Author Guidelines & Policies

Scope and Eligibility

The International Journal of Emerging Philosophy (IJEP) publishes original philosophical research across analytic, continental, and non-Western traditions. IJEP is dedicated specifically to work by pre-tertiary and early undergraduate authors — a focus that distinguishes it from general philosophy journals aimed at postgraduate or professional scholars. IJEP is a Diamond Open Access journal: there are no article processing charges (APCs) and no subscription fees at any stage. All accepted work is made freely and permanently available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence immediately upon publication.

Pre-tertiary authors are students enrolled in recognised secondary or senior secondary education (for example, high school, college, or equivalent pre-university programmes) at the time of submission. Early undergraduate authors are students in the first or second year of a bachelor’s degree, or an equivalent first-cycle higher education programme, at a recognised institution.

IJEP does not accept submissions from Honours or Master’s candidates, doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty members, or other authors beyond the early undergraduate stage. Co-authored submissions are accepted only where every contributing author meets the eligibility criteria above. The cover letter must state each author’s name, educational stage (pre-tertiary or early undergraduate), institutional affiliation (or independent study status), and confirm that all co-authors are disclosed. There is no restriction on geographic location or institutional type.

Submission Specifications

All manuscripts must be submitted electronically via the IJEP Open Journal Systems (OJS) portal. Submissions received by email will not be considered. Before uploading, authors must ensure that their manuscript file is fully anonymised: all author-identifying information — including acknowledgements, institutional affiliations, grant numbers, and self-citations formatted in a manner that reveals identity — must be removed from the manuscript document itself. Author details are supplied separately through the OJS submission form.

• Word count: 4,000–12,000 words for standard articles; 1,500–4,000 words for discussion notes and critical replies (abstract, references, and footnotes excluded from count)
• File format: Anonymised .docx or .pdf; figures and tables must be embedded within the submitted document
• Citation style: Chicago author-date or footnote style, applied consistently throughout the manuscript
• Abstract: 150–250 words; must not contain citations, footnotes, or author-identifying language
• Keywords: 4–6 terms, listed in alphabetical order immediately below the abstract
• Cover letter: Submitted separately via the OJS metadata form; must state each author’s name, educational stage (pre-tertiary or early undergraduate), institutional affiliation (or independent study status), word count, and include a declaration that the work is original, unpublished, not currently under review elsewhere, and that all co-authors meet IJEP’s eligibility requirements
• Fees: None. IJEP charges no submission fees, no revision fees, and no APCs at any stage of the publication process

Upon acceptance and publication, all articles will be deposited on Zenodo and assigned a DOI minted through Zenodo’s registration service.

Double-Blind Peer Review

All submissions that pass initial desk review are assigned to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers drawn from IJEP’s recruited reviewer panel. The desk review confirms that each submission falls within IJEP’s scope and that all authors meet the pre-tertiary or early undergraduate eligibility requirements set out above. IJEP operates a strictly double-blind review model throughout: neither the author nor the reviewer is made aware of the other’s identity at any point during the review process. Authors are therefore responsible for ensuring complete anonymisation of their manuscript prior to submission.

Reviewers are selected on the basis of demonstrated expertise in the relevant subfield. Members of the editorial board may serve as reviewers only for manuscripts falling outside any declared area of conflict of interest. All reviewers are required to complete a conflict-of-interest declaration before accepting an assignment. The Editor-in-Chief retains final authority over all accept and reject decisions.

Review Outcomes & Timelines

• Desk decision: within 10 business days of a complete submission being received
• Target review turnaround: 8 weeks from the date of assignment to reviewers
• Possible outcomes: Accept as submitted — Accept with minor revisions — Major revisions required — Reject without invitation to resubmit
• Revise-and-resubmit window: 90 days from notification; extensions of up to 30 days are granted upon written request
• Re-review policy: Substantially revised manuscripts are returned to at least one of the original reviewers wherever possible
• Appeals: Authors may appeal a rejection in writing to the Editor-in-Chief within 30 days; appeals are considered only where a procedural irregularity is alleged

Publication Ethics

IJEP is committed to the highest standards of scholarly publication ethics and adheres to the COPE Core Practices. Authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to conduct themselves in accordance with these standards. Suspected cases of plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, duplicate submission, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or other ethical violations will be investigated in accordance with COPE guidelines and may result in retraction, formal correction, or notification of the author’s institution.

Authors submitting work that draws on unpublished manuscripts, datasets, or substantial portions of their own prior publications must disclose this relationship in their cover letter. The use of AI-assisted writing or editing tools must be disclosed in the manuscript. AI tools may not be listed as authors or co-authors under any circumstances.