Fair Usage of Open Access Materials

Existenz kindly asks its authors to honor the trust given by making your essay available as an Open Access document and to honor the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. We would welcome it if you uploaded only the Abstract of your essay that includes the Existenz link to your paper to commercial entities such as Academia, PhilPapers, ResearchGate, Google Scholar or similar academic social networking sites. This simple step supports a small independent academic journal and simultaneously directs online traffic to your peers who have also published in Existenz (and vice versa, you benefit from their compliance with the honor code).

Peer Review Procedure

The journal has implemented a double-blind peer review process for all directly submitted essays. The editorial procedures are designed to follow best practice concerning excellence, impartiality, transparency, purposefulness, efficiency, confidentiality, and integrity. All essays submitted to Existenz are reviewed by members of our advisory board or by external reviewers when confidentiality cannot be upheld due to an essay having been presented at a conference and a simple online search would disclose the identity of the author, and in the context of a rigorous editorial production process. We encourage the submission of papers presented at philosophical meetings as well as articles resulting from independent research and scholarship. Submitted papers are not returned to authors.

Every effort is being made to ensure a timely review result. This may take up to three months. Once a paper has been accepted for publication, authors will receive the bibliographical details needed in order to cite the essay as "forthcoming."

Conference Papers

Essays presented at an affiliated conference undergo additional scrutiny due to a multi-layered peer review process, starting with the scrutiny by the program chair and additional scholarly feedback obtained from panel members. This is followed by recommendations derived from a double-blind review and afterwards from a rigorous editorial production process.

Ensuring the Blind Peer Review Procedure

To ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review procedure for submissions to this journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to one another. This concerns authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review), checking to see whether the necessary steps have been taken regarding the text as well as regarding the file properties. The removal of personal identifiers in a document varies, depending on the software being used.

Plagiarism

The editorial review procedure includes control measures to identify the intentional or unintentional inclusion of content that appears to have been borrowed from other pieces of writing or was generated through artificial content creation. For this purpose, we have developed clear manuscript guidelines and ask authors to be exceedingly careful when paraphrasing or quoting content from others.

Evaluation Criteria

We ask our peer reviewers to respond critically yet constructively to submissions. These are the questions that reviewers consider when evaluating submissions:

Does the submission make an original contribution to the field, or does it cover already well-known material?
Is the submission up to date, pertinent, and contextualised? Does it consider recent, relevant contributions to the field?
Quality of argumentation: Does the submission have a clear focus and structure?
Style and presentation: Is there a clear argument discernible that is written in a concise style? Does the author resort to jargon or confusing language?
Is the submission accurate regarding the use of lexis, morphology, and grammar?
Bibliographical comprehensiveness: Are the references relevant to and consistent with the scope and argumentation of the essay?

Manuscript Submission Guidelines for Authors

By submitting an essay to the review process, all parties (the authors and the publisher) act in the understanding that the essay has not been submitted elsewhere for publication consideration, that it is an original piece of scholarly work that has not been uploaded to the internet, and that all subsequent usage of the edited material will credit its original place of publication. At the time when a manuscript is approved for production, the author accepts the conditions detailed below unless the author(s) unequivocally decline(s) them at that time. These conditions include the acceptance of the CC license deed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Furthermore, once the manuscript production reaches the copy-editing or proofing stage, the mutual commitment between author and publisher becomes binding under publication ethics norms. In an effort to discourage submission shopping, manuscript withdrawal requests by authors are granted only by adducing serious, valid reasons such as uncorrectable major errors or legal or ethical violations. Engaging with the copy editor in editorial correspondence regarding the manuscript constitutes hereby agreement with and acceptance of the binding nature of the herein stated contract.

Format

The length of your manuscript is expected to be around 6,000 words, but no less than 4,000 words is required. The abstract, keywords, and text of the manuscript must be double-spaced. This also includes captions, tables, and graphic illustrations, if applicable.

Use a 12-point type size, preferably Times New Roman. All pages should have one-inch margins on all sides.
Do not justify the margins; paragraphs should be left-aligned.
Do not attempt to style your manuscript; keep the formatting to an absolute minimum and avoid using multiple fonts or multiple type sizes within the main body of the text.
Use only one space after periods and colons. Always use the indent function, not the spacebar, for paragraph indents.
Use the indent function rather than tabs for setting off block quotations. Do not indent the first line of the paragraph under a subheading; yet do so for all other paragraphs.
Be consistent in your treatment of any specific style element. A list of items within a sentence is set off with commas, including a comma before the last item.
Always allow the word-wrap function to operate; do not place hard returns at the end of a line of text. Use hard returns only to end paragraphs, headings, or items in a list.
Do not create running heads, style sheets, or auto-lists. Use style "Normal" for all aspects of the main body, including title and headings.
Number the manuscript consecutively, beginning with the first page, and using Arabic numerals. Place all page numbers in font size 10 into the footer and center them.

Abstract

It is best practice to be mindful of the fact that researchers looking for information online will use search engines. By optimizing your title and abstract, you will increase the chance of someone finding it. Prepare a statement of 100-150 words that summarizes your key points and clearly states aim and significance of the essay so that the reader can easily understand what is original about your contribution. Avoid repeating sentences from the body of the essay.

Keywords

List between eight to ten keywords that are of central importance to your text. These keywords and the abstract will be included into searchable databases. Careful selection of adequate keywords will increase your readership. A note of caution: Unnecessary repetition of concepts that are stated in the title, the abstract, and the keywords will result in the page being rejected by search engines.

Headings

Try to use no more than three levels of subhead. Type each heading by using upper- and lower-case letters. Differentiate each level of head in the manuscript (for example, center level 1 heads in bold face, left-align level 2 heads in italics, indent level 3 heads in italics).

Superscript

The function of superscript numbers is to indicate footnotes, and they are normally placed after full stops or commas only. Do not place note superscript numbers in headings or the abstract.

Quotations

Use block quotations for any quoted material exceeding 3 lines or any quotations containing multiple paragraphs. Single-space all block quotations, leaving an extra line of space above and below the quoted matter. Do not place quotation marks around the extract. Use three ellipsis points (without space before or after the ellipsis) to indicate deletions from within a sentence; no ellipsis is needed at the end of a quotation. Citations always need to be referenced with a page number from the source.

Typeface

Normal. All typing should be done in upper and lower case.
Bold. Use it only for the title of the essay and level 1 headers.
Italics. Never to be used for emphasis. To be applied exclusively for level 2 and 3 headers, foreign language words, book titles, or journal names.
Underline. Never use underscores.
CAPS. Only to be used for acronyms.
Small Caps. Never use them.

Abbreviations

Avoid abbreviations whenever possible. Avoid using op.cit., cf., e.g., ibid., i.e., etc. (never use etc. at the end of a sentence; use "and so on" instead). Write fourth century instead of 4th century.

Frequent editing remarks

Existenz uses first-person plural ("we") only when the target group is clearly specified.
Existenz lists bibliographical sources exclusively when these are directly discussed in the main body of a text.
Existenz avoids self-promotion by authors, unless key aspects of a previously published work are being revisited.
Directing readers to other sources must be done in a manner that provides a precise target page and explains which words or passages you consider to be relevant for your argument.
Existenz does not use quotation marks for emphasis or for suggesting additional meanings.
Existenz does not use italics for emphasis.
Existenz uses a comma before the last entry in a list.
Indexing services require us to include an abstract, approximately 80-100 words. The abstract should not copy full sentences from the body of the text.
Add approximately 8 keywords, without repeating the words that are in the title of the piece.
Section headings need to be followed by at least one sentence that outlines what this section is about. This needs to be a new sentence that is not copied from elsewhere in the essay.
Existenz does not use singular "they" or variations thereof.
Existenz uses toward instead of towards.
Both genuine questions and rhetorical questions must be answered.
The fact that someone else also talks about an event does not establish a factual source. Hence, it is superfluous to cite secondary sources when in these sources there are merely additional footnotes to yet additional secondary sources regarding an alleged fact. Unless a primary source can be cited, it is better to claim one's own responsibility for bringing up a fact.
Existenz prefers quotations from a primary source over ones from a secondary source. Quotations derived from secondary sources must be verified and shown to be relevant with respect to the argument.
Existenz does not publish reading lists. If it is important to include a source, briefly discuss one aspect from it that is relevant to the paper and paraphrase or quote a passage from that source and show why it is relevant.
A paper needs to contribute something original or communicate a condensed version of something already known; it cannot be a mere reading list that substitutes for lack of argumentation.
Technical language needs to be presented in a manner that makes the argument accessible to a readership with broad intellectual interests.

Notes and References

Notes are to be depicted in the form of footnotes and need to be put at the bottom of each page. Number notes consecutively using superscripts for in-text references and superscripts for the notes themselves. Style them consistently and according to the most recent online issue of Existenz. Make sure the notes are single-spaced and composed in 10-point font. Place references directly into the corresponding footnote. Only quote the source that is used, without additionally identifying different publication years or the year of its first publication. Do not adduce reading lists. Sources are to be listed exclusively when there is a direct reference in the text relating to clearly identified contents from this source. References should look like this:

Karl Jaspers, Man in the Modern Age, transl. Eden and Cedar Paul, Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1957.

Karl Jaspers, Max Weber: Gesammelte Schriften, München, DE: Piper 1988, p. 94.

Karl Jaspers, "Die Methoden der Intelligenzprüfung und der Begriff der Demenz. Kritisches Referat (1910)," in Gesammelte Schriften zur Psychopathologie, Berlin/Heidelberg, DE: Springer 1963, pp. 142-190, here pp. 142-3.

Moritz Geiger, "Über das Wesen und Bedeutung der Einfühlung," in Bericht über den vierten Kongress für experimentelle Psychologie in Innsbruck vom 19. bis 22. April 1910, Leipzig: Barth 1911, 29-73. [Henceforth cited as WBE, all translation by the author.]

Charles Sanders Peirce, "The First Rule of Logic (1899)," in The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings, Volume 2 (1893-1913), ed. The Peirce Edition Project, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press 1998, pp. 42-56, here p. 49.

Judith Green, "Jamesian Reasonable Belief and Deweyan Religious Communities: Reconstructing Philosophy Pragmatically with Philip Kitcher," Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 50/1 (Winter 2014), 69-96, here pp. 70, 76.

Antonio R. Damasio, Daniel Tranel, and Hanna C. Damasio, "Somatic Markers and the Guidance of Behavior: Theory and Preliminary Testing," in Frontal Lobe Function and Dysfunction, eds. Harvey S. Levin, Howard M. Eisenberg, Arthur L. Benton, New York, NY: Oxford University Press 1991, pp. 217-29.

Epicene

Since the pronouns they, them, their, and theirs cannot logically be applied to a singular person, Existenz does not use these in place of a common-gender third-person singular pronoun, except in circumstances when the singular pronoun refers to a specific person who has requested to be addressed with epicene characteristics. Skillful editing will most of the time find alternatives to replace pronouns, as there are many ways to achieve gender-neutral language. Constructions such as "he or she," "s/he," and their inflected forms are to be avoided.

Guidelines for Guest Editors

Guest editors are responsible for the following tasks:

All manuscript guidelines are being observed.
All citations are fact-checked with their primary source.
All bibliographical references are checked for accuracy and full details (including first names of authors or editors or translators, precise titles).
Copyediting comprises the correction of grammar and spelling mistakes.
Composition of the essay is carefully assessed for consistency of terminology, logical sequence, narrative flow, precision, and a clear thesis statement.
Provision of a 330 to 360-word summary statement that outlines the scope and relevance of the papers (precise word count is needed for this task).
All essays are submitted as individual files and with consistent formatting applied to them.

Contact

Please send completed manuscripts in electronic format, preferably in Microsoft Word, to the editor:
Helmut Wautischer