Contexts

Contributing to Contexts

Contexts is a general interest sociology magazine. The writing is crisp, the stories are engaging, and the magazine appeals to both sociologists and educated “lay” readers from mothers-in-law to university students, policy professionals, activists, and anyone who’s interested in insightful social analysis. We welcome contributions from social scientists, journalists, K-12 teachers, and anyone else who writes incisively and in an engaging style. We’re looking for insightful analyses. We welcome intellectual risk takers. We publish longer, feature articles (that go through a peer-review process) and shorter “department” articles selected by section editors. Additional details on preparing manuscripts for ASR are published in the ASA Style Guide (7th ed., 2022) available from the American Sociological Association. Please download our author guidelines and read the section-specific notes below, then direct submissions and inquiries to the following:

Regardless of section, aspiring Contexts authors should expect an iterative process of editing with a professional editor and our editorial team staff. Your ideas will be honed and made legible to non-academics while retaining the rigor expected of any journal.

Features (3,000 words):

Our feature articles are written for a broad audience and are cleanly and clearly written, with no jargon, footnotes, or citations. They have much in common with the best of long-form journalism: They’re empirically and theoretically driven storytelling, teach readers new stuff, and they help us think differently about the world. Articles in Contexts look at why the world is the way it is and how it came to be that way. Before submitting, look over some recent Contexts articles.

Feature proposals should be two pages, with a 50-word summary of the main argument, the first few paragraphs (and, if appropriate, section headings), and five recommended resources (not references or works cited) with a sentence explaining why each is appropriate for the interested reader. Do not send a full manuscript. Proposals are generally reviewed within 2-3 weeks; if we are interested in pursuing your proposal, you will be invited to draft a full manuscript and we may include notes on the directions we think would be most fruitful for your article. Please read our author guidelines for a fuller idea of the feature process, including several rounds of editing.

Culture Reviews (1,300-1,500 words):

Our guiding principle is this section is “making meaning of people making meaning.” In practice, we consider a wide array of topics and approaches that seek to bring together visual and sociological explorations of the world around us. We encourage authors to show (not tell) us how a sociological lens on culture matters, answering a focused question about language, artifacts (such as media), and other symbolic productions. Please send a short description of what you’d like to write and what data sources you will use as a “pitch” for the section editors to review.

Trends (1,300-1,500 words):

Offers insightful analyses of a wide variety of trends: public opinion, culture and politics, demography, and trends within the field of sociology. Our goal is expose subtle nuances within broader trends, allowing the reader to think about important trends in ways. Please plan to submit a pitch including the topic and data sources you’d like to employ. If your piece is selected for publication, you will also need to provide data and mock-ups of your figures, knowing that our graphic design team will remake your graphics to fit with the journal’s style.

Book Reviews (1,300-1,500 words):

Contexts book reviews generally focus on a recent publication from a social scientist or function as comparative essays, bringing together two or three related books. Reviews should be opinionated and critical without being inflammatory. Please send your proposals to books@contexts.org.

Photo Essays (750 words, 10-12 photographs):

Contexts’ photo essays start with a proposal—a paragraph or two describing the sociological themes of the essay and several sample images. Keep in mind that all Contexts photo essays are printed in grayscale and that is how we will look at your proposal. The finished essay will require 750 words along with photos at least 300dpi (each file should be at least 1MB in order to print well in the magazine). You or a coauthor/photographer involved in the proposal must own the copyright to the images and be able to provide descriptive captions for each.

Policy Brief (1,000-1,500 words):

Contexts’ policy briefs address proposed or implemented legislation, critiquing its intentions and effects and offering remedies to improve or replace such legislation. The analysis should be grounded in sociological research. Send a 50-word proposal to policybrief@contexts.org. If your idea is greenlit for development, you will then provide a fully cited copy of the article to our team for review. If it is accepted, you will then remove the citations and footnotes, conforming the piece to fit Contexts’ style, and work with the editors on the final product.

One Thing I Know (750 words):

The back page of each issue, the One Thing I Know essay is intended to communicate a big-picture idea grounded in the scholarship and academic life of its author. It should, loosely, answer the question, “At this stage of your career, what is one thing you know about the social world?” Submit a 50-word proposal to the editors at editors@contexts.org.

Name Change Policy:

Sage has introduced a policy to enable name and pronoun changes for our authors. ASA journals published by Sage follow this policy. Going forward, all requests to make a name or pronoun change will be honored. This includes, but is not limited to, name changes because of marriage, divorce, gender affirmation, and religious conversion. For more information, read Sage’s Name Change Policy. 

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 unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, 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 recognized.

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.