The American Sociological Association (ASA) is the leading scholarly society for sociology in the United States. Founded in 1905 (as the American Sociological Society) and headquartered in Washington DC, ASA publishes 15 peer-reviewed journals covering the discipline's core and its major subfields - from the flagship American Sociological Review (est. 1936) to specialist venues in education, health, theory, methodology, and social psychology. Since 2010, ASA's journals have been published in partnership with SAGE Publishing, which handles production, subscriptions, and the submission platform, while ASA retains full editorial control.

This guide covers how to pick the right ASA journal, what open access costs, how ASA-style peer review works, and how to submit.

ASA's portfolio spans generalist prestige venues, subfield society journals, and a rapid open-access outlet. Use the table below to choose a route.

15 peer-reviewed journals, including:

• American Sociological Review - the flagship, publishing works of exceptional general interest since 1936.
• Contemporary Sociology - reviews and critical discussions of recent books in the discipline.
• Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Sociology of Education, Social Psychology Quarterly, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, City & Community, Society and Mental Health, Teaching Sociology - subfield and section journals.
• Sociological Theory and Sociological Methodology - theory and methods venues.
• Socius - ASA's fully open-access, online-only journal, launched in 2016.
• Contexts - a quarterly magazine translating research for general readers.
• Journal of World-Systems Research - open access with no author fees.

ASA offers three OA routes. All prices below are from the 2026 SAGE/Socius author guidelines - always check the journal's current submission guidelines before submitting.

Authors at institutions with SAGE read-and-publish (transformative) agreements may have hybrid OA fees covered - check the ESAC registry or your library. Green self-archiving of the accepted manuscript is permitted under SAGE's archiving policy, with per-title terms.

ASA journals use double-anonymized peer review: authors and reviewers are mutually anonymous, so manuscripts must be prepared for anonymous review (no identifying self-citations in first person, no author names in the file). ASR and the subfield journals are selective and decisions can take several months; Socius is designed for faster turnaround, reviewing for methodological soundness rather than predicted significance.

1. Pick the journal using the decision table above and read its aims and scope on the SAGE journal page.
2. Format in ASA style - author-date citations per the ASA Style Guide (7th edition). SciSpace templates for ASA journals handle this automatically.
3. Anonymize the manuscript for double-anonymized review.
4. Submit via SAGE Track (ScholarOne Manuscripts) - each journal has its own portal, e.g. Socius at mc.manuscriptcentral.com/srd. Socius charges a $25 submission fee.
5. Track and revise through the same platform.

ASA journals operate under the ASA Code of Ethics, and the association is a COPE member, so misconduct, corrections, and retractions follow COPE-aligned procedures. Authorship must reflect real intellectual contribution, and conflicts of interest must be disclosed at submission. For OA articles, authors retain copyright under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC by default at Socius, with CC BY available); subscription articles use SAGE's standard author agreement.