Re: undergrad journals

[Robert Charleston <rc3673@student.open.ac.uk>]

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Ahem...

I may seem a bit biased, but trust me on this... The BJUP was set up 
precisely because there is no other really good English-speaking undergrad 
philosophy journal to speak of. I spent months looking for one to submit 
papers to, drew up a list of about 15-20 (almost all american and almost 
all with embarrassingly bad cod-latin names) and found every single one 
suffered from (at least) one of the following:

[This is biased towards people interested in submitting as well as 
reading. If you're just looking for a good read, and have already got 
through the BJUP, it might be worth following the links at the bottom of 
this mail.]

- Online-only status (many other proper 'grown-up' publications won't even
  allow authors to cite on-line-only papers in their own work - it's a
  poor cousin to print; any journal worth talking about at the
  undergraduate level, and worth submitting to *has* to print; preferably
  with an ISSN; obviously a bit different as you get further up the
  philosophy ladder, but an online-only UG journal doesn't rank any higher
  than BUPS-DIS itself (which has more readers than some online journals
  and has a permanent referencing system for URLs, don't forget - if you
  want to discuss an essay without going through review, it's a good place
  to post it up...)

- Print versions that might as well be online. Photocopied A4. Not a
  journal, a fansheet or newsletter. Admirable, and exactly the kind of
  enthusiasm that BUPS is here to support, but not citable.

- Crap / non-existent editorial board or review process. UGs selecting
  papers by other UGs isn't particularly useful - staff and PG reviewers
  and double-blind anonymisation are a minimum requirement for credibility
  of publication. To you and the people who will read your paper.

- Limited distribution. There's no point sending a paper half-way round
  the world if the journal just gets distributed to 50 students in
  Bogsville, Arizona and dumped on a website at the back of the philsoc's
  server. Don't go to anything tied to a single uni...

- Regular publication. There's no point submitting a paper if the journal
  hasn't published in 9 months or promises an issue on its website that
  should have appeared ages ago. You don't know if the promised issue will
  actually appear (mostly, they don't - putting a journal together is very
  complex and time-consuming... loads of opportunities for things to go
  wrong and stop publication) So you've tied up your paper, can't submit
  it anywhere else, and there's just a promise that it might appear 'one
  day'. This is precisely what happened to the papers we sent from BUPC 05
  to New Minds. Which made me very angry indeed...

- Actually in hibernation. Loads (>50%) of the leads I followed up turned
  out to be completely dead, and had been for at least a year. Students
  and work, etc. etc....

- Continental-excess. I like a bit of continental, young lady, but
  honestly - some of the publications that *do* put out essays regularly
  are very, very continental - and not particularly good stuff either.
  Would annoy Robbie for letting the side down... Lots of reader-response
  theory, bad poetry and Hegel, not very much else.

So the BJUP was designed specifically from the ground up to do the job 
properly. Basically to be a professional journal with the same standards 
of submission and review, design and publication, and price point as 
something like 'Mind' or 'Religious Studies' (two I read very closely when 
designing the BJUP); but with a far wider and more generous distribution; 
and a more accessible feel to the papers.

The irony, if you haven't spotted it, is that I cannot actually publish my 
own (properly argumentative) papers in the BJUP. Apparently it would be 
very much frowned upon, negating any benefit from being published... So 
you're actually one step ahead of me, James, as I seem to remember that 
you may have been published somewhere...

But if I may make a suggestion to anyone wondering, if you can't find 
anything as good as the BJUP (and I'm pretty sure you won't - we've worked 
damn hard to make it the best thing on the UG market) elsewhere then:

1. Take out a print subscription - the proofs came back from the printer 
the other day and they are fantastic - and issue 1(2) is already started, 
and will be available to skim in proof form at the Sheffield conference

2. Read (and perhaps, if you get close to the end of your degree and have 
some time to spare, submit) to 'Philosophical Writings' - the PG journal 
of the University of Durham; and the Postgraduate Journal of Aesthetics:

http://www.dur.ac.uk/philosophical.writings/
http://www.british-aesthetics.org/Home.aspx?tabindex=6&tabid=63

These are both good, reputable, respected journals with national 
organisations backing them (phil writings publishes the winning paper from 
the NPAPC - BUPC's postgrad equivalent; and the PJA is backed by the BSA) 
and really excellent editorial boards and reviewers.

There may be others (maybe Nick or another PG would be able to make some 
further recommendations?) but these are both good starting points.

Right - back to work, lots of emails to answer!

All the best

Rab
---
Almost certainly an impartial observer;


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