Submissions


Philosophy of Science: Official Journal of the PSA

All submissions must be made through the Philosophy of Science Editorial Manager website.


Author Guidelines

Please read these guidelines carefully to help avoid delays with your manuscript.

Manuscripts

The submission should not have been previously published and should not be currently under review by another journal. Submissions should be double-spaced. The manuscript should include an abstract of approximately 100 words. A paper may not exceed 9,500 words, including abstract, footnotes, and references.

Manuscripts must be prepared for anonymous review. Please see the section 'Preparing Your Paper for Anonymous Review' on this page. 

When you submit your paper on the Philosophy of Science Editorial Manager website, the paper will be built as an Adobe PDF which you must view and approve. When you view the file, make sure that it has all figures, illustrations, references, footnotes and the bibliography. The submission will only be forwarded to the editor after you have approved the submitted files.

File Format

Acceptable submission formats are determined by the Editorial Manager software. Editorial Manager must be able to build an Adobe PDF from your files. You will be required to preview and approve the built file before the submission is complete.

File formats must be PDF (for submission only), Microsoft Word, TeX, or LaTeX. If you are using TeX or LaTeX, please ensure that your source file can be compiled using only standard libraries.

Figures and Illustrations

We strongly prefer that graphics be incorporated into the main file wherever possible. If you send us figures in a separate file, please make sure that:

  • There is just one figure per file
  • It is very clear where the figures should be inserted into the text.
  • The figure is print-quality. Scans are not normally print-quality.
  • You have permission to use any figure that you have taken from another source.
  • The file is in a standard, widely readable, format for graphical files — JPEG, GIF, EPS (Encapsulated Postscript), or TIFF.

Preparing Your Paper for Anonymous Review

As a step toward avoiding bias in the review process, the journal makes every effort to review papers without communicating the author's identity to the reviewers. To this end, please ensure that your paper does not contain information that communicates your identity to the anonymous reviewers. We will be unable to begin the review process until we feel that this has been suitably accomplished.

To prepare your paper for anonymous review, please follow these guidelines:

  • There is no need for a title page. The first page of the paper should contain the title, immediately followed by the abstract, immediately followed by text of the paper. Your name should not appear on this page as the author.
  • Generic references to 'I' or 'me' (or other first-person pronouns) are permitted, unless they appear in conjunction with evidence that would lead the reader to infer to whom the pronoun refers.

Acceptable:

"In this paper, I will show that adaptationism is a grave sin."

"My argument in section 2 applies here as well."

Not Acceptable:

"As I have argued elsewhere..."
Correction: "As Jones (2001) has argued..."

"As I argue in (Jones 2001)."
Correction: "As Jones (2001) argues."

"This argument is fleshed out in my (2001)."
Correction: "Jones (2001) makes this argument in more detail."
  • Check that the paper has no running headers or footers with your name
  • Omit acknowledgements or references to personal communication with other academics.

How to Submit

Registration and login are required to submit papers to Philosophy of Science and to check the status of current submissions. Registration and submission are done through the Philosophy of Science Editorial Manager which can be accessed at https://www.editorialmanager.com/phos/default.aspx


Copyright Notice

Manuscripts should be submitted to Philosophy of Science with the understanding that upon publication copyright will be transferred to the Philosophy of Science Association. The author will maintain the right to put an electronic pre-print copy of the paper on a personal web site.


Privacy Statement

Philosophy of Science will not use your personal information for any reason that is not related to your business with the journal, nor will we sell, rent, or give it to any other person or organization. If your paper is accepted for publication, your contact information will be sent to the Cambridge University Press.