Ajs Submission

Submission Preflight (ajs-submission)

The last check before pressing submit on Editorial Manager (editorialmanager.com/ucp-ajs). AJS is double-blind, so the most common avoidable failures are an under-anonymized manuscript and a cover page left inside the manuscript file. Also unique to AJS: a $30 submission fee and AJS's own house style (not the ASA Style Guide). Verify volatile items on the live pages before submission.

When to trigger

• "Submitting tomorrow" — last pass before upload
• Unsure which files/metadata Editorial Manager expects
• Confirming the fee, anonymization, abstract, alt text, and house style are all handled

Process facts (verify volatile items on the official page)

• Owner / publisher: University of Chicago (Dept. of Sociology) / University of Chicago Press (NOT SAGE/ASA).
• Portal: Editorial Manager (editorialmanager.com/ucp-ajs); accepts Word, PDF, or LaTeX.
• Review model: double-blind — anonymize the manuscript; submit the cover page as a separate file so personal information is not in the manuscript. Reviewer and author identities are not disclosed to the other side, and AJS avoids sending papers to people in the submitting author's network.
• Desk-reject / "preject" filter: before peer review, AJS prejects some papers — those not in dialogue with current sociology, opinion pieces, or current-event interpretations without original sociological research. Make the manuscript's dialogue with current sociology explicit.
• Editorship structure: the article side has three levels of editorship; the editorial board is the faculty of the University of Chicago Department of Sociology; first-submission reviewer assignment is handled by a Manuscript Assignment Board of Assistant Editors supervised by graduate-student Associate Editors who study the blinded manuscript to set substantive area/method.
• Submission fee: $30 per new submission; waived for graduate students submitting as sole authors (proof of status may be requested). Confirm the current amount and waiver workflow on the official page.
• Abstract: ~150 words (as close to 150 as possible); must state the question/puzzle, identify the data, and indicate findings. No abstract → not sent to reviewers.
• Length: no fixed word cap; be concise (referees may need more time over ~18,000 words). Live-check current guidance before upload.
• Style: AJS's own author-date house style (name + year; "et al." for 3+); NOT the ASA Style Guide. Notes start at "1"; acknowledgment note on the cover sheet with an asterisk; footnotes or endnotes both fine.
• Figures: alt text required for every figure at submission, with the captions.
• Format: serif typeface ≥11 pt (preferably 12), double-spaced, ≥1-inch margins.

Preflight checklist

Fee & files

• $30 submission fee ready (or sole-author grad-student waiver + proof of status)
• Manuscript file (Word/PDF/LaTeX) with no cover page inside it
• Separate cover page file (names, affiliations, acknowledgments)

Anonymity (double-blind)

• No author names, affiliations, or acknowledgments in the manuscript
• Self-references worded to avoid specific attribution
• Identifying file metadata stripped (document properties, comments)

Content & format

• Abstract present, ~150 words, states question + data + findings
• AJS house-style citations/notes/references (NOT ASA Style Guide)
• Serif ≥11 pt, double-spaced, ≥1-in margins
• Post-text sections in order: notes, references, tables, figures, appendices
• Alt text for every figure, with captions
• Originality statement prepared if the paper overlaps prior work
• Not under review elsewhere (concurrent submission violates Press ethics)

Avoidable-failure triage (what bounces a submission, and the fix)

Recurring pre-review failures specific to AJS's portal and double-blind model. Confirm volatile specifics against the journal's current submission guidelines.

Calibration (AJS-specific posture, hedged)

Reflects AJS's house and culture, not universal rules; confirm wording against the journal's current submission guidelines. The most common avoidable style failure is mis-applying the ASA Style Guide — AJS uses its own author-date system. Length is tolerated, not rewarded: no fixed word cap, but referees may need more time over an illustrative ~18,000 words. The $30 fee is waived only for graduate students submitting as sole authors; a coauthored paper does not qualify. Illustrative: a sole-author candidate's 17,500-word article catches three triage issues — an acknowledgments footnote naming the committee, references in ASA style from a prior ASR attempt, and two figures lacking alt text — and after fixes the waiver applies and the submission clears pre-review checks.

Anti-patterns

• Leaving the cover page / author identifiers inside the manuscript file (breaks double-blind)
• Formatting to the ASA Style Guide instead of AJS house style
• Forgetting the $30 fee (or wrongly assuming the grad-student waiver applies to coauthored papers)
• Submitting with no abstract (it will not be sent to reviewers) or missing figure alt text
• Submitting while the paper is under review at another journal

Output format

【Fee】$30 paid or sole-author grad waiver (+proof)? [Y/N]
【Files】manuscript clean of cover page + separate cover page file? [Y/N]
【Anonymized】text + self-refs + file metadata clean? [Y/N]
【Abstract】~150 words, states question/data/findings? [Y/N]
【House style】AJS author-date (NOT ASA Style Guide)? [Y/N]
【Alt text】every figure? [Y/N]
【Originality / ethics】statement if needed + not under review elsewhere? [Y/N]
【Next】await decision → ajs-rebuttal on R&R

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — reference managers, anonymization, portal summary
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — AJS fee, abstract, house style, alt-text, and ethics policy

Source: brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills → American-Journal-of-Sociology-Skills/skills/ajs-submission/SKILL.md