Article Submission Update

Some news: my article on David Miller and Human Rights has been rejected by Phil Quarterly. This was what I expected would happen, given the stature of the journal. The reviewer's comments were really positive, and the main reason that they have passed is that they feel the subject matter is too specific for a broad philosophy journal. As for the content, there was very little criticism, so I'm very pleased with that! I've now submitted the article to the Journal of Applied Philosophy, which is hopefully a more suitable home for the piece. 

Encyclopedia of Global Justice

Springer are working on an Encyclopedia of Global Justice, due to be published in September 2009. The editor is Professor D K Chatterjee of the University of Utah.

The Encyclopedia of Global Justice will serve as a complete reference for all key terms and concepts of global justice, broadly conceived.
The question of justice across national boundaries, recently the focus of intense debate due to the ethical challenges of modern globalization, spans the range from extreme global egalitarianism to various kinds of extended nationalism and limited globalism. The topic covers several disciplines and raises both theoretical and applied issues in such areas as relations among nations, world poverty, human rights, global development, environmental concerns, and the justifiability of military conflicts, among others.
The Encyclopedia reflects this reality and provides an interdisciplinary approach that combines empirical research with theoretical arguments, drawing terms and concepts from political philosophy and theory, ethics, international law and legal theory, development economics, public policy, and applied ethics, including legal, business, medical, military, religious, environmental, and feminist ethics as they relate to all aspects of global justice. Because the term "global justice" is itself a matter of contention, prompting questions regarding how it relates to and differs from "international justice," an important part of the project is to clarify such definitional issues and include entries that seek to address the related methodological concerns.
The goal of this timely and comprehensive encyclopedia is to provide a premier reference guide for students, scholars, policy makers, and others interested in assessing the moral consequences of global interdependence and understanding the concepts and arguments that shed light on the myriad aspects of global justice. The Encyclopedia will be organized in A-to-Z format with cross-referencing of entries around a series of broad themes, making it convenient for students, scholars, and general readers to access the relevant entries on a specific theme.

I've been fortunate enough to have been provisionally assigned a couple of the entries: 'Associative Duties', and 'Duties to Non-Compatriots'. The word limits are short (500 and 2000 respectively) but hopefully I'll be able to be concise and clear!

More information on the project can be found here.

Here's Hoping...

I've just submitted my paper on David Miller's theory of rights to The Philosophical Quarterly. I choose Phil Quarterly on the advice of my supervisors who both agreed that it would be a good place to send it to, given the stature of the journal and their average response times. Given that this is the first time I've submitted a paper I'm finding the whole process rather intimidating. Still, I think it's the strongest paper I've ever written, and given that it is on a timely topic and is tightly focused so I'm tentatively hopeful. This hope is kept firmly in check however with the knowledge that Phil Quarterly is a very good journal and that I would be extremely lucky to be successful. I'm hoping for a fairly quick response and for some helpful reviewer comments even if (when?) it does get rejected. That way I can modify the paper and try again elsewhere.

Journal Submission

I've had some really encouraging feedback about my paper on Miller's theory of rights for the ALSP conference, and my supervisor thinks it would be a good candidate for publication. Apart from the task of getting it up to scratch for submission, I've also got to decide where to submit it to. This, it seems, is an important decision, for several reasons.
The done thing is to only submit to one journal at a time, and journals can take up to a year to come back to you, so it's important not to aim too high and completely wreck your chances. However, getting accepted to a quality journal will enhance your CV no end, so it is worthwhile being a bit ambitious.
There is also the issue of which type of journal to submit to - a political theory journal or a more traditional philosophy journal. I've been advised that a philosophy journal would be a better idea because politics departments (in the UK at least) will regard that highly, whereas the reverse is not so true - philosophy departments might consider political theory publications less impressive. This accords with my general impression of UK departments, but given that I'm currently in a philosophy department perhaps that's not so suprising?
My initial impression is that the Journal of Applied Philosophy might me a good choice, although they have recently published a paper specifically on David Miller. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad sign. The Journal of Moral Philosophy is also a possibility.