Judges and Judging Guidelines

Blind review by a committee consisting of two professors and two graduate students will determine which papers are accepted to the conference. The papers submitted will be distributed as evenly as possible amongst the judges. Each judge will independently rate the papers on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is "definitely accept this paper" and 1 is "under no circumstances accept this paper."

Judging criteria include, but are not necessarily limited to:

• Clarity of argument (e.g. is the thesis clear and are the reasons for believing the thesis clearly expressed? Does the organization of the paper need improvement? Are terms defined?)
• Originality, to show that the author is capable of some level of independent thinking
• Use of references, to show that the author is relatively familiar with the issues and different viewpoints pertaining to the paper topic
• Adherence to the submission guidelines (e.g. length of paper); this judging guideline will not be strictly enforced because length of paper, for instance, is not a prerequisitie for a good paper
• Accuracy; for instance, one should not claim that Socrates wrote, "As for me, all I know is that I know everything" (pg. 8,309, Cat in the Hat).
• Spelling and grammar

Judges will use discretion when deciding whether to accept a paper into the conference with a low score (<5). Judges may also confer with other professors if judges are not familiar enough with a paper topic to judge accuracy. Additional judging guidelines for papers submitted to the essay contest can be found on the contest page.

Should you have any questions, please contact gmuphilosophyconference@gmail.com.