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16th Conference on the Small City and Regional Community, October 15-17, 2006, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Theme: “Downtown Development.” Papers on all aspects of small city and town life are being sought. Co-sponsored by the Joint Urban Studies Center in Wilkes-Barre and the Center for the Small City in Stevens Point, WI. For the Call for Papers and other details see www.urbanstudies.org. 2006 Conference of the International Visual Sociology Association, July 3-5, 2006, Urbino, Italy. Theme: “Eyes on the City.” For a list of session topics related to the theme, other session topics and information about travel and housing go to visualsociology.org. 2006 Mid-South Sociological Association Meeting, October 25-28, 2006, Lafayette Hilton Hotel, Lafayette, Louisiana. Theme: “Sociology in Ill-Starred Times: Crises, Survival, and Reconstruction.” Submit completed session report(s) by June 30, 2006. Contact: Carl L. Bankston at cbankst@tulane.edu. Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology (AACS) 24th Annual Meeting, October 26-28, 2006, Crowne Plaza San Jose Downtown Hotel, San Jose, CA. AACS seeks proposals for workshops, panels, papers, poster presentations, and roundtables that promote Applied and Clinical Sociology in the discipline, the academy, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and consulting firms. Proposal Submission Deadline: June 30, 2006. Contact Benjamin Ben- Baruch, 4789 Pine Bluff Ste 3C, Ypsilanti, MI 48197; (734) 528-1439; fax (303) 479- 1321, email AACS2006ProgramChair@aacsnet.org; www.aacsnet.org/AACS2006AnnualMeeting.htm. Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) 38th Annual Conference, December 17- 19, 2006, Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego, CA. The AJS welcomes submissions in all fields of Jewish studies. The online proposal submission site will be available starting March 1, 2006. Deadline: April 24, 2006. All proposals must be submitted through the online submission site. For more information, visit www.brandeis.edu/ajs. Association of Black Sociologists’ Annual Meeting, August 8-11, 2006, Plaza Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Theme: “Black Identity, Black Consciousness, and the Politics of Exclusion: The Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality.” Individuals are invited to submit formal papers, informal discussion topics, open refereed roundtables, open informal discussion roundtables, and proposals for an organized session. Contact: Juan Battle at jbattle@hunter.cuny.edu. Deadline: May 5. Visit www.blacksociologists.org. Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conference III, November 1-4, 2006, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX. Important conference themes that touch people of all racial and ethnic heritages will be quality education, healthcare accessibility, affordable housing, and immigration. To register or submit paper/poster/session abstracts, visit REP-conference.binghamton.edu/. Deadline: April 30, 2006. For additional details, email REP3@geo.txstate.edu. The Sixth Annual Winemiller Conference: Methodological Developments of Statistics in the Social Sciences, October 11-14, 2006, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO. This conference will foster collaborations among mathematical statisticians and quantitatively-oriented social science researchers by bringing together top researchers from major social science disciplines and highlighting the interfaces between recent developments in each area. Applications are invited for contributed presentations and posters, with financial support available for junior researchers. Visit www.socialsciencestatistics.com. Contact: Lori Thombs, (573) 882-3844, fax (573) 884-5524, email thombsl@missouri.edu; or Stas Kolenikov, (573) 882-1577, fax (573) 884- 5524, email kolenikovs@missouri.edu. As the Spirit Moves Us: Embracing Spirituality in the Postsecondary Experience. We are interested in carefully conceived manuscripts addressing how one’s spirituality guides, sustains, and comforts us in postsecondary settings. For the pur- pose of this volume, spirituality will be operationalized as: a way of being in the world in light of being touched and sustained by the presence of a higher power. Of particular interest are manuscripts which combine ethnographic and/or phenomenological methods with narrated lived experiences. Four printed manuscripts and a disk copy (MS Word for PCs) should be forwarded to either: Katherine Grace Hendrix, Co-Editor, Department of Communication, 143 Theatre & Communication Arts Building, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152; (901) 758-0636; email khendrix@memphis.edu; or Janice D. Hamlet, Co- Editor, Department of Communication, 211 Watson Hall, Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, IL 60115; (815) 753-7014; email jhamlet@niu.edu. International Political Sociology, a new interdisciplinary journal to be published beginning in 2007. This new journal, from the International Studies Association, will draw especially on traditions of historical, legal, economic and political sociology, as well as on the burgeoning literatures on socio-political theory. Papers must be sent to both didier.bigo@libertysecurity.org and ips@ceri-sciencespo.org. To help broaden the community engaging in international studies, the journal will facilitate the submission of articles in languages other than English. The possibilities currently under consideration are French, Spanish, Italian, and German. Translation into English of the final version of the article should be taken care of by the author. The Journal of Health and Social Behavior seeks papers on comparative health care systems or comparative medical systems for a special section of the journal, Comparative Health Care/Medical Systems. Papers that consider Canadian, European, or non-Western systems are encouraged. Guidelines for manuscript formatting and submission procedures are found at the ASA website for journals or in the most recent issue of Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Submit manuscripts by June 1, 2006. Submit manuscripts to Peggy A. Thoits, Editor, JHSB, Dept. of Sociology, CB #3210, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3210. The Journal of Primary Prevention, Special Issue: Homelessness and Mental Illness. The Journal of Primary Prevention, in partnership with the National Resource Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness, is preparing a special issue on homelessness prevention. Papers are invited that provide new knowledge and insight into services, programs, and policies that help individuals, youth, and families with serious mental illness and/ or substance use disorders to avoid becoming homeless and exit homelessness quickly. Journal of Primary Prevention encourages various types of papers: original research, practice-oriented reports from the field, and literature reviews. Contact: Dawn Jahn Moses at (617) 964- 3834 ext. 36 or dawn.moses@familyhomelessness.org. Deadline for submission: June 1, 2006. Online Education. We seek papers that address emerging issues in online pedagogy and instructional modeling, bridge theories with practice, and identify best practices in online teaching and learning. Visit www.euhrates.wpunj.edu/faculty/ferriss101/, for details or email bobzheng@temple.edu or FerrisS@wpunj.edu. Deadline for proposals: April 30, 2006. Sociological Spectrum will publish a special issue on state of the sociology of deviance in Fall 2006. Manuscripts no longer than 25 pages are welcomed on any topic or research that addresses recent debates on the state of the field, introduces new avenues for research, defends or criticizes the sociological study of deviance. Submissions are due by April 15. Please contact Mark Konty at kontyma@auburn.edu; or Tom Calhoun at calpro@siu.edu with any questions or ideas. Sociology of Sport Journal invites paper submissions for a special issue, The Social Construction of Fat. This special issue calls for manuscripts that focus on a sociological treatment of fat and the fat body, including its biomedical construction as obese or overweight, and hence, unhealthy; its social construction as morally suspect, self-indulgent, lazy, and repellent; and the social meanings that people attribute to the “obesity epidemic.” Manuscripts must be submitted to mc.manuscriptcentral.com/hk_ssj. All manuscripts must follow the editorial guidelines identified in the Sociology of Sport Journal’s Instructions for Contributors and will be subject to the usual blinded review process. Authors must indicate in their cover letter that this manuscript is being submitted for the special issue. Deadline for submission: March 1, 2007. Contact: Margaret Carlisle Duncan at mduncan@uwm.edu. Teaching Work and Family: An ASA Resource Manual. We seek articles and notes that detail challenges and strategies of teaching work-family, as well as course syllabi, assignments, classroom activities, and film discussion ideas. Recommendations of articles to reprint are also welcomed. Submit materials (via email in MS Word format) to Stephen Sweet at ssweet@ithaca.edu. Deadline: June 15, 2006 May 5, 2006. Annual UCSD Culture Conference, University of California-San Diego. Keynote Speakers: Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania; Chandra Mukerji, UCSD. Panelists also include Maria Charles (UCSD), Laura Grindstaff (UC Davis), Francesca Polletta (UC Irvine), Mitchell Stevens (NYU). Contact: Michael Haedicke (mhaedick@ucsd.edu). For more information, visit sociology.ucsd.edu/currente/cultureconf06.html. May 25-28, 2006. Global Awareness Society International 15th Annual Conference, Westin Hotel-Chicago River North, Chicago, IL. Theme: “Globalization Pluses and Minuses.” Special sessions are being organized in Global Business, Global Education, International Social Work, and Global Social Issues. Contact: Lewis Mennerick, Department of Sociology, University of Kansas; email mennerick@ku.edu, “GASI Conference” in the subject area. More details and registration options are at orgs.bloomu.edu/gasi. June 27, 2006. Inequalities in Health and Well-Being over the Life Course, Ohio State University. This conference will explore factors that influence inequalities in population health and well-being during specified stages of life and consider how disparities in health and well-being are produced throughout the life course. For more information, see www.sociology.osu.edu/facesofinequality/health. July 3-5, 2006. 2006 Conference of the International Visual Sociology Association, Urbino, Italy. Theme: “Eyes on the City.” For more information, visit visualsociology.org. August 8-11, 2006. Association of Black Sociologists’ Annual Meeting, Plaza Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Theme: “Black Identity, Black Consciousness, and the Politics of Exclusion: The Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality.” Contact: Juan Battle at jbattle@hunter.cuny.edu. Visit www.blacksociologists.org. October 11-14, 2006. The Sixth Annual Winemiller Conference: Methodological Developments of Statistics in the Social Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO. This conference will foster collaborations among mathematical statisticians and quantitatively-oriented social science researchers by bringing together top researchers from major social science and highlighting the interfaces between recent developments in each area. Visit www.socialsciencestatistics.com. Contact: Lori Thombs, (573) 882-3844; fax (573) 884-5524; email thombsl@missouri.edu. Stas Kolenikov, (573) 882- 1577; fax (573) 884-5524; email kolenikovs@missouri.edu. October 15-17, 2006. 16th Conference on the Small City and Regional Community, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Theme: “Downtown Development.” Co-sponsored by the Joint Urban Studies Center in Wilkes-Barre and the Center for the Small City in Stevens Point, WI. Visit www.urbanstudies.org for more information. October 20-22, 2006. Conference on “Feminism and War,” Syracuse University. The focus will be on recent U.S. government initiatives that claim war in the name of women’s liberation, but with a global and transnational context in which other military actions might be considered. The conference schedule will include plenary sessions, paper presentations, discussion groups, and cultural events. Contact: Janet Dodd, Women’s Studies Program, 208 Bowne Hall, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY 13244; email jkdodd@syr.edu; womens-studies.syr.edu. October 25-28, 2006. 2006 Mid-South Sociological Association Meeting, Lafayette Hilton Hotel, Lafayette, Louisiana. Theme: “Sociology in Ill-Starred Times: Crises, Survival, and Reconstruction.” Contact: Carl L. Bankston at cbankst@tulane.edu. October 26-28, 2006. 24th Annual Meeting
of the Association for Applied and Clinical
Sociology, Crowne Plaza San Jose Downtown
Hotel, San Jose, CA. Contact: Benjamin
Ben-Baruch, Vice-President and
Program Chair, 4789 Pine Bluff Ste 3C,
Ypsilanti, MI 48197; (734) 528-1439; fax
(303) 479-1321; email ACS2006ProgramChair@aacsnet.org; www.aacsnet.org/AACS2006 November 1-5, 2006. Association for Humanist Sociology Annual Conference, St. Louis. Theme: “The Future of Humanism.” Contact: Stephen Adair, Department of Sociology, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT 06050. Electronic submissions may be sent to adairs@ccsu.edu. www.humanistsociology.org. November 1-5, 2006. International Leadership Association 8th Annual Conference: Leadership at the Crossroads, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois. Registration and hotel details are at: www.ila-net.org/Conferences. Contact ILA at (301) 405- 5218; email ila@ila-net.org. November 1-4, 2006. Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conference III, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas. Important conference themes that touch people of all racial and ethnic heritages will be quality education, healthcare accessibility, affordable housing, and immigration. Visit, REPconference.binghamton.edu/. For additional details, email REP3@geo.txstate.edu. December 17-19, 2006. Association for Jewish Studies 38th Annual Conference, Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego, CA. For more information, visit www.brandeis.edu/ajs. 2006-2007 Midlife in the United States Pilot Grant Program. Two pilot project grants will be awarded for innovative interdisciplinary research on adult health and well-being, with an emphasis on integrative approaches to understanding life course and subgroup variations in physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive functioning. All research must be based on the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) data set, or its satellite studies including the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE) and sibling/twin subsample studies. Grants of up to $15,000 (total costs) will be awarded to investigators from a variety of disciplines. For more information visit www.rci.rutgers.edu/~carrds/midus/midus_home.htm. Applications are due July 5, 2006. Contact: Deborah Carr, Institute for Health, Health Care Policy & Aging Research, Rutgers University, 30 College Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08901; (732) 932-4068; email carrds@sociology.rutgers.edu. 2006 WLS Pilot Grant Program. The Center for Demography of Health and Aging (CDHA) at the University of Wisconsin- Madison will award two to three pilot grants to investigators using the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) data for scholarly research. Selected recipients will receive $10,000 to support their research, along with a residency at CDHA, where they will receive training and support in use of WLS data. The deadline for applying is June 1, 2006. Applicants must have a doctoral-level degree and must be affiliated with either an educational institution or with a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Expenses for travel to Madison for the August workshop will be covered in addition to the $10,000 grant. For more information, visit www.ssc.wisc.edu/wlsresearch/pilot/. Contact: Carol Roan at (608) 265-6196; email roan@ssc.wisc.edu. The United States Institute of Peace invites applications for the 2007-2008 Senior Fellowship Competition in the Jennings Randolph Program for International Peace. Projects which demonstrate relevance to current policy debates will be highly competitive. Fellows reside at the Institute in Washington, DC for a period of up to 10 months to conduct research on their projects, consult with staff and contribute to the ongoing work of the Institute. Books and reports resulting from fellowships may be published by the USIP Press. The competition is open to citizens of all nations. Women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply. Applications due: September 15, 2006. For more information, visit www.usip.org. Contact: Jennings Randolph Program, U.S. Institute of Peace, 1200 17th Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036-3011, USA; (202) 429-3886; fax (202) 429-6063; email jrprogram@usip.org. The United States Institute of Peace invites applications for the 2007-2008 Peace Scholar dissertation fellowship competition of the Jennings Randolph Program for International Peace. The Peace Scholar program supports doctoral dissertations that explore the sources and nature of international conflict, and strategies to prevent or end conflict and to sustain peace. Applicants must have completed all requirements for the degree except the dissertation by the commencement of the award (September 1, 2006). The dissertation materials must be received in our offices by January 9, 2007. For more information and an application form, visit www.usip.org. Contact: Jennings Randolph Program, U.S. Institute of Peace, 1200 17th Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036-3011, USA; (202) 429-3886; fax (202) 429-6063; email jrprogram@usip.org. Sine Anahita, University of Alaska- Fairbanks, was interviewed by KUAC radio about the Alaska state legislature’s efforts to eliminate insurance and other benefits for state employees’ domestic partners. Judy Auerbach, American Foundation for AIDS Research, was quoted in a frontpage, February 17, 2006, story in the Washington Blade about federal research funding for AIDS versus H5N1 avian flu virus and about concerns over perceived politicization of science by the Bush administration. Nicholas Christakis, Harvard Medical School, and Paul Allison, University of Pennsylvania, were quoted in the media worldwide February 15 and 16 for their research reported in the February issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, which found that the stress of caring for a loved one, especially a spouse, is a public health problem. Their research was the subject of USA Today, Boston Globe, Chicago Sun- Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times articles, and was covered by the Associated Press as well. Lee Clarke, Rutgers University, participated in a disaster preparedness forum at Brown University on February 10 that was broadcast on NBC affiliate station WJAR TV in Rhode Island. Stephanie Coontz, Evergreen State College, was quoted in a February 12, 2006, New York Times article about the demographic ratio of men to women in the United States and implications for trends in rates of marriage. Shelley Correll, Cornell University, was featured in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article on February 28 for her research with Stephen Benard, a Cornell graduate student, about the wage penalty for mothers seeking employment. Morten Ender, United States Military Academy, was quoted in the Christian Science Monitor on March 8 highlighting the increased role and denomination of U.S. military chaplains on both war and homefronts. He was also interviewed on Youth Radio for a story about “convenience marriages” among U.S. service members immediately prior to their military deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was interviewed and quoted in a February 26 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article regarding the socioeconomic status of military recruits and responding to Representative Charles Rangel’s introduction of a new bill that would reinstate the military draft. He was also was interviewed and quoted in a February 26 Hartford Courant article. Barbara Entwisle, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, was quoted in the February 17, 2006, News of the Week section of Science magazine about the President’s proposed FY 2007 federal budget not including funds for the longplanned, multi-agency National Children’s Study. Amitai Etzioni, George Washington University, was interviewed recently about his book, How Patriotic is the Patriot Act?, by the Associated Press Radio Network, NPR WNYC, and BBC News 24/World on January 30, 2006. Patricia Ewick, Clark University, was quoted in the February 21, 2006, New York Times about inappropriately informal and demanding email messages and requests that college and graduate professors often receive from their students. David Finkelhor, University of New Hampshire, was quoted in a February 29 New York Times article about his study on sibling violence and the effects. Tyrone Forman, University of Illinois- Chicago, was quoted in a February 8 USA Today article about the next generation being color blind and whether that is positive or negative. William Frey, University of Michigan, was quoted in a January 29, 2006, New York Times article about the impact of high housing costs in New York pushing middle class citizens to move to less expensive states such as Connecticut and Pennsylvania and sunbelt states such as Florida. Franklin Goza, Bowling Green State University, was quoted in a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal on February 16, 2006, regarding his research on Brazilian immigration to the United States. Michael J. Handel, Northeastern University, argued against the notion that rising income inequality reflected a human capital shortage in guest columns for Forbes on November 14, 2005, and On Campus and American Teacher in December 2005/ January 2006. His book, Worker Skills and Job Requirements: Is There A Mismatch?, was profiled or cited in the Christian Science Monitor, Kansas City Star, Durham Herald- Sun, La Opinión, and several human resource trade publications. He was also interviewed by several radio stations across the country. Saad Eddin Ibrahim was quoted in a February 26, 2006, New York Times op-ed on democracy in the Arab world. Kathleen E. Jenkins, College of William and Mary, was quoted in the February 21, 2006, New York Times about inappropriately informal and demanding email messages and requests that college and graduate professors often receive from their students. Raymond Kirshak, Marymount University, was mentioned in a January 19, 2006, article in the Chicago Tribune, “Threats, Humor and Timing.” Shirley Laska, University of New Orleans, participated in a disaster preparedness forum at Brown University on February 10 that was broadcast on NBC affiliate station WJAR TV in Rhode Island. Matthew Lee, University of Akron, was the subject of a question-and-answer column in a February 14 Cleveland Plain Dealer article about his class on the sociology of love. James Loewen was featured on page one of the February 21, 2006, Style section of the Washington Post regarding his new book, Sundown Towns. Patricia Yancey Martin, Florida State University, had her research on the failure of mainstream organizations to treat rape victims responsively reported in the following outlets in December 2005: WCTV CBS television, Forensic Nursing Magazine, Science Daily, Good Housekeeping, and two national media organizations in India. Brian Martinson, Health Partners Research Foundation-Minneapolis, was quoted in the January 27 Science magazine about an increasing tendency by scientists making presentations at science meetings to not want to fulfill some time-consuming and costly data requests for fear of competitors using their data that was painstakingly acquired through research. Charles Moskos, Northwestern University, published a letter to the editor in the March 3 New York Times about a poll he conducted of U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and assessing their morale. He was also quoted in a February 14 Washington Post article on the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Havidan Rodriguez, University of Delaware, participated in a disaster preparedness forum at Brown University on February 10 that was broadcast on NBC affiliate station WJAR TV in Rhode Island. Barbara Katz Rothman, City University of New York’s Baruch College and Graduate Center, published a commentary in the February 24 Chronicle of Higher Education on an IRB-approved Baylor College of Medicine study to do a long-term assessment of social and health effects in families in which the parents have selected the sex of their babies through genetic testing prior to implantation of the embryo. David R. Segal, University of Maryland, was quoted in the San Antonio Express- News on January 7 and in the Portland Press-Herald on January 15 on military recruiting. He was quoted in three stories in the Army Times on January 9 on army reenlistment, military morale, and civilmilitary relations. He was quoted on January 18 in Knight-Ridder newspapers on army recruitment and reenlistment patterns. He was quoted in the Baltimore Sun on January 27 on the effects of enrollment in Junior ROTC. Robin Simon, Florida State University, had her research on the connection between parenting and depression, from her research published in the December 2005 Journal of Health and Social Behavior reported on radio and/or television in January 2006, by the following outlets: BBC World News, UK; National Public Radio; BBC Scotland; KCBF Radio, San Francisco; WCCO Radio, Minneapolis; The Canadian Broadcasting Company; The View; CNN; and ABC. Print coverage of the research included: The Philadelphia Inquirer (December 26 & January 7, 2006); The Times of India (December 26, 2005); Toronto Globe (December 30, 2005); Washington Post (January 1 & 3, 2006); The London Sunday Telegraph (January 16, 2006); The Scotsman (January 16, 2006); The Sydney Morning Herald (January 16 & 21, 2006); The Guardian (January 16, 2006); The Orange County Register (January 18, 2006); The Daily Telegraph, UK (January 22, 2006); Montreal Gazette, Canada (January 23, 2006); The Baltimore Sun (January 24, 2006); Orlando Sentinel (January 24, 2006); Health Telegraph (January 17, 2006); Child Development Research (January 2, 2006); Health & Fitness (January 21, 2006); Medical Study News (January 16, 2006); News- Medical.Net (January 16, 2006); Buffalo News (January 25, 2006); and Consumer Health Medical News Today (February 8, 2006). Judith Stacey, and Timothy Biblarz, both of University of Southern California, were mentioned on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation show on March 2 in a call-in debate on gay adoption policies. Their April 2001 American Sociological Review article, “(How) Does the Sexual Orientation of Parents Matter?,” was cited. Thomas Sugrue, University of Pennsylvania, was quoted in the February 21 Washington Post regarding James Loewen’s new book, Sundown Towns. Toby A. Ten Eyck, Michigan State University, was quoted in the Detroit News on February 27 on a story about the launching of CarSpace.com. Marta Tienda, Princeton University, was quoted in a March 1 Associated Press article for her research with the National Academy of Sciences on the health and education of immigrants. The article appeared in a number of news sources including the Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, USA Today, and the Boston Globe. Debra Umberson, University of Texas- Austin, was cited for her research that suggests marital happiness declines over time in a March 2006 Scientific American article. She found that the age of the spouses rather than the duration of the marriage play a larger role in marital happiness. Catherine G. Valentine, Nazareth College- Rochester, was quoted extensively in the January 6 Rochester Insider magazine on the interpretation of the magazine’s “Sex in our City” survey. Jody VanLaningham, formerly of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was cited for her research that suggests that marital happiness declines throughout the marriage in a March 2006 Scientific American article. Mary C. Waters, Harvard University, was quoted in the February 13 New York Times about Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers’ administrative leadership of the University. Duncan J. Watts, Columbia University, was quoted in numerous news sources for his recent study on what makes a song popular, which appeared in the journal Science. The study was covered by the Los Angeles Times, Toronto Globe and Mail, and Washington Post. Barry Wellman, University of Toronto, was quoted in the March 5 Baltimore Sun on his Pew report, “The Strength of Internet Ties.” The University of Michigan-Dearborn’s Science and Technology Studies Program, in collaboration with The Henry Ford, recently launched a new website and online archive, The Automobile in American Life and Society, at www.autolife.umd.umich.edu. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund, the site contains overview essays and case studies on the automobile’s relationship to labor, gender, race, design, and the environment. Each essay is copiously illustrated with archival materials, most from the extensive collections of The Henry Ford, and supplemented with a variety of resources for teachers and students (annotated bibliography, definitions, reading comprehension and discussion questions, writing and research assignments). Also included are more than a dozen oral histories of major automobile designers taken during the 1980s by The Henry Ford, digitized and made available online for the first time. Alpha Kappa Delta 2006 Undergraduate Student Paper Competition. Alpha Kappa Delta welcomes submissions from undergraduate students who are members of the Society, whether or not they are involved in AKD chapter activities. Submissions must be received by June 1, 2006. Submit three copies of the paper with a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Elizabeth Hartung, Sociology, SA 245, One University Drive, California State University, Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA 93012; (805) 437-3274; email Elizabeth.Hartung@csuci.edu. Association of Black Sociologists Student Paper Competitions. The Association of Black Sociologists (ABS) is now accepting papers for its annual Undergraduate Student Paper Competition. Students who are members of ABS qualify. The top three winners of the competition will receive cash awards. They will also present their papers at this year’s ABS conference in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 8-11, 2006. The papers are to be no longer than 20 pages, including references. The papers cannot be under consideration for publication at the time of submission. Additionally, an abstract of no more than 200 words should be submitted with the paper. The ABS is also accepting papers for its annual Graduate Student Paper Competition. Graduate students who are members of ABS qualify for the competition. The top three winners of the competition will receive cash awards and will also present their papers at this year’s ABS conference. The papers are to be no longer than 30 pages, including references. The papers cannot be under consideration for publication at the time of submission. An abstract of no more than 200 words should be submitted with the paper. Students should submit six copies of the paper and abstract to: ABS Student Paper Competition, Association of Black Sociologists, 4200 Wisconsin Avenue NW, PMB 106-257, Washington, DC 20016. Please indicate on the envelope and cover page which competition you are entering. Students can also submit the paper and abstract electronically in Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, or PDF format to: studentpaper@blacksociologists.org. For more information, visit www.blacksociologists.org/. Award for Best Papers in Women’s and Gender Studies sponsored by Southwestern Women’s and Gender Studies Association. Paper must be presented on a panel sponsored or co-sponsored by SWGSA. First author must be a current member of SWGSA. Submissions due: Friday, March 17, 2005. Contact: Susan Strickland, SWGSA, Newton Gresham Library, Sam Houston State University, Box 2179, Huntsville, TX 77340; (936) 294- 3128; email lib_sds@shsu.edu. Inequalities in Health and Well-Being
Over the Life Course Conference. Junior
scholars, pre-doctoral students, or doctorate
received since 2000, are invited to
apply to attend the “Inequalities in Health
and Well-Being Over the Life Course”
conference on June 27, 2006 at Ohio State
University. The conference will explore
factors that influence inequalities in population
health and well-being during specified
stages of life and consider how disparities
in health and well-being are produced
throughout the life course. Approximately
10 junior scholars will receive
lodging, meals, and up to $400 in
travel expenses. Send a Curriculum Vitae
and a one-page statement on related
research to: Jane Wilson, Department of
Sociology, 300 Bricker Hall, 190 North
Oval Mall, Ohio State University, Columbus
OH 43210-1353. Deadline: April 21,
2006. The conference is sponsored by the
Ohio State University Department of Sociology
as part of its annual conference
series: The Many Faces of Inequality. For
more information, visit www.sociology.osu.edu/ The Eurasia Program of the Social Science
Research Council invites applications
for the first annual Training Seminar
for Policy Research, “Public Health,
Social Welfare Systems, and HIV/AIDS
in Eurasia.” The seminar will be held June
6-9, 2006 at the SSRC offices in New York
City and the Kennan Institute at the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars in Washington, DC. Advanced
graduate students and junior faculty in
the social sciences, humanities, and other
relevant disciplines who are working on
health-related and/or other relevant topics
with respect to Eurasia are encouraged
to apply. Candidates need not be working
exclusively on topics of HIV/AIDS in
Eurasia; their work may address issues
of public health, welfare systems, governance,
population change, family networks
and community dynamics, risk
behaviors, and other topics related to the
broad rubric of the seminar. Each participant
will be tasked with re-examining
his/her own research from the perspectives
of both interdisciplinarity and policy
relevance. During the four-day seminar,
participants will discuss their individual
paper submissions and research approaches
with three senior resource persons.
Broader issues will be addressed by
guest speakers from a cross-section of
academia, non-profit, government, business
and international organizations. For
more information, visit www.ssrc.org/ The Washington Center is hosting a summer institute for a NSF grant-funded project—Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum— in Olympia, Washington, from July 25-28, 2006. This is the second year of the project, aimed at creating spreadsheet modules designed to help students understand quantitative concepts in courses across the curriculum. The Washington Center will provide lodging and meals for participants during the institute. In addition, once participants develop a module and submit it to the design team, along with an assessment plan, they are eligible for a $1,000 honorarium. Both new and returning participants are encouraged to apply. Contact: Dena Jaskar at 360-867-6606; email jaskard@evergreen.edu or Emily Lardner at 360-867- 6637; email lardnere@evergreen.edu. www.evergreen.edu/washcenter. Joel Best, University of Delaware, Flavor of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads (The University of California Press, 2006). Dean John Champion, Research Methods for Criminal Justice and Criminology, 3rd edition, (Prentice Hall/Pearson, 2006). Kathy Charmaz, Sonoma State University, Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis (Sage Publications, 2006). Paula J. Dubeck, University of Cincinnati, and Dana Dunn, University of Texas-Arlington, editors, Workplace/ Women’s Place: An Anthology (Roxbury Publishing Co., 2006). Francesco Duina, Bates College, The Social Construction of Free Trade: The European Union, NAFTA, and Mercosur (Princeton University Press, 2006). Amitai Etzioni, George Washington University, Public Intellectuals: An Endangered Species? (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006). Michael J. Handel, Northeastern University, Worker Skills and Job Requirements: Is There A Mismatch? (Economic Policy Institute, 2005). Burkart Holzner, University of Pittsburgh, and Leslie Holzner, Transparency in Global Change (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006). Richard Quinney, Once Again the Wonder (Borderland Books, 2005). Ira L. Reiss, University of Minnesota, An Insider’s View of Sexual Science since Kinsey (Rowman and Littlefield, 2006). James W. Russell, Eastern Connecticut State University, Societies and Social Life: An Introduction to Sociology (Sloan Publishing, 2006). Christopher Uggen, University of Minnesota, and Jeff Manza, Northwestern University, Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2006). Tamar Diana Wilson, Subsidizing Capitalism: Brickmakers on the U.S.-Mexican Border (SUNY Press, 2005). Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University, Saving America? Faith-Based Services and the Future of Civil Society (Princeton University Press, 2006). Amitai Etzioni, George Washington University, had his book, The Active Society, re-examined by Wilson Carey McWilliams of Rutgers University in The Active Society Revisited. Etzioni also contributed to McWIllliams book. Patricia G. Greene has been named Provost of Babson College. Donald J. Hernandez, University at Albany- SUNY, was awarded a Presidential Citation by the American Psychological Association to recognize and commend, “distinguished contributions to the health and well-being of immigrant children and their families,” on February 2. John H. Laub, University of Maryland- College Park, has been named a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher for 2006-2007. Farshad Malek-Ahmadi, Naugatuck Valley Community College, was accepted to the Community Faculty Fellowship Program (CFFP) at Yale University’s Programs in International Educational Resources for the calendar year 2006. David Schleifer, New York University, had an article on gay female-to-male transgenderists in the journal Sexualities in February 2006. The Mid-South Sociological Association is seeking applications from members of the MSSA for the position of Editor of Sociological Spectrum, the official journal of the Association. The current editorship will end on or before December 31, 2006. The term of the editor(s) will be three years (2007-2009), beginning no later than January 1, 2007. Duties of the editorship include reading and evaluating manuscripts, coordinating the external review process, and preparing six issues for publication per year. Applications should include a letter of application, Curriculum Vitae, and a statement of support from the proposed host institution. Electronic submissions are encouraged. Applicants with additional questions are encouraged to contact the current editor-in-chief before making application. Contact: DeAnn M. Kalich, Editor, Sociological Spectrum, UL Lafayette, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, PO Box 40198, Lafayette, LA 70504; (337) 482-6043; email deannkalich@ull.edu. Applications should be sent to the MSSA President, Thomas Calhoun, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Anthony Hall, Room 204, Mail Code 4311, Carbondale, IL 62901; (618) 536-6607; email calpro@siu.edu. Applications due May 1, 2006. Michael M. Bell, University of Wisconsin- Madison, won an Outstanding Academic Title award from the American Library Association, for his book, Farming for Us All: Practical Agriculture and the Cultivation of Sustainability. Phyllis Moen, University of Minnesota, and Patricia Roehling, Hope College, earned the 2005 Award for Excellence in Sociology and Social Work Career from the Association of American Publishers for their book, The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream. Their book was also selected by the Professional and Scholarly Publication section of the Association of American Publishers as the best publication in sociology in 2005. James W. Russell, Eastern Connecticut State University, was awarded the title of Connecticut State University Professor by the CSU Board of Trustees. The title is the highest honor in the four-campus state university system. Anthony Cortese, Southern Methodist University, has been nominated for his book, Opposing Hate Speech, for the Grawemeyer Award in Education, one of the world’s most prestigious and wellfunded awards. Arthur J. Vidich, New School University, died of complications from chronic lymphatic lymphoma on March 16th, in Southampton, New York. He was 83. The Collected Works of Norbert Elias in English. The first two volumes of the Collected Works of Norbert Elias have just been published by UCD Press, Dublin, on behalf of the Norbert Elias Foundation. Elias (1897–1990) is now widely recognized as one of the outstanding sociologists of the twentieth century. When the publication of the Collected Works is completed in 2011, they will comprise 17 hardback volumes, with an 18th containing a consolidated index. Works not previously published in English will be newly translated, previous translations revised, and Elias’s writings both in English and German checked against original typescripts where possible. Further details: UCD Press www.ucdpress.ie. Academic editing for social scientists by Donna Maurer, Ph.D. (sociology). Please see my website at www.academiceditor.com, or email me at dmaurer@academic-editor.com. Free sample edit and estimate. Table 1: Summary of Editorial Activity, January 1-December 31, 2005 American Sociological Review In 2005, the American Sociological Review published 41 papers and 4 other, smaller items, such as comments and replies. We had the second highest number of submissions since 1990 (when ASR articles were first entered into the current database). (The highest total of new manuscript submissions was recorded in 2004.) The acceptance rate is below 10 percent (8.58 percent). The average (mean) editorial lag time fell to below 10 weeks (9.7). ASR articles continue to be influential. They are highly cited, as measured by the impact scores reported in the ISI’s Journal Citation Reports. ASR papers also frequently win ASA “best paper” competitions. A partial listing of ASA section Awards in 2005 includes six papers garnering such recognition. In addition, Mark Chavez and colleague’s 2004 paper on government funding for nonprofit organizations won the best paper award of the Academy of Management’s Public and Nonprofit Division. The editorial board was diverse: 47 percent female, 22 percent minority. One theme in recent years has been the inclusion of many multi-method papers. This theme is developed in a short essay in the December 2005 issue of Footnotes. ASR helped to celebrate the Centennial Year of the American Sociological Association with the publication of “ASR’s Greatest Hits,” a note by the editor which discussed the most frequently cited articles in the history of the journal. A longer version of this piece, featured on the ASR journal Web site, was consulted frequently by scholars who sought to find out if their favorite articles made it onto the list. The editors of the American Political Science Review are following ASR’s lead by conducting their own historical review on the occasion of the Centennial of the American Political Science Association. (For those who may be curious, ASR has many more “greatest hits” than does APSR, if the same yardstick is employed.) During 2005 we continued to place Online Supplements to selected articles on the ASR journal Web site. My assessment is that this practice has been a success. These Online Supplements provide additional information, typically tables and figures, for specialist readers without unduly clogging up the pages of the journal. Statistics provided by the ASA indicate that scholars frequently consult these Online Supplements on the ASR journal Web site. We have been working closely with the ASA office garner public attention for articles published in ASR. In 2005, The New York Times discussed two ASR articles: the February 2005 article by Jason Kaufman and Orlando Patterson on the cross-national diffusion of cricket, and the October 2005 article by Julia Wrigley and Joanna Dreby on mortality rates in childcare settings. We have been working closely with Teaching Sociology Editor Elizabeth Grauerholz to make ASR articles more accessible and useful in the classroom setting. Teaching Sociology has created a new “applications” section in which papers discuss how ASR (and potentially other research) articles can be used in the classroom. For example, in July 2005, TS featured an applications piece by Diane Purvin and Edward Kain, which featured a discussion of how sociology faculty could use the December 2004 ASR article by Andrew Cherlin and colleagues on violence and abuse in families. Purvin and Kain note that only about 1 percent of references in TS papers over the period 1995- 2004 are to articles published in ASR. This collaboration with TS seeks to build stronger bridges between sociological teaching and research. Jerry A. Jacobs, Editor Contemporary Sociology Books Considered: The editorial office of Contemporary Sociology received 1288 new books to consider for review in Volume 34. In addition, 71 books were carried over from the previous year. The total number of books that the editors examined was 1359. Review Process: 370 books were screened by editors and accepted for review for the year and the number of reviews received for the year was 338. 354 reviews were finished and published for Volume 34. 512 were either rejected or classified as Take Note. The new editorial team at the University of California-Irvine reorganized and created new categories into the following:
Editorial and Production Lags: The editorial office, on average, schedules reviews, articles, symposia, and review essays for publication within eight weeks after the materials arrive. The journal’s managing editor, Barbara Puetz, and thereafter Jenny Fan, edits and formats all the work received in preparation for publication. Most contributors send electronic copies of their work. The production lag, about thirteen and a half months, represents the time between receipt of the contributor’s materials (the books) and the publication date. Items Published: The breakdown of the items published in Volume 34 contain the following: 325 book reviews, 10 symposium essays, 15 review essays, 7 comments, and 4 other. The total number of items published is 361. Editorial Board Members and Reviewers: 7 women, 14 men, and 8 minorities compose the outgoing editorial board. The outgoing editors wish to thank the book reviewers, the featured essay writers, and the symposia organizers who made our work for Contemporary Sociology informative and generally a lot of fun. We are grateful to the members of the Editorial Board who made suggestions for book reviewers. A small number of Board members could be singled out for their extraordinary work. We hope they are aware of their unusual level of commitment to CS. JoAnn Miller and Robert Perrucci, Editors, with the assistance of Valerie Jenness, David A. Smith, and Judith Stepan-Norris, Editors- Elect Contexts During our first (and quite enjoyable) year as editors of Contexts, we changed the design, format, and content in a number of small ways aimed at making the magazine more lively and readable. Our first issue of 2006 introduces some changes to the cover design to match these interior developments. All the changes are aimed at making Contexts look more like a magazine and less like a fancy journal. On the other hand, we also launched some new features and renamed some old ones, with the intention of making the magazine more appealing to professional social scientists at the same time it retains its readability by nonprofessionals. Founding editor Claude Fischer was kind enough to consult with us on these transformations. We also inaugurated a series of forums meant not only to entertain live audiences but to generate materials for our “conversations” feature. Our first forum, held at New York University during a blizzard in February 2005, treated more than two hundred audience members to a debate over culture wars by Thomas Frank, Patricia Williams, Eli Anderson, and moderator Eric Klinenberg. This coming summer we are sponsoring a forum at the ASA meetings on mass violence and an independent event on crime and punishment. The largest market for Contexts aside from ASA members has proven to be undergraduate students. Increasing numbers of instructors are requiring articles or asking students to subscribe to the magazine. Kathy Edin is spearheading an experiment in using subscriptions in intro courses, and talks are underway with W. W. Norton to compile a reader of our best articles. A forthcoming Footnotes article will detail the several ways that you can get Contexts into the classroom, and there will soon be a page on our website (www.contextsmagazine.org) to help you do this. The four issues of volume 4 were published on time, in February, May, August, and November, containing more than twenty feature articles, more than a dozen book reviews, and a dozen culture reviews, in addition to various other features unique to Contexts. Among these, our “conversations” provide interviews or group discussions of timely issues. We introduced “keywords” to allow top scholars to think about the history of the concepts we all use in our work. “Backstage” is about what else academics do in addition to their research. The magazine is also sprinkled with fillers we call “nanofeatures,” small facts or quotes meant to make readers stop and think. It was our great fortune to attract a number of editors for these various features whose hard work has made the magazine possible. During 2005 we received approximately one hundred proposals for feature articles of varying degrees of formality, fewer than half of which we asked to proceed to full submissions and peer review. In most cases, the author had not formulated a hook for the piece that we thought would have broad appeal. A small number of authors were asked to revise their pieces from feature articles into culture reviews. Of those submissions peer reviewed, a slight majority were accepted for publication. Our peer reviewing process was severely hampered in the fall due to the grad-student strike at NYU, which has lost us the invaluable labor of our assistant editor. Our review time has accordingly expanded from approximately two months to around four. Our production procedures unfold continuously, but the time between the copy editor’s receipt of materials and their publication remains between four and five months. We encourage all readers to email us with their comments and suggestions as we continue to try to expand the magazine’s reach to new audiences and deepen its appeal to existing ones: jg9@nyu.edu and jmjasper@juno.com. Jeff Goodwin and James M. Jasper, Editors Journal of Health and Social Behavior Personnel. During 2005 we had some changes in personnel at the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Ranae J. Evenson, an advanced graduate student at Vanderbilt University (with PhD defended and soon to be filed), took over the position of Managing Editor for Reviews in May from Jennifer Moren-Cross, who decided to work full time on her dissertation research. Ranae specializes in the sociology of mental illness and has considerable background in medical sociology. Brent Winter assumed the Managing Editor for Production position in October, taking over from Gretchen Decker, who entered a new career in shelter- animal care. Brent is an editor and writer who has many years of experience in production and copyediting for magazines and newsletters; he also works as a freelance dissertation editor. Dr. Andrew Cognard-Black, Assistant Professor of Sociology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, continues as copyeditor for the journal. Overall Operations and Manuscript Flow. JHSB published 25 articles in 2005. The number of new submissions in 2005 (N = 140) was very similar to that in 2004 (N = 142) and was consistent with the mean annual number of new submissions received by the journal from 1990 through 2004 (mean = 148, which includes papers for special issues). In 2005, 311 manuscripts were considered. I made editorial decisions on 213 papers (68 percent), with 96 (31 percent) remaining under review and 2 others (1 percent) withdrawn by authors. Of the 213 decisions made, about 45 percent were “reject,” 11 percent were “reject without review,” 19 percent were “revise and resubmit,” 14 percent were “conditional accept,” and 10 percent were “accept.” The mean time lag between manuscript submission and editorial decision in 2005 was 10 weeks (median = 12 weeks), considerably lower than the mean time lag in 2004 of 22 weeks when the journal was at Virginia Tech and then migrated to UNC. Our goal was to return the editorial lag for JHSB to a mean of 12 weeks, or three months, and we are pleased to have met and even exceeded this goal. The mean production lag (i.e., the time between acceptance of a paper and its appearance in print) was 6 months in 2005, lower than in 2004 (mean = 13 months) and consistent with ASA editorial guidelines. Special Projects. No special projects were undertaken in 2005, as our attention has been focused on keeping journal operations on schedule. A special section of an issue in 2006 may be devoted to papers on a special topic that will be decided by a discussion among editorial board members. Changes in Journal Procedures. The managing editors for the journal have instituted two innovations in our procedures. Ranae now offers reviewers the option of receiving an electronic copy of a manuscript rather than a paper copy by regular mail. We find that many reviewers prefer electronic versions. Our office converts papers to read-only PDF files before being emailed to reviewers. (It has long been our practice to provide electronic review forms to reviewers for returning comments; most reviewers prefer this.) Brent has introduced electronic copyediting of manuscripts. Our copyeditor has been comfortable with this change, and now our authors are correcting their copyedited papers electronically as well. This shift from paper to electronic processing appears to be going smoothly. Editorial Board and Deputy Editors. Eight editorial board members rotated off the board at the end of 2005: David M. Almeida (Arizona), Chloe Bird (RAND), Phil Brown (Brown), Kenneth F. Ferraro (Purdue), Jo C. Phelan (Columbia), Elaine Wethington (Cornell), Helen Raskin White (Rutgers), and Kristi Williams (Ohio State). I am deeply grateful for their extraordinary service and commitment to the journal. I also thank the continuing editorial board members and the many, many additional ad hoc reviewers who have contributed their time and expertise so generously to the journal. Without their contributions, we simply could not fulfill the goal of publishing the very best papers in medical sociology submitted to the journal. The editorial board has 12 new board members whose terms run from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2008. New board members include Angelo A. Alonzo (Ohio State), Carol S. Aneshensel (UCLA), Jason D. Boardman (Colorado), Deborah Carr (Rutgers), Ruth C. Cronkite (VA Palo Alto), Mary L. Fennell (Brown), Mary-Jo Delvecchio Good (Harvard), Mark D. Hayward (Texas), Allan V. Horwitz (Rutgers), Pamela Braboy Jackson (Indiana), Felicia B. LeClere (Michigan), and Eric R. Wright (Indiana-Purdue). I have already begun to rely heavily on the professional guidance of these new editorial board members along with our faithful continuing board members. The editorial board in 2005 was a diverse group, not only in terms of gender (43 percent female) and race/ethnicity (11 percent minority), but also in terms of methodological skills and substantive specialties. The 2006 editorial board maintains an equivalent range in its composition demographically (44 percent female, 15 percent minority), methodologically, and substantively. Current Problems and Issues. If one goes back 10 years and examines acceptance rates at JHSB, these have averaged about 15 percent of submitted papers. In 2004 (under Michael Hughes’ editorship) and in 2005 (under my editorship) acceptance rates have been lower, 9 percent and 10 percent respectively. Despite these more stringent rates, by the end of 2004, 3.5 issues of 2005 had been filled with accepted or conditionally accepted papers, and by the end of 2005, all four issues of 2006 had been filled. I believe I am accepting only outstanding papers, and I would be hard pressed to turn away more papers than I am now. To reject more would force me to work against my reviewers’ judgments, turning away papers that a majority evaluates as serious contributions worthy of publication. Therefore, I will be requesting a one-time allocation of 96 journal pages from the ASA, equivalent to one issue of JHSB, or 6 additional articles of 16 pages each. (Our average article length in 2005 was 16.2 pages; I have been holding authors to very strict limits in length.) My plan would be to expand the four issues in 2007 from the usual 6 to 7 papers per issue to 7 to 8 papers per issue. This would allow me to ease the backlog of papers that I have now and to begin the process of handing over JHSB to a new editor in July of 2007 with only the first two issues of 2008 filled, enabling the new editor to determine the content of the remaining two issues as he or she assumes editorial duties from July 2007 to the official start date in January 2008. Peggy A. Thoits, Editor Rose Series in Sociology This was the fifth and final year for the University of Massachusetts- Amherst editorial team, and it was our busiest. Two books will appear soon: Suzanne Bianchi, John Robinson, and Melissa Milkie’s Changing Rhythms of American Family Life and Jeremy Hein’s Homeland Diversity and the Adaptation of Immigrants: Responses to Race, Ethnicity, and Discrimination Among Refugees in Small and Large American Cities. In addition, five author teams visited the University of Massachusetts- Amherst to present their books-in-process. These visits take place at the point the manuscript is half to three-quarters complete, when enough is written to provide a basis for feedback, but in time to incorporate suggestions and make revisions to what is still a work-inprogress. The visits were by Paul Attewell and David Lavin, Passing the Torch: Does Higher Education for the Disadvantaged Pay Off Across the Generations?; Pam Oliver and James Yocom, Racial Disparities in Imprisonment: Patterns, Causes, Consequences; Sean O’Riain and Chris Benner, Reworking Silicon Valley; Brian Powell, Catherine Bolzendahl, Danielle Fettes, Claudia Geist, and Lala Carr Steelman, Who Counts as Kin? How Americans Define the Family; and Gay Seidman, Citizens, Markets, and Transnational Labor Activism. The Rose Series now passes to a team of Long Island editors who are (except as noted) at the State University of New York at Stony Brook: Said Arjomand, Javier Auyero, Diane Barthel-Bouchier, Cynthia J. Bogard (Hofstra University), Michael Kimmel, Naomi Rosenthal (SUNY-Old Westbury), and Michael Schwartz. Douglas L. Anderton, Dan Clawson, Naomi Gerstel, Joya Misra, Randall Stokes, Robert Zussman, Editors Social Psychology Quarterly There were both successes and failures for the Social Psychology Quarterly (SPQ) in 2005. We continued to publish outstanding social psychological scholarship from around the world that employed a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. However, we were disappointed that our attempts to decrease our editorial lag time were not only unsuccessful but that our editorial lag actually increased notably over 2004. SPQ published 17 articles and 7 research notes in 2005. These employed or drew upon a variety of theoretical perspectives and used varied methodological strategies, with the notable exceptions of unstructured interviews and participant observation. As the year progressed, we did receive more submissions employing those two methods, and I do expect manuscripts employing such methods will be better represented in forthcoming volumes. Although most of the articles and notes published in SPQ in 2005 were written by North American authors, I was heartened that work from authors in Argentina, Finland, The Netherlands, and Japan also appeared in volume 68. The number of submissions to SPQ declined slightly in 2005. We received 124 new submissions in 2005, down from the 141 received in 2004. Of the 124 manuscripts submitted in 2005 and the 63 carried over from 2004, I reached a decision regarding 130 or 70 percent, leaving 56 manuscripts under review at the end of the reporting period. The official acceptance rate for 2005, which refers to acceptances as percentage of all decisions, was 10.69 percent. This is down sharply from the 21.09 percent acceptance rate reported for 2004 which was consistent with acceptance rates over recent years. I have no ready explanation for this decline in the acceptance rate. We have no difficulty filling issues with quality work and publishing those issues on time. I suspect that this is a temporary fluctuation and not a cause for concern at this time. As mentioned above, I was deeply disappointed that our editorial lag time actually increased in 2005 to a mean of 19.58 weeks from a mean of 15.38 in 2004. This occurred despite our efforts to improve our tracking of manuscripts that get delayed at various points in the review process such as in finding agreeable reviewers or obtaining tardy reviews. We clearly were unsuccessful in our attempts and will need to redouble our efforts in order to reduce our currently unacceptable editorial lag time. The mean production lag time, or time from final acceptance to publication, rose slightly from a mean of 9.24 months in 2004 to 10.57 months in 2005. I am not at all alarmed by this increase. In order to publish issues on time, we need to be two issues, or six months, ahead in the production process at all times. That means that, on average, manuscripts are accepted for only four months before the long process of their publication begins. This seems a reasonable lead time for the editorial staff and little burden for authors. I do want to thank a number of people who contributed to the success of SPQ in 2005 (and who bear no responsibility for my failures). First, I thank our Managing Editor, Brenda Shawver, who continues to do an excellent job overseeing the editorial office and impeccably producing issues on time. I am also indebted to our former graduate editorial assistant, William Ryan Force, and our current graduate editorial assistant, Susan Kremmel, for their professionalism in all aspects of their varied and vitally important jobs. In addition, I wish to acknowledge the outgoing members of SPQ’s editorial board for their three years of exemplary service: Lawrence Bobo, Rebecca Erickson, Richard Felson, Pamela Braboy Jackson, Melissa Milkie, Sarah Rosenfield, Michael Schwalbe, Shane Thye, and David Williams. Last but certainly not least, I express my deep appreciation to the many other colleagues who reviewed manuscripts for SPQ in 2005 for their thoughtful, constructive, and, more often than not, timely comments and reviews. Without their scholarly dedication and collegial courtesy, there would be no SPQ. Spencer E. Cahill, Editor Sociological Methodology Your editor reports a year of drama and success in preparation of his final volume of Sociological Methodology. This year will see the publication a wide variety of articles in Sociological Methodology, on topics ranging from cohort analysis to the safety of interviewers and field researchers. I have tried to broaden the scope of articles published in Sociological Methodology, and to improve the appearance of the book. I hope that my efforts have been successful. Editing Sociological Methodology has been a satisfying experience, and sometimes a pleasure. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to do so. I offer my thanks and praise to managing editor Ray Weathers, the editorial board of Sociological Methodology, the ASA for its support, the Publications Committee of the ASA for its extraordinary and generous support, and Craig Coelen, president of NORC, for providing resources that were essential to my work as editor. This has been a year punctuated by drama. Your editor seems to have encountered once again a small, previously unrecognized, nascent social movement that he calls the Thin-Skinned Scholar Movement (TSSM). TSSM serves the needs of scholars who object to publication of opinions that contradict their own. Your editor believes that the goals of TSSM are misguided, as his own professional fortunes have been advanced by the publication of debates about his own research. More important, disagreement is fundamental to scholarship, making the suppression of disagreements a fundamental violation of the purpose for which Sociological Methodology is published. Indeed; every paper published in Sociological Methodology includes clear statements of dissatisfaction with previous studies; it is this dissatisfaction with previous work that motivates and justifies the production and publication of new contributions. Your editor is deeply distressed by the style of the TSSM. In particular, consider the following incident: Several weeks ago, I encountered a thin-skinned scholar, who was driving in his car as I walked to my own car in a parking lot. Apparently unimpressed by the writings of Miss Manners, this scholar opened his car window, loudly and repeatedly declared strong views about the composition of my head and the phylum in which I should be classified, and rapidly drove his car so close to me that it did, on the third such maneuver, brush against my pants. I wonder still, is this thin-skinned scholar just a talented and kind-hearted stunt-driver with unusual ideas about parking? Or does he reveal true malice, a will to evoke fear and a willingness to use his car to damage a pedestrian? These are questions that I cannot answer. But answers are suggested by his emailed statement (with copies to others) that he would be pleased to see my body lifeless and in pieces. More to the point, these are questions that no editor should have to consider. This thinskinned scholar has wasted great volumes of an editor’s time and effort, reviled the editor in numerous hostile email letters (with copies sent to a variety of others), delayed publication of Sociological Methodology, wasted hours of time by talented and highly-paid lawyers, and badly strained relations between an editor who sought to uphold the principles under which scholarly journals are published, and the ASA executive officer, who sought to save the ASA the expense and trouble of a lawsuit by an enraged scholar. With all due respect, it is your editor’s humble opinion that the most effective and efficient way to avoid future law suits by thin-skinned scholars is to use the full force of the law to guard the integrity of the editorial process in refereed journals. American courts have a tradition of protecting free speech, and a longstanding distaste for frivolous litigation by selfappointed censors who seek to suppress publication of views they dislike. And it is your editor’s humble opinion that the ASA and similar organizations need to protect their editors from those who would use fear and intimidation to manipulate the editorial process. Ross M. Stolzenberg, Editor Sociological Theory This past year was the first in which we were in full control of the journal’s content. We are pleased with the result. Our vision, when we took over ST, was of a high quality, intellectually pluralistic journal with international reach. Looking back at the articles we have published in this past year’s issues, as well as those that we have scheduled for the immediate forthcoming issues, we feel that we have made substantial strides towards achieving this vision. The articles include many different visions of what theory is—deductive and inductive, general and middle range, formalistic and interpretive, scientific and normative—and speak from many different subfields: social psychology, organizational sociology, political sociology, and the sociology of religion, among others. They are intellectually very strong. Where we have so far been somewhat less successful than we had hoped is in recruiting authors from outside the United States. While many of our authors are foreign-born, only a few work at foreign universities. As for the day-to-day operations of the journal, they are now working quite smoothly and efficiently, due mainly to the valiant efforts of our managing editor, Jason Mast, who has created a clear and logical routine for us. This is reflected in our short editorial lag, which ranks just behind the ASR. Our biggest task, in this area, is recruiting reviewers. But this is a problem faced by all professional journals. In this regard, we owe special thanks to our editorial board, whose members not only review for ST but also came together at last year’s ASA meeting for an intellectually stimulating and productive meeting that continues to help guide us in our work. Our one major desideratum would be a slightly higher page allotment that might allow us to publish the occasional symposium or comment. As it stands, we often struggle to fit all of our regular articles into each issue. Julia Adams, Jeffrey Alexander, Ronald Eyerman, and Philip Gorski, Editors Sociology of Education This year Sociology of Education begins its 43rd year as an ASA journal of empirical studies focusing on sociological questions in education. Reviewing the journal’s history, one is struck by the interrelationships between sociology and education, not only in relation to social stratification, but also in relation to health, deviance, and job training and advancement, particularly for minorities and underrepresented groups. For sociology of education to evolve as an intellectual field, it is important that the articles in the journal tackle educational problems from a broader perspective, expanding both in intellectual content and methodological approaches. As Rubén Rumbaut and I take over the editorial leadership from the excellent hands of the prior editorial team of Karl Alexander and his deputy editors, Linda Grant and Suet-ling Pong, we hope to achieve the same high level of quality that has characterized the last three years. Consistent with its history, the journal will continue to address the educational needs of all groups and how they are being served by our educational institutions. Questions of social justice, equity, and fairness are central to sociology of education, not only in elementary and secondary school but also in higher education where concerns of affirmative action and admissions practices are shaping occupational opportunities in unprecedented ways. Additionally, sociologists both within and outside the U.S. are studying the expansion of schooling, including the increasing growth of religious schools, conflict over religious practices in public and private schools, and schooling options perceived as undesirable and inconsistent with cultural norms. Because of the importance of global interests in education, the journal will make a concerted effort to encourage submissions from scholars in both the U.S. and abroad on these topics and others in this area. We took over the journal in July 2006 just as I was making the transition from the University of Chicago to Michigan State University. Please send your manuscripts and reviews to: Editor: Barbara Schneider, Michigan State University, College of Education, 516 Erickson Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824. The University of Chicago is being very helpful, and they have been forwarding and keeping all my contact information and will continue to do so throughout my tenure as editor. As might be anticipated with transitions, there have been a few bumps in the process. There were a considerable number of manuscripts that had been in the revision stages for several years, and with the change in editorship there were several delays, especially in locating the original reviewers for these manuscripts. To facilitate the recordkeeping procedures of the journal, Rubén and I are pleased to announce that Sociology of Education joins the other ASA journals in using ASA’s electronic manuscript tracking system. We hope to institute a web-based system where authors will be able to check the progress of their manuscript during the review process. Another addition we are planning on making is following Jerry Jacobs, editor of the American Sociological Review, in maintaining a web-linked site where authors will be able to place additional supplementary tables, figures, and other material relating to their manuscripts so as to free up more pages for the journal. Jerry Jacobs has been a tremendous help in this transition process; we thank him for his assistance. Manuscript flow. This report covers the manuscript activity of the two offices so that it encompasses the entire year. Please refer to the summary of editorial activities for more details. The total number of manuscripts submitted during the 2005 calendar year was 175. This total represents a 12 percent increase over 2004, and exceeds the annual totals going back to 1997. Just under 53 percent of the 2005 submissions (N =109) were processed under the outgoing Editor. Thirty eight of the 109 were invited resubmissions, and 51 of these manuscripts were left pending in the review process during the transition. A total of 59 manuscripts were carried over from the previous editorial offices, most of which were pending original reviews. As a result, the review process for these manuscripts was longer than usual, causing the editorial lag time to average about eighteen weeks. Most accepted manuscripts are drawn from resubmissions, and this is reflected in the 2005 acceptance figures: 28 resubmitted manuscripts were either accepted outright or accepted pending minor revisions. This compares with a 2004 total of 23. Editorial Board. The 2005 editorial board consisted of 24 members, of whom 13 were women, and 6 were members of racial/ ethnic minority groups. Maintaining a diverse board is a goal of ours and we welcome our new board member, Cynthia Feliciano, University of California, Irvine. This summer a third of the board will be rotating off, and we thank them for their efforts. We are actively seeking new board members who represent a diversity of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. Special issue. One feature that was introduced under the prior editorship was solicited commentaries. One of these commentaries addressing resistance to schooling will be published this year. Although we will not be continuing the solicited commentaries, we are planning a special issue that Rubén will edit. This issue will focus on education and the life course, and we will solicit potential contributions from scholars who work with longitudinal datasets. More information on this initiative will be forthcoming. Acknowledgments. As outgoing editor, Alexander is indebted to his Deputy Editors, Linda Grant and Suet-ling Pong, and his editorial assistant, Anna Stoll. Both of us thank Karen Edwards, the ASA publications director, and Wendy Almeleh, our managing editor, who will be continuing her good work with the journal. At Michigan State University, Michelle Llosa is doing the day-to-day work of the journal as the editorial assistant. Michelle and I have been working together on several of my research projects, including the Data Research and Development Center, for the past two years. Michelle manages the new online database that tracks the flow of manuscripts, maintains the journal’s physical files, oversees its budget and expenses, and does most of the correspondence with authors and reviewers. As Rubén and I forge ahead with the journal, we are asking our over-extended and incredibly busy colleagues to please review for the journal. The quality of the journal depends on the quality of peer review. We look forward to receiving your manuscripts and your reviews. Barbara L. Schneider, Editor-Elect Teaching Sociology Activities in 2005
Relocation: In July, the editorial office was moved from Purdue University to the University of Central Florida. Despite a slight change in personnel (namely, the managing editor) the transition was seamless. Thanks to the hard work of Jori Sechrist, the previous managing editor at Purdue (who even managed to have a baby in the middle of the move!), the learning curve for the new managing editor, Monica Mendez, was relatively flat. Special issue: A portion of the July issue contained manuscripts surrounding the theme “100 Years of Teaching Sociology.” These included articles on the history of teaching sociology in high schools, the current state of scholarship of teaching and learning featured in Teaching Sociology, and the future of teaching graduate statistics. Applications: This new feature in the journal is designed to bridge the gap between research and teaching by helping instructors integrate current sociological research into the undergraduate curriculum. We contacted several authors of articles that appeared in recent ASR issues and invited them to develop (in collaboration with award-winning teachers in the discipline) manuscripts that guide instructors in using their research in undergraduate courses. The first application (based upon Cherlin, Burton, Hurt, and Purvin’s article) appeared in July; the second (based upon Pager and Quillian’s article) appeared in October. Others are forthcoming in 2006. Manuscript Flow
Editorial Board
Liz Grauerholz, Editor
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