'Living Social Science' – a new concept

Introduction
by Michel Wieviorka, ISA President 2006-2010

Aims and scope

sociopedia.isa is 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. While experienced editors and peer review ensure the highest possible quality, the Internet makes it possible to provide the most recent “state of the art” assessments. Sociopedia, then, offers ‘living social science.’

sociopedia.isa is an online database with ‘state-of-the-art’ entries in sociology. It guarantees users that the entries are up to date and will be revised on a regular basis. Each entry will have a discussion section to supplement it.

sociopedia.isa is an ISA Presidential Project developed by four founders, Izabela Barlinska, Bert Klandermans, Kenji Kosaka and Michel Wieviorka, ISA President (2006-2010). It is a joint venture of the International Sociological Association and SAGE Publications.

The Founding Editors of sociopedia.isa will appoint Associate Editors and an Editorial Board. The Editorial Board solicits entries and subjects each to a peer review process.

All entries in sociopedia.isa will be subject to a rigorous procedure of double blind peer review

Entries will only be included on this basis. They can be submitted by the author or commissioned by the Editors. The Editors will ensure that updates are prepared on a regular base. If an author is unable or unwilling to provide an update, a new author may be solicited.

Each entry can have a discussion section, which is open to readers. The Editors and Associate Editors will decide where a discussion will be included. They may also invite discussants. Based on the discussion they may ask the author to write an update or may ask some of the discussants to draft a separate entry.

Required structure of entries

For consideration each article must be structured in the following way:

Title/keywords/abstract:

• title – one short simple and descriptive title is required
• key-words - approx. five key words
• abstract - a description of what the article is about in not more than 25 words. Abstracts in French and Spanish must be provided.

Main text, which sould no be more than 7,000 words, to use the following headings:

• overview of theoretical approaches
• review of empirical evidence
• assessment of research to date
• discussion of future direction that theorizing and research might take
• annotated suggested further reading (“read this article because …” )

References/author biography:

• references shoud use the Harvard style [pdf file 76 Kb]
• three-sentence author biography, including affiliation

All entries will be published in English. Where English is not the contributors first language, contributors are strongly advised to ask a native English speaker to read the entry before it is submitted or to co-author the entry with a native English speaker. Each article will have a Spanish and French abstract. If authors make a Spanish or French version of the article available, the translation will be posted to the sociopedia.isa site.

Editorial structure

Founding Editors
Izabela Barlinska, Bert Klandermans, Kenji Kosaka, Michel Wieviorka (ISA President 2006-2010)

Associate editors
Elisa Reis, Arturo Rodríguez Morató, Devorah Kalekin-Fishman

International Advisory Board

• Jeffrey Alexander, Yale University, USA
• Margaret Archer, University of Warwick, UK
• Ulrich Beck, L. Maximilians University, Germany
• Howard Becker, USA
• Eliezer Ben-Rafael, Tel-Aviv University, USA
• Michael Burawoy, University of California, USA
• Craig Calhoun, Social Science Research Council, USA
• Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Brazil
• Manuel Castells, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
• S.N. Eisenstadt, The Hebrew University, Israel
• Sang-Jin Han, Seoul National University, Korea
• Hans Joas, University of Erfurt, Germany
• Mary Kaldor, London School of Economics, UK
• Peilin Li, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, P.R. China,
• Alberto Martinelli, Università di Milano, Italy
• Saskia Sassen, Columbia University, USA
• Piotr Sztompka,Jagiellonian University, Poland
• Goran Therborn, Uppsala University, Sweden
• Alain Touraine, CADIS-EHESS, France
• Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University, USA

Editorial Board

• Ari Antikainen, University of Joensuu, Finland
• Marc Bernardot, France
• Mau-Kuei Chang, Academica Sinica, Taiwan
• Ann Denis, University of Ottawa, Canada
• Tom Dwyer, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil
• Marcel Fournier, Université de Montréal, Canada
• Maria Grossi Porto, Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil
• Wang Gungwu, Singapore National University
• Patricia Hill Collins, University of Maryland, USA
• Emilio Lamo, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
• Henri Lustiger-Thaler,USA
• Gulielmo Meardi, Warwick Business School, UK
• Susan McDaniel, University of Lethbridge, USA
• Kevin McDonald,University of London, USA
• Val Moghadam,Purdue University, USA
• Geoffrey Pleyers, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
• Emma Porio,Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
• Paola Rebughini, Università di Milano, Italy
• Robert van Krieken, University of Sydney, Australia
• Jacquelien van Stekelenburg, Amsterdam University, Netherlands

Editorial Coordination
Bert Klandermans - sociopedia.isa@fsw.vu.nl
Editorial Assistant
Anouk van Leeuwen - sociopedia.isa@fsw.vu.nl
Faculty of Social Sciences
Vrije Universiteit
de Boelelaan 1081c
1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Submission procedures

1. Submit (after having read 'Required Structure of Entries' above)
   
2. Managing Editor decides to review submission
3. Double blind peer review
   
4. Accept/revise/decline
   
5. Contract: Contributors will retain copyright in their entry. The ISA will retain the copyright in the editorial arrangement of sociopedia.isa.
   In the event of acceptance, contributors should print, sign, and return the Contributors’ Contract – Contributors contract [pdf file 124 Kb] – to Anouk van Leeuwen, editorial assistant.
   Entries cannot be published without a signed Contributor Contract.
6. Publish in sociopedia.isa