Original and Significant Essays
Our name – Stance – reflects that we only publish essays that make an original contribution to the field. The papers we publish take a stand. We reject many outstanding papers because they are largely exegetical.
Multiple, National Award-Winning
Stance has received the American Philosophical Association/Philosophy Documentation Center Prize for Excellence and Innovation in Philosophy Programs, the American Scholastic Press Association Award for Best University Journal, and the Ball State University Immersive Learning Award.
Truly International
We send our call for papers to over 14,000 individual philosophers around the world. Approximately 15% of our reviewers and authors are from outside of the United States. We have worked with undergraduate philosophy students from over thirty-five nations including Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
Professional Review Practices
Each year we train fifteen to twenty students from around the world to participate in our multiple rounds of anonymous manuscript review. Each submission is read by at least four reviewers, and those that are published have been evaluated and commented on by approximately ten reviewers. The Stance staff practice applying the Stance review criteria to at least twenty papers before taking up their first review. In later rounds of reviewing, the staff meets to compare impressions and make a case for or against the overall merit of a submission. Perhaps no single undergraduate is able to match the review quality of a seasoned professor, but the multi-stage, multi-person, anonymous review process of Stance ensures that all and only the best essays rise to the top.
Valuable Feedback
All authors, including those whose essays are rejected, are given constructive feedback. The feedback for authors invited to revise and resubmit is often extensive. Manuscripts are evaluated on the following criteria: structure, organization, clarity, concision, balance of depth and breadth, coherence, academic rigor, strength of argumentation, appropriate tone, intellectual struggle, significance of conclusion, and originality.
Extremely Competitive
In a typical year we receive approximately 130 manuscripts. Roughly twenty authors receive “revise and resubmit” letters that recommend changes to improve the paper. Ultimately, we publish eleven or twelve essays. Historically, our acceptance rate is between six and ten percent.
Professional Copy-Editing and Production
Ball State Honors students and English majors do all of our copy editing in house. One glance at the footnotes in Stance will demonstrate the quality of their work. Ball State Architecture students create the original artwork in Stance and layout the journal. While the impressive nature of their work is on display in the digital format, if you want to see just how beautiful Stance is please ask for a gratis copy of the print version. Authors review proofs before we go to press.
Distribution and Indexing
Stance is distributed digitally and in print: Library of Congress (ISSN 1943-1880-print; ISSN 1943-1899-electronic). Stance is distributed to libraries around the world by EBSCO. Stance is listed in The Philosophers Index and PhilPapers. Free access is available at the “archive” page of our website.
Exclusive Interviews
Each year the Stance staff collectively reads up to approximately fifty articles or chapters written by an interesting philosopher, writing precis of each along the way. After the entire staff reads all of the precis, they prepare timely questions that invite the interviewee to explain their ideas and share some insights on being a philosopher for an undergraduate audience. The diverse interviewees include Marilyn Frye, Charles Mills, Russ Shafer-Landau, Peter Rollins, and Gina Schouten.
Partnerships and Presentations
Stance partners with the Steven Humphrey Undergraduate Philosophy Colloquium at the University of Louisville. Our editors work with select presenters to revise their papers for publication in Stance. Stance presents at the American Philosophical Association conference every year, where we distribute free print copies of the volume.
Scores of Supporters
We are grateful to all who contribute to our success.
Mission:
Stance: An International Undergraduate Philosophy Journal is produced and edited entirely by undergraduate students. We aim to enrich student learning by providing an opportunity for undergraduate students to have their original scholarly work reviewed by or published in a peer-reviewed academic journal.