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Journals that accept “shorter” papers?

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

I have a paper with around 4.5k words. I could see a version that is shorter that I can submit to Analysis, but I could also see one that is around 5.5-6k words. Are there good journals that accept shorter 5.5-6k papers? Would journals that have 8k word limits normally be happy to accept these?

I could be wrong, but my sense is that most journals are willing to consider “shorter” papers like these. It all depends on how good the paper is. Of course, shorter papers may generally “accomplish less” than longer papers tend to do–but of course there are exceptions.

What do readers think?

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13 responses to “Journals that accept “shorter” papers?”

  1. Anonymous

    AJP writes

    “A typical Original Article for this journal should be at least 4500 words, and no more than 8000 words. Longer pieces of exceptional significance, up to a maximum of 15000 words, will be considered.”

    From my past experience, AJP enforces word limits rather religiously.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    Yes, journals that accepted 8000 word papers also accepted shorter papers. For example, I have a paper in Erkenntnis that is less than 5000 words (and is now cited over 50 times). The paper should be as long as the argument needs.

    Reply
  3. Anonymous

    American Philosophical Quarterly has a 7,000 word limit.

    Reply
  4. Daniel

    Sadly I tend to write papers on the longer side, so I don’t have as much firsthand experience with this as one might like a commenter to have, but my sense is that it would be extremely rare for most journals to turn down a 5.5 to 6k paper due to insufficient length. That’s a perfectly fine length for a paper, especially before reviewers suggest changes which might lengthen the paper.

    Reply
  5. Anonymous

    I think Ratio accepts papers between 6,000 and 7,000 words.

    Reply
  6. Anonymous

    So others are also trying to figure out what to do when their contributed paper to the Philosophy of Science Association Meeting is inevitably rejected?

    Reply
  7. Anonymous

    I’ve seen shorter papers (~5k word, 10-15 journal pages) at AJP. Interestingly, though, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a short paper at Mind or Nous. Perhaps I’ve seen one or two short papers at PPR. I just presume that shorter papers won’t have a great shot at those places, and never sent my shorter stuff there.

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      i thought mind had a word limit of 8k? do they expect every paper to be that length?

      Reply
    2. Anonymous

      Offhand I can think of several classic short papers: including “Advertisement for a cure for incontinence” (MInd) by Sorensen (1 page); “Gödel’s Second Incompleteness Theorem Explained in Words of One Syllable” (Mind) (3 pages). In Nous, there is Zemach’s “Practical Reasons for Belief?” which is 3 pages. Now, maybe editorial policies have changed recently to prohibit such short papers, but I doubt it. A likelier explanation is that it is hard to write good short papers and authors probably don’t send these journals many short papers.

      Reply
  8. Anonymous

    This is anecdotal, but a submission of mine to the British Journal for the History of Philosophy was once rejected for being too short (it was around 5.5k words). I guess that history of philosophy papers do tend to be a bit longer on average.

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      This is very amusing though because BJHP also has the shortest max word limit among history journals, at 8k. Make up your minds guys!

      Reply
      1. Anon

        I’m not sure where you got that info from, but the website says the max is 10k for a research article and 5k for a discussion note: https://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?show=instructions&journalCode=rbjh20

  9. Michel

    FWIW, I have tried submitting shorter papers to a few generalist journals which accept them but don’t specialize in n shorter papers. My experience has generally been that referees don’t treat them as short papers, but rather as incomplete papers needing a few thousand more words.

    Reply

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