One year ago, the network portal PhilPublica, jointly operated by the DGPhil and the GAP, went online.
Most of you will be familiar with it by now: PhilPublica collects contributions by academic philosophers that have appeared in German-language public media. We would like to share a brief interim assessment with you today.
The portal has now grown to 850 contributions. We would like to thank everyone who has contributed or sent suggestions to the editorial team. The interview section “What I Wanted to Say” is also well populated. So far, 29 questionnaire interviews have been published. PhilPublica records more than 1,000 page views per day and has approximately 2,400 followers on Twitter. You can also follow the page on Facebook or Instagram to stay informed about new contributions.
Some figures for evaluation: The largest group of contributors, at 62%, consists of professors. This is likely due to the fact that established academics are more frequently approached by public media. A closer look reveals a more nuanced picture: The 850 contributions to date come from 325 authors. This means an average of 2–3 contributions per person. There is no concentration on PhilPublica of very few individuals who are already well known. Rather, quite a number of people are represented whom we did not previously know. The goal of making visible the breadth of public writing activities in academic philosophy appears to be being achieved.
Regarding gender distribution: Of the contributors, 36% are female and 64% are male. (The evaluation was conducted roughly based on first names. It is therefore imprecise, for which we ask your understanding.) What would be a relevant comparison group? According to its guidelines, PhilPublica links to contributions by academic philosophers who also publish scholarly work. Publication activity begins, with few exceptions, around the time of doctoral studies. At 36% female representation, PhilPublica is positioned somewhat further upstream in the “leaky pipeline” of academic philosophy than might have been expected (female share among students: 46%, doctorates: 31%, habilitations: 27%, filled professorships: 29%).
PhilPublica is technically an “aggregator” and reflects what has appeared by academic philosophers in public media with professional editorial filtering. Insofar as the platform reflects public writing activity, it is inevitable that it also reflects representation. The platform does not practice “affirmative action.” This has at least the advantage that PhilPublica makes the status quo visible in a way that goes beyond anecdotal evidence.
PhilPublica also reflects the standards of the evaluated media and is therefore as plural or as non-plural in content as these media. If, for example, contributions on the history of philosophy are underrepresented in FAZ, ZEIT, WDR, DLF, SZ, taz, FR, SRF, etc., then they are correspondingly underrepresented in PhilPublica. This also explains the strong representation of contributions on political philosophy, ethics, and social philosophy.
The guidelines are publicly accessible: The editorial team independently evaluates a finite list of quality media. However, it also accepts submissions because it sometimes overlooks something that has been published. There is therefore no “gatekeeping” that would exclude less well-known media. PhilPublica links to contributions that have undergone editorial filtering and does not conduct its own review of content. The FAQs on the guidelines answer some questions about this.
The Twitter account @PhilPublica exists for one reason only: to enable users to follow the portal and stay informed about current contributions. The editorial team does not engage in debates on Twitter, as a multi-person team cannot speak with one voice there.
PhilPublica is managed by the working group “Philosophy and the Public,” which was established by the boards of the DGPhil and the GAP. Its current members are Gerhard Ernst, Romy Jaster, Geert Keil, Susanne Schmetkamp, Barbara Vetter, and Eva Weber-Guskar. In day-to-day editorial operations, the working group is supported by Anna Welpinghus. If you have suggestions, you can write to us at any time or contact the editorial team at info@philpublica.de.
Geert Keil, President of the GAP (geert.keil@hu-berlin.de)
Reinold Schmücker, President of the DGPhil (res@wwu.de)