A Quarterly Publication of The American Sociological Association Comments from the Editor Below are the Comments from the Editor in Volume 25 of Teaching Sociology. Volume 25, Number 1- January 1997 Volume 25, Number 2 - April 1997 Volume 25, Number 3 - July 1997 Volume 25, Number 4 - October 1997 Volume 25, Number 1 January 1997 TEACHING SOCIOLOGY WAS first published in October, 1973 and has since grown to become one of the leading journals in the nation on pedagogy. This is due in part to the energies of a number of individuals in the discipline and the support of the ASA and its membership. It is important that Teaching Sociology continues to be a significant contributor to the on-going, national discussion on pedagogy, as institutions of higher learning across the nation pay increasing attention to the quality of teaching. It is an honor to have been selected to serve as Editor of Teaching Sociology and a privilege to be allowed to lead the journal into the next century (my editorship ends December 31, 1999!). Let me make it clear that being appointed Editor was not an individual accomplishment. As sociologists, we all know about the importance of social support and I would like to acknowledge several people for their encouragement and support along the way: Carla Howery, ASA, with whom I have worked for over a decade; members of my department at Le Moyne College who continue to support me while I spend time on editorial tasks for Teaching Sociology (when I could--should?--be doing departmental work); the administration of Le Moyne College for providing me with the space to do the work; and, of course, the ASA (and ultimately all dues-paying members) for providing the financial support to run the office. Thanks to the previous Editors of the journal who have built the journal to its current state of excellence. A special thanks to Kathleen McKinney, out-going Editor, who worked with me during the transition period to get the editorial process running smoothly and was (and continues to be) tireless in answering my question when I messed it up. Thanks also to Liz Grauerholz, the out-going Deputy Editor, and Mary Graham-Buxton, the out-going Editor's Assistant. Thanks also to Dean Dorn, the Editor who preceded Kathy, who gave me my first opportunity at editing by appointing me to the Editorial Board of Teaching Sociology and allowing me to serve as co-editor for a special issue of Teaching Sociology on social psychology. Finally, thanks to Karen Edwards, ASA, who has become another one of my regular electronic pen pals and has provided me with guidance and advice on all aspects of the editorship related to the ASA. Each one of these people has been indispensable in helping us establish our office up and running. Thank you! We have numerous of plans for the next three years. First, we intend to continue the tradition of publishing high quality empirical articles on teaching sociology, notes on teaching sociology, review essays on groups ooof sociological textbooks and reviews of single sociology textbooks, and reviews of instructional software, fimls, and videos that have applications in the sociology classroom. If you are interested in writing reviews or comparative review essays of textbooks (we are especially interested in review essays of textbooks), reviews of films/videos, or software for Teaching Sociology, please contact the Deputy Editor, Mary Senter. Second, we have plans for a number of special issues. In conjunction with the theme of the 1996 annual meeting, we are interested in receiving papers for a special issue on the introductory course. Footnotes published our Call for Papers in the September/October, 1996 issue. The deadline was January 1, 1997, but contact us at the office if an extension is needed. We also plan to publish an issue devoted entirely to teaching techniques. Dean Dorn published such an issue in 1992 and entitled it G.I.F.T.s (Great Ideas for Teaching Sociology). In honor of Dean's innovation, we hope to publish a special issue called G.I.F.T.s II. A Call for Papers will be appearing in a future issue of Footnotes soon. Finally, we will be calling for papers on teaching sociology in ethnic studies programs, instructional technology, outcomes assessment, internships and experiential learning, and theory and methods. Finally, a journal is only as good as the work done by the individuals who review its manuscripts. We acknowledge reviewers in the last (October) issue of every year. In the first (January issue) issue, we thank the out-going members of the Editorial Board. The following individuals completed a three-year term as Associate Editors on December 31, 1996. Bryan Byers, Ball State University Richar A. Davis, Winston-Salem State University Gary Hampe, University of Wyoming Jean Lynch, Miami University-Middleton Wendy Ng, San Jose State University Gwen Nyden, Oakton Community College Diane Pike, Augsburg College Dennis Rome, Indiana University Kim Schopmeyer, Henry Ford Community College Judith Stull, LaSalle University Verta Taylor, Ohio State University We welcome the following individuals who begin a three-year term as Associate Editors on January 1, 1997. Thomas Gerschick, Illinois State University Jay Howard, Indian University/Purdue University-Columbus Cheryl Laz, University of Southern Maine David Long, Kings College Betsy Lucal, Kent State University Theresa Martinez, University of Utah Ralph McNeal, University of Connecticut Eleanor Miller, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Allen Scarboro, Augusta College John Sloan, University of Alabama Kathleen Tiemann, university of North Dakota Lynet Utall, University of Memphis We are always interested in identifying additional individuals who would like to serve as occasional reviewers for Teaching Sociology. Occasional reviewers can expect to receive between six to twelve papers per year to review. Please send a short cover letter and a copy of a current curriculum vita to the Editor. Teaching Sociology has a home page. It contains information on subscribing, submitting manuscripts, and contacting any of the staff. The URL is below. Thanks to my anthropology colleague, Ray Bucko, who wrote and maintains this web page. An electronic discussion list on teaching sociology exists that is neither endorsed by the ASA nor is an official activity of the journal. Started about a year and a half ago, it now has over three hundred subscribers--many of whom are in some way affiliated with Teaching Sociology--and generates about five to fifteen posts per day. It can be received in digest format (one large mail message of the full day's activity). To subscribe, send the following message: SUBSCRIBE TEACHSOC your name to LISTSERV@MAPLE.LEMOYNE.EDU You should receive a confirmation message in a few minutes and you will automatically be added to the participant list. You can see past messages by going to the archives at the address listed below. If you have questions or comments about Teaching Sociology, please contact us. Questions via e-mail generally get the quickest responses. We can be reached by: Voice: (315)445-4671 Fax: (315)445-6024 E-mail: TS_EDITOR@MAPLE.LEMOYNE.EDU Our homepage URL is: http://www.lemoyne.edu/ts/tsmain.html. The discussion list is archived at: http://web.lemoyne.edu/mlf_root/archives/teachsoc/welcome.htmlx. This issue contains articles, notes, and reviews that were accepted by the previous Editor, Kathleen McKinney. --Jeffrey Chin Volume 25, Number 2 April 1997 THIS IS THE first issue that contains only papers that have been handled and accepted by this office. Quite by accident, we discovered that three of the papers were on the topic of multiculturalism and inclusivity, so we have created a special section highlighting these papers. We also hope you will find the additional articles and notes stimulating. We have five reviews of publications from the ASA: four on ASA Teaching Resources Center products and a review essay on publications from the ASA’s series on careers. We have included a number of other useful reviews as well. We are in the process of assembling papers for a special issue on teaching the introductory course scheduled for publication in 1998. The submission deadline has passed, but we are still accepting papers on this topic. We have issued three calls for papers for special issues, one entitled G.I.F.T.S. II (Great Ideas for Teaching Sociology II), one on teaching sociology in ethnic studies programs, and one on experiential and community-based learning. The calls for papers for these special issues should be appearing in Footnotes soon. Other special issues are still in the developmental phase. I have now been on the job for nearly nine months: three as Editor and six as Editor Designate. Colleagues ask me about this work and I can honestly say that I enjoy virtually every aspect of the editorial process, although at times it is overwhelming. However, I do want to comment on one step in the editorial process that gives all editors headaches and needs to be raised periodically in a public forum. Rarely does a week go by without authors contacting me about the status of their papers. Most of the time, I have to explain to authors that their paper is delayed due to one or more late reviews. Ideally, we would like to give authors a decision on their paper in about two months: we need about three weeks to do our work, we allow three weeks for mail, and we ask reviewers to return reviews within three weeks. Sometimes we are a little slower than that (like now, during production). Most often, delays occur because of late reviews. We have had reviewers who, even with monthly reminders, do not return a review up to four months later. Other Editors have horror stories that make four months seem reasonable (see Form’s editorial in ASR, 1989). In the second half of 1996 when I served as Editor Designate, the average editorial lag time—that is, the time from receipt of a manuscript to the time I send out a decision letter—was between 10 to 11 weeks and the median was about the same (9 to 10 weeks). In 1997, the average editorial lag has been 17 weeks even though the median has been between 11 to 12, up only a little from last year. While we have been a little slower getting most of our decision letters out, a few letters have been very late due to one and sometimes two reviewers not returning their reviews on time. Beginning January 1, 1997, we decided to be more explicit with our reviewers about timeliness. We recognize that reviewers contribute their time and energy to the betterment of the intellectual community as well as to this journal. We are quite clear with reviewers when they volunteer for the pool about their responsibilities to the editorial process and to authors. These include quality reviews in a timely fashion. After the deadline passes, we politely remind reviewers that we would appreciate receiving their review or a promise of a review soon to come. We are aware that there are many reasons for a review being a little late. At this stage of the process, we want to make sure that materials did not either get lost in the mail or under a pile on someone’s desk. We always grant requests for an extension. The second reminder is a little more directive and if we have to send a third reminder, we subsequently remove the reviewer from our list. Since legitimate reasons exist for not responding to mail even after three reminders (away on sabbatical, for example), it is important that reviewers let us know if there are times when we should not send them papers. We accommodate such requests although we obviously cannot accommodate these requests from everyone, especially associate editors. This editorial is not directed towards any current reviewers (“problem” reviewers have long since been dropped). It is a plea to current reviewers for timely reviews and patience from authors who demand, rightly so, that their work be handled as expeditiously as possible. Having said all that, we need more reviewers (always, it seems). While we have a sizeable list of reviewers, there are times when we do not have three reviewers with expertise in a given area for a paper. If you would like to review papers for Teaching Sociology, please send us a copy of your vita. We will send you a packet of materials and soon after we will send you your first paper. We promise not to overwhelm you with papers (usually, occasional reviewers can expect to receive at most one paper per month, sometimes as little as a three or four papers in a year, depending on your area of expertise and the topics in vogue among authors). We also need reviewers of books, films/videos, and software. If you are interested in writing reviews on pedagogical materials, please contact the Deputy Editor, Mary Senter (see the inside front cover for how to contact her). Mary has a set of guidelines that describes our requirements for a review. Please remember that Teaching Sociology does NOT publish unsolicited reviews of textbooks, films/videos, or software. Most unsolicited reviews do not meet the guidelines that we want in all reviews. In addition, we trust that readers of this journal will understand the importance of having reviews written by authors who have no vested interest in a book. For those of you with greater ambitions, we are especially interested in identifying individuals who would be willing to write review essays—reviews that compare a series of books, films/videos, or software in an area (e.g., textbooks on deviance or software for analyzing secondary data). If you have any questions regarding the journal, please contact us. You can do that through our home page, via e-mail, telephone, FAX, or regular mail. We look forward to hearing from you. --Jeffrey Chin Volume 25, Number 3 July 1997 THIS ISSUE CONTAINS teaching notes—papers that describe techniques for teaching sociology. The first group of papers describes in-class activities and one out-of-class activity. The second group describes exercises that emphasize writing. This issue also contains reviews of books, videos, and software, a regular feature of this journal. We hope you find these papers to be enjoyable summer reading. Finally, we have included a list of papers, articles and notes, that have been accepted for publication in upcoming issues. These pages have regularly contained exhortations from past editors encouraging submissions of high quality papers. I want potential contributors to know that we welcome papers of all types to be considered for publication in Teaching Sociology. Also like all editors before me, I want to encourage potential contributors to submit their best work. I would like to provide a few words that may help to operationalize the notion of “high quality”. First, I call readers’ attention to the “Guidelines for Articles, Notes, and Conversations” reproduced in every issue of this journal beginning with the January 1997 issue. Specifically, I call attention to item number seven for articles and item number seven for notes. These items request evidence, data if you will, that supports the thesis of the paper. In the case of articles, we instruct our reviewers to look for empiricism that supports the paper in an appropriate form given the paper’s central thesis. In the case of notes, we instruct reviewers to look for outcomes assessment data that demonstrates the effectiveness of the presented technique. This can take the form of formal data such as students’ evaluations or less formal data such as comments in students’ papers, journals, and the like. Without this data, a paper describing a teaching technique falls into the “I tried it and liked it” genre. I think we should be publishing stronger work than this. Admittedly, the categories are not completely exclusive and many papers could, with minor rewriting, be considered for a different paper category. I have been trying to encourage authors who submit papers that are inappropriate for a particular category to revise and resubmit the paper in another category. (Since I am somewhat less than fully systematic in this process, authors should be aware that they can “appeal” an editorial decision if they think their paper could be reviewed more favorably as a different type of paper. If authors do not specify which type of paper they are submitting, we make that judgement prior to sending it to reviewers.) I invite all authors who have ideas for papers to contact me. Like any well-conceived research project, a great deal of advanced planning may be necessary, particularly if the project calls for data collection. I am always available to talk with potential contributors about these issues. In addition, I will be serving on a panel on the topic of getting papers published at the annual meeting next month in Toronto. This session is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, August 10 at 8:30. I will also serve on a panel on the same topic at the annual meeting of the New York State Sociological Association, October 3-4 (Mohawk Valley Community College, Rome, NY). I will be happy to meet with other groups as time and travel funds permit and I am always happy to talk individually with potential contributors. In the next issue I will direct my comments toward the use of human subjects and the responsibility of authors to provide documentation that, whenever appropriate, the Institutional Review Board at the author’s home institution or the ASA’s Committee on Professional Ethics has approved the research or teaching technique being described in a paper to Teaching Sociology. This will also be the topic of a session sponsored by the ASA’s Committee on Professional Ethics (COPE), tentatively scheduled for Sunday, August 10, from 10:30 to 12:15, at the annual meeting in Toronto. I will be serving on that panel and will try to answer any questions on this topic. I hope to see you at any of the upcoming meetings. Keep those papers coming! --Jeffrey Chin Volume 25, Number 4 October 1997 WE HAVE NOW been on the job for over a year and this issue marks the completion of our first volume of issues. The job continues to be both overwhelming and fun. I would like to thank my staff, the staff at the ASA and Boyd Publishing, the authors, and especially the reviewers, including members of the editorial board for all the assistance this year in this endeavor. I appreciate feedback—both positive and negative—on the editorial process and ideas on improving it, so please send in your comments. This issue contains a variety of articles, notes, conversations, and reviews. One section of the issue I am particularly excited about is a conversation on postmodernism and student behavior, two responses to that paper, and a final response from the authors. If you find these papers stimulating, please subscribe to the electronic discussion list, TEACHSOC where this topic is covered occasionally. To subscribe, send an e-mail to the listserv address: listserv@maple.lemoyne.edu with the command subscribe teachsoc. I am also excited about a review essay covering films and videos for teaching courses on marriage and the family. Besides these interesting pieces, you will find the usual array of fine articles, notes, and reviews! The editorial board of Teaching Sociology meets every year during the annual meeting of the ASA and one item that we discussed was the perception among contributors that we do not process manuscripts quickly. I am aware of a few cases where manuscript turn around has been slow, but I have been careful to accept responsibility for this and I have apologized to the author(s). However, I want readers to know that, on average, our review lag matches the ASA's target review lag of 12 weeks. The review lag is the time between receipt of a manuscript to completion of the review process with a letter from the editor to the author (our mean editorial lag is 13 weeks and our median is 11 weeks—this and other information on the editorial process for this journal is published in the annual report in Footnotes every spring). I make this point both to battle this misperception and, more importantly, to let potential authors know that we will handle their papers professionally and as expeditiously as possible. We always welcome high quality manuscripts and I would be happy to talk with individuals who have ideas that need cultivation to become papers. --Jeffrey Chin The Editor of Teaching Sociology is Helen A. Moore. For articles, notes, and conversations, send manuscripts to: Helen A. Moore, Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0324. Phone: 402-472-6081, Fax: 402-472-6070. For book, video, and software reviews, send manuscripts to: Laurie Scheuble, Department of Sociology, Doane College, 1014 Boswell Drive, Crete, NE 68333. Phone: 402-826-8220, Fax: 402-826-8278. For questions about manuscript processing, contact Bennie Shobe, Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0324. Phone: 402-472-6038. The Webmaster is Pauline H. Pavlakos. Observations on form and egregious spelling may be directed to Ms. Pavlakos. The Teaching Sociology Web Page is located at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Le Moyne College, the Jesuit College of Central New York. Page last updated: April 2, 2001