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Job-Market Reporting Thread (2025-26)
Job-Market Discussion Thread (2025-26)

  5. It has become more and more apparent I think a major speed-bump for my papers is that they are getting…

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  • Organizing papers to read / reading lists?

    In our May “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:

    I’m coming to the realization that I need to build a system to organize papers I’d like to read if I’m actually going to find the time to read them. Would love to hear from PhilCocoon readers about what kind of infrastructures they’ve designed for themselves/their reading lists. What does your reading list look like? Do you plan what to read in advance or do you read on a whim?

    Good questions! I don’t have any system beyond this: When I come across a random paper that I want to read, then I download it to my desktop and read it. If I find it of interest but don’t presently have any writing project related to it, I have a folder labeled “Readings”, with subfolders organized by topic–so I’ll throw it in there. But this isn’t the typical case. Far more often, I organize what I read around papers that I am currently writing or paper ideas that I have formed in my head and plan to write. In this case, I have a folder labeled “Papers in Progress” organized by paper title/idea. Then, as I read on that topic, I throw the readings in the relevant folder. That’s it for me!

    What do readers do?

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  • Writing samples: published or unpublished?

    In our May “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:

    Is it better to send a published or unpublished piece of work as a writing sample? And if published, do you send the journal’s pdf from the journal site, or your own manuscript?

    Good questions. I’ve heard that one should simply send one’s best work, published or unpublished, but I’m curious to hear from readers.

    What does everyone think? It would be great to hear from search committee members and successful job candidates in particular!

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  • An overview of grad school & the job-market in America?

    In our May “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:

    More out of curiosity than any practical use: as a recent UK postdoc, I’d like to be able to better understand all of the (to my eyes) distinctively American discussion of grad school and early career that I see. What is a dissertation committee and why does it require a small army of people? What’s all this R1/Rₙ business? Why does “going on the market” seem to have a meaning beyond just “starting to look for jobs”? Things of that nature. A big ask, but: can anyone offer a potted overview, or recommend one?

    I wasn’t aware that PhD students outside of the US might not have dissertation committees–but in any case, in the US a PhD student has to ask a group of faculty (usually 3?) to supervise their dissertation. The committee, which has a Chair, provides feedback, evaluates a “prospectus” before approving the student to move forward with a dissertation topic (which, if memory serves me, usually involves an overview of the proposed dissertation, a draft chapter or two, and “oral defense”); and, of course, serves as the evaluating body for the final dissertation itself (also involving an oral defense).

    The designations for different types of institutions (R1, R2, SLAC, etc.) are defined by the Carnegie Classification, which have to do with many things, including how large of a financial endowment the institution has, whether it is undergrad-only, has MA program, PhD programs, etc. A lot of other things go along with these designations. R1 (“research 1”) institutions typically feature lower teaching loads for faculty (2 courses per semester or less), whereas R2s typically have somewhat higher loads (3 per semester) and SLACs may have more (4 per semester). R1 institutions may also typically have a lot more resources for faculty, viz. labs, conference travel, etc.–but not always.

    Finally, “going on the market” doesn’t have a single determinate meaning, but I think it typically means something like, “I’m in my final year of graduate school and have to look for jobs full-bore, as I don’t have funding to stay in grad school for another year.”

    Does all this sound right to everyone? And, does the OP (or anyone else) have any other questions about grad school or academia in the US?

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  • Strategies for publishing short, unconnected criticisms of new theories?

    In our May “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:

    If I have a bunch of shortish, unconnected criticisms to offer for a bunch of new theories in my field, does it make sense to try to put together a paper that goes through them all, instead of trying to beef up each of them and scatter them across different papers?

    I’m thinking about a case where some of the points where some of the points can’t be made into papers on their own, either because they are too small, or because they are responses to work in an edited volume or a journal that doesn’t publish response pieces.

    This doesn’t seem to me like the sort of thing to try to publish in a single paper, particularly given that the OP mentions they are disconnected criticisms. To me, two possibilities present themselves: (1) publishing short “reply” papers (sometimes called “discussion notes”), and/or (2) trying to publish themselves in a journal that publishes short papers (such as Analysis).

    The one risk with spending time on reply papers, though, is that most journals only accept replies to articles that appear in their own pages–in which case, if your reply is rejected, you may be out of luck with it. It’s also not clear to me how often journals like Analysis publish short articles that merely criticize another article (typical Analysis articles seem to me to tend to advance novel original arguments).

    What do readers think?

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