The Philosophers' Cocoon

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Job-Market Reporting Thread (2026-27)
Job-Market Discussion Thread (2026-27)

  1. In the adjunct-y role I’m currently in, I’m a bit all over the place. There are some classes I’ve taught…

  2. I have a decent teaching profile for history (have taught Chinese philosophy, can also teach early modern and early analytic/pragmatism),…

  4. Should you ask references to update their letters every single year? I’ve been on the market 4 years in a…

  5. Just saw that there’s a new editorial assistant at AJP. Is this related to what Anonymous of Oct. 10 says…

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  • When someone cites but (woefully) misrepresents your work?

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

    Happily, someone cited my paper. Unhappily, they attributed to me a view which is the diametrical opposite of what I (and a very well-known, major international figure in philosophy of science on whose view I was elaborating) claimed. They made claims in the form of “Contra Scholars X and Y, I argue z.” Nothing in their argument rides on it, but I defended the very kind of framework they were advocating while they positioned themselves as doing the contrary. Their paper is in a top philosophy of science journal. What should I do?

    I suppose it might be possible to write the editors requesting a correction (erratum). But I’ve never encountered this kind of situation, so I don’t know! Sadly, I suspect it’s likely to become more common in the age of AI, as (or so it seems) more and more researchers offload things like literature reviews to bots. So, it may be increasingly important to be on the lookout for this stuff and correct it.

    What do readers think? Any helpful insights or experiences to share?

    16

  • Listing “selected publications” to avoid drawing attention to a low-ranked journal publication?

    In our recent thread on whether publications in lower-ranked journals hurt job-candidates (especially for jobs at research institutions), a reader asks:

    Say that a candidate has 15 publications in Various Tippy Top Journals, and 1 publication in No-name Low-Prestige Journal (say, because it’s on a topic that the top journals don’t care about). We’ve heard reported in this thread that that 1 outlier publication could actually hurt the candidate for some research jobs. From the perspective of appealing to premier research jobs, would it be smart for the candidate to simply leave that 1 outlier publication off their CV? Is there any reason not to do that? If they do make that choice, should they represent their CV publication list as “Select Publications”? Or does that not really matter?

    It seems wild to me that a hiring committee would hold one outlier publication against a candidate with an otherwise stellar publication record. But, in any case, we’ve discussed leaving things off CVs before and I recall the general consensus being that it’s a big “no, no”–as CVs are supposed to be full records a person’s career accomplishments. Then again, if the CV is transparent in the way the OP suggests, listing “Selected Publications”, then maybe that’s OK?

    What do readers think?

    20

  • How do people afford visiting fellowships during sabbaticals?

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

    How do people afford to take visiting fellowships during sabbaticals?

    My understanding is that even if one’s home university pays 100% of their salary, and even if they’re offered a visiting fellowship that pays a stipend, one’s home university typically won’t allow them to pocket more than 100% of their income. (So, in this case, they’d have to forfeit their additional stipend.)

    How, then, do people afford to relocate and live in the new area? Are visiting fellows expected to somehow continue paying their mortgage *and* rent at the visited university on their regular salary? How – unless they’re particularly wealthy – is this supposed to be viable?

    Good questions! Do any readers have any helpful insights to share?

    7

  • Do publications in lower-ranked journals hurt job candidates?

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

    I am wondering whether publishing in a lower-ranked but still established philosophy journal can actually hurt an early career job candidate. Suppose the journal is roughly in the 20–30 range in one of the journal meta-rankings, and the paper is outside the candidate’s main AOS.

    Obviously, publishing the paper in a more prestigious journal would be better. But could a publication at this level actually count against a candidate, especially for research-oriented jobs? For example, could it negatively affect how search committees perceive the quality of the candidate’s research, or would it generally just count as a modest positive?

    Any thoughts from readers?

    18