Editorial Transitions and Thematic Change in the American Journal of Sociology: A Structural Topic Modeling Analysis

This study investigates whether editorial transitions are associated with changes in the thematic structure of the American Journal of Sociology. We analyze 4,249 article abstracts using a Structural Topic Model (STM), incorporating editor-in-chief and publication year as prevalence covariates and taking into account overlapping editorial periods. Texts were pre-processed using standard lexicometric procedures, including the consolidation of domain-specific multiword expressions. Models with 5 to 30 topics were estimated and evaluated using held-out likelihood, residuals, semantic coherence, and exclusivity. The results reflect both enduring core areas of sociological research such as race and inequality, urbanization, family, gender, and stratification as well as methodological, theoretical, and political themes. Analyses of topic prevalence across editors reveal systematic variations rather than abrupt thematic breaks, suggesting that editorial leadership subtly reshapes the journal’s intellectual emphasis over time. Overall, the findings highlight the role of editorial governance in influencing the evolution of disciplinary agendas and demonstrate the usefulness of STM for studying institutional and epistemic change in academic publishing.