Publishing in Sociology of Health and Illness

Clive Seale

Centre for Health SciencesQueen Mary, University of London

c.seale@qmul.ac.uk

Sociology of Health and Illness

Founded: 1979

7 issues per year (includes annual monograph)

Impact Factor (2007): 1.759

Ranked 6 out of 96 world sociology journals

Average Submission to Final Decision: 54 days

Acceptance rate: approx. 25%

Online Early ensures early publication after acceptance

Editors: Clive Seale (managing editor), Jon Gabe, Steve Wainwright, Clare Williams

Sociology of Health and Illness is an international journal which publishes sociological articles on all aspects of health, illness, medicine and health care. We welcome empirical and theoretical contributions in this field in the form of original research reports or review articles.

We publish:Research articlesAnnual monographReview articlesBook reviews

Our web site hosts:Virtual Special Issues

Monograph series (series editor: Hannah Bradby: H.Bradby@warwick.ac.uk )

Bodywork in Health and Social Care 2010Technogenarians: Studying Health and Illness through an Aging, Science, and Technology Lens 2009Pharmaceuticals and Society 2008Ethnicity, health and health care 2007The view from here: bioethics in the social sciences 2006

Review Papers

Review Papers provide a state-of-the-art overview of the literature and valuable summaries for both teaching and research purposes.

Review papers editor: Steve Wainwright

steven.wainwright@kcl.ac.uk

Book reviewsBook review editor: Mildred Blaxter (m.blaxter@medsoc.eclipse.co.uk )

Book reviews in Vol 30, issue 5

•Nature and Sociology - by Newton, T. Mike Bury

•Kitchen Secrets: the meaning of cooking in everyday life - by Short, F. and Food, Morals and Meaning: the pleasure and anxiety of eating - by Coveney, J. Tony Chapman

•Sport and Physical Activity: The Role of Health Promotion - Edited by Merchant, J., Griffin, B.L. and Charnock, A. Carole Sutton

•The Freedom to Smoke: Tobacco consumption and identity - by Rudy, J. Ruth Waterhouse

•Lifestyle in Medicine - by Hanson, E. and Easthope, G. Mildred Blaxter

•What Works in Tackling Health Inequalities? Pathways, policies and practice through the lifecourse - by Asthana, S. and Halliday, J. Hannah Bradby

To come:• Illness, biography and narrative (Julia Lawton)• Genetics• The body• Mass media and internet

Impact factor trends

Journals, impact factors* and location of editorship

Average Editorialimpact factor* location2000-2006

SHI Sociology of Health and Illness 1.494 UK

BJS British Journal of Sociology 1.088 UKSOC Sociology 1.175 UKSR Sociological Review 0.768 UK

SSM Social Science and Medicine 2.129 International

AJS American Journal of Sociology 2.566 USAASR American Sociological Review 2.892 USASF Social Forces 1.233 USASP Social Problems 1.253 USA

JHSB Journal of Health & Social Behavior 2.195 USA

*The impact factor is the average number of times at which an article appearing in a journal is cited in the two years after publication. The figure given here is the average impact factor over the years 2000-2006.

Top 10 downloaded articles in 2007-8

Papers accepted by country and year (July 7th to July 7th)

2005-6 2006-7 2007-8

UK 27 21 37

USA 3 3 7

Canada 3 3 7

Australia 3 2 2

New Zealand 1 2 3

Ireland 1 - -

Israel 1 1 1

Netherlands 3 2 -

Denmark - 2 1

Finland - - 1

Germany - - 1

Norway - 1 1

Taiwan - - 1

France - 1 -

Sweden - 1 -

Journal articles by place of origin of author, 1992-2007, percentages.

Place* SHI UK general sociology SSM USA Health USA general sociology

SHI SR BJS SOC SSM JHSB AJS ASR SF SP

USA 12.6 2.4 8.2 3.7 35.6 96.1 91.1 93.2 93.8 93.8 Canada 6.8 1.6 8.2 2.8 9.8 5.7 2.8 2.4 2.6 3.0

England 47.9 65.1 54.9 67.3 21.8 0.5 3.0 1.8 0.6 0.7Scotland 9.1 7.6 3.5 10.6 3.4 0 0.2 0.2 0 0 Wales 4.8 8.2 2.9 4.4 0.9 0 0.4 0.2 0 0N.Ireland 0.8 1.1 2.9 3.9 0.2 0 0.2 0.2 0 0.2

Australia 6.4 4.4 6.4 4.1 6.4 0 0.6 1.2 0.7 0.5N.Zealand 2.3 1.8 0.7 0.7 1.6 0 0.2 0.2 0 0

Israel 1.9 1.1 3.8 1.1 2.2 0.5 1.1 0.9 1.1 1.2

Continental Europe** 15.1 6.2 12.2 6.2 23.9 1.0 7.0 5.8 3.3 2.2Central/S. America** 0.6 0 0.2 0.7 3.0 0 0.4 0.2 0.6 0Asia/E. Asia/Japan** 0 0.4 2.7 0.9 2.9 2.6 1.9 1.7 2.4 0.7Africa** 0 0 0.4 0.2 3.8 0 0 0 0 0

Totalarticles (N) = 516 450 452 565 5039 408 470 658 820 406

•all numbers are percentage of total articles but the place of origin of authors is recorded per author, not per article, thus the percentages do not add to 100%.

** These are groupings of countries listed separately in the original database. Because joint authorship of articles involving authors from different countries sometimes occurs, these percentages will be slightly inflated compared with those for individual countries

Social Science and Medicine Sociology of Health and Illness

Psychology:(health) behaviour/ior/s; (social / emotional / family) support

Illness experience:identity; lay (people, knowledge, beliefs, understandings); body / bodies / embodiment / embodied; biographical (disruption); everyday (life / experience); experience/s; stigmatisedNarrative constructions of the self:accounts; discourse/s; construction / reconstruction; narratives

Health services research: utilization; quality; interventionHealth economics: economic; cost/sDemography or epidemiology: demographic; fertility

Medical profession (and encounters with):medicalisation; profession/al/alisation; power; interactional; negotiation; (medical, professional) dominance; (medical) encounter; authority; proletarianisation

Social divisions: income; poor; socioeconomic; rural; urban; age; maternal; education

Social divisions:Inequalities; (social) class/es

Other: (social) capital

Other:Rationing; (social, health) movements

Social Science and Medicine and Sociology of Health and Illness:

concepts

Social Science and Medicine and Sociology of Health and Illness:

methods and modes of argument

Social Science and Medicine Sociology of Health and Illness

variable; factors; p; survey; prevalence; n; significant/ly; regression; rate/s; effects; sample; measures; associated; questionnaire; results; were; was

(depth / qualitative / semi-structured) interviews; argued; explores; drawing (on); claims; debate; is; empirical; theorising; conceptualisation; conceptions

‘data were obtained from focus groups’

‘Telephone interviews were conducted with a sample of…’

‘The aim of the study was to describe’

‘The results showed that’

‘The results indicate that…’

‘This article explores the experiences of lesbians who…’

‘It is contended that…’

‘In this paper it is argued that…’

‘Drawing on an analysis of depth qualitative interview accounts…this study describes’

‘These ethnographic observations correlate with sociological claims that…’

‘This paper sheds light on the debate about..’

‘there has been surprisingly little work, either theoretical or empirical, on the experience of’

‘The implications of these data for theorising the nature of

contemporary medical practice, power and professional status is

explored’

‘In this paper I have drawn on the sociological literature relating to

the conceptualisation and measurement of poverty’

Bad titles

The use of a semi-structured questionnaire to reveal participants' perceptions of an in-service Masters' course in biological education

The strength of social class: a Norwegian case study on the social life of moral orders in policy making

Uninformative titleHeroic death

Better titles

Empty ethics: the problem with informed consent

Securing our genetic health: engendering trust in UK Biobank

Biographical work and returning to employment following a spinal cord injury

Too short to convey much

Abstract: : During the last thirty years, public discussion of Scottish health care policy has increased so that many people in the population have become more aware of health policy issues. Based on an analysis of Scottish newspaper articles, this paper shows that these representations promote a discourse that favours the privatisation of Scottish health care.

Red: BackgroundBlue: MethodsGreen and bold: findings

Few findings described

Abstract: The development of psycho-social approaches to care has been influenced by a number of factors, including humanistic psychology, governmental encouragement, and pressure group actions. A difficulty for this new approach is the fact that technological aspects of care are underplayed in approaches to community care, and incorporating technology requires health care staff’s understanding of matters which. hitherto, they have not encountered. Specialised services have not had a good track record in catering for this need. Drawing on an interactionist sociological perspective, this study investigates ten case studies of people with Creutzfeld’s disease so that the relationship between technology and psycho-social care can be better understood in the context of lived experience. Our analysis draws on sociometric methods, in combination with individual interviews with family members and individuals with the disease. Only when policy-makers and clinicians understand that relationships with technology are important for people with chronic illness will programmes of care be designed to meet needs effectively.

Abstract: Perspectives on gender and identity that emphasise variability of performance, local context and individual agency have displaced earlier paradigms. These are now perceived to have supported gender stereotypes and language ideologies by emphasising gender difference and homogeneity within genders. In a secondary analysis of health and illness narratives we explore the interaction of class and gender in individuals’ constructions of gendered identity. High social class men perform gender in particularly varied ways and we speculate that this variable repertoire, including the use of what was once termed ‘women’s language’, is linked to a capacity to maintain social distinction and authority. Men’s performance of conventional masculinity is often threatened both by the experience of illness and being interviewed about personal experience. Lower social class women in particular demonstrate an intensification of a pre-existing informal family and support group culture, marking successful members by awarding them the accolade of being ‘lovely’.

Abstract: This study examines the construction of age identity among older people with chronic conditions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 45 participants from two senior centers. Applying symbolic interactionism and the concept of stigma to participants’ narratives, we identified three categories of age identities: definitely old; definitely not old; and ambivalence about their age-identity. Further we examined the metaphors of agelessness and the mask of aging, the relationship between chronological age and age-identity as well as the age-related stereotypes that older people offered in their narratives on their experience of old age. Ideas about the meaning of old age itself varied, with some focusing on predominantly negative descriptors, while others saw it positively, i.e., as a time allowing for more freedom and self-exploration. The influence of chronic conditions on older adults’ age identities is more complex and nuanced than the characterizations promoted by ageist stereotypes.