotion, and Publishing Data by Mother/Parent Status (Guest post by Maja Sidzińska)

By Maja Sidzińska

How well do mothers fare in graduate admissions in academic philosophy relative to fathers and those who aren’t parents? How well do they fare on the academic job market in philosophy? How well do they fare in achieving tenure and promotion in philosophy departments? And how well do they fare in publishing? Presently, there is no data that could yield answers to these questions. While Academic Philosophy Data & Analysis (APDA) (Jennings and Dayer 2022), Sherri Lynn Conklin, Irina Aramonova, Nicole Hassoun (2020), Schwitzgebel and colleagues (2021), Zippia’s editorial team (2021), and Hassoun and colleagues (2022) disaggregate some graduate admissions, placement, tenure and promotion, and publishing data about our discipline by categories such as race and gender, whether or not members of the profession are mothers or parents is not captured by any of their data.

But we should capture such data. This is because we have information from other professional contexts that shows that motherhood in particular is a key driver of the gender pay gap (Grimshaw and Rubery 2015; Chung et al. 2017), and pay can be understood as a proxy for the kinds of markers of professional success considered above for academic philosophy. The status of being a mother explains up to 80 percent of the gender pay disparity (Miller 2017; Peterson 2024). In other words, it is primarily motherhood, and less so womanhood as such, that is associated with lower pay relative to male peers, and therefore with lower professional attainment. Exact figures are difficult to specify because data metrics, methods, and scopes vary dramatically across empirical studies. It is not always clear whether the findings do or do not control for other variables, for instance, for education or for work experience. Furthermore, studies diverge on the implied direction of explanation, with some suggesting—in line with neoliberal economic assumptions—that mothers’ choices (e.g., to end or pause their educations or careers) cause pay disparities, while others suggest that a lack of quality, affordable childcare causally structures such “choices.” The direction of explanation changes whether a study implies that it’s rational for mothers to earn less or not. And it changes whether a study implies that it is motherhood per se (however it is defined) or whether it is the social conditions under which people mother that causes professional disparities.

Tips for proofreading (with AI)?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I struggle with proofreading. I never manage to completely eliminate small errors from my published work, and I am embarrassed by this. Does anyone have any tips for more effective proofreading? Has anyone managed to leverage AI to effectively help with proofreading and editing?

I'm not a great proofreader either and am curious whether AI is helpful too.

Do any readers have any helpful tips to share?

Choosing between 'Oxbridge' or top-20 American PhD program?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I'm an American prospective PhD student deciding between a funded offer at Oxbridge and a funded offer at a top 20 US program. Would anyone would be willing to share their thoughts on doing a UK vs. a US PhD program? (Especially in light of the current political situation in the US)

I think I'd choose the funded offer at Oxbridge. Seems like the better program anyway, and there's no telling what's going to happen in the US. 

What do readers think?

How will US politics affect the job market?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I am wondering how the new president will affect the upcoming job market (especially in America)? More revealingly: is this recent political turn a significant hit to my chances of success given that I am a non-American grad student working on Black/Africana philosophy, planning on applying next cycle?

I think one can only speculate at this point, but I wouldn't be surprised if it does. There are also obvious issues with respect to immigration, civil liberties, and human rights for the OP to bear in mind, as well. 

What do readers think?