Robert K. Merton

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
 


Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century England. OSIRIS: Studies on the History and Philosophy of Science and on the History of Learning and Culture. Bruges, Belgium: St. Catherine Press, 1938. [New York: Harper & Row, 1980; New York: Howard Fertig, Inc., 1980, 2002]

Mass Persuasion (with the assistance of Marjorie Fiske and Alberta Curtis) New York: Harper & Brothers, 1946. [Stamford CT: Greenwood Press, 1971; New York:,  Howard Fertig, Inc., 1971, 2002]

Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: The Free Press, 1949, 1957, 1968.

Continuities in Social Research: Studies in the Scope and Method of "The American Soldier" (edited with Paul F. Lazarsfeld). New York: The Free Press., 1950. [New York: Arno Press, 1974]

Patterns of Social Life: Explorations in the Sociology of Housing (with Patricia S. West and Marie Jahoda). New York: Columbia University Bureau of Applied Social Research. Two Volumes. Mimeographed, 1951.

The Focused Interview. (with Marjorie Fiske and Patricia L. Kendall). New York: The Free Press., 1956, 1990.

 The Student-Physician: Introductory Studies in the Sociology of Medical Education (edited with George G. Reader and Patricia L. Kendall). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1957.

 The Freedom to Read: Perspective and Program (with Richard McKeon and Walter Gellhorn). New York: R.R. Bowker Co., 1957.

Sociology Today: Problems and Prospects (edited with Leonard Broom and Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr.). New York: Basic Books, 1959. [New York: Harper & Row, 1967]

On the Shoulders of Giants: A Shandean Postscript. New York: The Free Press., 1965. [New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1967; San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985; Chicago: U Chicago Press, 1993]

On Theoretical Sociology: Five Essays, Old and New. New York: The Free Press, 1967.

The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations. Edited by Norman Storer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973.

Sociological Ambivalence. New York The Free Press, 1976.

Toward a Metric of Science: Thoughts Occasioned by the Advent of Science Indicators (edited with Yehuda Elkana, Joshua Lederberg, Arnold Thackray and Harriet Zuckerman). New York: John Wiley, 1978.

Qualitative and Quantitative Social Research: Papers in Honor of Paul F. Lazarsfeld (edited with James S. Coleman and Peter H. Rossi). New York: The Free Press, 1979.

The Sociology of Science: An Episodic Memoir. Carbondale: University of Southern Illinois Press, 1979.

Sociological Traditions from Generation to Generation: Glimpses of the American Experience (edited with Matilda White Riley). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing, 1980.

Continuities in Structural Inquiry (edited with Peter M. Blau). London: Sage Publications, 1981.

Social Research and the Practicing Professions. Cambridge: Abt Books, 1982.

Social Science Quotations: Who Said What, When, and Where (with David L. Sills). International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 19. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1990 [New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publications, 2000]

Robert K. Merton On Social Structure and Science, The Heritage of Sociology (edited and with an Introduction By Piotr Sztompka). Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity: A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science (with Elinor Barber). Bologna: II Mulino, 2002 (Italian).
 

Articles:

Recent French Sociology. Social Forces 12, 537-45, 1935.

The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action. American Sociological Review 1, 894-904, 1936.

Social Time: A Methodological and Functional Analysis (with Pitirim A. Sorokin). American Journal of Sociology 42, 615-629, 1937.

Science and the Social Order. Philosophy of Science 5, 321-337, 1938

Social Structure and Anomie. American Sociological Review 3, 672-682, 1938.

Bureaucratic Structure and Personality. Social Forces 18, 560-568, 1940.

Intermarriage and the Social Structure: Fact and Theory. Psychiatry 4, 361-374, 1941.

A Note on Science and Democracy. Journal of Legal and Political Sociology 1, 115-126, 1942.

Role of the Intellectual in Public Bureaucracy. Social Forces 23, 405-415, 1945.

Sociology of Knowledge. In Georges Gurvitch and Wilbert E. Moore, eds. Twentieth Century Sociology. New York: Philosophical Library, 366-405, 1945.

Sociological Theory . American Journal of Sociology 50, 462-473, 1945.

The Focused Interview (with Patricia L. Kendall). American Journal of Sociology 51, 541-557, 1946.

The Bearing of Empirical Research Upon the Development of Sociological Theory . American Sociological Review 13, 505-515, 1948.

Discrimination and the American Creed. In R.M. Maclver, ed. Discrimination and National Welfare. New York: Harper & Brothers, 99-126, 1948.

Mass Communication, Popular Taste, and Organized Social Action (with Paul F. Lazarsfeld). In Lyman Bryson, ed. Communication of Ideas. New York: Harper & Brothers, 95-118, 1948.

The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. Antioch Review (Summer), 193-210, 1948.

Social Structure and Anomie: Revisions and Extensions. In Ruth N. Anshen, ed. The Family: Its Functions and Destiny. New York: Harper & Brothers, 226-257,
1949.

Patterns of Influence: A Study of Interpersonal Influence and Communications Behavior ina Local Community . In Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Frank Stanton, eds. Communications Research, 1948-49. New York: Harper & Brothers, 180-219, 1950.

Contributions to the Theory of Reference Group Behavior (with Alice Kitt Rossi). In Robert K. Merton and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, eds. Continuities in Social Research. New York: TheFree Press, 40-105, 1950.

Friendship as a Social Process: A Substantive and Methodological Analysis (with Paul Lazarsfeld). In Morroe Berger, Theodore Abel, and Charles Page, eds. Freedom and Control in Modern Society. New York: Van Nostrand, 18-66, 1954.

The Role-Set: Problems in Sociological Theory . British Journal of Sociology 8: 106-120, 1957.

Priorities in Scientific Discovery: A Chapter in the Sociology of Science. American Sociological Review 22, 6, 635-659, 1957.

Notes on Problem-Finding in Sociology. In Robert K. Merton, Leonard Broom, and Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr., eds. Sociology Today. New York: Basic Books, ix-xxxiv, 1959.

Social Conformity , Deviation and Opportunity Structures. American Sociological Review 24, 2, 177-189, 1959.

Singletons and Multiples in Scientific Discovery . Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 105, no.5 (October): 470-486, 1961.

The Ambivalence of Scientists. Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital (112),77-97, 1963.

Basic Research and Potentials of Relevance. American Behavioral Scientist 6, 86-90, 1963.

The Matthew Effect in Science: the Reward and Communication Systems of Science are Considered [with Harriet A. Zuckerman]. Science 199, 3810 (January 5), 55-63, 1968.

Patterns of Evaluation in Science: Institutionalization, Structure and Functions of the Referee System(with Harriet A. Zuckerman). Minerva 9,1 (January), 66-100, 1971.

Insiders and Outsiders: A Chapter in the Sociology of Knowledge. American Journal of Sociology 77(July): 9-47, 1972.

 Age, Aging, and Age Structure in Science (with Harriet A. Zuckerman). In Matilda W. Riley, Marilyn Johnson and Ann Foner, eds. A Theory of Age Stratification.  Vo13. of Aging and Society. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 292-356, 1972.

On Discipline Building: The Paradoxes of George Sarton (with Arnold Thackray). ISIS 63, 219, 473-495, 1972.

 A Professional School for Training in Social Research (with Paul F. Lazarsfeld). In Paul F . Lazarsfeld, ed. Qualitative Analysis. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 361-391, 1972.

Structural Analysis in Sociology . In Peter M. Blau, ed. Approaches to the Study of Social Structure. New York: The Free Press, 21-52, 1975.

On the Oral Transmission of Knowledge. In Sociological Traditions from Generation to Generation: Glimpses of the American Experience (edited with Matilda White Riley). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corp., 1-35, 1980.

Alvin W. Gouldner: Genesis and Growth of a Friendship. Theory and Society, 11, 915-938, 1982.

Socially Expected Durations: A Case Study of Concept Formation in Sociology . In W. W. Powell And Richard Robbins, eds., Conflict and Consensus: In Honor of  Lewis A. Coser, New York: Free Press, 262-283, 1984.

The Kelvin Dictum and Social Science: An Excursion into the History of an Idea (with David L. Sills And Stephen M. Stigler) Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 20, October, 319-331, 1984.

Basic Research and Its Potentials of Relevance. (revised) The Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine, 52, 679-684, 1985.

The Focussed Interview & Focus Groups: Continuities and Discontinuities. Public Opinion Quarterly, 51, 550-566, 1987.

Three Fragments from a Sociologist's Notebooks: Establishing the Phenomenon, Specified Ignorance and Strategic Research Materials. Annual Review of Sociology, 13,1-28, 1987.

Reference Groups, Invisible Colleges and Deviant Behavior in Science. In H.J. O'Gorman ed., Surveying Social Life: Papers in Honor of Herbert H. Hyman. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 174-189, 1988.

The Matthew Effect in Science, II: Cumulative Advantage and the Symbolism of IntellectualProperty , Isis, 79, 606-623, 1988.

Unanticipated consequences and kindred sociological ideas: A personal gloss. In Carlo Mongardini And Simonetta Tabboni, eds. L 'Opera di Robert K. Merton e la sociologia contemporanea. Genova: ECIG, 307-329, 1989.

STS; Foreshadowings of an Evolving Research Program in the Sociology of Science. In I. Bernard Cohen, ed. Puritanism and the Rise of Modern Science: The
Merton Thesis. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 334-371, 1990.

A Life of Learning: Charles Homer Haskins Lecture. American Council of Learned Societies. An Occasional Paper. No.25, 1994.

Opportunity Structure: The Emergence, Diffusion, and Differentiation of a Sociological Concept, 19305-19505. In Advances in Criminological Theory: The Legacy of  Anomie Theory, Volume 6. Freda Adler & William S. Laufer, editors. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 3-78, 1995.

The Thomas Theorem and The Matthew Effect. Social Forces. December, 74 (2): 379-424, 1995.

 Teaching James Coleman. In Jon Clark, editor. James S. Coleman. London: Falmer Press 351-356, 1997.

De-Gendering 'Man of Science': The Genesis and Epicene Character of the Word Scientist. In Kai Erikson, ed. Sociological Visions. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 225-253, 1997.

Working with Lazarsfeld. In Jacques Lautman and Bernard-Pierre Lécuyer, eds. Paul Lazarsfeld 1901-1976. La Sociologie de Vienne à New York. Paris: L'Harmattan, 1998.