6. PUBLICATIONS PROGRAM OF THE ASA

During the 1990s, the Association and its Executive Office worked to strengthen the capacity of the ASA to produce high quality publications and products in the context of a rapidly changing publishing environment. The evolution of the Internet, the launching of the ASA homepage in 1995 (and its subsequent enhancements), advances in information technologies related to publishing, and electronic archiving and retrieval of journals dramatically affected how learned societies such as the ASA publish and disseminate research. The Association continued to place a high priority on publishing materials that set standards for and foster excellence in sociology, to find new ways of marketing and disseminating works to raise the visibility of sociology, and to think creatively about the implications for the future of the new technologies for publishers such as the ASA.

Publication Guidelines

In February 1999, Council approved the Guidelines for the ASA Publications Portfolio recommended by the Committee on Publications, thus representing a major shift in publications philosophy for the Association. At that same time, Council also approved a resolution from EOB that journals must operate at least on a break-even basis to be financially viable. In the mid-1990s, the consideration of a journal that might reach larger audiences, and questions from ASA sections of the existing policy disallowing section journals led the Publications Committee under the leadership of its Chair Michael Schwartz and Executive Officer Felice Levine to propose guidelines that could facilitate a dynamic and well-planned publications program.

The Guidelines articulated a vision for the publications program and set forth criteria for the periodic reviews of journals and for the introduction of new publications—including for the first time, the possibility of section-sponsored journals. The view of Council was that the language of the Guidelines should be clear from the outset that, “the intent was to review new journal proposals, whether ASA-wide or section-proposed, in light of the entire publication portfolio and how a proposal fit into the mix. Council considered intellectual viability in the mix of ASA journals to be key.“ (Council Minutes, February 1999) Council Members strongly believed that these points should be specifically included in the preamble, and voted its approval for the Report based on these modifications.

Scope of Publication

At the end of 2000, in addition to its flagship journal, the American Sociological Review (ASR), the ASA published seven other journals: Contemporary Sociology (CS), Journal of Health and Social Behavior ( JHSB ), Sociology of Education (SOE), Teaching Sociology (TS), Sociological Theory (ST), Sociological Methodology (SM), and the Rose Series in Sociology (which until 1995 was titled the Rose Monograph Series in Sociology). The ASA also published guides and directories as well as a variety of other research, teaching, and professional materials (Appendix 18). Throughout the 1990s, ASA journals, except the Rose Series (see below) and ST and SM , were published by Boyd Publishing Company of Albany NY. ST and SM continued to be published by Basil Blackwell.

Two special issues of journals were also published in 2000. These included an ASR volume on “Looking Forward, Looking Back: Continuity and Change at the Turn of the Millennium,” and a CS volume on “Utopian Visions from America’s Leading Social Scientists.” During the 1990s, SPQ also published two special issues (1996, 1999), and JHSB and SOE published extra issues.

The Association also published three books and several reports on social policy issues that emanated from various ASA programmatic activities. An objective of the Spivack Program in Applied Social Research and Social Policy was to undertake activities that could yield book products for wide dissemination linking sociological research to social policy. The ASA published Social Causes of Violence: Crafting a Science Agenda by Felice J. Levine and Katherine J. Rosich in 1996, based on an ASA-sponsored conference on “Research Challenges on the Social Causes of Violence,” held in June 1993. A conference of social scientists was also convened by ASA in June 1996 on “Social Science Perspectives on Affirmative Action in Employment,” leading to the volume on The Realities of Affirmative Action in Employment (1997), authored by Barbara F. Reskin. In addition, ASA published six volumes in the Issue Series in Social Research and Social Policy (Appendix 25 contains a complete list of Spivack Program publications). Finally, the ASA published the report on the MOST Program entitled, Promoting Diversity and Excellence in Higher Education ThroughDepartment Change , by Felice J. Levine, Hávidan Rodríguez, Carla B. Howery, and Alfonso R. Latoni-Rodríguez in 2002. The Social Cause of Violence: Crafting a Science Agenda , and the 1981 History of the American Sociological Association were also made available in PDF form on the ASA homepage in 2002.

Journals
Several major decisions relating to the establishment or continuation of journals were made during the 1990s: (1) The Sociological Practice Review ( SPR ) was discontinued by Council at the August 1992 meeting after publication of 10 issues from 1990 to 1992 due to low interest as measured by membership and institutional subscriptions and low submissions, (2) The Rose Monograph Series in Sociology was re-conceptualized (see below) based in part on the availability of research monographs and the unique niche of ASA publishing them, (3) In 2000, ASA officially launched Contexts , a general perspectives journal in a magazine format aimed at wide audiences, and (4) In January 2000, Council approved publication of City and Community , an official journal of the ASA Section on Community and Urban Sociology.

The Rose Series in Sociology
The Rose Series in Sociology consists of volumes published on sociological issues with support from the Rose Fund, which was established in 1967 through a bequest to the ASA from Arnold and Caroline Rose (Appendix 18 contains a list of all volumes published in the ASA Rose Monograph Series and the Rose Series in Sociology) .

In 1994, on the recommendation of the Committee on Publications, Council decided to reexamine the scope and definition of the ASA Rose Monograph Series . In January 1995, Council endorsed a change in the Rose Monograph Series to shift from publishing single-study research monographs to “short books that are integrative, accessible overviews of a topic. The intended audience would be all sociologists, across all subspecialties, and a broader audience of other social scientists, policymakers, and others. The Series would encourage sociologists as public intellectuals to write lively, professional, state of the art short monographs.” (Council Minutes) The first editor of the newly revamped Rose Series in Sociology was George Farkas. The Series is edited under the ASA aegis, and the Russell Sage Foundation serves as publisher (since 1996), with ASA continuing to hold the copyright on all published works.

Contexts and City and Community
On August 21, 1998, after a one-year period to develop a prospectus and business plan, ASA Council approved launching a new journal to be published in a magazine format, which was aimed at sharing sociological research with a wide audience. Also, Council authorized the Publications Committee to commence a search for an inaugural editor and, in 1999, appointed Claude Fischer to this post. Fischer and Executive Officer Levine launched an extensive effort to examine publishing options and Levine worked through operational issues involved in the launch, including use of and impact on the Rose Fund. At its August 15, 2000 meeting, Council approved naming the new journal, Contexts , which was strongly recommended by the Publications Committee. In consultation with editor-designee Fischer, Executive Officer Levine selected the University of California Press as publisher in winter 2001 with official celebration of this partnership held at the Annual Meeting in August in Anaheim. The first issue of Contexts was published in the winter of 2002.

City and Community , a journal of the Community and Urban Sociology Section (CUSS), was also introduced in March 2002—the first, and to date, the only section journal approved for publication by the Committee on Publications and ASA Council. Anthony M. Orum (University of Illinois at Chicago) was the first editor of the new journal, which was published by Basil Blackwell. The journal had been in development for more than a decade, with considerable involvement by the Section membership.

Other Publications

The ASA published a number of volumes each year on curriculum development, departmental leadership, and graduate education, as well as teaching resources materials and guides for the Academic and Professional Affairs Program (APAP) (see Appendix 22 for a complete list of current publications). ASA also continued to publish directories, guides, and reference materials (see Appendix 18), and by 2001, some of these materials were also made available on the ASA homepage (e.g., the Guide to Graduate Departments) . The Employment Bulletin has been published electronically on the ASA homepage since 1996. The Association Newsletter, Footnotes was published in at least eight monthly issues each year; issues five years back are also available in electronic format on the ASA homepage.

 ASA’s Association with Boyd Printing Company

ASA marked an important milestone in its history in 2001 by commemorating 50 years of association with Boyd Printing Company of Albany, NY—a “business relationship nearly unheard of in the often-transitory world of journal printing.” ( Footnotes , May 2001)

In 1951, on the recommendation of the SSRC, Executive Officer Matilda White Riley met with Henry Quellmalz, the President of Boyd to discuss the possibilities for publication of the American Sociological Review ( ASR ). In February 1951, Boyd published the fi rst issue of ASR . At the 45th anniversary of the ASA-Boyd relationship in 1996, Matilda Riley recalled, “When I took over in 1949, our organization faced financial ruin. Not the least of the problems confronting us was ASR , the major item in the budget that cost far more than we could afford. But a fortunate event saved the day—the discovery of the Boyd Printing Company and its president, Henry Quellmalz.” ( Footnotes , May 2001) Thus began a long and extraordinary partnership between the ASA and Boyd, which currently prints six of ASA’s journals, Footnotes , Annual Meeting program materials, and various other ASA publications.

On January 1985, Quellmalz turned over chief operating responsibilities to his daughter Jane Quellmalz Carey, and became Chairman of the Board. Boyd is a family- and female-owned business (Marion Quellmalz, Henry’s wife and Jane’s mother, owns Boyd Printing Company; and other family members run other parts of the business). ASA’s successful partnership with Boyd continues to thrive with Jane Carey as President.

At the celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the ASA-Boyd partnership, Executive Officer Levine, noted, “For a half century, Boyd Printing Company has provided quality printing and service to the ASA. During that time, the printing business has changed dramatically, but Boyd and ASA have continued to produce journals that set standards of excellence.” ( Footnotes , May 2001)

 Electronic Publishing and Access

Beginning in the 1980s, computerized word processing, electronic transfer of data and manuscripts, and other systems and technologies for facilitating publishing were introduced into ASA’s publications program. By the mid-1990s, rapid advances in the technologies themselves revolutionized the process for publishing, storing, disseminating, and providing access to “printed materials.”

These changes also brought more efficient systems for advertising and marketing products and offering related services (e.g., online ordering of books and other items). The following are some highlights of ASA’s progress in this area (see also section on Information Technology):

• In January 1995, on the recommendation of the Committee on Publications (COP), Council voted: (1) to request COP to establish a subcommittee to explore issues relating to electronic publishing, and (2) to create a second committee to advise ASA on the use of high technology for professional communications more generally. Barry Wellman was appointed chair of this committee (Council Minutes, January 1995).
  
• In January 1996, Council approved a recommendation from Executive Officer Levine to explore and negotiate an agreement with the Mellon Foundation for the electronic delivery of ASA journals on the JSTOR system—starting with ASR , CS , SOE , and to the extent possible, additional journals in the future. Executive Officer Levine also chaired an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) committee on electronic publishing, which was working on a report on delivery options for scholarly journals.
  
• The ASA Employment Bulletin was published online on the ASA homepage beginning in April 1996 as a free service.
  
• In April 1998, the NeXT typesetting system software, which had been used by ASA since 1992 was replaced by the Pagemaker software. Beginning with the May/June 1998 issue of Footnotes and the June issue of EB , these publications have since then been produced within the ASA computer environment.
  
• After 2000, the enhanced website made possible more advanced applications, including publication of documents, data tables, and graphics on the ASA homepage. Quality scanning made possible the reproduction of previously published and printed material into graphic files for publication on the homepage; and the vastly increased storage space on ASA servers made possible the storage, for example, of several years of editions of Footnotes , articles from ASR , chapters of books, and so forth.
  
• By 2001, direct online submission of orders for publications became possible through the ASA homepage. Moreover, these were linked to the newly installed upgraded version of the e-NOAH membership database so that order information could be updated immediately on members’ records. Members also had direct access to their own records in member-only restricted areas of the homepage.
  
• Improved communications systems made possible the posting of press releases, “fax-blasting” or mass emailing of announcements, and increased efficiencies of submissions of manuscripts and articles for publication (e.g., through FTP lines).
  

 Controversy over ASR

Flagship journals and whom they serve can become areas of debate within scholarly societies. The issue of representativeness and inclusivity of the ASR , which had been debated intermittently since at least the early 1970s, emerged as a major topic for discussion in Council during the 1990s. ASA President Amitai Etzioni noted on August 9, 1994 that, “some ASA members feel that ASR has not been representative of the discipline... [and he invited incoming ASR editor Paula England] to address Council about ideas to diversify content, expand the network of people who submit, and change the look of ASR .” In 1996, Council Member Feagin, “thought there were concerns about ASR among qualitative researchers, theorists, African American and Latino/a sociologists, and some of the quantitative sociologists who do policy analysis.” (Council Minutes, January 1996) While he noted that progress had been made, Feagin stressed the need “to move ahead aggressively in opening up ASR to more diverse work [and he] advocated for greater representation in deputy editors, editors, and reviewers. He recommended that Council create a committee to develop ‘diversity of research’ guidelines that would become part of the Association’s rules for selection of editors.” Council asked the Publications Committee at that meeting “to examine the inclusivity of ASR and procedures to enhance a broader representation of work and to report back to Council.” Over the next several years, considerable discussion on this topic ensued in Council with a subcommittee and eventually a Task Force established to examine its implications and present recommendations.

A major public controversy emerged in 1999 over the ASR editor selection process (see details on the specific dispute below), which had always been accomplished as a confidential act of the Council, based on ranked order recommendations of the Committee on Publications (COP). The situation arose after the Council Meeting in February 1999, when Council rejected the top-ranked candidate recommended by COP for ASR editor and instead appointed two other co-editors considered qualified by COP.

The COP expressed strong objections to Council’s decision not to support its choice of ASR editors, and in June 1999, Michael Burawoy, a member of the Publications Committee, made public a letter of resignation from the Committee in protest of the Council’s decision to override COP’s selection of editors. In a letter published at the same time, ASA President Portes noted that, “in violation of the existing bylaws of the American Sociological Association, the letter divulges details of the selection process that were meant to be confidential for the protection of colleagues who have advanced their candidacies for editorial positions.” ( Footnotes , July 1999:6)

During the spring and summer of 1999, numerous email messages and listserv commentaries, as well as articles in Footnotes were circulated on this topic. At issue were debates on (1) Council’s treatment of COP, a democratically elected body, and one of ASA’s most important committees, (2) whether Council was invoking the principle of confidentiality appropriately or in such a way that limited membership information about processes underlying Council and COP decision making in this area, and (3) whether Council was less committed than COP to promoting diversity and inclusivity in the ASR . Comments in the Business Meeting of the 1999 Annual Meeting regarding the issues of confidentiality and democracy were raised and a resolution was passed to ask the immediate past-editor of ASR to continue to serve as editor.

Council took up the issue extensively at its August 9, 1999 meeting. By a narrow vote, Council tabled the motion to ask the immediate past-editor to continue to serve, and instead appointed a joint Subcommittee of Publications and Council to articulate a policy regarding confidentiality and accountability that addressed the interests of candidates as well as the ASA membership. A Subcommittee appointed by President Joe Feagin consisting of Nan Lin (Chair), Michael Hout, John Logan, and Guillermina Jasso was charged with considering the editorial selection process and reporting back to Council.

At the invitation of President Feagin, Professor Eduardo Bonilla-Silva of Texas A&M University and Chair of the Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities, joined the January 2000 Council meeting to present a statement on behalf of the Section Council regarding the 1999 ASA editor selection process. Bonilla-Silva raised questions about the process, and noted that a petition drive (led by Bonnie Thornton Dill) was in process to have Walter Allen installed as editor of ASR when the Camic-Wilson editorship was completed. In the ensuing discussion, Council members emphasized confidentiality in selecting editors, and Bonilla-Silva “suggested that perhaps the whole editor selection process should be more open and not confined only to Council.” (Council, January 2000)

Ultimately, in January 2000, the Lin Subcommittee recommended to Council that the principle of confidentiality be maintained in the editor selection process, and Council adopted these principles specified in a four-point set of recommendations. Council’s action was consistent with the position of the COP, which had reaffirmed its fundamental commitment to principles of confidentiality for the editor selection process at its meeting several weeks earlier on December 12, 1999.

The debate on the editor selection process generated considerable anger and hostility among some members of ASA. Some of the tensions grew out of methodological and theoretical conflicts. Because Walter Allen, the editor who was originally rejected by Council was African American, charges were made of racism behind the February 1999 decision, despite the fact that one of the two co-editors was also African American. These charges were especially leveled against President-Elect Douglas Massey, who read a letter in Council explaining his position. ASA Vice President Patricia Roos, among other members, decried the demonizing of Massey, the author of a number of important works on race relations in contemporary America.

In the summer of 2000, in response to the controversy over the appointment of a new editor for the ASR , ASA Council established a 14-member ASA Task Force on Journal Diversity (TFJD) to examine issues of diversity, broadly defined, in ASA journals. “Major issues examined by the TFJD included the relevance of ASA publications to members’ interests, whether ASA publications are too narrow in focus, whether certain methodological approaches and substantive areas are under-represented among published articles, and whether certain kinds of individuals are underrepresented among the ranks of authors, editorial boards and editors.” (ASA homepage) The Task Force presented its Report to Council in January 2003.