Our journal invites authors to submit manuscripts in German or in English. Papers submitted to the ZfS are subject to a process of peer review by the five editors of the journal and usually at least two additional reviewers.
Occasionally, authors may wish to ask the editorial office not to involve certain reviewers in the process, or suggest names of colleagues they would like to see included. A respective note sent in by an author will be considered by the editorial office.
Once a paper has entered the peer review process, authors are informed about the approximate date at which the editors will discuss and evaluate the manuscript. This evaluation takes place during a meeting in which the editors debate the paper based on their individual assessments and the reviews the paper has by then received. After the editors have reached a decision, authors obtain a detailed explanatory statement. On average, it takes about three months before authors are told whether their paper has been accepted or rejected, and (in the latter case) if they are being encouraged to revise and resubmit their work.
The ZfS asks its authors to ensure that the use of language is gender-appropriate. The manner in which this is done is optional.
There are four possible outcomes of the editorial process:
- An article is accepted and will be published with minor revisions.
- An article gets conditionally accepted and will be published after an additional review.
- An article is rejected in its current form, but authors are advised to resubmit their work once it has been re-drafted according to the recommendations provided by the editors and reviewers.
- An article is rejected.
A special service of the ZfS is the "sponsoring" of articles, especially those submitted by younger colleagues. In sponsoring an article, the editors of the ZfS more closely supervise the revision of a manuscript.
If an article is accepted, our bimonthly publication schedule usually allows for a speedy publication.
Manuscripts offered for publication are to be submitted to the editorial office:
ZfS
Faculty of Sociology
University of Bielefeld
Postfach 10 01 31
33501 Bielefeld
Germany
zfs@uni-bielefeld.de
Formal Requirements
No double submission: Manuscripts which have previously been published or are simultaneously being offered to other publishers are generally not considered for publication. Republishing ZfS articles at a later date is permissible, as long as the ZfS is credited with initial publication.
Length of manuscripts: Articles submitted for publication should not exceed 80.000 characters (including spaces). The number of characters is to be noted on the manuscript's cover sheet.
Number of copies: Our editorial process requires an electronic copy (MS-Word compatible) of an anoymous version of the article. All authors must be named on a separate cover page (to be submitted electronically in an additional file). Changes in authorship during the process of revising a manuscipt have to be reported to the editorial office.
Anonymity: Authors are required not to reveal their identity within the paper submitted for peer review. Respective references, acknowledgements etc. have to be consistently avoided.
Summary: A summary of the article (no more than 150 words) should be included.
Readability and formatting requirements: Before being sent in, manuscipts should be checked thoroughly for any restrictions on readability, including grammar, orthography, text formatting, page numbers. Please use American spelling and punctuation throughout. A line spacing of 1.5 and a font size of 12 pt is recommended.
Transparent use of empirical data: Articles which employ standardized data have to include a tabular appendix. Data sources, original items and codifications should be made as transparent as possible. Means and standard errors are to be listed for metric variables, proportional values for categorial variables. If multivariate statistics are employed, please specify rated regression coefficients and standard errors.
Articles based on "qualitative" (unstandardized) data also have to include adequate information about the number of cases, the sites and practices of data collection, and an appropriate specification of the methodological approach. This information is to be given within the main text. In order to represent complex qualitative data comprehensively, an additional tabular appendix may sometimes be useful.
Footnotes should be used sparingly and only for substantive commentary. Mere bibliographical statements are to be avoided.
Tables and figures should be placed in those sections of the text in which they are being referred to. Regarding the presentation of empirical data, authors are specifically urged to take note of the above requirements (tabular appendix, appropriate specification).
References to literature are to be placed within the text and should indicate the author, the year of publication and (preferably) specific page numbers of the works being cited. References within the text should take the form of author (year: page numbers), e.g.: White (2008: 13).
Special cases:
- For multiple citation of a source, please avoid abbreviations like "op. cit." or "ibid.".
- When citing collaborations by two authors, state both names and connect by using "&" (e.g. Meyer & Rowan 1977), in the case of three and more authors, state the name of the first one and abbreviate by using "et al." (e.g. Jahoda et al. 1975)
- If two authors bear the same name, specify first names by initials.
- In the case of institutional authors, state the name of the institution as briefly as possible while still enbling identification (e.g. Basel Committee on Banking Supervision 2001: 12).
- Distinguish publications by the same author by adding an a, b, c etc. after the year of publication (e.g. Luhmann 1975a: 12, 1975b: 236). Put multiple references in common brackets and separate by semicolon (e.g. Holzkamp 1983; Negt & Kluge 1972; Fricke 1975).
Bibliography: All references should be listed by author and year of publication at the end of the paper. At this point, please name all authors individually and do not use "et al.". State the name of the publisher in as brief a form as is still intelligible. Please use headline style capitalization, but do not use underlining or italics. There is no need to fully adjust the bibliography to our formal standards when initially submitting a paper, but the respective bibliographical information should be comprehensively included.
Books:
Luhmann, Niklas, 1995: Social Systems. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press
Journal articles:
Sztompka, P.H., 1993: Civilizational Incompetence: The Trap of Post-Communist Societies. Zeitschrift für Soziologie 22: 88-95
Friedrichs, J., M. Stolle & G. Engelbrecht, 1993: Rational Choice-Theorie: Probleme der Operationalisierung. Zeitschrift für Soziologie 22: 2-15.
Book chapters:
Mulkay, M.J., 1977: The Sociology of Science in Britain. Pp. 224-257 in: R.K. Merton & J. Gaston (eds.), The Sociology of Science in Europe. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Hybrid Open Access
In this journal, authors have the option to publish their article under an open access license. Open Access allows you as an author to retain copyright and share your findings with colleagues and interested parties worldwide without any restraints.
Please note that authors from institutions with which we have a transformative agreement can publish open access without paying an article processing charge (APC). More information on the eligible institutions and articles can be found under the "Funding and Support" tab here.
Open Access
