So, as most readers no doubt have discovered, the new Philosophical Gourmet Report has been on-line since this morning. Already a few folks have e-mailed me with corrections; the corrections will be on-line by Monday. Two are worth mentioning, as illustrative of the kind of things readers ought to look out for and feel free to contact me about.
Folks at the University of Leeds, which had ranked quite well in Philosophy of Art in 2004, noticed that Leeds had disappeared from the 2006 listing, even though they'd actually strengthened their staff in that area. In fact, this turned out to be a pure transcription error: Leeds had a rounded mean score of 4.0 in Philosophy of Art for 2006, making it one of the stronger faculties in this field in the world. Although scores are automatically recorded, they do have to be manually transcribed into the rankings, and while these have been proofed many times, there may still be errors. Of course, there is some sometimes random fluctuation in scores given shifts in the pool of evaluators, so it shouldn't be surprising if some faculties with a rounded mean of 3.0 in 2004 dropped off the list in 2006, or if a school with a rounded mean of 4.5 in 2004 has a rounded mean of 4.0 in 2006. But if a faculty which had a strong score in 2004, and which hasn't had losses in the interim, has disappeared, please let me know, and we can double-check.
The other kind of error I especially want to hear about are errors of omission from the listing of faculty moves since 2004. For example, I discovered today that the move of Paul Franks (Kant, German Idealism) from Notre Dame to Toronto--while reflected in the faculty lists for the surveys--was left off the listing of moves in the new PGR by accident, even though that move without a doubt played a significnat role in Toronto's score in those specialty areas.
Thanks again to the members of the Advisory Board for their input and advice, and to the several hundred philosophers who completed the surveys. Thanks also to readers who have already or who may yet catch errors, substantive or typographical. And, of course, best of luck to the students who will be using the new PGR in the current round of applications to grad schools.
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