This brief musing is prompted by Catarina's excellent post on the scarcity of women in Mind. In the interesting discussion that developed, it turns out that Mind does (or at least did in the recent past) practice triple blind refereeing. But lack of triple blind refereeing is not the only factor that might account for these low percentages. I believe that long review times combined with tiny acceptance factors might also be a contributing factor for why women do not publish much in top philosophy journals. Mind has, according to Cullison's journal surveys a long review time (7 months). Mind is not alone in this. For instance, Journal of Philosophy has 10.44 months as average review time. Not all top philosophy journals are slow. Noûs and PPR are faster. But the tiny acceptance rate might still be an additional barrier for people who need to get their first publications out, or to beef up their tenure dossier. People who are TT positions, or postdocs or grad students who try to get TT positions cannot afford to wait for a very long time for what will in all likelihood be a rejection. By contrast, people with tenure can afford to wait for a decision. Very long decision times give tenured faculty members an advantage, at the expense of (male and female) junior faculty, graduate students and postdocs.
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