sf-review-process

Review Process (sf-review-process)

Knowing how Social Forces screens and decides lets you pre-empt the failure modes before submitting. SF is double-anonymized and managed through ScholarOne Manuscript Central for the editorial office at the UNC Department of Sociology. Its reviewers prize methodological rigor, general social-science significance, and a theoretically grounded contribution.

When to trigger

• Before submitting, to stress-test the paper against the likely reviewer concerns
• Interpreting a decision letter and setting expectations
• Understanding what reviewers and editors weigh at SF specifically
• Estimating timeline (the journal reports a ~71-day median review-to-decision; 待核实)

How SF review works

1. Double-anonymized. Reviewers do not know the authors and authors do not know reviewers. Anonymize the manuscript accordingly; all identifying material lives on a separate title page (see sf-submission).
2. Editorial screening. The editorial office assesses fit for a general social-science audience and basic soundness before sending out for external review; poorly fit or under-developed papers can be declined without full review.
3. Expert external review. Papers that pass are sent to referees who weigh rigor, identification, measurement, significance, and the strength of the theoretical contribution.
4. Decision categories: typically reject, revise and resubmit (major/minor), or accept. Most published papers go through at least one R&R; outright accept on first pass is rare.
5. Timeline. SF reports a median review-to-decision of ~71 days (a reported metric, not a guarantee — 待核实).

Shape the paper to pass

• Make general significance explicit so a non-specialist reviewer sees why it matters.
• Lead with rigor: clear identification/measurement and honest uncertainty (see sf-data-analysis).
• Ground the result in a portable argument, not a bare finding (see sf-theory-building).
• Keep within the 10,000-word (incl. references) and 10-panel limits — over-length or over-exhibited papers signal a lack of discipline to expert reviewers.
• Have the data availability statement ready; it is required for publication.

Anti-patterns

• Submitting a subfield-only or descriptive paper to a general social-science journal
• Leaving identifying material in the manuscript (breaks anonymity at SF)
• Expecting a quick accept — plan for at least one R&R
• Ignoring the rigor expectations that define SF's reputation

Reading an SF decision letter

The wording of a Social Forces decision maps to a posture. Use it to set expectations before you react:

Letter signal	Likely posture	Your move
"Of interest but not yet for a general audience"	Reframe-or-decline	Recast significance (see sf-literature-positioning)
"Revise and resubmit, address identification"	Live R&R	Treat the editor's points as the rubric
"Reviewers split on contribution"	Borderline	Sharpen the portable argument
"Does not fit our scope"	Decline	Consider a subfield outlet

Worked vignette (illustrative): a stratification paper with a 0.15 SD estimate (illustrative) returns an R&R where the editor stresses one reviewer's selection concern and waves off a second reviewer's style gripe. Read literally, the decision is "fix selection, polish lightly" — so the falsification test, not the prose, is where the revision effort goes.

Review-risk pass for Social Forces

Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the social mechanism, data scope, identification or interpretation, and contribution to a wider literature; then judge whether the current manuscript answers the venue's real reader: social-science reviewers who want generalizable social-process evidence across sociology, demography, and policy-adjacent topics.

• Do the pass: Turn probable reviewer objections into a ledger with response evidence, manuscript location, and the decision-maker who must be convinced first.
• Return a ledger: give claim / evidence / risk / manuscript location rows, so the next agent can edit rather than rediscover the issue.
• Sibling guard: compare against ASR/AJS for top sociology theory stakes, Demography for population process, JMF for family-specific claims; if a sibling owns the contribution, recommend re-routing before polishing format.
• Stop condition: do not give submission-ready advice until the pack's resources/official-source-map.md has been checked for volatile rules and the manuscript has one concrete fix for the largest venue-specific risk.

Output format

【Fit】general social-science significance clear to a non-specialist? [Y/N]
【Rigor】identification + measurement + honest uncertainty? [Y/N]
【Theory】portable contribution, not a bare finding? [Y/N]
【Format】≤ 10,000 words (incl. refs) and ≤ 10 panels? [Y/N]
【Realistic outcome】reject / R&R / (rare) accept
【Next】sf-submission (or sf-rebuttal if decided)

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — double-anonymized review, ScholarOne, reported review timeline