Good Practice

Representation of Women

The British Society for the Philosophy of Science subscribes to the British Philosophical Association/Society for Women in Philosophy (UK) Good Practice Scheme, which aims to assist UK philosophy departments, learned societies and journals in ensuring that they have policies and procedures in place that encourage the representation of women in philosophy.

Barcelona Principles For a Globally Inclusive Philosophy

The BSPS, and the BJPS journal, endorses the Barcelona Principles for a Globally Inclusive Philosophy.

Journal

The Society’s journal, the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, selects papers for publication through a triple-masked peer review process (that is, the identity of the author is unknown to both referees and editors, and vice versa) that incorporates recommendations from the referees, Associate Editors, and Editors in Chief. The decisions of the Co-Editors-in-Chief are final. The submission and acceptance rates of women authors are monitored and collected by the editorial team on a yearly basis and the results are presented to the committee of the BSPS as part of the editors’ supplement to OUP’s annual report on the journal.

The journal also works hard to ensure gender balance among its Associate Editors and Editors in Chief. You can view the BJPS Editorial Board here.

Conferences, seminar series, workshops

We abide by the following guidelines when it comes to our own events – the BSPS/Forum meetings and our annual conferences – and ask all recipients of BSPS conference grants to do the same:

• Representation. Take reasonable steps to ensure that women are well represented amongst the speakers, and (for regular events such as the BSPS annual conference) monitor the representation of women.
• Equal Publicity. Ensure that male and female speakers are treated equally on publicity material and the conference programme.
• Childcare. Investigate whether the provision of childcare facilities for the duration of the conference is possible;
• Chairing. Abide by our Chairing Policy: DOCX / PDF.

Accessibility

The Society aims to maximize the accessibility to all of the events that it organizes or supports. We ask all conference and event organisers to ensure that as much information about the disabled accessibility of venues is provided to potential participants at as early a stage as possible, e.g. on the relevant website or in the call for papers.

The BSPS/Forum meetings are held at a variety of venues at the London School of Economics; for specific accessibility information, see the event listings. See the LSE Accessibility Map for more information accessibility at the School more generally.

Many university venues are covered by DisabledGo, which provides maps, disabled parking and wheelchair access information, etc.; where covered, organisers are asked to link to the relevant DisabledGo page if there is one, or to provide other basic information if not, together with contact details if further information is required.

Environment and Travel

The BSPS recognizes the environmental impact of the Society’s activities, and of philosophy of science more broadly. As a first step towards mitigating this impact, the Society endorses the British Philosophical Association Environment/Travel Guidelines. These guidelines mandate that event organizers should consider a range of potential measures to mitigate their events’ environmental impact; they do not mandate any particular measure. It is a requirement of consideration for the BSPS Conference Grants that applicants indicate how they have complied with the guidelines. Those attending BSPS events are also requested to have regard to the guidelines.