Submission Preflight (mind-submission)

The last check before submitting on ScholarOne. Mind is triple-anonymous, so the single most common avoidable failure is a manuscript that is not properly prepared for anonymous review — such a paper will not be read. Verify volatile specifics on the official page before relying on them.

When to trigger

• "Submitting tomorrow" — last pass before upload
• Unsure which files / settings ScholarOne expects
• Confirming the word limit, abstract, line numbering, and anonymization are all in order

Process facts (verify volatile items on the official page)

• Owner / publisher: Mind Association / Oxford University Press.
• Portal: ScholarOne (mc.manuscriptcentral.com/MIND); submit in Word or PDF, with high-resolution image files sent at the same time.
• Review model: triple-anonymous across all papers — author identity is not revealed to editors or referees unless and until a paper is accepted; prepare for anonymous refereeing or it will not be read.
• Scope / what they accept: quality is the sole criterion of publication, with no area, no style, and no school of philosophy excluded. Content types: articles, discussions (discussion notes), book reviews, and critical notices.
• Critical notices: longer than book reviews, letting the author develop their own ideas in response to the book under discussion (distinct from a short book review).
• Volume / competitiveness: the journal receives over 800 submissions each year and draws on a large pool of expert referees, associate editors, and the Editorial Board. (Acceptance rate and time-to-first-decision are not published as fixed figures — 需复核.)
• Length: articles no longer than around 8,000 words in total; longer only in exceptional circumstances (e.g., very extensive quotations from original texts); symbol-heavy papers should paginate equivalently to an 8,000-word article. (Word limits for discussions / book reviews / critical notices are not pinned here — 需复核.)
• Abstract: published abstract 50–200 words; a longer submission abstract (up to ~250 words, 待核实) may be included to aid review.
• Submission limit: no more than one article may be submitted by any corresponding author during any twelve-month period.
• Line numbering: required for the review copy (LaTeX lineno; Word line-numbering option).
• Style: the MIND Stylesheet / MIND house style applies to the accepted final version; authors sign the standard OUP copyright licence agreement at acceptance.
• Fee: no submission fee (verified 2026-06-22). An open-access option is available for a charge, handled by OUP after acceptance; OUP sets the exact APC, eligible licences, and any read-and-publish / transformative-agreement waivers on its live charges page — confirm there.

Triple-anonymous failure audit

Mind's anonymity rule is not a cosmetic check; an identifying manuscript may not be read. Run a failure audit with three passes:

1. Text pass. Search for first-person self-citations, acknowledgements, grant numbers, conference versions, appendix URLs, and phrases like "in my earlier paper." Replace with neutral references where scholarly continuity still matters.
2. File pass. Strip document properties, PDF metadata, tracked-change names, embedded comment authors, and LaTeX build paths that reveal a username or institution.
3. Argument pass. Make sure anonymization did not make the paper evasive. Self-citations should remain intellectually honest, just not identity-revealing.

Record any unavoidable prior-work clue in a private submission note only if the portal requests it.

Preflight checklist

Type & length

• Content type chosen (article / discussion / book review / critical notice — critical notice is the longer book-engagement piece)
• Article ~8,000 words (or justified exception); symbol-heavy paper paginated equivalently
• Abstract within the stated length (published 50–200 words)
• Subject is in scope — quality is the sole criterion; no area, style, or school of philosophy is excluded

Anonymity (triple-anonymous)

• No author names, affiliations, or revealing acknowledgements in the manuscript
• No self-identifying references ("as I argued in…"); self-citations neutralized
• Identifying file metadata stripped (document properties)

Preparation & format

• Line numbering on the document (LaTeX lineno / Word)
• Word or PDF; high-resolution image files ready to upload at the same time
• Consistent citation style (full MIND house-style conversion at acceptance — see mind-citation-and-style)
• Alt text for figures; funding declared where applicable

Eligibility & compliance

• Not in breach of the one-article-per-12-months corresponding-author rule
• Original, unpublished work; aware of the standard OUP copyright licence signed at acceptance
• No submission fee; if open access is wanted, the OUP charge (APC/Read&Publish 需复核) is settled after acceptance

Anti-patterns

• Uploading a manuscript that reveals the author (triple-anonymous — it will not be read)
• Omitting line numbers from the review copy
• An abstract outside the stated range, or an article well over ~8,000 words with no justification
• Submitting a second article within twelve months as the same corresponding author
• Assuming a default reference export already matches the MIND house style

Output format

【Type】Article / Discussion / Book review / Critical notice (length ok? Y/N)
【Anonymized】text + self-refs + file metadata clean? [Y/N]
【Line numbering】present? [Y/N]
【Abstract】word count (50–200 published)
【12-month rule】clear? [Y/N]
【Format】Word/PDF + images + alt text ready? [Y/N]
【Next】await decision → mind-revision-and-response

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — ScholarOne, LaTeX lineno, anonymization, the MIND Stylesheet
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — official Mind URLs behind every fact in this pack