Social Media + Society
Social Media
- Indexed in: Google Scholar, DOAJ, Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
- Launched in 2015
- A broad selection of published Special Collections
Social Media + Society (SM+S) is a peer-reviewed, open access journal that focuses on advancing the understanding of social media and its impact on societies past, present and future. Please see the Aims and Scope tab for further information.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Open access article processing charge (APC) information
The APC for this journal is currently 1000 USD.
The article processing charge (APC) is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Please see further details here.
Submission information
Submit your manuscript today at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/smas
Please see the Submission Guidelines tab for more information on how to submit your article to the journal.
Contact
Please direct any queries to sms@sagepub.com
Social Media + Society is an open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal that focuses on the socio-cultural, political, psychological, historical, economic, legal and policy dimensions of social media in societies past, contemporary and future. We publish interdisciplinary work that draws from the social sciences, humanities and computational social sciences, reaches out to the arts and natural sciences, and we endorse mixed methods and methodologies. The journal is open to a diversity of theoretic paradigms and methodologies.
The editorial vision of Social Media + Society draws inspiration from research on social media to outline a field of study poised to reflexively grow as social technologies evolve. We foster the open access of sharing of research on the social properties of media, as they manifest themselves through the uses people make of networked platforms past and present, digital and non.
The journal presents a collaborative, open, and shared space, dedicated exclusively to the study of social media and their implications for societies. It facilitates state-of-the-art research on cutting-edge trends and allows scholars to focus and track trends specific to this field of study.
| Zizi Papacharissi | University of Illinois Chicago, USA |
| Viki Conner | University of Illinois at Chicago, USA |
| Crystal Abidin | Curtin University, Australia |
| Mike Ananny | University of Southern California, USA |
| C.W. Anderson | University of Leeds, UK |
| Mark Andrejevic | Pomona College, USA |
| John Banks | Queensland University of Technology, Australia |
| Nancy Baym | Microsoft Research, USA |
| Natalie Bazarova | Cornell University, USA |
| Stacy Blasiola | Facebook Research, USA |
| Leticia Bode | Georgetown University, USA |
| Danah Boyd | Microsoft Research New York City Lab, USA |
| Josh Braun | Quinnipiac University, USA |
| Axel Bruns | Queensland University of Technology, Australia |
| Taina Bucher | University of Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Jean Burgess | Queensland University of Technology, Australia |
| Steffen Burkhardt | HAW Hamburg, Germany |
| Robyn Caplan | Duke University, USA |
| Andrew Chadwick | Loughborough University, UK |
| Dayna E. Chatman | University of Oregon, USA |
| Hsuan-Ting Chen | Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
| Christian Christensen | Stockholm University, Sweden |
| Donna Chu | Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
| Lynn Schofield Clark | University of Denver, USA |
| Meredith Clark | Northeastern University, USA |
| Mark Coddington | Washington and Lee University, USA |
| Mia Consalvo | Concordia University, Canada |
| Nick Couldry | London School of Economics, UK |
| Cedric Courtois | Ghent University, Belgium |
| Kate Crawford | Microsoft Research New York, USA |
| Lincoln Dahlberg | Independent Scholar |
| Mark Deuze | University of Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| David Domingo | Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium |
| Judith Donath | Harvard University, USA |
| Paul Dourish | University of California-Irvine, USA |
| Kevin Driscoll | Microsoft Research, USA |
| Nicole Ellison | University of Michigan, USA |
| Greg Elmer | Ryerson University, Canada |
| Gunn Enli | University of Oslo, Norway |
| Jason Farman | University of Maryland, USA |
| Natalie Fenton | Goldsmiths, University of London, UK |
| Jan Fernback | Temple University, USA |
| Terry Flew | University of Sydney, Australia |
| Brooke Foucault Welles | Northeastern University, USA |
| Deen Freelon | University of North Carolina, USA |
| Robert W. Gehl | University of Utah, USA |
| Darren Gergle | Northwestern University, USA |
| Ilana Gershon | Indiana University, USA |
| Homero Gil de Zúñiga | University of Salamanca, Spain & Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Tarleton Gillespie | Microsoft, USA |
| Kishonna Gray | University of Kentucky, USA |
| Mary L. Gray | Microsoft Research New England, USA and Indiana University, USA |
| Melissa Gregg | Intel Corporation, USA |
| Jeffrey T. Hancock | Stanford University, USA |
| Eszter Hargittai | University of Zurich, Switzerland |
| Jannie Møller Hartley | Roskilde University, Denmark |
| Kaori Hayashi | Unviersity of Tokyo, Japan |
| Rasmus Helles | University of Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Alfred Hermida | University of British Columbia, Canada |
| Larissa Hjorth | RMIT University, Australia |
| Bernie Hogan | University of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute, UK |
| Heather Horst | University of Sydney, Australia |
| Philip E. N. Howard | Oxford Internet Institute, UK |
| Lee Humphreys | Cornell University, USA |
| Muzammil Hussain | University of Michigan, USA |
| Laura Iannelli | University of Sassari, Italy |
| Sarah Jackson | University of Pennsylvania, USA |
| Jenna Jacobson | Ryerson University, Canada |
| Klaus Bruhn Jensen | University of Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Steve Jones | University of Illinois at Chicago, USA |
| Tim Jordan | University College London, UK |
| Athina Karatzogianni | University of Leeds, UK |
| Dave Karpf | George Washington University, USA |
| Anastasia Kavada | University of Westminster |
| Aphra Kerr | National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland |
| Daniel Kreiss | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA |
| Cliff Lampe | University of Michigan, USA |
| Airi Lampinen | Stockholm University, Sweden |
| Ganaele Langlois | York University, Canada |
| Anders O. Larsson | Kristiania University College, Norway |
| Tama Leaver | Curtin University, Australia |
| Louis W. Leung | Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
| Seth C. Lewis | University of Oregon, USA |
| Ben Light | Queensland University of Technology, Australia |
| Sun Sun Lim | Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore |
| Sonia Livingstone | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| Stine Lomborg | University of Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Mirca Madianou | Goldsmiths University of London, England, UK |
| Alice E. Marwick | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA |
| Alice Mattoni | University of Bologna, Italy |
| Eva Mayerhöffer | Roskilde University, Denmark |
| Graham Meikle | University of Westminster |
| Sharon Meraz | The University of Illinois at Chicago, USA |
| Hallvard Moe | University of Bergen, Norway |
| Andrés Monroy-Hernández | University of Washington and FUSE, Microsoft Research, USA |
| Lisa Nakamura | University of Michigan, USA |
| Gina Neff | University of Oxford, UK |
| Jeff Niederdeppe | Cornell University, USA |
| Rasmus K. Nielsen | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, UK |
| Safiya Noble | University of California Los Angeles, USA |
| Casey O’ Donnell | Michigan State University, USA |
| Taylor Owen | Columbia University, USA |
| Susanna Paasonen | University of Turku, Finland |
| Stylianos Papathanassopoulos | National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece |
| Han Woo Park | Yeungnam University, South Korea |
| Katy Pearce | University of Washington, USA |
| Whitney Phillips | Syracuse University, USA |
| Thomas Poell | University of Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Hector Postigo | Temple University, USA |
| Matthew Powers | University of Washington, USA |
| Jack Qiu | National University of Singapore, Singapore |
| Raquel Recuero | Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil |
| Ronald E. Rice | University of California, Santa Barbara, USA |
| Sarah Roberts | UCLA, USA |
| Richard A. Rogers | University of Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Christian Sandvig | University of Michigan, USA |
| Yoonmo Sang | Sungshin Women's University, South Korea |
| Theresa Senft | New York University, USA |
| Leslie Shade | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Nishant Shah | Centre for Digital Cultures, Leuphana University, Lueneburg, Germany |
| Aaron Shaw | Northwestern University, USA |
| Tamara Shepherd | Ryerson University, Canada |
| Irina Shklovski | University of Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Andra Siibak | University of Tartu, Estonia |
| Sam Srauy | Oakland University, USA |
| Catherine Knight Steele | University of Maryland - College Park, USA |
| Thomas Streeter | University of Vermont, USA |
| Ted Striphas | University of Colorado, USA |
| T L Taylor | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA |
| Anne Mette Thorhauge | University of Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Catalina L. Toma | Univesity of Wisconsin-Madison, USA |
| Sabine Trepte | University of Hohenheim, Germany |
| Emiliano Treré | Cardiff University, UK |
| Fred Turner | Stanford University, USA |
| Nikki Usher | University of Illinois and George Washington University, USA |
| Siva Vaidhyanathan | University of Virgina, USA |
| Augusto Valeriani | Università di Bologna, Italy |
| Emily van der Nagel | Monash University, Australia |
| José van Dijck | University of Utrecht, Netherlands |
| Farida Vis | University of Sheffield, UK |
| Karin Wahl-Jorgensen | Cardiff University, UK |
| Joe Walther | University of California, Santa Barbara, USA |
| Apryl Williams | University of Michigan, USA |
| Tamara Witschge | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| Stephanie Wojcik | Université Paris Est, France |
| Weiai Xu | Northeastern University, USA |
| Guobin Yang | University of Pennsylvania |
| Sarita Yardi | University of Michigan, USA |
| Ethan Zuckerman | MIT, USA |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Social Media + Society
- Open Access
- Article processing charge (APC)
- Article Types
- Editorial policies
4.1 Peer Review Policy
4.2 Authorship
4.3 Acknowledgements
4.4 Funding
4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests - Publishing policies
5.1 Publication ethics
5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement - Preparing your manuscript
6.1 Word processing formats
6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
6.3 Supplementary material
6.4 Reference style
6.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
7.1 ORCID
7.2 Information required for completing your submission
7.3 Corresponding author contact details
7.4 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
8.1 Sage Production
8.2 Continuous publication
8.3 Promoting your article - Further information
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/smas to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Social Media + Society will be reviewed.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
Social Media + Society is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of Article Processing Charges which are paid by the funder, institution or author of each manuscript upon acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.
For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.
2. Article processing charge (APC)
Social Media + Society is an Open Access publication; all articles are freely available online immediately upon publication. All articles are rigorously peer-reviewed, and brought to publication as rapidly as possible. The costs of peer-review and production are covered by Article Processing Charges (APC) paid by the author/institution/funder upon acceptance of the manuscript.
The article processing charge (APC) for this journal is currently 1000 USD*.
Authors who do not have funding for open access publishing should request a waiver from the publisher once their Original Research Article is accepted after peer review.
Note from the Editor on APCs
Hello world. We have started charging an Article Processing Charge (APC) for articles accepted for publication in Social Media and Society. All content already published will continue to be available open access and at no cost to authors or readers. All content submitted for publication up until November 1, 2018 will be exempt from the APC, should it be accepted for publication. Invited content (special issues, editorials, etc) will also be exempt. Waivers to the APC will be granted by the publishing team, with criteria that prioritize work by graduate students, junior faculty, and institutions and/or regions with limited resources. Funds generated by the APC are employed to provide editorial support for the journal. The journal has grown and requires greater maintenance. The estimated proceeds from the APCs are modest, and add up to what it roughly costs to compensate a part time Editorial Assistant for me. All other support for the journal, ranging from my ability to serve as its Editor to technical maintenance, web support and all that it takes to make content available open access indefinitely come from my home institution, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Sage. I thank them both for their generosity. I also thank our Editorial Board, the members of which provided valuable guidance as we collectively discussed and arrived to this decision. We remain committed to the principles of accessibly and openly available scholarly work.
*The article processing charge (APC) is payable upon acceptance after peer review and is subject to value added tax (VAT) where applicable. If the paying author/institution is based in the European Union, to comply with European law, VAT must be added to the APC. Providing a VAT registration number will allow an institution to avoid paying this tax, except for UK institutions. Payments can be made in GBP or USD.
For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.
The journal publishes the following article types:
Original research articles. Double-blind, double peer-reviewed articles. Social Media + Society welcomes publication of articles with graphics, visuals, audio and video supplements and interactive elements. The preferred word count for original research articles is 8,000 words.
Colloquia. External guest editors will be invited to convene debates and discussions to be published as a section or special issue.
Commentaries. Shorter essays, think pieces and general commentary on topical issues, controversies and emerging questions for the field will be published by invitation.
Bookcasts. Rather than a book reviews section, authors and one interviewer will be invited to do a brief overview and review of relevant books in video format.
Social Media + Society utilizes a double-blind peer review process for original research articles in which the reviewer and author’s names and information are withheld from the other. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to Editor, who makes the final decision.
Articles should only be submitted for consideration once the authorization of all contributing authors has been gathered. Those submitting articles should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the article are acknowledged as contributing authors.
The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:
- have made a substantial contribution to the concept and design, acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data
- drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content
- approved the version to be published.
Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section.
All authors are required to submit an Author Bio in the following format:
First Name Last Name (Ph.D./M.A. University of X) is a professor/researcher/student of X at the University/Institution of X. His her research interests include x, y, z.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
4.3 Acknowledgements
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
4.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
4.3.2 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
Social Media + Society requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
It is the policy of Social Media + Society to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.
Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.
For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations.
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
5.1.1 Plagiarism
Social Media + Society and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
5.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Social Media + Society publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to visit Sage's OA licenses page
Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request.
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines
Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.
6.2.1 Units of measurement
Units of measurement should be expressed in SI and metric units; older conventional units may be added in parentheses.
6.2.2 Nomenclature
Use the generic or chemical name of any drug, in lower case; the specific trade name (capitalized) may be given in parentheses after the first text reference.
6.2.3 Standard abbreviations and symbols
Standard Abbreviations and symbols should be used then defined in full in the first instance unless they are standard units of measurement. Avoid any use of abbreviations in the article title and abstract.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files
Social Media + Society adheres to the APA reference style. Please review the guidelines on APA to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
6.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Social Media + Society is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/smas to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
7.2 Informtion required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
7.3 Corresponding author contact details
Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway
8. On acceptance and publication
If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been check for Sage Production, the corresponding author will be asked to pay the article processing charge (APC) via a payment link. Once the APC has been processed, your article will be prepared for publication. Please note that no production work will occur on your paper until the APC has been received.
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to view and download for all.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Social Media + Society editorial office as follows: