Includes the full title of the article, the author(s)’s name(s) and institution(s) (listed vertically if there is more than one author), a running head (60 characters or less), the approximate word count for the manuscript, and a title footnote.

An asterisk (*) by the title refers to the title footnote at the bottom of the title page. The title footnote includes the name and address of the corresponding author, acknowledgments, credits, and/or grant numbers.

ABSTRACT

The abstract appears on a separate page headed by the title. It should be a brief (one paragraph of 150 to 200 words) and descriptive summary of the most important contributions in your paper.

Back to Top

TEXT

Content. As you make changes in your text, read it objectively—from your reader’s point of view. Use terminology consistently throughout your text. Referring to a variable by one name at one time and by another name later or in your tables can confuse your readers. And remember, "active" writing ("I discovered that . . .") is more concise, accurate, and interesting than "passive" writing ("It was discovered that . . .").

Subheadings. Generally, three levels of subheadings are sufficient to indicate the organization of the content. See recent issues of the ASR and FICS for subheading formats.

Text citations. Include the last name of the author and year of publication. Include page numbers when you quote directly from a work or refer to specific passages. Cite only those that provide evidence for your assertions or that guide readers to important sources on your topic. Examples follow:

• If author’s name is in the text, follow the name with the year of publication in parentheses—". . . Duncan (1959)"; if author’s name is not in the text, enclose both the last name and year in parentheses—". . . (Gouldner 1963)."

• Pagination follows the year of publication after a colon—". . . (Ramirez and Weiss 1979:239–40)."

• Give both last names for joint authors—". . . (Martin and Bailey 1988)."

• For works with three authors, list all last names in the first citation in the text; thereafter use "et al."—". . . (Carr, Smith, and Jones 1962)"; and later, ". . . (Carr et al. 1962)." For more than three authors, use "et al." throughout.

• For institutional authorship, supply minimum identification from the complete citation—". . . (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1963:117)."

• Separate a series of references with semicolon—". . . (Burgess 1968; Marwell et al. 1971)."

• For unpublished materials, use "forthcoming" to indicate material scheduled for publication. For dissertations and unpublished papers, cite the date. If no date, use "n.d." in place of the date—". . . Smith (forthcoming) and Jones (n.d.)."

• For machine-readable data files, cite authorship and date— ". . . (Institute for Survey Research 1976)."

Equations. Equations in the text should be typed or printed. Use consecutive Arabic numerals in parentheses at the right margin to identify important equations. Align all expressions and clearly mark compound subscripts and superscripts. Please clarify all unusual characters or symbols. Use italic type for variables in equations and in the text; use bold type for vectors.

FOOTNOTES/ENDNOTES

Use footnotes/endnotes only when necessary. Notes, in general, and long notes, in particular, distract the reader and are expensive to print. As alternatives, consider (a) stating in the text that information is available from the author, or (b) adding an appendix.

Begin each note with the superscript numeral to which it is keyed in the text. Notes can (a) explain or amplify text, or (b) cite materials of limited availability.

Notes should be typed or printed, double-spaced, either as footnotes at the bottom of the page or in a separate "Endnotes" section following the references.

Back to Top

REFERENCE LIST

All references cited in the text must be listed in the reference list, and vice versa. Double check spelling and publication details—FICS journals are not responsible for the accuracy of your reference list.

List references in alphabetical order by authors’ last names. Include full names of all authors—use first-name initials only if the author used initials in the original publication.

For multiple authorship, only the name of the first author is inverted (e.g., "Jones, Arthur B., Colin D. Smith, and Barrie Thorne").

For two or more references by the same author(s), list them in order of the year of publication. Use six hyphens and a period (------.) in place of the name when the authorship is the same as in the preceding citation.

To list two or more works by the same author(s) from the same year, distinguish them by adding letters (a, b, c, etc.) to the year or to "Forthcoming" (e.g., 1992a, Forthcoming a). List in alphabetical order by title.

A few examples follow. See recent issues of any FICS journal for further examples:

Books

Bernard, Claude. [1865] 1957. An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine. Translated by H. C. Greene. New York: Dover.

Mason, Karen O. 1974. Women’s Labor Force Participation and Fertility. Research Triangle Park, NC: National Institutes of Health.

U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1960. Characteristics of Population. Vol. 1. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Periodicals

Conger, Rand D. Forthcoming. "The Effects of Positive Feedback on Direction and Amount of Verbalization in a Social Setting." Sociological Perspectives.

Goodman, Leo A. 1947a. "The Analysis of Systems of Qualitative Variables When Some of the Variables Are Unobservable. Part I—A Modified Latent Structure Approach." American Journal of Sociology 79:1179–1259.

———. 1947b. "Exploratory Latent Structure Analysis Using Both Identifiable and Unidentifiable Models." Biometrika 61:215–31.

Collections

Clausen, John A. 1972. "The Life Course of Individuals." Pp. 457–514 in Aging and Society, vol. 3, A Sociology of Age Stratification, edited by M. W. Riley, M. Johnson, and A. Foner. New York: Russell Sage.

Elder, Glen H. 1975. "Age Differentiation and the Life Course." Pp. 165–90 in Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 1, edited by A. Inkeles, J. Coleman, and N. Smelser. Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews.

Dissertations

Charles, Maria. 1990. "Occupational Sex Segregation: A Log-Linear Analysis of Patterns in 25 Industrial Countries." Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

Machine Readable Data File

American Institute of Public Opinion. 1976. Gallup Public Opinion Poll #965 [MRDF]. Princeton, NJ: American Institute of Public Opinion [producer]. New Haven, CT: Roper Public Opinion Research Center, Yale University [distributor].

Foreign Language Books/Journals/Articles

Kardelj, Edvard. 1960. Razvoj Slovenackog Nacionalnog Pitanja (Development of the Slovenian National Question). Beograd, Yugoslavia: Kultura.

BIOGRAPHY

Include a short biography (five or six lines) for each author. Each biography should include the author’s name, title, department, institution, and a brief description of current research interests, publications, or awards.

TABLES, FIGURES, and APPENDICES

Include tables, figures, and appendices only when they are critical to the reader’s understanding. As an alternative, consider inserting a statement in the text stating that the information is available from the author.

Tables

Number tables consecutively throughout the text. Type or print each table on a separate page at the end of your paper. Insert a note in the text to indicate table placement (e.g., "Table 2 About Here").

Each table must include a descriptive title and headings for all columns and rows (see recent FICS journal issues for examples).

For clarity, always use the same variable names in your tables as you use in your text.

Standard errors, standard deviations, t-statistics, and so on, should appear in parentheses under the means or coefficients in the tables.

Gather general notes to tables as "Note:" or "Notes:" at the bottom of the table; use a, b, c, etc., for table footnotes.

Use asterisks *, **, and/or *** to indicate statistical significance at the p < .05, p < .01, and p < .001 levels, respectively; note if tests are one-tailed or two-tailed. Generally, only those results significant at the p < .05 level or better should be indicated as significant in tables or text.

Figures and Other Artwork

Number figures or illustrations consecutively throughout the text. Each should include a title. Insert a note in the text to indicate placement (e.g., "Figure 1 About Here").

If your manuscript is accepted for publication, you must submit figures and illustrations in camera-ready form or on floppy disk. Camera-ready artwork must be produced by computer or by a graphic artist in black ink on white paper with clear lines. All labels on figures and illustrations must be typeset.

IMPORTANT: Before you submit a figure or illustration for publication, please contact the journal editorial office to discuss size specifications and/or disk and file formats. All artwork and type must be legible when reduced or enlarged to fit one or two column widths, 2-9/16 and 5-5/16 inches wide respectively (standard column widths for FICS journals).

Author(s) must secure permission to publish any copyrighted figure, illustration, or photograph.

Appendices

Appendices appear at the end of your article and should be labeled "Appendix A," "Appendix B," etc.

When you have completed the final changes to your manuscript, run your computer spell-checker to correct misspelled words. You can also use the spell-checker to cross-check author names cited in your text with author names in the reference list.

Back to Top