A NOTE ON RESEARCH INTERESTS IN RURAL SOCIOLOGY.

This paper presents the methods and findings of an analysis of the first 14 volumes of the journal, "Rural Sociology," from 1936 to 1949. The assumption was made that the articles published in the journal broadly reflect the research interests in rural sociology sufficiently well and that answers could be formulated for questions such as what are the major topics of research interests in rural sociology, or where are persons undertaking rural research located. The articles in the sections entitled General Articles, Notes, Bulletin Reviews, and Book Reviews were classified according to content under one or more of 280 topics. Due to the diversity of the content and the complexities involved in classification, the section, News Notes and Announcements, was not included in the analysis. Percentages of topics for each section of the journal were calculated. Authors contributed to the respective sections of the journal from various states, and the sections with the highest proportion of contributors were the Northeastern and North Central states with a particularly heavy concentration in New York State and Washington DC.