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How has sociology evolved over the last 40 years? In this paper, we examine networks built on thousands of sociology-relevant papers to map sociology's position in the wider social sciences and identify changes in the most prominent research fronts in the discipline. We find first that sociology seems to have traded centrality in the field of social sciences for internal cohesion: sociology is central, but not nearly as well bounded as neighboring disciplines such as economics or law. Internally, sociology appears to have moved away from research topics associated with fundamental social processes and toward social-problems research. We end by discussing strategies for extending this work to wider science production networks.

Discourse and ideology are interrelated concepts in social sciences and the humanities and are even occasionally employed interchangeably. This paper sheds light on their relationship in academic discourse and examines the role of sociology as a scientific field in its conceptualization. Using bibliometric analysis, we examined 15,716 academic publications mentioning "discourse" or "ideology" in their title and written in English by American and British scholars between 1966 and 2015. The investigation focused on the two terms' conceptual environment, areas of usage, journals, and the organizations to which the authors were affiliated. First, we conclude that although some sociology researchers have attempted to create a sociological definition for the concept of discourse, sociologists are not its most active users. The same is true for ideology. These concepts have established niches in other disciplines (political science and history for "ideology," and educational science and linguistics for "discourse"). Second, throughout the years, the field of discourse studies has become more diversified and fragmented than that of ideology. Third, the leading organizations in both fields are prestigious American and British universities, which indicates that discourse and ideology are elements of the intellectual elites' language. Fourth, the concept of discourse was more frequently applied than that of ideology in the years 2010–2015, and we expect that it will remain popular among scholars in the next decade. As for ideology, we believe that new social challenges could foster the rediscovery of this concept in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How has sociology evolved over the last 40 years? In this paper, we examine networks built on thousands of sociology-relevant papers to map sociology's position in the wider social sciences and identify changes in the most prominent research fronts in the discipline. We find first that sociology seems to have traded centrality in the field of social sciences for internal cohesion: sociology is central, but not nearly as well bounded as neighboring disciplines such as economics or law. Internally, sociology appears to have moved away from research topics associated with fundamental social processes and toward social-problems research. We end by discussing strategies for extending this work to wider science production networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores whether the field of sociology harbors a dismissive attitude towards religion. Specifically it examines whether introductory sociology textbooks present the classic secularization theory over the more recent religious economies explanation of religious change. The classical secularization thesis suggests that religion is declining in importance in modern societies and may disappear completely. The religious economies perspective proposes that religion has actually become more influential and dynamic over time. While both theories are well represented in the sociology of religion literature, we explore whether generalist sociology textbooks reflect this reality. This article provides a content analysis of 31 introductory sociology textbooks published between 2003 and 2006. We assess the presence and promotion of the above theories in these textbooks. Our analysis reveals that 20 (65%) of the 31 textbooks in our study present only secularization theory, while seven (23%) of the textbooks cover both secularization theory and religious economies theory. We assess the ramifications of such a lopsided arrangement and conclude by encouraging a more open dialogue on this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the most important questions in the sociology of religion? And how would scholars answer them? This article explores what people consider the most important questions in the field. Sociologists tend to study what we can readily answer with data, but the questions that elicit the most interest turn out to be quite different. They are bigger, broader, and harder to answer empirically. A crowd-sourced poll identified what people consider the most important questions in the sociology of religion, which were then posed to scholars in the field. They provided nuanced and complex answers revealing a diversity of approaches involved in the study of religion. This unorthodox article invites the reader to listen in on dynamic conversations that bring scholars into dialogue with one another, revealing points of consensus, ongoing debate, areas where there are more questions than answers, and directions for future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that the selection of appropriate statistical procedures is at best haphazard without a careful consideration of the consequences of one's research, and that significant distortions often will result when applied concerns are ignored. I advance the hypothesis that typical conceptions of basic research in sociology preclude the proper use of statistics. From this it follows that mainstream, quantitative sociology can begin to save itself only by taking seriously the question of applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because highly technical expositions of significance tests are readily available, sociologists will proceed from an elementary and non-technical statement that emphasizes the meaning and interpretation of the tests. First and foremost, a test of significance is a formal procedure for making a decision between two hypotheses about some characteristic of a population parameter on the basis of knowledge obtained from a sample statistic of that population. Either the null hypothesis or the alternative hypothesis may be derived from the substantive theory in question, though it is conventional that the theory being tested that is, the researcher's hunch, or the possibility he thinks most interesting is identified with the alternative hypothesis. This means that null hypotheses are usually set up for the express purpose of seeing if there is empirical warrant for their rejection or nullification so that the alternative hypothesis can be accepted hence the term null hypothesis. Testing for significance involves a comparison of the difference between the sample statistic and the parameter specified by the null hypothesis with a theoretically determined sampling distribution. This comparison allows estimation of how often such a difference would occur if difference were due to random errors in the sample selection process sample error.

To what extent do sociologists collaborate? Has this changed over time? What factors contribute to research collaboration among sociologists? To answer these questions, we examine trends in collaboration over a 70 year period and empirically test a variety of explanations for the increase in collaboration that we find. We analyze data collected from a stratified random sample of articles in two leading sociology journals between 1935 and 2005 ( n = 1274). Most of our analyses are descriptive and display trends over time. However, we pool the data across all years and estimate logistic regression models to assess the relative contribution of various factors. We find that the importance of geographical location has been waning since the 1950s, although the growth in cross-place collaborations stagnated between 1980 and 2005. We find that quantitative research is more likely to be collaborative, as are projects requiring data collection, though this may change because the collaboration rate among secondary data users is increasing at a faster rate. We find no significant gender differences in rates of collaboration, although male sole-authorship remains the most common form of publication. We also find the institutional prestige of coauthors is typically higher than that of sole-authors. Our results elucidate the extent of collaboration in sociology and reveal how several factors have contributed to this major shift in work organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper challenges the conventional academic wisdom that supports the "publish or perish" doctrine. Employing a theoretical framework derived from Berger and Luckmann (1966), other sources of legitimation are analyzed. While the doctrine is related to themes in the larger culture (i.e., a high mass production/consumption economy), this does not fully explain why research and publication receive such determined support from faculty, particularly since alternative means of evaluation exist. An explanation of the publish or perish doctrine is offered in terms of the use of esoteric knowledge (its product) to enhance and preserve professional authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Detroit Area Study (DAS) has served for 25 years as one model of how a sociology faculty can combine productive research and graduate training within a single small unit. This paper outlines the current structure and costs of DAS, describes its math advantages and limitations, and suggests several ways in which other universities might develop units that are similar but not identical to DAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between original research reports and discussion of these same reports in textbooks Through a systematic search of textbooks dealing with a particular sociological generalization, the authors are able to return to the original sources upon which the textbook accounts are based and to compare what is contained in both. Serious errors of commission and omission are revealed in the textbook treatments of the primary research material The authors conclude by suggesting ways in which textbooks may reflect more accurately future developments and trends in the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides information on sociology and social policy, including the interdependence of the theory, the role of policy analysis in industrial society and the hazards of research on controversial issues.

This article presents Robert A. Stebbins' reaction to several comments on his paper which appeared in a previous issue of The American Sociologist, which provided an account of professional and amateur sociology in the U.S. Stebbins states that he wishes only to offer a single clarification of a poorly communicated passage that caught Althauser's attention. It concerns the four conditions that encourage the emergence and persistence of an avocational interest in science. According to Stebbins, when he wrote the passage, he had Kuhn's concept of normal science in mind. Amateurism takes root in those sciences or areas of sciences that lack a dominant paradigm as the exclusive grade to scholarly research. These fields are in a preparadigm stage of development in which several schools of thought compete. Why then, is there no amateur sociology? Among the answers to this question, according to Stebbins, are that sociologists lack a tradition of amateurism, a vision that amateurs could help professionals with some of their research interests, and a willingness to organize nonprofessional assistance on any basis other than temporary. The same conclusions could likely be reached for other sciences.

This article presents a commentary on a paper by Paul Kay in a previous issue of The American Sociologist which addressed the growing number of unemployed and underemployed doctor of philosophy degree holders in the U.S. Kay implies that traditional training for academic employment is not ideological but rational in character. The commenters disagree with this idea. According to them, it is important to raise this issue because, in spite of very modest changes in employment patterns the vast majority of social scientists, even throughout the lean 1970s, did hold academic jobs. Training for research in graduate school regularly takes precedence over training for teaching, and yet most college faculty rarely if ever publish the fruits of their scholarship, while presumably all teach. Their lack of fit between training and work experience will increase as more and more doctor of philosophy degree holders bump down within academe from sociology to non-sociology departments, and/or from research to teaching institutions where they may find some rewards for competent teaching, but weak institutional and even interpersonal support for their research interests. However, according to the commenters, this is certainly not to say that training for critical analysis and scholarship ought to be abandoned, but rather that graduate education should include attention to the shifting realities of academic employment.

In this essay, the authors present data collected in mixed-method and multi-phased projects that reveal some troubling contradictions within the discipline of Sociology. From a range of respondents, students through college presidents, several themes emerge that may not bode well for Sociology if left unchecked. Most important are the conflicting demands to provide large General Education classes while maintaining a robust, rigorous curriculum for Sociology majors; to meet university standards for scholarly production while allowing for work that is not within the traditional definitions of research; and to increase interdisciplinary collaboration without diluting the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haven been placed in the unique position of teaching high school sociology at the same time when a renewed interest from professional sociological associations led to a revival of scholarly research on the topic, a commitment from professional sociological associations, my insiders view from the high school classroom and from various professional sociological association committees, I offer my insights as well as the direction future research on high school sociology might take to enhance the efficacy of teaching at that level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following article presents a brief survey on the development of the author's sociological studies and research, especially on the ways in which he has explored in these studies the relations between comparative studies and major problems and developments in sociological theory. The article analyzes how the central focus of his interest has been the problem of human creativity and its limitations, especially as it related to the social arena, the construction of different social formations--ranging from the so-called microsituations to the more formalized institutional and macroinstitutional formations--the problem of charisma and its routinization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author's experiences in studying the ability of law to deter drunk driving lead him to conclude that research is selectively used by various politically-involved groups. These groups frequently are committed to specific definitions of a policy problem and to specific approaches to its resolution. The researcher finds that his product is not used for the purpose of selecting among alternative policy options, but instead it serves to supply rationalizations for positions to which the involved groups are previously committed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features the Urban Institute, a research institution responsible for policy analysis of issues involving sociology and social science in the U.S. One of the favorite topics of the U.S. administration is the extent to which economists have begun to supplant the lawyers at the right-hand of power. While many sociologists may yet aspire to the left-hand, it may be useful to consider some of the signs in the economists' favor. These include not only the extent to which economists are involved in government itself, but also the degree to which the economists have encircled the government with independent research institutes providing policy analysis. The Urban Institute represents a distinctive new genre on the social science scene and it is now beginning to seek out supplementary sociologists for its staff and projects. Founded in 1968 as one of the last domestic initiatives of the administration of President Lyndon Johnson. The institute is involved in research on income maintenance, income distribution, and housing. Other current research concerns of the institute include, forecasting demand for urban transportation systems, evaluating alternatives in generating and allocating public school revenue.

To do or not to do a test of significance that is a question that divides men of good will and sound competence. Only if the sociologist can apply experimental treatments independently of prior states of his units of observation is he able to conduct a true experiment. Because of democratic ideology and a host of other considerations, true experimentation is unusual in sociology. The inability to use true experimentation results in a lack of control over a wide variety of largely unknown and un-numerable potential influences. These uncontrolled variables throw doubt on any finding that a difference observed between two sub samples results from the variable used by the researcher in classifying his sample of observations into one or the other of the two sub samples. Accordingly, the empirical sociologist is confronted with the necessity to identify and to find justification for rejecting as many of these potential influences as he can. The effect of a pre-test in increasing or decreasing the respondent's sensitivity or responsiveness to the experimental variable, thus making the results obtained for a pre-tested population unrepresentative of the effects of the experimental variable for the pre-tested universe from which the experimental respondents were selected.

This article discusses the measurement of sociological productivity. One of the focuses of empirical investigations in the sociology of sociology has been publication output. In reading the literature on the productivity of sociologists, however, one becomes aware of a lack of research continuity. While numerous data have been reported, they have been not cumulative but, rather, ambiguous and often contradictory. One of the major obstacles to linking the results of the various studies together is the disparate procedures that have been employed to measure productivity. One measure with potential as an index of publication quantity was developed by Glenn and Villemez in research concerned with the productivity of American Graduate departments of sociology. The Glenn-Villemez Comprehensive Index (GVCI) was designed to cover a wider range of publications than most previously published indexes had covered. As originally formulated, the GVCI included all articles in twenty-two journals of sociology and allied fields. By means of a mailed questionnaire to a sample of professors of sociology Glenn and Villemez derived a system of weighting the various types of publications. A number of arguments can be made for the use of the GVCI as a measure of productivity. One is that it is composed of a broad range of journals and circumscribes most general sociological work as well as important specialty areas within discipline.

Presents news briefs on several social science and sociology organizations in the U.S., as of April 1972. Information on a workshop sponsored by the Committee on Basic Research in Education of the National Research Council; Discussion on the collaboration between the National Opinion Research at the University of Chicago and the Roper Public Opinion Research Center at Williams College for a social science project; Details of the support of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration on research projects dealing with crime and delinquency prevention and rehabilitation.