To encourage broad engagement and stimulate wide-ranging debate, Sociological Science welcomes commentary in two forms: Reactions and Comments.
Reactions
Reactions are short (less than 500 words), substantive, timely, and focused responses to a specific article in Sociological Science. They are designed to facilitate a constructive dialogue about the article’s implications, contributions, assumptions, analytic strategy, or argument.
Reactions will be published on the same page as the article to which they are referring, similar to comments on a blog post. Reactions will appear chronologically.
Reactions can be submitted using a form on the Sociological Science web page. No anonymous reactions will be accepted, and authors will be asked to confirm their identities prior to publication.
Generally speaking, all reactions will be published, whether the editorial staff agrees with them or not; they will not be reviewed for substance. However, reactions will be moderated to ensure that the tone of the conversation remains constructive and professional.
Reactions will be posted as soon as they can be moderated, but no later than 5 business days after their submission.
Comments
Comments may be of any length, but are typically longer than reactions. They examine issues raised by a specific article in more depth than is possible in a reaction. Comments may involve, for example, a re-analysis of the original article’s data, a substantial re-interpretation of the original article’s main results, an exercise in informative replication or informative falsification, or an investigation of the logical validity of the original article’s argument.
Comments are subject to Sociological Science’s normal editorial process.
Once a Comment is accepted, the Editor in Chief or Deputy Editor will invite the original article’s author to write a Rejoinder.
Comments and Rejoinders (if any) will be posted and archived as stand-alone articles. The original article, Comment(s), and Rejoinder will be cross-linked so that future readers can easily follow the intellectual exchange in its entirety.