What venues are there for short papers?

Sun 03 Nov 2013 10:21 AM

I have written several papers recently which have turned out to be a bit under 3,000 words each. I could make them longer, of course, but I think they address everything they need to address in order to make the point that I want them to make.

To extend one of these papers, I'd have to widen its scope. Instead of being a short paper that gives a concise argument for P, it would probably become a longer paper that gives arguments for P and Q with implications for R. Worse still, it could become a paper primarily about Q with a section addressing P. But I really think that P is important enough to have a paper written about it, even if I can make the point in 3,000 words!

But where can one submit a paper of this length, without having referees either reject it or insist that it should be resubmitted in a longer form?

Obviously Analysis, but hopefully there are other options. I searched the web for advice and turned up blog discussions from 2007 at Leiter Reports and at Thoughts, Arguments, and Rants. A few comments:

1. The discussion is a bit confused because the original question is posed about "discussion notes", which might mean either short articles or articles that are a direct response to just one other article. I have something in the works that's a discussion piece in the second sense, but it's comfortably long. The two short items are more general.

2. Brian Weatherson suggests that lots of short items should just appear as blog posts, especially if they are just one-off responses to an article or book. I totally agree. Just blog it and move on is good general advice for short items of the 'Some Philosopher Is Wrong' variety.

3. In addition to Analysis, people recommend Phil Quarterly and Dialectica. So there are some options, at least.

4. The commenters on both posts are enthusiastic about the idea that there should be a new journal aimed at short pieces, an on-line or even open-access affair after the fashion of Analysis. One commenter even says that there is something like that in the works but he's not at liberty to share. I suspect, since that was 2007, that it never came to be.

Do any of ya'll have better or more current advice? The three venues I listed above give me someplace to start, but perhaps the landscape has changed in the six years since those blog posts.

Comments

from: Tom

Sun 03 Nov 2013 12:31 PM

Another journal publishing short papers is Thought which is associated with the Northern Institute of Philosophy at Aberdeen. That might also be the journal hinted at at the Leiter discussion!

from: P.D.

Mon 04 Nov 2013 09:46 AM

Thanks, Tom. It's disappointing that Thought is an old school, dead tree, closed access journal. My library doesn't subscribe. Given the state of library budgets and journals, I suspect that's typical.

from: Derek C.

Wed 13 Nov 2013 02:28 AM

Hey P.D.,

I was also going to suggest Thought. I still have access through VCU (undergrad), so if you need any articles just shoot me an email and I can send you a pdf.