There isn't a category that perfectly suits this question, but here it goes. Could someone give me some advice on how to make diagrams or figures for a paper, of the sort you find frequently in science articles and the odd time in philosophy articles? I'd like to create a diagram consisting of circles, lines with arrows, and some text, though I've no idea how to do it.
Kevin.

I'm thinking of writing a paper on Wittgenstein and my goal is to get the paper published in a peer reviewed journal of Philosophy. I also have a blog about Wittgenstein so I was thinking of posting each section of the paper on the blog as I write it. If I do this, will I still be able to submit the paper to academic journals? I'm asking because I know that academic journals don't accept papers that have been published elsewhere. I'm just not sure if appearing on a blog counts as being "published elsewhere."

I wish to know what scope there is in academic philosophy for amateur philosophers? By amateur philosopher, I mean anybody who is not a professional philosopher, anybody whose livelihood does not depend on philosophy. And by academic philosophy I mean the philosophical discourse and dialogue that takes place on the venue of academic journals of philosophy, philosophy conferences and philosophy books.

Being a professional philosopher is certainly not an official prerequisite for participating in the discourse of academic philosophy. Let's just consider the case of philosophy journals for now - publish their articles in peer reviewed journals of academic philosophy is an excellent way for philosophers to participate in the discourse of academic philosophy is to. But being a professional philosopher is certainly not a prerequisite for this. Journals publish articles based solely on the credentials of the submitted article rather than the credentials of the author (this is what is meant ... (read more)

Is there a reliable guide to the h-index that a philosophy researcher is likely to achieve through their career? Are there known issues with h-indices in philosophy (failure to pick up book chapters and citations therein)? I have been unable to find anything online or in print.

I've just finished my MA and I'm thinking about writing a paper in my spare time in order to get my first publication, but I want to do it in a relevant area to give it the best shot I can.

In this respect, what do you think are the current trends in philosophical research? 

I am interested in starting a discussion on intellectual cultures in the institutions within which philosophy is placed today and how to shape the future of our field. It has often seemed to me that philosophy has a problematic relationship with the institutions that it helped to develop and on which it is more or less dependent. Does philosophy belong in universities? Do you feel at home where you are, as a philosopher? Are universities the right place for creative philosophical work? Why have so many of the great philosophers been either entirely outside of the academic industry, or in a very troubled relationship with it? What happens to philosophy when it makes itself comfortable in an institutions - the medieval Church, the modern research university. Is there a diference, really, between philosophy as the handmaid of theology and philosophy as the handmaid, the humble legitimator, of science and instrumental reason (analytical philosophy today, as well as large parts of continent ... (read more)

For some time now I have been working in the MIT web content language Curl (www.curl.com) after many years in Smalltalk.

Curl is a UNICODE macro-enabled language for both web programming and web content which may prove useful for philosophy eBooks and articles.

In the past, programming for the Humanities had a brief honeymoon with SNOBOL as the language was not intended for programmers but for users.  When SNOBOL became ICON (one of the first open source languages), it somehow failed to catch on.

The difference with Curl is that Curl can be viewed as an alternative to both HTML5 and PDF: it can be generated on the web by languages such as REBOL, ICON, Smalltalk or even PHP.

What Curl permits is dynamic loading of text content and session-based loading of macro's for content formatting.  The current Curl 7 also allows the use of Javascript in web applets.

What this can mean is that one and the same "text" can be viewed, e.g., with in-line footnotes, footnotes at the end or footno ... (read more)

I could be wrong about this, but after the recent discussion over at Leiter's blog I started to think that some of us young folks aren't really doing our part when it comes to refereeing.  I've refereed only four papers in my career.  I've only been asked to referee that many, so I don't think I'm culpable for failing to do my part.  I can think of a number of reasons why I've not been asked to referee more.  I'd like to think that it's because most editors have no idea who I am and what sorts of papers I'd be competent to referee.  Here's a suggestion.  If we could have a webpage for people like myself who would be more than happy to serve as referees to identify themselves as volunteers, list their areas, have copies of their CVs, etc..., I wonder if this wouldn't make life easier for the editors.  In turn, this would make life easier for authors. 

If I knew anything about setting up a webpage, I'd give it a shot.  Is this the sort of resource that editors would take advantage of?&n ... (read more)

Now that this great resource has launched, it seems possible for philosophers to make unpublished work accessible to a much wider audience then previously. So I wonder: What do others think of posting papers on PhilPapers that are currently under blind review or will soon be. On the one hand, posting them seems to be a great way to get feedback that will help improve the papers. On the other hand, it may undermine the blind review of the papers for publication.