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The best journals specializing in moral and/or political philosophy

Brian Leiter

So with over 310 votes in our last poll, here are the results (the top 20 are bolded):

1. Ethics  (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices)
2. Philosophy & Public Affairs  loses to Ethics by 201–60
3. Journal of Political Philosophy  loses to Ethics by 243–18, loses to Philosophy & Public Affairs by 217–41
4. Journal of Moral Philosophy  loses to Ethics by 253–13, loses to Journal of Political Philosophy by 147–77
5. Utilitas  loses to Ethics by 246–16, loses to Journal of Moral Philosophy by 131–104
6. Oxford Studies in Metaethics  loses to Ethics by 245–14, loses to Utilitas by 114–108
7. Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy  loses to Ethics by 254–10, loses to Oxford Studies in Metaethics by 110–109
8. Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics  loses to Ethics by 249–13, loses to Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy by 121–97
9. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice  loses to Ethics by 250–21, loses to Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics by 118–116
10. Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy  loses to Ethics by 245–10, loses to Ethical Theory and Moral Practice by 129–95
11. Politics, Philosophy & Economics  loses to Ethics by 246–8, loses to Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy by 100–96
12. Economics & Philosophy  loses to Ethics by 236–14, loses to Politics, Philosophy & Economics by 109–72
13. Journal of Applied Philosophy  loses to Ethics by 245–15, loses to Economics & Philosophy by 99–88
14. Journal of Ethics  loses to Ethics by 249–13, loses to Journal of Applied Philosophy by 105–92
15. Social Theory & Practice  loses to Ethics by 249–13, loses to Journal of Ethics by 112–94
16. Social Philosophy & Policy  loses to Ethics by 246–9, loses to Social Theory & Practice by 109–72
17. Journal of Social Philosophy  loses to Ethics by 247–8, loses to Social Philosophy & Policy by 88–85
18. Journal of Value Inquiry  loses to Ethics by 249–12, loses to Journal of Social Philosophy by 96–87
19. Political Theory  loses to Ethics by 240–10, loses to Journal of Social Philosophy by 86–84
20. Public Affairs Quarterly  loses to Ethics by 242–12, loses to Political Theory by 101–73
21. Res Publica  loses to Ethics by 245–11, loses to Public Affairs Quarterly by 89–83
22. Bioethics  loses to Ethics by 233–14, loses to Res Publica by 88–80
23. American Journal of Bioethics  loses to Ethics by 230–14, loses to Bioethics by 83–55
24. Hastings Center Report  loses to Ethics by 229–9, loses to American Journal of Bioethics by 81–51
25. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal  loses to Ethics by 233–10, loses to Hastings Center Report by 64–57

A couple of observations of my own.   The top four are pretty solidly the top four:  each outperformed the next closest journal by a wide margin.  Special kudos to Robert Goodin (founding editor of J. of Polit Phil) and Thom Brooks (founding editor of J. of Moral Phil.) for establishing their journals' reputations so quickly and effectively.  Outside the top four, there is more clustering, with some effective ties.  I was astonished by the strong showing for Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, a journal I don't think I'd ever had occasion to look at–but it may be that it has a higher visibility in Europe, from which, as we know, many readers hail.  Given the number of important papers that have appeared over the years in Social Philosophy & Policy, I'm surprised it didn't land squarely in the top ten:  my guess is this has something to do with the fact that while the papers are ultimately peer-reviewed, it is an invitation-only journal.  Finally, it's striking that the journals specializing in bioethics do not seem to have a strong reputation, compared even to other "applied" journals; that is consistent with my own impression that bioethics is still viewed by many philosophers as a weak field.

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18 responses to “The best journals specializing in moral and/or political philosophy”

  1. Bill Edmundson

    I based my vote solely on what I found cited in a bibliography of democratic theory I have been compiling. My tally mostly aligns with the poll ranking. But I discovered quite a few cites to Land and Philosophy, which was not on the list polled. Had it been, it would have ranked among the top 10. Ditto American Political Science Review and Perspectives on Politics. Granted, there is more to moral/political than democratic theory, and the journals just named might not count as specializing in moral/political philosophy.

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  2. Untenured

    I would have thought that bioethics journals would rank lower merely by virtue of their narrow scope. Even the other "applied" journals, e.g., Economics and Philosophy, have much broader scope than most bioethics journals. The same is true of other unlisted applied journals like Law and Philosophy, which publish way outside the narrow realm of direct questions pertaining to the philosophy of law.

    Perhaps their narrow scope yields less good work overall. But it's also possible that folks outside that particular corner of ethics, who aren't necessarily of the opinion that it's a "weak field", nevertheless judge that narrow specialist journals (e.g. AJOB, HCR) produce less good work (or have that reputation) merely because such work is less broadly appealing to those outside that narrow field. It is also possible that folks ranked these lower by default, if they don't engage with that work. I'd think this would be another expected consequence of mixing in highly specialized journals.

    One other point about bioethics journals: You didn't include Journal of Medical Ethics, which I would think has a larger philosophical readership than at least HCR, and maybe even AJOB (though I could be wrong), and I would expect would rank much higher among these.

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  3. Fritz

    There's probably two reasons the bioethics journals score where they do. First, there's a bunch of them, so they split the vote. (Those four are all good and basically interchangeable–plus there's a bunch more not on the list) Second, they're much, much more interdisciplinary than "philosophy" journals. AJOB, for example, has the highest impact factor of all four–in fact, it's (6.500) over 5x higher that of Ethics (1.159). So that's just saying there's a bunch of physicians and academics from other fields who use it; the fact that it's comparatively lower among *philosophers* doesn't mean it's not a great journal. But that's just an example, I think you could say the same thing about some of the others.

    PAQ is another one that's quite good, but was left off the first poll; I think it might have done better if it was on the whole way through. ETMP and JAP are both very European. I think they're both much more highly regarded internationally than either is in the US. Thanks for running these, Brian, was fun to see.

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  4. Bill Edmundson

    That should have been "Law and Philosophy," not "Land and Philosophy" (apologies to Henry George).

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  5. Matthew Kramer

    For what it's worth, I ranked each of the following journals at least three places lower than it is ranked here: Journal of Moral Philosophy, Utilitas, Ethical Theory & Moral Practice, and Journal of Applied Philosophy.

    And I ranked each of the following journals at least three places higher than it is ranked here: Journal of Ethics, Social Theory & Practice, Social Philosophy & Policy, Journal of Value Inquiry.

    Still, every journal in the top 20 here was in my top 20, except that I included Res Publica and excluded Public Affairs Quarterly.

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  6. Post-Doc

    The top 5 in this more recent list of ethics-specializing-only journals is the same as the top 5 ethics-specializing journals in the previous poll, which also included non-ethics-specializing journals: 1 Ethics, 2 PPA, 3 Journal of Political Philosophy, 4 Journal of Moral Philosophy, 5 Utilitas.
    After that, the two polls vary – e.g. the 6th highest of the ethics-specializing journals in the previous poll was Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, but in this more recent poll it has slipped to number 9.
    Which perhaps suggests that the top 5 is relatively 'solid'?

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  7. Chris Bertram

    In an age when many people use VPNs, these polls are no longer secure against a highly-motivated editor voting multiple times.

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  8. Brian Leiter

    I'm not sure that's correct about the Condorcet service from the Cornell computer science department. I'll inquire. Does anyone know?

    Reply
  9. Enzo Rossi

    One thing that's puzzling about this poll is that it includes Political Theory but not other journals in that field: European J of Political Theory (full disclosure: I edit it), Contemporary Political Theory, Constellations, etc. Then again, the fact that PT is at n. 19 shows that maybe it would've been better to not ask philosophers about a political theory journal.

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  10. Post-Doc

    One possible factor that might be influencing these polls is that people tend to vote higher for journals that they themselves have published in (or expect to publish in). So journals that publish more papers each year might well tend to receive more favourable votes on this basis. I don't know how much Social Philosophy & Policy publishes, but as an invitation only journal it may be that it is getting fewer of these 'loyalty' votes from people who have published in it or expect to publish in it.

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  11. Matt

    Two quick thoughts: I ranked Politics, Philosophy, and Economics ("PPE") a fair amount higher than it came out here because it seems to me to be one of the most dynamic and interesting political philosophy journal these days. I'd not be surprised if, in a few more years, it's essentially tied with the Journal of Political Philosophy. On Social Philosophy and Policy, I ranked it fairly close to where it came out because, while it has published a lot of good papers, it also pretty regularly has published some real stinkers, too. No doubt this is in part because of its "invitation" format, and the nature of some of the invitations. That doesn't take away from the better papers, of course, but the variance seems to me to be a good deal higher than with some of the other top journals. (the nature of the journal has changed a bit since it moved to Arizona, and maybe this will change the reputation, but I'm not certain yet.)

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  12. Brian Leiter

    I figured Political Theory was the only one that had any chance with the philosophers, and, as you note, it only barely squeaked into the top 20.

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  13. Matt

    In relation to Enzo Rossi's comment, I'd put the European Journal of Political Theory above Political Theory and Constellations, for sure. It, too, is a really good "younger" journal. I would have ranked it in the top 20, probably top 15.

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  14. David Levy

    I am curious to know why the range of "applied" journals did not include anything from Business Ethics (Business Ethics Quarterly and Journal of Business Ethics come immediately to mind). My sense is that these would have ended up at or near the bottom, along with the Bioethics ones, but it would have been interesting to see how those applied journals would have split the vote.

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  15. Udo Schuklenk

    not an impartial observer here (i edit one of the journals listed near the bottom of your 'best' list) but one who couldn't even bother to vote. Most of the applied ethics journals (not all) are publishing multidisciplinary content as opposed to straightforward philosophical content. The JME (not listed) publishes a significant amount of empirical content as well as philosophical material. One of the higher impact factor journals (bmc medical ethics) doesn't feature at all on the list. Interesting that in 'over 310' voters' minds impact is not a significant consideration when they determine 'best'. Fair enough. I guess, putting my Editor hat on, I need to contend with somewhat other metrics indicative of success, if not 'best', including (but not limited to) article downloads – aka actual readership, citations, article reprint permits, mundane schtuff like that.

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  16. Brian Leiter

    Journal of Medical Ethics should have been on the list, a simple error of omission. It may well be that these journals have stronger reputations outside philosophy and as reflected in other kinds of measures, such as impact.

    Reply
  17. Udo Schuklenk

    FWIW, I don't think those journals are interchangeable. KIEJ really publishes longish (significantly above 5-6k word length) papers, HCR seems to aim for a more general audience, AJOB publishes very few papers but provides for extensive commentary and debate coming with each. It's doubtful, for instance, that you'd easily transplant the kind of paper you'd typically find in KIEJ in AJOB. What is probably true is that many (most) of the readers of those journals aren't among the followers of this blog, because their academic interests lie elsewhere. That's no more than an informed guess, of course.

    Reply
  18. diana

    Not only bioethics is regarded as a weak field – engineering ethics or technology ethics share the same fate. i see no journals such as Springer's Science and Engineering Ethics or Philosophy of Technology (which regularly publishes articles on ethics of technology) among those listed

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