“Living Social Science” – a new concept

Structure of Commentaries

A commentary should contain several elements. Please structure the commentary in accordance with the indicated order. Commentaries that do not meet the requirements will not be taken into consideration.

Some general remarks:

• Length: a commentary should be between 500 and 1000 words in total, excluding the bibliography (see below).
• References should be in Harvard style. Since the commentary is published online, no footnotes can be published.
• Language: The commentary is written in English. Non-native English speakers need to make sure that their commentary is written in correct English. It is recommended that non-native speakers have their commentaries checked by a native speaker.
• Optional: Copy of the commentary in another language: Sociopedia.isa encourages authors to send in a full copy of their commentary in (one of) the two other official languages of the ISA namely French and Spanish. The author needs to make sure that such a translated commentary is an exact copy of the final version of the English commentary.

The commentary should be structured in three parts:

• Title: “Commentary on article “ADD NAME” by “ADD NAME AUTHOR”.
• 1. Introduction: a short description of what the argument is about of approximately 50 words.
• 2. Elaboration of the critique (between 400-900 words). The critique may address such topics as
• 2a. Theoretical foundation: critique of the way the field is delineated by the author, or of the way theories are interpreted; critique of the scope of the literature cited; or critique of the theories discussed. 
  2b. Empirical references: Empirical evidence may be incomplete, misinterpreted, or irrelevant.
• 3. Short concluding statement of approximately 50 words.

Finish up the article with the following two elements:

• Cite up to 5 references. Optionally, these references may be recommended for further reading.
• Add a short author biography of approximately 10 to 20 words including the name, location (e.g. affiliation with a university or other institution) and expertise of the author.

 Additional note: Referring to commentaries:

• If you want to refer to a commentary on a Sociopedia.isa article, please add the following link: http://www.sagepub.net/isa/resources/pdf/Title/Commentary.pdf.
  For example, the commentary on the article “Health and Social Care” can be referred to with: http://www.sagepub.net/isa/resources/pdf/HealthandSocialCare/Commentary.pdf