Sociological Methodology

In the next few weeks, the editorial office of Sociological Methodology will move from Columbia University to the University of Chicago. I will assume the editor's duties with much gratitude for the outstanding work done by all the previous editors. Sociological Methodology is the flagship methodological journal of our discipline, it is in excellent condition, and I want to do what I can to make it even better. I write to ask your advice, to solicit your methodological papers, and to tell you some of my own ideas for the journal.

First, your advice. If you have ideas about how to make Sociological Methodology better and more useful, then please let me know. My mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone number are listed below. If you have thoughts on Sociological Methodology, then please share them with me. I canât follow your advice unless I know it, so please let me know it.

Second, your papers. Please develop your methodological thoughts into papers, and please submit those papers for publication in Sociological Methodology. An editorâs most important job is to publish good papers. The hardest part of that job is acquiring submissions. As one of the most- frequently cited journals in the discipline of sociology, Sociological Methodology is an outstanding place to publish. The book format of the journal gives its articles remarkable shelf-life.

Finally, a journal for all sociological methodologies. Sociological Methodology has a mandate to publish outstanding contributions to all the research methodologies used by sociologists. These include statistical methods for survey data analysis, of course. But they also include observational methods, field methods, historical methods, methods for the analysis of pictures, patterns and written and spoken words; experimental design methods, and so-on. No single person can be well-informed about all of these research areas, so three deputy editors will provide the necessary expertise. They are Robert Emerson, from UCLA, who is widely published on field and observational research methods; Larry Griffin, from Vanderbilt University, who has a long record of outstanding historical research; and Martina Morris, from the University of Washington, who has made numerous important contributions to the statistical analysis of sociological data. .

I look forward to learning your advice and to reading your papers.

Sincerely,
Ross M. Stolzenberg Editor

Mailing Address:

Department of Sociology
University of Chicago
307 Social Science Research
1126 East 59TH Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637
Telephone: (773) 702-8685
e-mail: r-stolzenberg@uchicago.edu