News for June 2010
2009 PSA Essay Contests
Each year the Philosophy of Science Association sponsors contests for (1) the PSA Graduate Student Essay Award and (2) the PSA Recent Ph.D. Essay Award. The financial support for these awards has been made possible by the generosity of past presidents of the PSA.
Application guidelines for the two awards are as follows:
PSA Graduate Student Essay Award
Essays may be on any topic in the philosophy of science and should be submitted to Philosophy of Science before 1 August 2010. The prize-winning essay will be published in Philosophy of Science and the author will receive a $250 prize. The essay must be accompanied by a letter from the student's department certifying that the author is a graduate student in good standing. Previously submitted or published articles are not eligible for the award. Please send an email, including the relevant documentation, to philsci@uci.edu.
PSA Recent Ph.D. Essay Award
A prize of $250 will be awarded to the best article in Philosophy of Science written by someone who received a Ph.D. within the last five years. To be eligible for the contest, the article must have a publication date during the year 2009 and the author must supply evidence that their Ph.D. Degree was awarded after December 31, 2004 and before December 31, 2009. Please send an email indicating the article you wish to have considered for the award to philsci@uci.edu by 1 August 2010. Include relevant eligibility documentation with your email. Co-authored papers are not eligible.
Annual Report of the Editor-in-Chief of Philosophy of Science
I am pleased to report that Philosophy of Science is caught up in its publication schedule. This could not have been done without the excellent service of both the Editorial Board, several of whom have advised the journal on as many as six papers over the last year, and the many PSA members who have also served as referees.
Over the twelve months we received 357 regular journal submissions, not including book reviews and PSA 2008 and 2010 submissions. The overall mean time to first decision on regular submissions was 37 days, which is within our two-month goal. Accepted papers and rejected papers had shorter mean times to first decisions, 25 and 33 days respectively.
Conditional accept and encourage to resubmit decisions typically took longer than simple accept and reject decisions, with mean times to decision of 54 and 63 days respectively. This is largely due to referees and editors spending more time on these papers both providing advice to the author and explaining the conditions under which the paper might be accepted. That said, the mean time of 63 days is just outside the two-month goal, and hence represents an opportunity for us to improve this aspect of the review process.
PSA members have typically agreed to review when asked and most have subsequently submitted their reviews within 14 days. This is an excellent turnaround time in providing advice.
Thank you very much for your service to the journal and to the PSA.
Best wishes,
Jeffrey Barrett, Editor-in-Chief
