Science, including social science, maintains its vitality and ability to produce new knowledge because it is a "public" enterprise with respect to other scientists. To be really useful, however, scientific findings must also be communicated beyond the range of the experts who judge the adequacy of the research. The results and implications must also be made available to a wider public who may use the information to make decisions about policy choices (e.g., for political leaders) and individual choices (e.g., voting decisions). In no area of science is this more important than in the social sciences that deal with issues that are often of wide public concern and about which there may often be political choices that will need to be made by our representatives and leaders.
I am very pleased with the initiative by the Sociology graduate students that resulted in the realization of their own academic journal, Social Dialogue. I cannot think of a better way for both graduate and undergraduate students to gain crucial professional experience than by actually producing and disseminating social science knowledge through their own journal. Nothing is more effective in the professional development of a sociologist than actually engaging in research/scholarship and learning how to communicate the resulting findings to other scholars and to a wider public. Social Dialogue promises to be both an excellent vehicle for professional development and an effective means of sociology and other social sciences to gain visibility on the University campus and beyond. Congratulations are in order for the students who made this idea become a reality.
Michael F. Timberlake
Professor and Chair
Department of Sociology
October 7, 2007