Careers in Print: Books, Journals, and Scholarly Reputations

Abstract

Academic reputation rests on publication. But unlike many fields, sociology recognizes both journal articles and books, thereby complicating the relation of publication to reputation. Drawing on the sociology of science and organization theory to analyze elite sociology journals and books nominated for a major prize, the authors show how genre structures scholarly fields and shapes the reception of texts. Method and evidence, not subject matter, distinguish articles from books. Private universities "prefer" books, while scholars trained at public universities are more likely to publish articles. Gender and rank are associated with choice of genre, while citation rates increase with authors' prior publication records. Books generate conversations across subfields and disciplines; articles serve as a currency of evaluation within sociology.