About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The aim of Aesthetic Investigations is to develop contemporary debates in philosophical aesthetics, and initiate new ones—and to do this from any available angle. We welcome contributions from analytical as well as continental philosophers of art.

Aesthetic Investigations encourages philosophical discussion amongst philosophers, humanities researchers and critics, of all the arts; and those interested in the aesthetics of the everyday---about art and aesthetics and their roles in society. Aesthetic Investigations also encourages debates about philosophical issues regarding one or the other of the art forms; the impact of works of art on their public, political, ethical, cultural context, and of these contexts on the works; the ontology of art, and their definition, and so on.

Aesthetic Investigations encourages reports of artistic research activities. The Arts & Artists-section is devoted to the contribution of artistic scrutiny and artistic research and includes art-critical discussion, texts written by artists, interviews with artists as well as with philosophers of art.

The Fresh-section is not peer-reviewed, and is devoted to shorter pieces introducing fresh new thrilling considerations, that may not immediately fit within the academic debates. This section also allows criticism of articles from the Articles-section. Criticism of articles from other journals shall count as articles.

Overall, we adhere to the view that philosophical communication is possible at many levels. Yet we do not assume that all philosophers speak the same language. We intend to let all philosophies speak in their own tongue, allowing them to clarify their points using their own philosophical jargon. The clarification, it is our hope, is what will bring about the conversation. Let us all be clear — in our own terms.

Articles

The Articles-section is double blind reviewed by peers. Articles should not normally exceed 7,500 words. Our website facilitates that articles be submitted in anonymised form, for the sake of anonymous reviewing, and that biographical details and a 175 words abstract are provided in a separate file. Pictures to be included, are delivered as separate files. Authors are asked to indicate clearly in the text where they should go. Copyright clearance is the author's responsibility.

Fresh

Not all contributions to philosophical debates will take the form of lengthy articles that conform to the arguments developed in the academic debates in the journals. Fresh accepts contributions of maximum 3500 words, which in the view of the editorial board hold clear promise of initiating new avenues of thought and debate. This section is not peer reviewed. Please include an abstract of no more than 100 words.

Arts & Artists

Of course, artists too are part of the conversations in the philosophies of the arts. We encourage them to discuss the philosophical aspects of their own or other artists' works; as well as critics to write about particular works indicating certain philosophical aspects. We also encourage philosophers to talk to artists about their works, and so on.
The Arts & Artists-section is edited by two editors---it is not peer-reviewed. Contributions to the Arts & Artists-section should not normally exceed 3000 words and should include an abstract of no more than 100 words. We welcome the inclusion of pictures, which are eligible for publication as ``the image of the journal'' on the home page of an issue.

Reviews

Reviews should not normally exceed 2000 words.

Translations

All texts submitted should be original, but we allow translations into English of articles and contributions to the Arts & Artists-section, with the provision that the quality of the English is the author's responsibility.

Peer Review Process

1. Upon a text's submission the secretary to the editor checks to see whether the text complies with the style-sheet. The secretary's criteria: correct English, relevant subject matter, intelligible argument, ready for anonymous refereeing.
2. [one week after submission] The editor-in chief decides whether the piece is publishable. If so, then the secretary to the editor communicates with the author that the text is entered into the peer review procedure, and that the aim is to notify the author after six weeks about the decision taken. Also, the editor sends the text to two referees. Upon accepting the task, the referees have four weeks to reach a verdict about whether the text should be published with or without further modification.
3. [five weeks after submission] When the referee reports are entered the editor-in-chief judges their quality and considers the submission in light of the recommendations, in an attempt to decide within a week whether or not to publish the submission. When modifications are required, this step is postponed.
4. [six weeks after submission] Once the submission is accepted for publication it is handed over to a member of the editorial board to make it ready for publication, in correspondence with the author.

Open Access Policy

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

Copyright Policy

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. Note: up to volume 4 issue 1, an incorrect copyright line appears in the PDFs at the bottom of the first page of the articles. This line states wrongfully that Aesthetic Investigations owns the copyright.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Abstracting and Indexing

Aesthetic Investigations is indexed in ERIH Plus, Google Scholar and OCLC WorldCat.

Archiving policy

The long term preservation of the electronic content of Aesthetic Investigations is of critical importance. All published articles are preserved at Zenodo to ensure they are available and accessible over time.

Journal History

This journal was founded in 2001, as a Dutch journal, under the name of Esthetica. Tijdschrift voor kunst en filosofie. This is archived at http://estheticatijdschrift.nl

It was re-established as an international, anonymous, peer reviewed, open access journal, in 2015, as Aesthetic Investigations (all English).