ARSoc Workflow Router (arsoc-workflow)

Overview

This is the router. It tells you which arsoc- skill to use at the current stage of an invited review article aimed at the Annual Review of Sociology (ARSoc) — the Annual Reviews (nonprofit) sociology survey series, founded 1975, published as an annual volume with the discipline's highest impact factor (检索于 2026-06；2024 JIF ≈ 9, ranked 1st of 219 in Sociology；以官网为准). ARSoc does not publish original empirical research. It publishes authoritative, accessible review articles that synthesize a sociology subfield — stratification, culture, organizations, networks, race/ethnicity, gender, demography, political and economic sociology — for sociologists across the discipline. So the lifecycle is not "design → identify → estimate → defend"; it is scope a synthesis-worthy subfield → secure the commission → read the whole literature → impose an organizing framework → cover comprehensively and even-handedly → land the ARSoc voice → clear the Annual Reviews process → revise.

Default assumption: unless the user says otherwise, treat the target as ARSoc and the artefact as an invited review, not a primary-research paper. Operational tells that you are at ARSoc and not a sibling: the work reviews other scholars' results rather than reporting its own; unsolicited finished manuscripts are not accepted — the Editorial Committee commissions topics and authors (you can suggest a topic, but you cannot self-submit a finished paper the way you would to ASR or AJS) (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准); there is no identification strategy and no replication package of your own data (you appraise the studies you cover); the contribution is an analytical map of a subfield ending in a research agenda, not a new finding. If the user actually has original data and results, they want a primary-research journal (ASR, AJS, Sociological Science, Demography), not ARSoc — say so.

When to trigger

• The user asks "what should I do next?" on an invited review
• A review draft reads like an annotated bibliography and needs a spine
• Work is ping-ponging between coverage, framing, balance, and the topic pitch
• An ARSoc editor/Committee letter arrived and the user needs to switch into revision mode

Routing table

| Current symptom | Next skill | |-----------------|------------| | Unsure the subfield is mature/important enough to review for ARSoc | arsoc-topic-selection | | Need to get the topic in front of the Editorial Committee / accept an invitation | arsoc-proposal-and-commissioning | | Reading is unsystematic; citation gaps likely | arsoc-literature-synthesis | | Draft is a list of studies, not an argument about the subfield | arsoc-organizing-framework | | Coverage vs. selectivity, or fairness across theoretical schools, feels off | arsoc-comprehensiveness-and-balance | | Need who-found-what tables or the conceptual framework figure | arsoc-tables-figures | | Prose is dense/jargon-laden; a sociologist outside the subfield can't follow | arsoc-writing-style | | Documenting the coverage account, or a meta-analysis the review reports | arsoc-transparency-and-reproducibility | | Working with the Editorial Committee on scope / the annual-volume timeline | arsoc-editor-strategy | | Ready to deliver the commissioned draft; need a preflight | arsoc-submission | | Received editor/Committee feedback on the review | arsoc-revision |

Default order

1. arsoc-topic-selection — confirm the subfield is ARSoc-scale (mature, important, needs synthesis)
2. arsoc-proposal-and-commissioning — get the topic to the Editorial Committee / shape the invitation
3. arsoc-literature-synthesis — gather and read the literature systematically (coverage discipline)
4. arsoc-organizing-framework — impose the analytical spine
5. arsoc-comprehensiveness-and-balance — completeness, fairness, even-handed treatment of schools
6. arsoc-tables-figures — who-found-what tables and the conceptual figure
7. arsoc-writing-style — the authoritative-yet-accessible ARSoc voice (abstract + intro last)
8. arsoc-transparency-and-reproducibility — coverage account + any meta-analytic data/code
9. arsoc-editor-strategy — scope and the Committee/production relationship + volume clock
10. arsoc-submission — Annual Reviews delivery preflight
11. arsoc-revision — after the editor/Committee letter

> arsoc-writing-style is a late-stage polish; do not rewrite the intro before the framework and coverage settle. The commission comes early — ARSoc is commissioning-first, so arsoc-proposal-and-commissioning precedes the heavy reading.

Anti-patterns

• Treating ARSoc as a journal you submit to cold — it is commissioning-driven; unsolicited manuscripts are not accepted (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准)
• Treating the review as an annotated bibliography (no framework) — the cardinal review-article failure
• Using the author's own line of work as the review's center of gravity (self-promotion)
• Importing primary-research instincts: there is no "identification" or "replication package" of your own — you appraise others' designs
• Confusing ARSoc with ASR / AJS (sociology's primary-research flagships), Sociological Theory (theory development, not survey), or the sister series Annual Review of Psychology / Economics

Routing by review archetype

A "review" is not one thing; the bottleneck differs by type. Read the archetype, then enter the chain at the right link.

| Archetype | Likely first bottleneck | Enter at | |-----------|-------------------------|----------| | subfield-defining synthesis (broad area) | scope is enormous; needs a taxonomy | arsoc-organizing-framework | | concept/process review (e.g. a mechanism or construct) | accessibility across subfields; clear definitions | arsoc-writing-style | | empirical-evidence stocktake (what is the consensus?) | weighing conflicting findings; even-handed schools | arsoc-comprehensiveness-and-balance | | emerging-area review (young, fast-moving) | is it mature enough for an ARSoc volume yet? | arsoc-topic-selection |

Minimal decision snippet

if editor_or_committee_letter:        -> arsoc-revision
elif ready_to_deliver_draft:          -> arsoc-submission
elif coverage_account_or_meta:        -> arsoc-transparency-and-reproducibility
elif prose_dense_or_inaccessible:     -> arsoc-writing-style
elif need_tables_or_figures:          -> arsoc-tables-figures
elif coverage_or_fairness_off:        -> arsoc-comprehensiveness-and-balance
elif reads_like_a_list:               -> arsoc-organizing-framework
elif reading_unsystematic:            -> arsoc-literature-synthesis
elif no_commission_yet:               -> arsoc-proposal-and-commissioning
else:                                 -> arsoc-topic-selection