Focus and Scope

’Studies of Transition States and Societies’ (STSS) aims to promote interdisciplinary exchange between scholars in all major fields of the social sciences with emphasis on sociology and political science. The journal is published annually in June. In addition, collections of articles about a common theme or debate are welcome and will be published as short symposia.

The substantive focus of the journal is on the transitional societies, particularly on the societal and political changes in the post-socialist region. Still articles on other regions are welcome as well when they contribute to the debate about transition in social sciences.

Section Policies

Articles

We welcome high standard academic articles on transition societies. Papers that have been published articulate both theoretical and comparative, as well as quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Review Articles

Review Articles are detailed discussions over the state of affairs in a certain discipline or overviews of one’s own work in a specific domain.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Book Review

Book Reviews are discussions of a single or several book(s) that are highly relevant to the readers of STSS.

From 2022 STSS will only review academic books selling under €35

At STSS we became concerned by the pricing policy of some academic publishers, making knowledge difficult to access especially to scholars based on some regions of the world. Besides, we fail to understand why some publishers can manage to produce books that sell at €10-20 and other keep a publishing hardbacks selling at €100+ and more, thus undermining the purchasing power of libraries and departments.

As a result, of our reflections, starting from 2022, we will no longer review books that sell at more than €35. We are aware that this is a drop in the ocean and will limit the choice of books but you have to stand for what you believe. We believe that the pricing policy of some publishers is abusive and exploitative and is ultimately harming science. We, therefore, wish to support publishers that work hard to deliver quality science at an accessible price (and there are actually quite a few of them out there now)

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Research Notes

Research Notes are short descriptions of ongoing research that has some highly valuable preliminary findings to share with the community.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Peer Review Process

All submissions are evaluated by the editor in chief of either of the two major fields (sociology and political science) and a decision is made on whether the piece is thematically suitable and in accordance with academic expectations.
Those selected articles are sent to two experts for blind reviewing. The reviewers are asked to assess the paper with regard to the review guidelines. When the editors in chief see it fit the process is repeated until the paper is accepted for publishing or rejected.

Publication Frequency

STSS is published annually in June. The issue combines papers from the two focus fields of STSS: governance in its widest form (local, national, global) and societies in the widest understanding of the word, both from a variety of disciplinary approaches.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Indexing of STSS

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*EBSCO Publishing/EBSCOhost is the registered trademark of EBSCO Publishing

 

Special Issues and Guest Editing

Special issue is an issue dedicated to a specific field in sociology, political science or governance. The proposal will be made by the potential guest editor (applicant) and (s)he is responsible for the academic excellence of the issue.
• The proposal includes statement of rationale, contribution and significance of the proposed issue and abstracts of the articles. The proposal will be accepted or declined by the editorial board.
• The applicant will be responsible for organising double blind reviews and for other activities to edit the issue.
• The Editor in Chief reviews the draft version of the issue. If needed review forms will be revised and additional reviews requested.
• All expenses related to the special edition will be covered by the applicant (including editing and layout. Printing is optional).

Editorial board

• Airi-Alina Allaste - Tallinn University, Estonia

• Edoardo Baldaro - University of Palermo, Italy

• Ilona Baumane-Vītoliņa - University of Latvia, Latvia

• Dmytro Bondarenko - Odessa National Medical University, Ukraine

• Jurga Bučaitė-Vilkė - Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania

• Colin Copus - De Montfort University, UK

• Enkhchimeg Enkhmandakh - National University of Mongolia, Mongolia

• Catherine Hakim - Civitas, UK

• Rodica Ianole - University of Bucharest, Romania

• Rico Isaacs - University of Lincoln, UK

• Leif Kalev - Tallinn University, Estonia

• Robert Kevlihan - Gumfoot Consulting LLC, USA

• Michael D. Kennedy - Brown University, USA

• Irena Kogan - Universität Mannheim, Germany

• Anna Elzbieta Kolendo - University of Central Lancashire

• Rajan Kumar - Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

• Noemi Lendvai-Bainton - University of Bristol, UK

• Azamat Maksüdünov - Kyrgyz Turkish Manas University 

• Brent McKenzie - University of Guelph, Canada

• Marcello Mollica - University of Messina, Italy

• Jeremy Morris -University of Arhus, Denmark

• Alice Moscaritolo - University of Toulouse, France

• Giulia Prelz Oltramonti - Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

• David Ost - Hobart and William Smith Colleges, USA

• Joel Outtes - Universidad Federal de Río Grande del Sur, Brazil

• Hilary Pilkington - University of Manchester, UK

• Abel Polese – Tallinn University, Estonia

• Shukhrat Rakhmanov - Tashkent State University of Law, Uzbekistan

• Péter Róbert - TÁRKI Social Research Institute, Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary

• Georg Sootla - Tallinn University, Estonia

• Anu Toots - Tallinn University, Estonia

• Marge Unt - Tallinn University, Estonia

• Rustamjon Urinboyev - Lund University, Sweden

• Raivo Vetik - Tallinn Univeristy, Estonia

• Sven Daniel Wolfe - ETH Zürich, Switzerland

• Rok Zupančič - University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Work order

One issue of STSS is published per year (plus special issues that are guest-edited), co-managed by the two editors in chief appointed by the editorial board. The issue combines papers from the two focus fields of STSS: governance in its widest form (local, national, global) and societies in the widest understanding of the word, both from a variety of disciplinary approaches.

The editors in chief work to guarantee the scientific excellence of the journal and to ensure that articles find reviewers. The editors in chief represent the journal in contracts (e.g. with databases) that do not bear financial burdens.

In broader matters relating to strategic planning the members of the editorial board are consulted. The main mean of contact is the mailing list of those members but when necessary meetings are held. At meetings all decisions are decided by the majority of vote when at least half of the members are present or have delegated their vote. For example this body decides whether the journal should accept a special issues application and also whether the journal should accept a new member to the board.

The international board is composed of experts from around the world (the current board is listed above). All members of the board are expected to contribute to the journal incl. reviewing articles and suggesting reviewers, submitting papers and advocating for the journal in their networks.

The managing editor deals with day-to-day management. She/he updates the webpage and keeps up contacts with the databases, also arranges the reviewing process and the formatting of papers before layout as well as checking layout. The managing editor deals with budgeting and marketing.

Filling the positions

The two editors in chief are elected for the period of two years in consultation with the editorial board. The mandate is renewed automatically at the end of the second year. Editors in chief can be replaced in two cases:

1. They decide to leave the position of editor-in-chief

2. The editorial board suggests a new editor-in-chief or requests a given editor to leave the position

In the first case a written request should be sent from the editor-in-chief to the editorial board at least 60 days before the date when the editor wants to leave the journal.

In the second case a request should be sent by a representative of the editorial board to the whole editorial board for approval at least two months before the new editor takes up their position. Shorter delays are possible in case of serious breach of the journal code of conduct.

To be valid, the request to replace the editor should be endorsed by at least 2/3 of the board.

The managing editor is elected by the editors in chief firstly discussing possible cooperation with the standing managing editor.

The book review editor(s) are selected by the editors in chief in consultation with the editorial board and the current book review editor.

ISSN: 1736-8758