THE OPERATION OF SCIENCE JOURNALS: TWO CASE STUDIES IN BRITISH SOCIAL SCIENCE.

The role of archival journals in the communication system of science has been recognized as important by many writers.' The nature of the scientific reward system and the ideology of pure science ensures that public communication is central to the social system of science. The two journals considered here were in a sample of thirty-two British social science journals whose editors and referee organizations were discussed in an earlier paper. Their submission and rejection rates were similar to the median rates for the journals, but their age was less than that of the majority. They were both founded within five years of the year whose submissions were studied; such young journals constituted about a third of the journals in the sample. The differences in research area and autonomy affected the nature of the journals' referee systems. The pure discipline journal sent most of its submissions to a regular panel of editorial referees for evaluation and the editor usually accepted their recommendations.