Utilitas Pausing Submissions, Bringing on More Editors

The philosophy journal Utilitas is temporarily halting submissions. An announcement posted on the journal’s website today states: “We would like to apologise for the current delays in reviewing and accepting new submissions. We are currently between editorial teams, and will be pausing submissions until we are able to manage the backlog that has occurred as a result of this.” One of the journal’s editors, Christopher Woodard (Nottingham), is stepping down. He informs me that the publisher, Cambridge University Press, is seeking to increase the number of editors at Utilitas. It has not yet been announced how long the pause in submissions will be. In discussing the reasons for the backlog, Professor Woodard mentioned the difficulty of combining editorial duties with the increasing duties of academic life. I don’t know the statistics for Utilitas but editors at other journals have mentioned increases in the number of submissions over the past several years. (It may also, in this case, be…