Information For Authors

Argument: Biannual Philosophical Journal publishes contributions in the following sections:

  • Articles and treatises: maximum number of words 7,000 (c. 40,000 letters & spaces). Please list full word count including references and abstract.
  • Polemics, debates, interviews, polemical book reviews, translations into Polish, papers on teaching philosophy, obituaries and memories, essays “through philosOFFer’s lens”, etc.: maximum 3,500 words (c. 20,000 letters & spaces).
  • Reports, commentaries, book notes, etc.: maximum 1,500 words (c. 4,000 letters & spaces)
  • Announcement and invitations: maximum 300 words (c. 1,800 letters & spaces)

All contributions (MS Word) should be submitted to the address: argument.journal@gmail.com

Along with her or his submission the author is required to send a signed copyright declaration.

The journal charges no fee (or APCs) for publishing an article.

Ethical and reviewing procedures are specified here.

The prospective authors are kindly asked to conform to these FORMAT GUIDELINES:

  • The languages accepted for publication are: English, Polish and German.
  • Articles submitted for publication in Argument: BPJ should be addressed to: argument.journal@gmail.com. In order that manuscripts may be blind-reviewed (i.e. read in ignorance of authorship), we request that names of authors and their institutional affiliations not appear on manuscripts or the electronic copy.
  • The list of references (full bibliography), including both the primary and secondary sources, should be enclosed at the end of the paper. For details see below.
  • An abstract of 200–250 words at the beginning of the paper is required, as well as a few keywords.
    • The summary should have a structured form, i.e. reflect structure of an article (background, material and methods, results, conclusion).
    • Keywords should not repeat the title of the manuscript.
  • Do attach in a separate file one-paragraph author’s bio (academic degree, affiliation, main interests and titles of recent publications, etc.).
  • Author’s current postal address.
  • All contributions should be written in MS-Word; Font: Times New Roman, 12 point (for the main text) and 10 point (for the footnotes); spacing: 1,5 for the main text, or 1,0 for the footnotes and for extended (40 words or longer) quotations, which should be inset and single-spaced. Margins: 1 inch margins on all sides Justification: full justification; turn off the hyphenation option in your software to avoid end-of-line hyphens.
  • Persons (authors, editors, etc.) referred to in the paper for the first time should be mentioned with their full first name. In subsequent occurrences and in bibliography use initials only (e.g., J.P. Smith).
  • Quotation: use ‘single quotation marks’ to set off quotations within the text, and “use double quotation marks” to set off quotations within quotations. When citing sources both in the body of the text and in the footnotes, use short form citations, e.g.  … in Smith (2004: 265)… or … (Smith, 2004: 265). If you refer to the source to compare only, use: (e.g. Smith, 2004).
  • For longer comments use footnotes. Footnotes, when used, should contain only substantive information. Bibliographic citation should be in-line (see below for examples). Note indicators are superscripted arabic numbers without parentheses.
  • Titles: Book titles are italicised; article titles are enclosed in quotation marks if mentioned in the body of the text (but skip quotation marks in Bibliography). Conference titles are in quotation marks, not italics.
  • Foreign Language Issues: all technical terms in Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Chinese, French, etc., except proper names, are italicised.
  • Use a font that contains characters with the necessary diacritical marks. We recommend Times Roman Transliteration.
  • Follow British spelling, for example for words ending in -ise/-ize use -ise. The -yse form for such words as ‘analyse’ is the only correct spelling in British English. Also use British punctuation style: commas, full stops, semi-colons, question marks and exclamation marks fall within quotation marks only if they are part of the quoted material.
  • Main headings are CAPITALISED, and the sub-heading  s p a c e d.
  • Any terms or phrases emphasised by the author are  s p a c e d (NOT italicised or boldfaced).
  • Grammar: ‘That’ to be used only in restrictive relative clauses; ‘which’ to be used in descriptive relative clauses. ‘Since’ to be used only with reference to a passed period of time, not as a synonym of ‘because’; ‘while’ to be changed to ‘although’ when not used specifically in terms of a time relationship.
  • Numbers: Numbers one to ninety-nine are written out; numbers 100 and over are in numerals (but 36 percent). No elision of numbers: pages 232–238, not 232–38; 1980–1984, not 1980–84. Chapter one, chapter two, etc., not chap. 1 or chapter 1.
  • Dates: 1500s, not 1500’s.; 1960s, not sixties; seventh century, not Seventh Century or 7th Century; 650 B.C., A.D. 1998, 621 B.C.E. (B.C.E. and C.E. are preferred to B.C. and A.D.); March 5, not March 5th.
  • Bibliographic reference in text: citations of sources are separated from text by a space, with author’s last name, coma, date of the publication, colon, page numbers within parentheses. Examples:  (Smith, 1976: 43); (Thompson, Cannon & Narr, et al., 2001); (e.g., Spinger, 2005: 331–352).
  • BIBLIOGRAPGY (to be attached at the end of the paper, and contaiing only references. All articles, chapters, books, web-sites or other cited materials should be listed alphabetically in chronilogical order):
    • Book:
      • Ryle, G. (1949). The concept of mind. London: Hutchinson.
      • Goetz, S. & Tallaferro, C. (2011). A brief history of the soul. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
    • Translated book or a part of the book:
      • Kant, I. (1958). Critique of pure reason. (N. Kemp Smith, Trans.). New York: The modern library.
      • Yogasūtra (1989). In: The Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali. A new translation and commentary. (G. Feuerstein, Trans.). Rochester: Inner Traditions International.
    • Edited volume:
      • Wolf, L. M. (Ed.). (1968). Philosophy and science. New York: Guilford Press.
      • Thompson, D., Carr, T. D., & Raine, K. L., et al. (Eds.). (2003). Ethical issues. Albany: State University of New York Press.
    • Multivolume work, encyclopedia or dictionary:
      • Wiener, P. (Ed). (1973). Dictionary of the history of ideas (Vols. 1–4). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
      • Posner, R. (1987). Romance languages. In: The encyclopedia Britannica: Macropedia (15th ed.).
    • Chapter (or preface, afterword, etc.) in a book or edited volume:
      • Swinburn, R. (1980). Properties, causation, and projectibility: Reply to Shoemaker (pp. 313–320). In: L. J. Cohen & M. Hesse (Eds.). Applications of inductive logic. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
      • Duncan, H. D. (1984). Introduction (xiii–xiv). In: K. Burke. Permanence and change: An anatomy of purpose. Berkeley: University of California Press.
    • Scholarly journal article or review (with doi or without, accessible in print or online):
      • Patton, L. L. (2011). Traces of Śaunaka: A literary assessment. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 79(1), 113–135. doi: 10.1093/jaarel/lfq062
      • Schmitz, H. (2004). The ‘new phenomenology’. In: A. T. Tymieniecka (Ed.). Phenomenology world-wide (= Analecta Husserliana, 47), 491–494.
      • Elżanowski, A. (2013). Moral progress. Argument: Biannual Philosophical Journal, 3(1), 13-25. Retrieved from: http://argumentwp.vipserv.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/pdfv3n1/argument_v3n1_Elzanowski.pdf (20.11.2014).
      • Harris, S. (2011). Does anātman rationally entail altruism? On Bodhicaryāvatāra. Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 18, 93–123. Retrieved from: http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/files/2011/02/Harris_AnatmanAltruism1.pdf (15.03.2014).
      • Cook, T. I. (1951). [Review of H. Arendt (1951). The origins of totalitarianism. New York: Schocken Books]. Political Science Quarterly, 66(2), 290–293.
    • Magazine or daily newspaper:
      • Poniewozik, J. (2000, November 20). TV makes a too-close call. Time, 156(21), 70–71.
      • Krugman, A. (2007, May 21). Fear of eating. New York Times, p. A1.
    • Image from a website:
      • Goya, F. (1800). The family of Charles IV. Museo National del Prado. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/goya/hd_goya.htm (20.04.2013).

How to prepare the blinded manuscript

Submit two WORD files. Apart from a full paper, the author is also asked to submit a blinded manuscript. Besides the obvious need to remove names and affiliations under the title within the manuscript, there are other steps that need to be taken to ensure the manuscript is correctly prepared for double-blind peer review. To assist with this process check the key items that need to be observed in your blinded submission:

  • use the third person to refer to work the author has previously undertaken, e.g. replace any phrases like “as I have shown before” with “as it has been shown before (anonymous, 2012: 246)”
  • make sure figures do not contain any affiliation related identifier
  • do not eliminate essential self-references or other references but limit self-references only to papers that are relevant for those reviewing the submitted paper
  • cite papers published by the author in the text as follows: (anonymous, 2012)
  • for blinding in the bibliography: “Anonymous (2012). details omitted for double-blind reviewing”
  • remove references to funding sources
  • do not include acknowledgements

 

REVIEW_SAMPLE