The Philosophers' Cocoon

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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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  • When reviewer 1 recommends acceptance and reviewer 2 recommends major revisions?

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

    Suppose I got two reviewers’ reports: reviewer 1 recommends publication and reviewer 2 recommends major revision; the editor invited me to revise the paper. Should I just consider reviewer 2’s suggestions/comments and revise my paper accordingly, assuming that reviewer 1 gave me the green light? Or should I keep reviewer 1 in mind when I revise it? For example, should I worry that if I do a “major” revision, reviewer 1 might not like it and change their mind? I guess different journals may have different policies but I just want to get a general sense.

    This is a tough one. I think there may be a risk that reviewer 1 may not like some of the major revisions one makes. The best thing I think one can probably do here is to make the best revisions you can and then explain in detail in the “response to reviewers” document one submits with the revisions why you made the revisions you did. As a reviewer of R&R’s, I’ve often read these documents carefully to see what other reviewers said and why the author made the choices they did. One other possible thing to do is to pay careful attention to the things that reviewer 1 liked about the paper and try not to change them if at all possible.

    What do other readers think?

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  • Do search committees care how recent a candidate’s teaching evaluations are?

    In our new “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks, “Do job search committees care about how old one’s teaching evaluations are? Does it matter if they are not recent?”

    I wouldn’t be surprised if it did make a difference, as committee members might wonder why a candidate didn’t include more recent ones. Might the candidate be trying to provide evaluations from years ago that aren’t representative of the kinds of reviews they generally receive? Then again, I don’t know how seriously committees take student evaluations these days given the empirical research on them.

    Do any readers have any helpful inside insights to share from the hiring side?

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  • First Review of “Why Its OK to be a Moderate”

    By Michael McGowan at Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy:

    Arvan makes a well-reasoned, well-researched, and well-written case for viewing political moderates as the unsung heroes of democratic societies for well over a century…

    Why It’s OK to Be a Moderate is a necessary and timely contribution to the growing body of literature aiming to understand our contemporary political situation in conversation with the lessons of history and with an eye toward the future. It is a great book released at the perfect time, and I will be recommending it to students, family, and friends.

    The book is available for purchase here and here.

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  • Tips for finding & applying for postdocs?

    A reader writes in by email:

    “I was just hoping to get some advice regarding postdocs specifically. I’m currently writing my thesis at a Canadian university and I’m slowly starting to think about the job market and postdocs. I’m kind of lost about the latter. How does it work? Are we supposed to cold email the faculty we’d like to work with and see how it goes from there? I noticed that a lot of universities I’m looking for don’t advertise for postdocs, or don’t even have a webpage about it in the same way they provide information about their graduate programs. Does it mean that the process is more organic and social at this point? Also, how does it work in terms of funding? Do universities in the US and the UK usually provide internal funding for postdocs or are we supposed to apply for funding from government agencies? If I understood correctly, postdocs in Canada usually have to secure funding from SSHRC.

    Any other advice from your readers about how to make a good impression to potential advisors would be really appreciated as well (other than having read their work of course).”

    I don’t know much about postdocs. Do any better informed readers have any helpful tips?

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