Some problems of the discipline: Note from the editor

Abstract

Unfortunately, this will probably be the last issue of Sociological Forum that will appear under my editorship. Although I would like to have served another three-year term, my pending move to the University of Queensland in Australia has made this impossible. I wish my successor1 all the best in presiding over a journal that I think is becoming one of the most respected in the field. The keynote of my editorial policy has been to try to change Sociological Forum from a journal whose major beneficiaries are the contributors to one whose major beneficiaries are the readers. The three major journals in the field, American Sociological Review (ASR), American Journal of Sociology (AJS), and Social Forces (SF), publish work that is generally of interest to only a small segment of the readership. Their primary function is to help the careers of their contributors. Many of the articles published by Sociological Forum have been similar, but here we have increasingly emphasized interest to a wide audience as the primary criterion in determining which among deserving articles should be published. We have also tried to solicit articles that we believe would be of interest to a wide segment of our readership. I think this policy has paid off as I have received innumerable compliments about Sociological Forum and the direction in which it is going. I do not want to be misinterpreted. I am not saying that journals like ASR, AJS, and SF are not absolutely necessary for the advance of knowledge in any discipline. We need places where high-quality papers that are of use to people working in particular specialties can be published. But the field should also have room for the type of journal that I wanted Socio-