Aims and Scope. Journal of Social Work Education (JSWE) is a refereed professional journal concerned with education in social work and social welfare. Its purpose is to serve as a forum for creative exchange on trends, innovations, and problems relevant to social work education at the undergraduate, master’s, and postgraduate levels.
Manuscripts submitted to JSWE should address either issues relevant to the education and training of social workers at all levels or innovative approaches to social work practice and their educational implications. Articles should be original, have a sound conceptual or empirical base, and be well-argued. Manuscripts are considered original if they make a significant contribution to the advancement of existing knowledge. Conceptual soundness requires defining terms, providing a review of relevant literature, and advancing an intellectually sound argument or discussion. Empirical soundness requires congruence between questions raised and methods used to test them. “Show-and-tell” papers describing ad hoc experiences do not fit the above criteria. Articles should be free of racial, religious, gender, or ethnic bias; they should focus on a key issue; they should be well-organized, up to date, and editorially sound. Authors may find it useful to seek editorial help or criticism from colleagues before submitting their manuscripts.
Please note that
Journal of Social Work Education uses
CrossCheck™ software to screen papers for unoriginal material. By submitting your paper to
Journal of Social Work Education you are agreeing to any necessary originality checks your paper may have to undergo during the peer review and production processes.
[The opinions expressed in this journal are solely those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the Council on Social Work Education. No official endorsement of the views presented should be inferred unless it is so indicated.]
Manuscript Submission. Manuscripts are not accepted via surface mail or e-mail. JSWE receives all manuscript submissions electronically via its ScholarOne Manuscripts site located at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jswe . ScholarOne Manuscripts allows for rapid submission of original and revised manuscripts, and facilitates the review process and internal communication between authors, editors, and reviewers via a Web-based platform. ScholarOne technical support can be accessed at http://scholarone.com/services/support . If you have any other requests, please contact Elizabeth Simon, Manager of Publications for the Council on Social Work Education, at esimon@cswe.org .
Please ensure that your submission is fully blinded. To ensure anonymity in the peer-review process, all author information (name, position, institutional affiliation, and contact information) should be excluded from the blinded manuscript. Self-referential sources cited should not identify the author(s). Please label such self-referential sources as “Author,” remove titles, and place at the beginning of the reference list. This applies to the primary author and all other co-authors. Similarly, names of institutions affiliated with the author(s) and research presented in the manuscript should not be included.
Each manuscript must be accompanied by a statement that it has not been published elsewhere and that it has not been submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere. Authors are required to sign an agreement for the transfer of copyright to the Council on Social Work Education, which will be sent to them after submission. All accepted manuscripts, artwork, and photographs become the property of the Council on SocialWork Education. As an author, you are required to secure permission if you want to reproduce any figure, table, or extract from the text of another source. This applies to direct reproduction as well as “derivative reproduction” (where you have created a new figure or table which derives substantially from a copyrighted source). Manuscripts will not be accepted without the proper permissions.
Preparation of Manuscript. Manuscripts submitted for articles should be 15–25 double-spaced pages, not including references, figures, or tables. All parts of the manuscript should be typewritten in 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with margins of at least one inch on all sides. Number manuscript pages consecutively throughout the paper. Authors should also supply a shortened version of the title suitable for the running head, not exceeding 50 character spaces. Each article should be summarized in an abstract of no more than 120 words. Avoid abbreviations, diagrams, and reference to the text in the abstract. Submissions that do not conform to the above guidelines will be returned for resolution before entering the review process. Once the manuscript does enter the review process, it is reviewed by two or three consulting editors. Every effort will be made to notify authors of publication decisions within 3 months of receipt of a manuscript.
In addition to full-length manuscripts, JSWE accepts submissions for the Notes section, including Field Notes, Research Notes, and Teaching Notes. This section features brief reports of promising yet “untested” experimental teaching strategies or curriculum innovations with the hope that readers will be challenged to implement new ideas and evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies, thereby generating new knowledge. Manuscripts must still reflect originality, conceptual and empirical soundness, and be well-argued. Manuscripts submitted as Notes should not exceed 10 pages and should be written in the same clear, readable, and scholarly style as full-length manuscripts. Please submit manuscripts for the Notes sections using the same procedures as for general articles.
Authors submitting statistical copy are asked to refer to CSWE’s website, www.cswe.org, for a concise overview of the expectations for the reporting of statistical data. Manuscripts containing statistical analysis will undergo a statistical review as well as a standard peer review. JSWE accepts proposals for special topic issues and sections. No more than one special issue will be published each year. Proposals are reviewed by the editor-in-chief and the Editorial Advisory Board for decision. The following components, submitted in electronic format only, make up a complete proposal: (a) an overview of the issue/section theme, including a discussion of the purpose of the issue and its contribution to the knowledge base; (b) a summary of anticipated article topics; (c) a proposed timeline from distribution of the call for papers to final acceptance of all manuscripts; (d) a list of guest reviewers with CVs; (e) CVs of the proposed guest editor(s). Articles must be submitted via the online submission system normally used by JSWE and go through the standard blind-review process managed by JSWE staff. After review, decisions on acceptance of the articles are made by the guest editor(s). No decisions will be made before all manuscripts have completed the initial review process. Special topic proposals should be sent to esimon@cswe.org.
References. All submissions must conform to the standards of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition). Manuscripts that do not meet this requirement will not be processed. Sample references:
Journal : Brierly, D. (2007). Emotional memory for words: Separating content and context. Cognition & Emotion , 21 (3), 495–521.
Book : Smith, E., & Mackie, D. (2000). Social psychology . Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.
Contribution to a Book : Tanner, W. P., & Swets, J. A. (2001). A decision-making theory of visual detection. In S. Yantis (Ed.), Visual perception (pp. 48–55). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.
Tables and Figures. Tables and figures (illustrations) should not be embedded in the text, but should be included as separate files. A short descriptive title should appear above each table with a clear legend and any footnotes suitably identified below. All units must be included. Figures should be completely labeled, taking into account necessary size reduction. Illustrations (line drawings, halftones, photos, photomicrographs) should be supplied as high quality grayscale digital files and should follow these guidelines: 300 dpi or higher; sized to fit on journal page; and EPS, TIFF, or PSD format only.
Proofs. Page proofs are sent to the designated author using Taylor & Francis’ Central Article Tracking System (CATS). They must be carefully checked and returned within 48 hours of receipt.
Complimentary Policy and Reprints. Authors for whom we receive a valid e-mail address will be provided an opportunity to purchase reprints of individual articles, or copies of the complete print issue. These authors will also be given complimentary access to their final article on Taylor & Francis Online.
