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Submissions

We are looking for high-quality philosophy papers from undergraduate students at universities around the world. We will consider papers that make novel contributions to fields such as aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, political philosophy, and more, across a variety of philosophical traditions. 

Now accepting submissions for our 2025 edition!

Papers submitted before January 14th, 2024 will be reviewed for Simpliciter's Spring 2025 edition. 

Submission Guidelines

Please review the following guidelines before submitting your paper.

  • You must be a current undergraduate at a post-secondary institution, or you must have graduated from such an institution within the last six months.

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  • Your paper should not be published or under review at any other sources.

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  • Your paper should be no longer than 4000 words (including footnotes, but not including bibliography). At the top of the PDF, include an abstract of about 300 words. The abstract is not included in the limit of 4000 words.

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  • Your paper should be written in English, in Times New Roman 12 point font, and double spaced. Citations and bibliography should be formatted in MLA 9. The paper should be submitted as a PDF. No personal information (e.g., name, university) should appear within the PDF.

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  • You may submit up to two papers. However, if you submit two, we can only guarantee that one of your two papers will be reviewed and considered for acceptance. Please indicate which is your first paper on the submission form.

Our Timeline*

*This is a tentative sketch of what the review process will look like and is subject to change. 

OCT 2024

Simpliciter begins accepting submissions for our Spring 2025 edition.

MAR 2025

Authors will be notified if their submission has advanced to the third round of review. 

APR 2025

Accepted authors will present at the Spring Conference featuring Professor Jens Timmermann.

JAN 14, 2025

Submissions for Spring 2025 close and the first round of review begins.

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MAR 2025

Authors will be notified if they have been selected to present at Simpliciter's Spring Conference. 

MAY 2025

Simpliciter will publish its Spring 2025 edition!

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JAN 2025

Authors will be notified if their submission has advanced to the second round of review. â€‹

APR 2025

Authors will be notified if their submission has been selected for publication in the journal.

Content and Writing Resources

We accept works across different philosophical fields and traditions, so there will be some variance in the content of submissions. However, below we present some advice which we believe will be robustly helpful to all writers. After that, we link resources which may be useful to some writers, however those resources should be viewed as providing general guidance, rather than hard-and-fast rules.

Recommendations + Tips

A standard writing process for a philosophy paper is:

  1. Define a question or thesis about a topic that interests you

  2. Do background research, take notes, develop further questions and attempt to answer them

  3. Outline an argument 

  4. Flesh out your outline; focus on the introduction/background and the conclusion last

  5. Write a draft of your paper

  6. Revise it a number of times

  7. Proofread and line edit

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  • Doing adequate background research is particularly important. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy are valuable resources. You could also ask your university librarian for assistance with reviewing the literature.

  • Consider asking a friend or a professor with whom you have an existing relationship for advice or feedback on your paper (although the work should ultimately be your own). Many universities also have (valuable and underutilized!) writers centers and workshops which you can visit.

  • You can adapt a paper that you've written for a class, or use other books or papers that you've read for philosophy classes as a jumping off point. For example, did you disagree with one of the papers you read, and have a strong, novel argument for your position?

  • Some general productivity techniques we find helpful:

Resources

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