Guidelines for Reviewers

Philosophy and the Mind Sciences (PhiMiSci) publishes at the interface between philosophy of mind, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. Only manuscripts meeting the highest standards of scholarly quality, originality, and argumentative clarity will be accepted for publication.

There is no fixed format for the review, but please note these general instructions: 

  • We encourage reviewers to apply strict criteria regarding the quality and thematic scope of submissions as well as their structure and language. 
  • PhiMiSci does not have a word limit and accepts submissions in different lengths and formats (including theoretical articles, reviews, and commentaries). If the authors are aiming at a specific format, this should be reflected in the title and abstract. While we expect a majority of submissions to be between 4,000 and 12,000 words (excluding references), we do allow for exceptions if the length of an article is justified by its content. If this is not the case - i.e. if the article is unnecessarily long or too short - please comment on this in your review.
  • If the article has been submitted for inclusion in a special issue, it must clearly fall within the thematic scope of that special issue. Please also note that special issues may have different word limits!
  • Please note that PhiMiSci does not allow for more than two rounds of review, with very few exceptions. This means that we may ask you to review a revised version of the article, but it is unlikely we will ask you to review a second revision. 
  • The categories we employ are:
    • Accept submission: Use this category only in case no changes to content, structure, or language are required prior to publication. We expect that this will rarely be the case; this category is reserved for absolutely outstanding manuscripts.
    • Minor revisions required: Use this category if only minor revisions are required to transform this manuscript into a high-quality, publishable article. While this category does not guarantee publication, it indicates that publication is likely if the revision addresses the reviewers’ specific comments.
    • Major revisions required: Use this category if major revisions are required to transform this manuscript into  a high-quality, publishable article. 
    • Resubmit Elsewhere: Use this category for manuscripts submitted to special issues that would either be more appropriate for a different journal or that you believe do not fall within the scope of that specific special issue, but would be better suited as a stand-alone article published by PhiMiSci. If you use this category, please explain in your review whether the article should be submitted to a different journal or whether it should be submitted to PhiMiSci, but outside the special issue to which it was submitted. If the latter is the case, please indicate whether major or minor revisions are required.
    • Reject submission: Use this category for manuscripts that you do not expect to turn into high-quality, publishable articles even contingent on major revisions. 
  • If you have already reviewed this article (or an earlier version) for another journal, please let us know.
  • Please note that the editors-in-chief reserve the right to veto the publication of an article even if all reviewers have recommended publication.
  • For an article to be published, we require two clear reviewer endorsements.