Abstract
Proudly we present a new initiative in publishing within the ISA’s realm. From now on in a joint venture with sociopedia.isa, Current Sociology will publish annually a Current Sociology-Review issue.
This Current Sociology Review (CSR) issue contains a selection of entries updated and completely re-writen from sociopedia.
A few years ago sociopedia.isa started as an online journal specializing in articles reviewing the state-of-the-art of fields of research in sociology. In 2010 at the World Congress in Gothenborg sociopedia.isa was launched officially. Since its inception, 45 review articles have been published on topics ranging from Education to Reflexivity, Disasters, and Secularization.
sociopedia.isa means a new concept in the production and dissemination of knowledge. It combines the best of two worlds: the opportunities the Internet offers for rapid publication and the scientific quality guaranteed by thorough and imaginative editing and peer review. All entries in sociopedia.isa are subjected to a rigorous procedure of double blind peer review. After a two-year period, authors are invited to draft an update of their article. This way sociopedia.isa guarantees the actuality of the entries. sociopedia.isa, then, offers ‘living social science’.
Review articles are valuable contributions to the scholarly literature. They provide an overview of theoretical approaches, a review of empirical evidence, an assessment of research to date, and a discussion of future direction that theorizing and research might take. Furthermore each article contains a list of annotated suggested further reading. The ideal review article saves the reader hours s/he needs otherwise to read the publication the article is reviewing. At the same time it suggests where to look for more information. And also provides an inventory of unanswered questions and unsolved puzzles.
What kind of review is suitable for Current Sociology Review?
CSR invites the submission of different kinds of review articles, from more general and mainstream discussions, to very specific topics or regional/ non English language publications.
Reviews of sociological key concepts, including all the classical discussions that have marked out the core of Sociology as a discipline, such as the state, civil society, power, gender, religion, among others.
New discussions and topics in sociology, such as sport, popular culture, mass media, ecology, etc as well as specific discussions from particular sociological fields, such as secularisation in Sociology of Religion, and the role of emotions in protest for the Sociology of the Social Movements.
We specially invite PhD students or recent PhDs that have produced review chapters for their dissertations that could be re-written for CSR. Reviews that discuss regional or national specific production, if connected and discussing more global issues, would be more welcomed, for example: African studies on social movements, gender studies in Latin America, or leisure studies in Asia. In this sense, language reviews on a topic would be a desirable input for CSR as well: reviews of gender studies published in Russian, of labour unions published in Arabic, of bureaucracy and the state in Germany, etc. This would be an important way of giving visibility to problems and discussions that are currently not disseminated due the language barrier.
How to submit a paper to Current Sociology Review
There are two main ways for authors to publish in this volume. Review articles can be submitted to Current Sociology Review or to sociopedia.isa. The editors can also invite authors to submit a paper. Such invitation is no guarantee that the paper will be published as editorial decisions are based on a double-blind peer review, as for all articles published in Current Sociology and sociopedia.isa.
Specific submissions for this volume should have between 10,000-14,000 words and should be sent in any of the three ISA official languages (English, Spanish and French) or in any language we would be able to find adequate peer reviewers who are proficient in these languages. This is a Current Sociology editorial policy that seeks to facilitate publication for scholars who find it difficult to write in English, and for academics that face difficulties in order to get their article translated for the initial submission to the journal. The entire process of reviewing will be done in the original language, and translation will be asked only when their article has been accepted.
For researchers working outside of the English-speaking world, this initiative provides a unique opportunity to share their findings with an international audience, and update on specific issues including literature published in other languages. We thus warmly invite potential authors to contact CSR editors, sending an extended abstract in English, which will help to gauge their contents and potential interests for Current Sociology Review.
Review papers that are submitted directly to CS’s Review Issue are managed through the Current Sociology’s review process, and once they are accepted they are pre-published online before print. Papers that are submitted to sociopedia.isa are assessed in the sociopedia.isa’s review process. Once the paper is accepted it will be published in sociopedia.isa.
sociopedia.isa entries will also be candidates to be published in a Current Sociology Review issue. The two editors decide upon the selection to be made. Authors of sociopedia.isa articles that are selected for inclusion in CS-Review Issue are invited to update and adapt their paper according to the CS-Review issue format.
Besides, authors are encouraged to include the paper in the original language (when it is not English) or the translations in other languages in addition to the English version of the paper. Such translations will be published in sociopedia.isa and would ensure a broader audience, especially for teaching purposes.
As the editors of Current Sociology Review, we are pleased to introduce this new issue and warmly invite potential authors to share their review articles with our international audience.