Journal quality in the humanities

The quality of philosophy journals varies widely; hence, a basic problem is quality control. The minimum standards instituted by the Association of Philosophy Journal Editors to protect authors from unjust treatment by editors are presented. The lack of existing standards concerning the use of referees, blind refereeing, and sharing referees´ comments with authors is also treated. The efforts of some journals to provide their referees with written statements of the standards that an article must meet to be published are viewed as encouraging. Although the general lack of standards is certainly a problem, the organizational controls required to establish and enforce uniform standards across a discipline might limit creativity and individual freedom to the point of being morally unacceptable.