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Meeting Report: America Philosophical Association

Deborah Poff, COPE Vice-Chair and Chair Elect, recently presented COPE views on a variety of issues and activities related to publication ethics and philosophy. Deborah presented the current commitment of COPE to assess and respond to particular issues for editors and publishers in the humanities and social sciences which includes our current survey.

The panel discussion was held at the Central American Philosophical Association meetings in Denver, Colorado. The session was chaired by Adriel Trott and included Julia Driver, Amy Ferrer, Camisha Russell and Yannik Thiem. Representatives included co-editors, editors, COPE as well as members of the APA Mellon funded research project on publication ethics in philosophy.

The session was lively and wide-ranging and included a discussion of the particular differences in violations of publication ethics which distinguish philosophy and the humanities from biomedical and STEM disciplines. Issues of diversity, peer review and anonymity as well as challenges in identifying peer reviewers with the willingness and appropriate experience to be inclusive with respect to both culture and geography were among the issues discussed. Discussions of the issues raised in the Mellon project which is a multifaceted study among primarily philosophy editors and boards, as well as more broadly among the leadership in the APA were discussed. The results of this study will be released for consultation and commentary from the more general community in the near future.