Acta Sociologica

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics

This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/acta_soc to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Acta Sociologica will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

1. What do we publish?
   1.1 Aims & Scope
   1.2 Article types
   1.3 Writing your paper
2. Editorial policies
   2.1 Peer review policy
   2.2 Authorship
   2.3 Acknowledgements
   2.4 Funding
   2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   2.6 Transparency and Research Data Policy
3. Publishing policies
   3.1 Publication ethics
   3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
   3.3 Open access and author archiving
4. Preparing your manuscript
   4.1 Formatting
   4.2 Author anonymization
   4.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   4.4 Supplementary material
   4.5 Reference style
   4.6 English language editing services
5. Submitting your manuscript
   5.1 ORCID
   5.2 Information required for completing your submission
   5.3 Permissions
6. On acceptance and publication
   6.1 Sage Production
   6.2 Online First publication
   6.3 Access to your published article
   6.4 Promoting your article
7. Further information

 

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Acta Sociologica, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

Please also be aware that Acta Sociologica’s Transparency and Research Data Policy requires that for manuscripts containing statistical or computational methods to be accepted for publication, the authors must provide public access to an replication package containing, data, code and other relevant informations, subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations. See point 2.6 Transparency and Research Data Policy, for more information and possibilities for exemptions. This requirement does not apply to qualitative studies.

1.2 Article Types

Please note that all word limits are hard limits. Manuscripts exceeding the appropriate limit will be administratively unsubmitted.

1.2.1 Long article

An article of up to 10,000 words. This is the primary format used for showcasing new and original research that makes significant contributions to the field of sociology, i.e., a traditional research article.

1.2.2 Short article

A shorter article of up to 5,000 words. This is the primary format for papers seeking to present findings of a more limited scope that nonetheless constitute a relevant contribution to ongoing developments in sociology and society, and which can be conveyed succinctly.

1.2.3 Comment

A comment is a short piece of up to 1,000 words that does not necessarily make an independent contribution to the field, but which comments on general trends or specific debates in sociology. We especially encourage pieces that comment on articles published in Acta, as well as replies to previous comments. Comments are reviewed only by the editors and should not contain empirical material and data analysis. If analysis of empirical material is included, it must be submitted as a short article instead (see 1.2.2).

1.2.4 Review types

Acta Sociologica accepts book reviews, which have been invited by the book editors. If you wish to review a book, please contact the book editors at books­_actasociologica@samf.ku.dk. Please note that we have two different formats for reviews (see below).

1.2.4.1 Book review

Regular book reviews are up to 1,000 words. They present the main findings of a book to a wider audience and provide a short evaluation of the contribution.

1.2.4.2 Review essay

Review essays are longer review pieces of up to 5,000 words. The review essay not only presents and evaluates the book in question, but also compares it to other similar publications, presents the broader research field, and contextualises the contribution within it.

Please contact the book editors with suggestions for reviews at books­_actasociologica@samf.ku.dk before submitting.

1.2.5 Registered reports

These allow you to submit a prospective manuscript for a study that you have not yet run. The review is completed in 2 stages.  At Stage 1 (before results) the manuscript will be assessed on the basis of how strong the hypotheses are and whether the methodology and design are robust and promising. At this point the paper can be accepted in principle or rejected. If accepted in principle then the final article should be accepted unless the final manuscript fails to conduct the study originally described. The Stage 1 manuscript should include: introduction - spelling out why the study is important; methods - including information to interpret whether the study is sufficiently sensitive to find a positive result (or to interpret a null result); analysis - detailing as fully as possible the analysis steps that will be used. We recognise that many submissions to the journal do not conform to a classical approach of making inferences based on group statistics. Therefore, we deliberately have no mandatory requirements for power analyses or evidence levels. However, a Stage 1 submission should lay out how evidence for or against a hypothesis will be assessed, and contain appropriate outcome-neutral conditions (e.g., manipulation checks, quality assurance, minimum curve-fit statistics, etc.) to evaluate whether results are conclusive. The Stage 1 submission may also include pilot data, but this is not required. You may write in the past tense, but must have an explicit statement at the top to make sure readers of the Stage 1 manuscript understand this. Stage 1 acceptance is conditional on the authors also submitting, immediately after Stage 1 acceptance, a formal registration to an appropriate repository such as the Open Science Framework (see https://osf.io/rr/). This preregistration can be kept private but must be accessible to the editorial team. At this point authors should also declare an approximate date by which they expect the study to be completed (this can be amended in consultation with the editors). At Stage 2 (after results), you should add the data and analyses previously described, and a discussion, so the final paper is similar to a Standard Article. Additional data and/or analyses, not included in Stage 1, can also be provided at this stage but these must be clearly distinguished from the a priori analyses. At the point of submitting a Stage 2 manuscript, the preregistered Stage 1 manuscript must be made public. The Stage 2 manuscript will then undergo peer review again. Failure to submit the Stage 2 manuscript by the deadline will result in withdrawal of the Stage 1 manuscript by the journal. Authors can also choose to withdraw an accepted Stage 1 manuscript. The journal will publish a note about withdrawn manuscripts, including a link to the preregistered Stage 1 submission. 

1.2.6 Pre-registered Reports

Acta Sociologica welcomes pre-registered studies and suggest that you use OSF. Please refer to their guides on How to create an anonymous link to your data and pre-registration report. Pre-registered studies should be submitted as a long- or short article (NOT as a registered report) and include an anonymized link to the pre-registered report in the data availability statement (see 2.6 for more info on data availability policy). Furthermore, it should be mentioned early in the introduction and/or abstract that the study is pre-registered. 

1.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

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2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication.

Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

•  The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
•  The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
•  The author has recommended the reviewer
•  The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).

2.2 Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

2.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

•    Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input 
•    Identify any entities that paid for this assistance 
•    Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
 

2.4 Funding

Acta Sociologica requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

Acta Sociologica encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

2.6 Transparency and Research Data Policy

The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

For qualitative analysis, sharing of data and empirical materials and/or codes and procedures of data generation and analysis is optional and not a requirement.

For studies relying on statistical or computational methods, providing public access to data and code is mandatory, subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations.  

For studies employing statistical or computational methods

• authors are required to share a replication package containing data, code and other materials necessary for replication, e.g. details regarding data generation or the analysis, in a relevant public data repository. If data cannot be shared due to ethical or legal considerations, code and other relevant materials must still be deposited in a public repository.
• authors must include a data availability statement linking to the replication package in their manuscript. If it is not possible to share data, the statement must explain on what ethical or legal grounds, data cannot be shared.
• Authors must cite the data in their research.

The replication package is not required until the article is accepted (however, authors are welcome to provide access to data and code upon submission in which case peer-reviewers and editors may consult these). Publication of the article is conditional on depositing and linking to the replication package in the data availability statement or providing satisfying reasons for why this is not possible due to legal or ethical considerations.

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3. Publishing Policies

3.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway

3.1.1 Plagiarism

Acta Sociologica and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case, copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.

3.3 Open access and author archiving

Acta Sociologica offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

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4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

4.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway. The text should be double-spaced throughout and the font standard 12 point. The main manuscript file should contain the following information:

(i)            Full title (and subtitle, if any)

(ii)           Body text. Maximum length for articles is 10,000 words for Long Articles, 5,000 words for Short Articles, and 1,000 words for Comments. This includes the main text, references, endnotes, and possible appendices. Manuscripts should normally include an introduction, review and/or a formulation of relevant empirical and theoretical background arguments and previous studies discussion, a description of methods and data, analysis sections, conclusion and bibliography.

(iii)           References should be cited in the text as (author, year: page) with an alphabetical references section following the text.

If applicable, please notice that:

(iv)          Endnotes should be kept to a minimum and should be signalled by superscript numbers in the main text and listed at the end of the text before the reference.

(v)         Tables, figures and graphics can either be included to the manuscript file or uploaded with the manuscript submission as a separate file. In both cases, their placement in the manuscript should be clearly indicated. Manuscript submission can also include supplementary files that can be either included at the end of the manuscript or uploaded separately (more information below).

In addition to the manuscript file, each manuscript should contain a title page containing the following information:

(i)            Full title (and subtitle, if any)

(ii)           Full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address, telephone number and academic affiliation. Title page should also contain the name and academic affiliation of possible co-authors.

(iii)          Abstract of 150-200 words

(iv)          Between 5-8 keywords

(v)           Data availability statement. If the manuscript contains statistical or computational data it must include a data availability statement linking to the replication package or, in the case data cannot be shared for ethical or legal reasons, an explanation of why data cannot be shared. For manuscripts with qualitative analysis, this is optional and not a requirement. See also 2.6 Transparency and Research Data Policy.

Please note that biographical notes, acknowledgements, and funding information should be included in the ‘Title Page’ document, not the manuscript. When preparing your manuscript submission, kindly pay particular attention to the abstract and the title as this is the sole information included in reviewer invitation letters.

4.2 Author anonymization

Acta Sociologica uses an anonymized peer-review process. However, as a general rule references to the authors’ own previous work should be kept intact. This ensures a greater degree of anonymity, since references to the authors’ work is ‘drowned out’ among the other references rather than being highlighted. We therefore kindly ask you to only remove references to the author(s) that clearly and unequivocally identifies you as the author(s) of the article, for example direct references to an author in the main text (e.g., ‘Author A has previously done field work in the suburbs of Stockholm’, or ‘As Author B has argued (Author B, 2023)’). In these relatively rare cases, ‘Author A’, ‘Author B’, and so forth may be used instead.

4.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines 

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

4.4 Supplementary material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files. In order to encourage possibilities for the replication of results, we strongly encourage the author(s) to share the relevant code for structuring data and running the analyses (i.e. syntaxes) as an online supplement. Whenever possible, this material should include links to the original data.

4.5 Reference style

Acta Sociologica adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file.

4.6 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

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5. Submitting your manuscript

Acta Sociologica is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/acta_soc to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

Books for review and manuscripts of book reviews should be sent to books_actasociologica@samf.ku.dk for the consideration of the book reviews editors.

5.1 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognised.

The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

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6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

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7. Further information

 Any correspondence, queries, or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Acta Sociologica editorial office:

Acta Sociologica
Department of Sociology
University of Copenhagen
Øster Farimagsgade 5
DK-1353 København K
Denmark

E-mail: actasociologica@samf.ku.dk

 

Facebook: actasociologica

Twitter: @ActaSocJournal

Mastondon: @actasociologica@sciences.social

 

Books for review and manuscripts of book reviews should be sent to books_actasociologica@samf.ku.dk for the consideration of the book reviews editors.