“1) Joao Fabiano looked recently into acceptance likelihood for papers in the top 5 philosophical journals. It seems that 3-5% is a reasonable range. It is very hard to publish philosophy papers. It seems to be slightly harder to publish in the top philosophy journals than in Nature, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, or Science magazine, and this is after the filter of 6 positions available for 300 candidates that selects PHD candidates in philosophy (harder than Harvard medicine or economics).”
This is a very real problem. Many people outside of philosophy do not realize how difficult it is to become an actual tenured philosopher, and even if that happens, to become a regularly-published philosopher. Philosophy itself is already highly self-selecting (highest average GRE of any grad school-bound college students), and the acceptance rates are very, very low. Further, only about half of those students who are accepted to the top PhD programs complete them. Of those who do complete them, I’d say about half (of the top programs) end up with tenure-track positions. Those who do get such positions may or may not have difficulty gaining publication, but it isn’t a certainty that their ideas will be widespread in any real way. So, for Joe Smart sitting at home on his couch, wanting his great ideas to be read by a lot of smart people, becoming a philosopher is probably a terrible way of accomplishing his goal.
“4) For people who consider themselves intellectual potentials and intend to continue in academia, my suggestion is to create a table of contents for a book, and instead of going ahead and writing the chapters, find the closest equivalent of some chapter that could become a paper, and try to write a paper about that. If you get accepted, this develops your career, and allows you to be one of the stand-outs like Ord, MacAskill and Bostrom who will end up working in the top universities. If you continue to be systematically rejected, you can still get around by publishing books and being influential in the way say Sam Harris or Richard Dawkins became influential. Since I find this to be the optimal strategy I’m aware of at the moment, it is the one I’m taking.”
This seems like a good suggestion. I do still think that good ideas can be published in journals, and books should contain journal-worthy ideas, but the journal process can be quite slow. This may be a way to kill two birds with one stone.
As a reference, I wrote a paper in 2012 that is going to be published in the next couple of months. I do not hold a PhD, but my co-author does. Our paper was presented at a very prestigious conference (multiple household names were also presenting, including a couple of superstars). We were rejected by five journals before we were accepted, and some of those that rejected us were less prestigious than the one that eventually accepted us. It was quite a long process, and I am certain that it is not the ideal way to advance one’s EA-related message.
“1) Joao Fabiano looked recently into acceptance likelihood for papers in the top 5 philosophical journals. It seems that 3-5% is a reasonable range. It is very hard to publish philosophy papers. It seems to be slightly harder to publish in the top philosophy journals than in Nature, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, or Science magazine, and this is after the filter of 6 positions available for 300 candidates that selects PHD candidates in philosophy (harder than Harvard medicine or economics).”
This is a very real problem. Many people outside of philosophy do not realize how difficult it is to become an actual tenured philosopher, and even if that happens, to become a regularly-published philosopher. Philosophy itself is already highly self-selecting (highest average GRE of any grad school-bound college students), and the acceptance rates are very, very low. Further, only about half of those students who are accepted to the top PhD programs complete them. Of those who do complete them, I’d say about half (of the top programs) end up with tenure-track positions. Those who do get such positions may or may not have difficulty gaining publication, but it isn’t a certainty that their ideas will be widespread in any real way. So, for Joe Smart sitting at home on his couch, wanting his great ideas to be read by a lot of smart people, becoming a philosopher is probably a terrible way of accomplishing his goal.
“4) For people who consider themselves intellectual potentials and intend to continue in academia, my suggestion is to create a table of contents for a book, and instead of going ahead and writing the chapters, find the closest equivalent of some chapter that could become a paper, and try to write a paper about that. If you get accepted, this develops your career, and allows you to be one of the stand-outs like Ord, MacAskill and Bostrom who will end up working in the top universities. If you continue to be systematically rejected, you can still get around by publishing books and being influential in the way say Sam Harris or Richard Dawkins became influential. Since I find this to be the optimal strategy I’m aware of at the moment, it is the one I’m taking.”
This seems like a good suggestion. I do still think that good ideas can be published in journals, and books should contain journal-worthy ideas, but the journal process can be quite slow. This may be a way to kill two birds with one stone.
As a reference, I wrote a paper in 2012 that is going to be published in the next couple of months. I do not hold a PhD, but my co-author does. Our paper was presented at a very prestigious conference (multiple household names were also presenting, including a couple of superstars). We were rejected by five journals before we were accepted, and some of those that rejected us were less prestigious than the one that eventually accepted us. It was quite a long process, and I am certain that it is not the ideal way to advance one’s EA-related message.