Rationality and Society
Authors are encouraged to submit original papers dealing with social-science theory and empirical social-science research based on the rational-action paradigm, as well as work challenging or further developing this approach. Qualitative and quantitative approaches as well as theoretical and empirical works are welcome.
In particular, the editors encourage contributions that relate rational-action based research to pressing societal challenges, such as climate-change, societal polarization, or migration and contributions linking it to new approaches emerging from, e.g., computational social science, complexity science, cognitive science, neuroscience, or genetics.
Rationality & Society is committed to a swift review process. Editorial first decisions (reject or review) are usually made within two weeks after initial submission. The median decision time for peer-reviewed submissions is 60 days.
Submit your manuscript today at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ras.
Rationality & Society is a peer-reviewed journal which focuses on the contributions of rational-action based theory to a broad range of disciplines studying human societies, and on the questions and controversies surrounding this approach. Read more about the aims, scope and envisaged future developments of Rationality & Society in an editorial statement by the current editor-in-chief.
Why Choose Rationality and Society?
Against the background of ever-greater specialization and fragmentation among scientific fields, the rational action paradigm offers an inter-lingua of the social sciences connecting disciplines such as economics, sociology, political science, historical sciences, cognitive psychology, moral philosophy or law. Contributions to Rationality and Society demonstrate the use of the rational action paradigm for developing theoretically consistent, analytically precise, empirically refutable, and practically useful theories of societal phenomena studied in a multitude of disciplines.
Contributions, Societal Challenges and Scientific Controversy
Contributions to Rationality and Society continue to show the power of the rational action approach for studying empirical phenomena linked to pressing societal problems, as varied as social and educational inequality, social movements, xenophobia, populism, voter turnout, corruption, wage bargaining, migration, small- and large-scale cooperation problems including climate change — all from a unifying perspective. Work appearing in this journal also continues to add significantly to the further development of the rationality paradigm itself and to the scholarly discussion of its merits and limitations. Fundamental theoretical work as well as empirical studies appear in this journal, applying, elaborating upon or testing a range of variations, extensions, criticisms, and refinements of the rational choice model of human behavior.
Social Research and Theory
Rationality and Society is an international journal focusing on the latest social research and theory using the rational action paradigm as its foundation. The journal publishes scholarly articles that further this research and theory, but its pages are also open to work that challenges this approach.
Rationality and Society contains purely theoretical work, as well as qualitative and quantitative empirical research, and policy analysis.
Discussion and Debate
Rationality and Society actively solicits comments and criticism on papers published in its own pages. The Forum is a section which promotes open and critical debate. The editors welcome scholarly discourse as a contribution to the intellectual vitality and further development of rational action-based theory and research across the social sciences.
| Andreas Flache | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| James S. Coleman | University of Chicago, IL, USA |
| Alla Loseva | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| Mary C. Brinton | Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA |
| Robert H. Frank | Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA |
| Douglas D. Heckathorn | Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA |
| Victor G. Nee | Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA |
| Delia Baldassari | New York University, USA |
| Carlo Barone | Science Po, France |
| Stephen Benard | Indiana University Bloomington, USA |
| Steven J. Brams | New York University, USA |
| Ronald S. Burt | University of Chicago, USA |
| Jules L Coleman | Yale University, USA |
| Rense Corten | Utrecht University, Netherlands |
| Jacob Dijkstra | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| Emily Erikson | Yale University, USA |
| Bruno S. Frey | Zeppelin University, Germany |
| Vincenz Frey | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| Diego Gambetta | Collegio Carlo Alberto, Italy |
| Thomas Gautschi | University of Mannheim, Germany |
| Ashley Harrell | Duke University, USA |
| Michael Hechter | Arizona State University, USA |
| Peter Hedström | Institute for Analytical Sociology, Sweden |
| Christine Horne | Washington State University, USA |
| Guillermina Jasso | New York University, USA |
| Timur Kuran | Duke University, USA |
| Siegwart Lindenberg | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| Freda B. Lynn | University of Iowa, USA |
| Michael W. Macy | Cornell University, USA |
| Peter V. Marsden | Harvard University, USA |
| Stephen L. Morgan | Johns Hopkins University, USA |
| Karl-Dieter Opp | University of Leipzig, Germany |
| Trond Petersen | University of California, USA |
| Frans N. Stokman | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| Piotr Swistak | University of Maryland at College Park, USA |
| Milena Tsvetkova | London School of Economics, United Kingdom |
| Rafael Wittek | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Rationality and Society
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ras to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Rationality and Society will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplementary material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 SAGE Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Rationality and Society, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
R&S is an international journal that focuses on the growing contributions of rational-choice-based theory to social science analysis. Authors are encouraged to submit original papers dealing in social theory and social research based on the rational-choice paradigm, as well as work challenging this approach. The editors seek in particular to re-establish the connection of sociological discourse with work from moral philosophy, economics, political science, cognitive psychology, policy analysis, and game theory. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches, and both theoretical and empirical works, are welcome. The editors also solicit comments and criticism on papers published in its own pages.
Although R&S does not have an official word count limit, most of our articles run from 8,000-10,000 words. We prefer well-edited papers that present their message as concisely as possible.
The SAGE Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
R&S strongly endorses the value and importance of peer review in scholarly journals publishing. Each article that is initially approved by our editor is peer-reviewed, and a final decision is then made. Editors usually seek advice from two or more expert reviewers about the content and presentation of submitted articles. This process generally takes somewhere between six months and a year. Authors are welcome to inquire about the status of their submissions in the interim.
R&S journal adheres to a rigorous double-blind reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.
Rationality and Society requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Rationality and Society encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.
SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Rationality and Society and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a SAGE journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the SAGE Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. SAGE’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants SAGE the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than SAGE. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the SAGE Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Rationality and Society offers optional open access publishing via the SAGE Choice programme. For more information please visit the SAGE Choice website. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit SAGE Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit SAGE’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from SAGE after receipt of your accepted article.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.
Rationality and Society adheres to the SAGE Harvard reference style. View the SAGE Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the SAGE Harvard EndNote output file.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using SAGE Language Services. Visit SAGE Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Rationality and Society is hosted on SAGE Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ras to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
All papers must be submitted via the online system. If you would like to discuss your paper prior to submission, please refer to the contact details below.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process SAGE is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognised.
We encourage all authors to add their ORCIDs to their SAGE Track accounts and include their ORCIDs as part of the submission process. If you don’t already have one you can create one here.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the SAGE Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. Please note that if there are any changes to the author list at this stage all authors will be required to complete and sign a form authorising the change.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the SAGE Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
SAGE provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The SAGE Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice. In addition, SAGE is partnered with Kudos, a free service that allows authors to explain, enrich, share, and measure the impact of their article. Find out how to maximise your article’s impact with Kudos.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Rationality and Society editorial office as follows:
E-mail: rationality@cornell.edu