What is the Philosophy Documentation Center?The Philosophy Documentation Center is a non-profit publisher and resource center that supports
continuing work in applied ethics, philosophy, classics, religious studies, and related disciplines. Its mission is to increase
access to the widest possible array of philosophical material in a fair and sustainable manner. It was established
at Bowling Green State University in Ohio in 1966 to manage the production of specialized reference works in philosophy,
and its activities have expanded over the years to include the publication and distribution of scholarly journals, conference
proceedings, reference works, databases, and other materials. It also distributes philosophical work on behalf of other
organizations, and provides membership services for professional associations in these fields. Other services provided by PDC
include digitization of journals, books series, and archival collections; budget planning; digital workflow management;
secure hosting; and support for a range of both institutional and individual online access options. The PDC has been located in
Charlottesville, Virginia since 2001. More information about us is available here. [Back to top] Are you affiliated with a university or some other organization?No, PDC is not part of a university or orther organization such as the American Philosophical Association.
We are an independent non-profit organization. This independence means that we can more easily focus on the needs
of our clients and partners, and guarantee that income is reinvested to expand services and improve technology. [Back to top] Who does the Philosophy Documentation Center work with?We provide publishing, reference, or membership services for universities, publishers, professional associations,
and indpendently published journals in many countries. We develop customized plans for each of our partners to meet a range of needs for
distribution, hosting, access, subscription income, membership service, and production support. A complete list of our clients and partners is
available here. [Back to top] What electronic resources do you offer?
PDC eCollection
This online collection contains journals, book series, conference proceedings, and other
publications from several countries. Coverage of most titles is complete, from volume 1 to
the present. Subscribers to any title on our site may also search the fulltext of all available
issues of all other titles. Current content includes:
• over 100 journals, series, conference proceedings, and other publications
• approximately 100,000 articles, reviews, and other documents - from 1890 to the present
• scholarly material in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Czech, and other languages
For most titles subscription options are available for both individuals and institutions. If we publish or distribute
a given journal then we also offer a print + online option.
Free trials are available.
POIESIS: Philosophy Online Serials
This online bundle of academic journals and series was established in 1996 in an effort to make journal content from
many sources available online to libraries without increasing journal subscription rates. The collection includes two
sets of publications: a core set available to all subscribers and a set of optional titles only available in
conjunction with a print subscription. The core set contains a fixed number of issues from 27 journals and series.
These are generally complete sets or back issues. Another 36 journals or series are avaailable in the optional set,
and this set includes both current and back issues of each title. POIESIS is only available for institutions.
International Directory of Philosophy
This database offers the combined content of the Directory of American Philosophers and International
Directory of Philosophy and Philosophers. PDC has produced these standard reference works since 1970, and
together they provide edited information on over 26,000 philosophers in 120 countries. Coverage includes
information in university philosophy departments, research centers, professional societies and associations,
philosophy journals, and publishers. Their content is now available on online, with both username / password
and IP access. More information about the directories is available here Directory Homepage
or here.
Philosophy Research Index
This is an indexing database of bibliographic information on articles, books, reviews, dissertations,
and other documents in philosophy. Its mission is to use the best available technology to provide
searchable bibliographic coverage of a definable portion of the known philosophical literature in
several western languages. Coverage ranges from the year 1400 to the present, with citations of
material in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Latin, and other languages. The database
currently contains approximately 845,000 citations, including:
What is the difference between POIESIS and your E-Collection?POIESIS is a publishing service designed in the mid-1990's to make print journals available online
to libraries without cost to the journals and without increasing journal subscription rates. In this
arrangement, libraries must have a print subscription to each journal, in addition to a subscription to
POIESIS, to get online access to all available issues. About 60 titles are available through POIESIS. This arrangement
made sense for the participating journals as long as libraries maintained print subscriptions.
E-Collection is an online system designed in the mid-2000's to help journals and series meet increasing library
demands for online access without print subscriptions. PDC has helped the participating journals develop flexible,
subscription-based online access options with both IP and username / password authentication. Access can
therefore be provided for libraries, individuals, and membership organizations, depending on the
needs of each journal or series. The choice of options is made by each publication's sponsoring organization. Some
journals manage their own print subscriptions, others have allows PDC to do this on their behalf. Over 100 titles
are currently available in the E-Collection.
Most journals hosted by PDC now have online only access options and are available through the E-Collection. Some journals
still prefer the POIESIS arrangement and we can therefore only provide access under those terms. [Back to top]Does the Philosophy Documentation Center still publish The Philosopher’s Index?No. We have not published The Philosopher’s Index since 1995. Its editor, Dr. Richard Lineback, took over as
publisher in 1995, and he has been managing its production and publication ever since. Questions about The Philosopher's
Index should be addressed to him.
Please note that our bibliographic database, Philosophy Research Index, is a separate resource with
different scope of coverage (1460 to the present). The purpose of this database is to provide systematic
coverage of a definable portion of the known philosophical literature in several western languages. This is
a long-term project, and the Philosophy Research Index currently contains approximately 845,000 citations. [Back to top]What kind of publications are available from the Philosophy Documentation Center?The Philosophy Documentation Center specializes in the production and distribution of journals, conference proceedings,
society publications, and reference works in print and electronic formats. Most of these publications are available online
to institutions and individuals on a subscription basis. In some cases they are available as benefits of membership in a professional
society or association.
Titles available from the Philosophy Documentation Center include:
• American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly
• The American Journal of Semiotics
• Ancient Philosophy
• Augustinian Studies
• Augustinianum
• Business and Professional Ethics Journal
• Business Ethics Quarterly
• The Chesterton Review
• Directory of American Philosophers
• Environmental Ethics
• Environmental Philosophy
• Études Phénoménologiques
• Faith and Philosophy
• Fichte-Studien
• Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal
• Idealistic Studies
• International Directory of Philosophy
• International Journal of Applied Philosophy
• International Philosophical Quarterly
• Journal of Philosophical Research
• The Modern Schoolman
• The Monist
• The New Scholasticism
• New Vico Studies
• Philosophical Inquiry
• Philosophical Topics
• Philosophy Research Index
• Polish Journal of Philosophy
• Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association
• Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society
• Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy
• Proceedings of the Twenty-Fisrt World Congress of Philosophy
• Process Studies
• Questions: Philosophy for Young People
• Radical Philosophy Review
• The Ruffin Series in Business Ethics
• Social Philosophy Today
• Social Theory and Practice
• Studia Neoaristotelica
• Studia Phaenomenologica
• Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy
• Teaching Ethics
• Teaching Philosophy
• Theoria: International Journal for Theory, History, and Foundations of Science
• Thought: Fordham University Quarterly
There are dozens of others from several countries. [Back to top] Are these publications freely accessible or is some form of payment required?All of the electronic journals, series, and other publications on our site are available with a
membership to a professional organization or by subscription.
Subscription or dues income helps each publication covers the costs of production and supports continuing
improvements to our online systems. Most of the societies, associations, or academic departments that
sponsor these publications also depend on this income to support conferences, travel grants, awards, and
other activities.
We have explored grant funding options, institutional subsidies, and endowment funding as alternatives to
subscriptions or dues income. We are open to exploring any arrangement
that would allow us to make publications accessible without subscriptions or dues payments, as long as
this can be done in a sustainable manner without harming the journal or its sponsor. [Back to top] Is the content of online journals on your site identical to the print content?Yes, and we provide page images for all documents if possible.
In some cases we have not yet been able to
locate clean copies of journal issues to create archival quality scans. In these cases we provide HTML, and add
page images once clean copies in suitable condition are located. [Back to top] Why is online access to some journals available to institutions but not individuals?Decisions about online access options are made by each journal or its publisher. There are two main reasons why a journal
might only permit access to institutions but not individuals:
1. Some journals are sponsored by membership organizations that include print subscriptions as benefits of membership.
Before these journals can offer online access to individuals, they must first decide what benefits of membership they
want to offer their members. Some groups prefer to send print copies to their members and therefore do not want to
offer online access to individuals.
Please note however that
this does not include journal content published prior to the subscription period. Your library will lose access to this material
unless it makes a separate purchase. If your library previously subscribed to the print version of a journal published by the
Philosophy Documentation Center, we will account for this in the purchase arrangement for the backfile. [Back to top] How are your publications distributed?We distribute many different kinds of print and electronic publications. Distribution in all formats is supported
by international sales representatives and subscription agents, as well as representatives in particular countries or territories
around the world.
Orders for our print publications are filled from our mail room, and we hold print inventory on site as needed for this purpose.
Distribution of older print isuses of some titles is supported by Periodicals Service
Company.
We provide the hosting services for our electronic publications, and online access is set up for institutions or
individuals by our customer support team. Article level metadata for all electronic publications is now available
to sites such as PhilPapers, and will also be available to Google Scholar in 2012.
Distribution of electronic publications is also supported by arrangements with EBSCO, ProQuest, and OCLC "discovery" services.
We generally do not distribute the full text of our electronic publications
through aggregators or database vendors because the arrangements offered generally do not make sense for the
organizations that sponsor each publication. But each case is different, and when such arrangements have made sense
from the sponsor's perspective we have negotiated appropriate licensing agreements with EBSCO, Gale, JSTOR, ProQuest, and others. [Back to top] Do you provide distribution services for other publishers?Yes. We have been doing this for many years, and hold print inventory on site for this purpose. We also provide
hosting and distribution services for electronic publications in philosophy, applied ethics,
religious studies, and related disciplines. Please contact us for more information about this. [Back to top] Do you only publish materials in EnglishNo, we publish materials in several languages, and we have been publishng material in other languages
since the 1970's.
Most of the work we publish is in English because English reaches the largest number of readers. But we also
host scholarly publications in German, Spanish, French, Italian, and other languages. [Back to top] Do you provide online services for professional societies or associations?Yes. We provide a range of electronic publishing, hosting, and membership services for many professional
organizations in several fields. The services we provide vary depending on the needs of each organization.
Groups we currently work with include:
• American Association of Philosophy Teachers
• The American Catholic Philosophical Association
• Ancient Philosophy Society
• Association for Feminist Ethics and Social Theory
• The Classical Association of the Atlantic States
• The Hegel Society of America
• International Association for Business and Society
• International Development Ethics Association
• International Society for Ethics and Information Technology
• International Society for Neoplatonic Studies
• International Society for the Social Studies
• The Karl Rahner Society
• North American Society for Social Philosophy
• Radical Philosophy Association
• Semiotic Society of America
• Society for Business Ethics
• Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
• The Society for Philosophy and Technology
• Society for Philosophy in the Contemporary World [Back to top]Can you help our organization get our publications into electronic format?Yes. We can digitize all issues of any print journal, book series, or archive. This work is done on site
in our offices and you are welcome to visit and see how the process works. We develop a plan for each publication
to help manage the modest costs, and we can host the resulting collections and make them available online
in a manner that best suits your needs. Publications we have digitized include:
The Acorn
American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly
The American Journal of Semiotics
Ancient Philosophy
Augustinian Studies
Augustinianum
Bowling Green Studies in Applied Philosophy
Business and Professional Ethics Journal
Business Ethics: The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility
Business Ethics Quarterly
Cahiers du Centre d’Études Phénoménologiques
Canadian Journal of Philosophy
The Chesterton Review (in progress)
Chiasmi International
Chôra: Revue d’Études Anciennes et Médiévales
Cogito
Croatian Journal of Philosophy
Demonstrating Philosophy
Environmental Ethics
Environmental Philosophy
Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy
Études Phénoménologiques
Faith and Philosophy
Fichte-Studien
Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal
The Harvard Review of Philosophy
Heidegger Studies
Idealistic Studies
Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines
International Corporate Responsibility Series
International Journal of Applied Philosophy
International Philosophical Quarterly
International Studies in Philosophy
International Studies in Philosophy Monograph Series
Irish Philosophical Journal
Journal for Peace and Justice Studies
Journal of Catholic Social Thought
Journal of Islamic Philosophy
Journal of Philosophical Research
The Journal of Philosophy
Journal of Philosophy: A Cross-Disciplinary Inquiry
The Leibniz Review
The Lonergan Review
Levinas Studies
The Modern Schoolman
New Nietzsche Studies
New Vico Studies
The Monist
The New Scholasticism
New Vico Studies
The New Yearbook for Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy
Newman Studies Journal
The Owl of Minerva
The Personalist Forum
Philo: A Journal of Philosophy
The Philosophers' Magazine
Philosophical Inquiry
Philosophical Studies (Ireland)
Philosophical Topics
Die Philosophin
Philosophy and History
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research
Philosophy and Theology
Philosophy in the Contemporary World
Philosophy Now
Philosophy Research Index (database)
Polish Journal of Philosophy
Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association
Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society
The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy
The Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy
Process Studies
Professional Ethics
Questions: Philosophy for Young People
Radical Philosophy Review
Radical Philosophy Review of Books
Radical Philosophy Today
The Review of Metaphysics
The Ruffin Series of Business Ethics
The Ruffin Series of the Society for Business Ethics
The Saint Augustine Lecture Series
Schutzian Research
Semiotics: The Proceedings of the Semiotic Society of America (forthcoming)
Social Philosophy Today
Social Theory and Practice
The Southern Journal of Philosophy
Southwest Philosophy Review
The Southwestern Journal of Philosophy
Spiritual Goods: Faith Traditions and the Practice of Business
Studi Internazionali di Filosofia
Studia Neoaristotelica
Studia Phaenomenologica
Studies in Practial Philosophy
Symosium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy
Teaching Ethics
Teaching Philosophy
Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science
Thought: Fordham University Quarterly
Tulane Studies in Philosophy
[Back to top] Do you sponsor conferences or similar events?No. We have exhibits at many professional conferences, including all meetings of the American Philosophical Association, and we
have sometimes supported events with the publication of conference proceedings. But we do not provide funding or
grants to support conferences or similar events.
