American Journal of Sociology
The American Journal of Sociology is a peer-reviewed bi-monthly academic journal that publishes original research and book reviews in the field of sociology and related social sciences. It was founded in 1895[1] as the first journal in its discipline. It is along with American Sociological Review considered one of the top journals in sociology.[2]
Discipline
English
1895–present
Bimonthly
3.232 (2019)
Am. J. Sociol.
The current editor is John Levi Martin.[3] For its entire history, the journal has been housed at the University of Chicago[4] and published by the University of Chicago Press.
History[edit]
For its first thirty years, the American Sociological Society (now the American Sociological Association) was largely dominated by the sociology department of the University of Chicago, and the quasi-official journal of the association was Chicago's American Journal of Sociology.
The first issue of the AJS was published in July 1895.[5] In the first 25 years of the journal, the most prominent subjects were social theory and social psychology.[5] In the 1920s, statistical work became increasingly prominent in the journal.[5] Over the period 1920–1944, the journal's most prominent subject matters were social theory, social psychology, human ecology and institutional theory.[5]
In 1935, the executive committee of the American Sociological Society voted 5 to 4 against disestablishing the American Journal of Sociology as the official journal of society, but the measure was passed on for consideration of the general membership, which voted 2 to 1 to establish a new journal independent of Chicago: the American Sociological Review.[6]
Abstracting and indexing[edit]
According to the Journal Citation Reports, its 2019 impact factor was 3.232, ranking it 8th out of 150 journals in the category "Sociology".[7]
Roger V. Gould Prize[edit]
In 2002, the American Journal of Sociology created the Roger V. Gould prize in memory of its former editor. The $1,000 prize is awarded annually at the American Sociological Association annual meeting to the paper from the previous volume of the journal that most "clearly embodies Roger's ideals as a sociologist: clarity, rigor, and scientific ambition combined with imagination on the one hand and a sure sense of empirical interest, importance, and accuracy on the other."[8] Winners include Peter Bearman, John Levi Martin, Michael J. Rosenfeld, Elizabeth E. Bruch, Robert D. Mare, Shelley Correll, and Roberto Garvía.