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Which Journals Do You Read Regularly? And Why?

Brian Leiter

A graduate student nearing the end of his studies writes:

How many philosophy journals do you follow closely?  Obviously all of us become familiar with a sizable number of journals as we try to keep abreast of research that is relevant to our own.  But are there journals with which you are familiar in the sense that you never miss a new issue, whether that means that you at least make sure to read the abstracts/first few paragraphs of each article or (most impressively) always read each article?  Which journals do you follow closely in this way?  

Interesting questions, no doubt on the minds of others starting out in the profession.  Replies from readers?   Signed comments preferred, but a valid e-mail address required in any case.

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17 responses to “Which Journals Do You Read Regularly? And Why?”

  1. Andrew

    I try to keep track of everything written in PPR, Nous, J Phil, Mind, Phil Review, AJP, and Phil Studies (RSS feeds make this quite easy). I personally subscribe to only one journal: Analysis. Its short articles often make for nice–and quite manageable–reading sessions.

    Reply
  2. Enzyme

    I've got the contents pages of a few bioethics journals on my RSS feed, and I subscribe personally to Philosophy and the Journal of Applied Philosophy because – franky – I like them.

    But I'd like to pose a related question: does anyone have significant time to spend on journals? If so, how do you manage it? Obviously, it'd be lovely to be able to have a look at them as they come out – but given the other demands on a lecturer's time (I'm talking about the UK here), that's not possible.

    I hate to admit it, but most of my contact with the journals comes in the form of a keyword or two in the search box on their websites when writing lectures or a paper of my own. There's precious little opportunity for serendipity or curiosity. I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one in this situation.

    Reply
  3. Thom Brooks

    The journals I follow most closely are the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Ethics, Legal Theory, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Philosophy & Public Affairs, Utilitas, and, of course, the Journal of Moral Philosophy.

    Reply
  4. Doug Stalker

    Journal of Philosophy
    Philosophical Review
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research
    Philosophical Studies
    American Philosophical Quarterly
    Philosophy and Public Affairs

    Reply
  5. Brian Leiter

    So I think the original questioner didn't simply want lists of journals, but some indication of what you do with them–do you read every article? Does it depend on how close it is to your specialty? I took the question to be seeking some guidance about what professional norms/expectations are in terms of 'keeping up' with a journal literature.

    So, for example, I get electronic tables of contents for a range of journals: Phil Review, J.Phil., Nous, PPR, Mind, Brit. J. Hist. Phil., Ethics, PPA, Law & Phil, European J. Phil, Phil. Books among others. But I certainly do not read every article, or even close, in each of these journals–there *might* be one article per issue I actually read in full, maybe one or two others I at least glance at. (I also get several journals on which I'm on the editorial board, but I consume them at about the same rate–maybe there is an article in each issue I want to read.) I also get Philosophers' Imprint and Notre Dame Dame Philosophical Reviews (both via e-mail). I read probably a quarter to a third of NDPR reviews (I also read a decent number of reviews from the journals above that run them)–I find reviews are *very* useful for keeping abreast of what is going on in other parts of philosophy that are of interest, but not a specialty. Finally, there are a small number of journals (like Nietzsche-Studien) that don't offer table-of-contents service, which I either check on-lien or in hard copy at various intervals.

    Reply
  6. DNR Evans

    I print out articles from journals I would like to publish in. I place them in a makeshift queue on my desk. Every morning before I begin working on the dissertation, writing a lecture, or whatever needs to be done, I read one article. At least for me, I read journals related to my fields of interest and ones I would like to publish in. This allows me to (1) keep abreast of the latest research in my field and (2)helps orient my mind to the specific writing style and requirements of those journals. Additionally, when I'm on the internet I get NDPR and other journals on my Google Reader.

    Reply
  7. Amit Anurag

    I try to follow as many articles as I can from these journals, no matter whether a published article is directly related to my work or not:
    Mind,
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research,
    Erkenntnis,
    Ratio,
    Philosophical Studies, and
    Synthese.

    Reply
  8. Neil

    Why isn't the answer "all of them"? I check the new items on philpapers.org every day. It only takes a minute.

    Reply
  9. Molly Mahony

    For those of you not interested in subscribing to RSS feeds, you might want to take a look at my Tables of Contents service blog: TannerTOC @
    http://tannertoc.blogspot.com/

    I admit it can be slow due to the amount of information on it.

    Reply
  10. Pavel Davydov

    In some semblance of order:
    (1) Nous
    (2) Philosophical Review
    (3) Philosophers' Imprint
    (4) Mind
    (5) Philosophical Quarterly
    Among the specialized journals, I try to follow Linguistics and Philosophy and Journal of Philosophical Logic. I also find the survey articles in Philosophy Compass to be extremely useful, so I end up looking at almost all of the ones I come across.

    Reply
  11. Shane Ralston

    Since I'm a philosophical pragmatist, I try to check the TOCs of the major pragmatism journals regularly: (1) Transactions of the C.S. Peirce Society, (2) Contemporary Pragmatism, (3) The Pluralist, (4) Education and Culture, and (5) The Journal of Speculative Philosophy. I don't have the time to read every article, but will read those that pertain to a topic I'm currently researching. More often than not, I'll read a few book reviews, just to see what's out there, since I've recently been appointed the book review editor for Education and Culture. I also subscribe to the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) areas I'm interested, and get to see early drafts of papers that will eventually be published as journal articles. Reading these papers can generate some exciting e-mail correspondence between authors and readers, especially when something the reader has written becomes an object of criticism in the author's paper.

    Reply
  12. David Chalmers

    Following up on Neil's note: you can monitor arbitrary sets of philosophy journals at
    http://philpapers.org/recent?preset=journals

    If you have a PhilPapers account, editing "my sources" under the "journal and archive filter" in the right column allows you to choose just what to monitor. After configuring the page you can also set up an RSS feed for it (bottom of right column).

    Reply
  13. D.P. O'Connell

    RSS feeds, Philpapers and tannerTOC are all great ways to keep track of what is coming out and, as Neil mentioned above, given the databases now, there is no reason not to have a comprehensive overview of article titles, at very least. One can then download or order relevant articles and read them at leisure.

    Nevertheless, I think there is something to be said, too, for simply walking over to that building known as the library once every 6-8 weeks and thumbing through what is there, provided your library has a comprehensive collection of journals in philosophy. I do this still (taking about 2-3 hours), and look through the TOCs, and if an article seems relevant then I read the first paragraph or two, or the abstract, and make a note of it if it's something I want to download later. While this may seem like a waste of time to some, I still do this because, almost every time, this exercise yields something I would have otherwise missed taking a closer look at.

    Reply
  14. Gualtiero Piccinini

    I try to see at least the table of contents of the top 20 or so philosophy journals (including phil science, excluding ethics journals). I read a few abstracts of articles that sound interesting, and occasionally I read articles. I choose what to read based on content and quality (and sometimes author).

    On a related note, most of the articles I read are selected through bibligraphic searches for projects that I'm working on, rather than by following specific journals.

    Reply
  15. Matt Drabek

    I read the abstracts of all articles published in the closest specialist journals for what I'm doing (in my case, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, Philosophy of Science/British Journal, Philosophical Psychology, various HPS journals, and a number of others I've left out).

    For journals outside my specialty, I have the same story as G. Piccinini, I read them as they come up in bibliographic searches.

    Reply
  16. Eric

    I follow the RSS feeds (and PhilPapers updates) for most of the major 'general' philosophy journals, but I skim all of the articles in Ethics, PPE, Journal of Applied Philosophy, and Political Theory. I generally closely read everything in Ethics and PPE, while I'm more selective about others.

    One journal that I read almost every entry from is Philosophy Compass. The survey articles, even outside of my areas, are always interesting and very helpful. I also have the Stanford Encyclopedia on RSS feed, so whenever a new entry is posted, I give it a once-over.

    I do follow D.P. O'Connell's suggestion by wandering over the the journal stacks and glancing through issues of journals outside of my areas of specialization.

    Reply
  17. Neil Delaney

    I never know what should be read. Depends on if it turns out that it is any good, which usually takes time.

    One of my undergrad teachers, a very distinguished person by any lights, once said to me: "My colleague often publishes in Phil Review; I'm usually too lazy to bother. This is probably why my stuff ends up in, oh hell, Topoi."

    Sorta funny…

    Reply

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