The Philosophers' Cocoon

A safe and supportive forum for philosophers.

Owned & Moderated by Marcus Arvan (University of Tampa)

Contact: marvan@ut.edu

Blog mission & moderation policy

IMPORTANT NOTE on how to ensure anonymity in commenting
Job-Market Reporting Thread (2025-26)
Job-Market Discussion Thread (2026-27)

  1. When is it time to pull a paper and resubmit at a different journal. I’m a postdoctoral researcher. I’ve had…

recent posts

about

  • Academic norms around romantic relationships with power imbalances?

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

    I have a question about academic norms around romantic relationships involving power imbalances, especially in the U.S., though I would also be interested in how this differs across countries. Clear cases are easy: most of us would say that a professor should not pursue a student, or that a TA should not pursue someone currently in their class, because of the power imbalance. But in practice, many cases seem much more ambiguous.

    For example, if a PhD student is over thirty and has no research overlap with a professor in the same department, would it still be inappropriate for that professor to pursue them? Or if a TA repeatedly invites students in the class to meals or private conversations in a way that seems intended to build romantic intimacy, but never explicitly says so, and then confesses only after the course ends, is that acceptable? Another case: if a married professor privately and repeatedly tells a female student that he and his wife have no real emotional relationship and that he remains married only for the children, but never explicitly proposes an affair or sends sexually explicit messages, is that still inappropriate?

    I am trying to understand how academic communities judge these gray areas, especially when the person’s intentions are never explicitly stated. (I should add that I am not asking this as a purely abstract question. I am currently one of the students in situations like these, and my friends and I have repeatedly encountered similar incidents.)

    Thoughts from readers?

    23

  • Tips for new faculty: how do you get paper feedback after grad school?

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

    I just graduated and will be starting a TT job in the fall, and I am trying to figure out the best way to manage the publication process without the support that grad school often provides.

    Here are some specific questions:

    1) How many people do you send papers to before sending them to journals? Who are they? Is it common to send papers to journals without having other eyes on them as one gets more and more experience publishing?

    Surely some people will recommend conferences, but in my experience a lot of conferences don’t seem to offer the kind of detailed, groundbreaking feedback that leads me to make major changes to my papers, so I feel like only doing that would leave something important missing.

    2) Relatedly, I have seen advice to not send papers to potential referees for feedback for fear of shrinking the referee pool, but I am also keenly aware that it is advantageous to an early career scholar to develop solid relationships with senior people in one’s subfield. I would have thought that one of the best ways to build such relationships (as well as improve my papers) would be to ask for their feedback on my work. Is this incorrect, or perhaps something that is more of a grad student move and less advantageous for someone with a TT job? If so, how does one go about making the kinds of relationships that will allow one to improve one’s work, get a sense of how others view one’s work, etc., so that one can help establish oneself in their relevant subfield.

    All good questions!

    What do other readers do? And how would you answer the OP’s questions in (1) and (2)?

    6

  • Submitting a paper to another journal after no response to a withdrawal notice?

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

    After a paper languished under review for over a year with no replies to inquiries, I wrote to retract it. Two months later I’ve had no reply to the retraction and I can still view my submission in the system. Is it safe to submit it to another journal or would it still be considered “under review” at the first journal and therefore against the rules?

    It seems to me that the OP did their due diligence to withdraw, and that they should feel free to send the paper elsewhere given that the original journal has been unresponsive.

    What do readers think?

    3

  • When a paper is stuck at “decision in process”?

    In our June “how can we help you?” thread, a reader writes:

    Perhaps June is the month for journal questions. I have a paper that is going on 18 months under review. The confusing thing is, it isn’t being held up by lack of reviewers or long review times. Instead, the reviews come in, and then it stalls at “decision in process” for long stretches. For instance, it sat at this stage for nearly 6 months before I got my first decision. I’ve been through a round of revisions, and I’m back at “decision in process.” My question is, how long should I wait before contacting the associate editor (or should I contact the associate editor at all)? I don’t want to annoy the editor, but I’m also very junior and worry about hitting another job market without many publications to my name.

    I don’t know, but it might depend on the journal. For example, I recall that Ethics has what looks to be a very involved decision process (involving the entire editorial board) after reviews are received. But in any case, given the length of time involved, I guess there’s no harm in checking with the journal.

    What do readers think?

    1