The Philosophers' Cocoon

A safe and supportive forum for philosophers.

Owned & Moderated by Marcus Arvan (University of Tampa)

Contact: marvan@ut.edu

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

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  • Submitting to PPA (and other Wiley journals)?

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

    I am an ABD PhD candidate grappling with how to approach morally problematic publishing issues. As many of us know, the board of Philosophy and Public Affairs (PPA), much like the board of the Journal of Political Philosophy, rightly resigned some time ago due to Wiley’s unacceptable publishing demands. However, unlike the latter, PPA has managed to continue its operations with a new editorial board.

    It seems that people keep submitting their work to the journal, and high-quality articles are still being published regularly. This brings me to my dilemma: Should I submit to PPA? I am currently just a candidate seeking the best possible venues for my publications, and PPA remains the ideal fit for my research.

    If established scholars do not seem to care about the controversy, is it necessary for me to be the one acting on principle? Furthermore, as the journal appears to be functioning well, I suspect that in the near future, let’s say in five years, the past controversy will be neglected or forgotten. As a result, PPA will likely regain its full reputation as if Wiley had never made those impermissible demands.

    Prospectively speaking, do I still need to worry about the ethics of submitting there? Or am I overthinking my obligations as a junior scholar in this situation?

    My moral disposition tells me to keep boycotting Wiley. But this should then apply to other Wiley journals as well as all other monopolies such as Springer, which would mean we are running out of high-quality options. Long story short, would you submit to PPA from now on?

    What do readers think?

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  • Prioritizing top-tier specialist or 2nd-tier generalist journals?

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

    I’m trying to publish a paper on a fairly niche topic. How should I prioritize between top-tier specialist journals and second-tier generalist ones, from a career/CV perspective? Background: I already have publications in top-tier specialist journals, but not in generalist journals.

    What do readers think?

    2

  • How can we help you? (January 2026)

    Now that it’s a new year, it’s time for a new “how can we help you?” thread.

    For those of you unfamiliar with this series, this is a chance for you to post openly or anonymously in the comments section below on anything you could use help with related to the profession. After you post your query in the comments section, I will then post new threads for readers to discuss your query. 

    As usual, feel free to ask questions on anything (within the Cocoon’s mission) that you could use help with, including but not limited to:

    • The job-market (applying for jobs, etc.)
    • Issues in the profession (including issues of social justice)
    • Graduate school
    • Publishing
    • Teaching
    • Work-life balance
    • Mental health & well-being
    • Professional or personal struggles
    • Etc.

    Ask away – we’re here to help! 

    Finally, a quick reminder of the following RULE: Please do not submit replies to other comments in this thread. It makes these threads unwieldy and difficult for me to keep track of which queries I’ve posted new threads on. If you’d like to respond to a comment in this thread, please wait until I dedicate a new post to the person’s query myself and comment in that thread instead!

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  • (How) do search committees read cover letters?

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

    Dear Search Committee Members,

    Are you actually reading our cover letters? Or are you looking at our CVs and Letters of Rec, or Writing Samples first, making some judgment, and rendering all the time we spend discussing fit in our cover letter moot? (After all, we are often told, especially here at the Cocoon by various commenters to other job market related questions, how important fit is.)

    As someone firmly on the market and looking to leave a bad situation, these are questions it would be nice to have answers to. In general, when in your reading of a dossier do you get to the cover letter: is it first or not? Second, what are our cover letters doing for you assuming you actually weigh what we say in your overall assessment of us candidates? If a cover letter is never going to sway you against an initial judgment based on our CVs or Samples, why are we writing them?

    Thanks,
    The Typical Job Hopeful Cynic

    I suspect there is probably a lot of variance across different search committees (e.g. at R1s, SLACs, regional state colleges & universities), as well as across different individual search committee members (some might not care about cover letters at all, others might care very much). Still, it could be good to hear how some actual search committee members approach these things.

    Are any search committee members willing to weigh in?

    18