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The Cologne Journal of Sociology and Social Psychology  (KZfSS) was founded in 1948 by the sociologist Leopold von Wiese as "Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie" (Cologne Journal of Sociology). His successor René König put a stronger focus on social-psychological topics, including cultural sociology and qualitative social research, which gave the journal its current name.

It is by far the most important sociological journal in the German-speaking world in terms of scope and distribution. It reports extensively on German and international sociological research in all disciplines and regularly disseminates research results from many countries around the world.

The KZfSS follows the model of a sociological universal journal. In addition to more than 40 essays per year, which are first publications in principle, detailed literature reports as well as reviews of German and international specialist literature are published in a comprehensive review section. It offers an open forum for sociological research and discussion. Special emphasis lies on offering young colleagues an opportunity for their first publication.

The KZfSS is registered in many renowned scientific research services such as the Social Science Citation Index and Current Contents of the Institute for Scientific Information; sociological abstracts; psychological abstracts; Bulletin signalétique; prd, Publizistikwissenschaftlicher Referatedienst; SRM, social research methodology abstracts; SOLIS, Sozialwissenschaftliches Literaturinformationssystem; Literaturdatenbank PSYNDEX and Juris-Literaturdatenbank.

In addition to the individual issues, a special thematic issue is published annually.