Thought
	Issues of Thought Editorial Board Refereeing Process Audio Versions of Papers Submit a Paper

Thought is committed to giving a response to papers within 8 weeks of submission. Because of this we cannot always offer feedback on rejected papers.

When a paper comes into the journal it goes directly to the relevant subject editor (of the category chosen by the author). The subject editor reads the paper and then decides, based on his or her opinion whether the paper is to be rejected at this stage or whether the paper should go forward to one of the members of our editorial panel for additional refereeing. Notice that, even if a paper is rejected outright at this initial stage it will have been refereed by the subject editor, an expert in the relevant field of philosophy.

Once a referee report comes in the subject editor decides what the next stage is to be for the paper. S/he may request that the paper be revised in light of the referee report and his own report. S/he may decide to reject the paper outright after reading the report. Or s/he may make a recommendation to the editors that the paper be accepted.

It is at this stage that the editors see the paper for the first time. The editors read all and only those papers which have been recommended for acceptance by a subject editor. The editors then decide, based on their reading of the paper, the relevant referee report and the recommendation of the subject editor whether to accept the paper, reject the paper or whether further revisions are required.

Note that the entire refereeing process is 'blind': neither the referees, the subject editors nor the editors will know the identity of the author.

The roles of the editorial staff

Editors: The editors makes the final decision regarding which papers are to be published and in which volume of the journal. The decision will be based on the referee report, the subject editor's recommendation and their own judgements of the paper .

Subject Editor: Minimally, it is the responsibility of an subject editor to give each submission to his or her area an appraisal. At that point they can chose to accept or reject a submission. Of the remaining papers, the subject editor will then chose to pass the paper on to an appropriate member of the editorial panel or another suitable referee. Finally the subject editor decides, based on the referee report and their own judgement of the paper, which papers are to be recommended for publication and which are to be rejected. Those recommended for publication are passed to the editors.