Research on Social Work Practice Editorial Policy
Research on Social Work Practice is a disciplinary journal devoted to the publication of empirical research concerning the assessment methods and outcomes of social work practice. Social work practice is broadly interpreted to refer to the application of intentionally designed social work intervention programs to problems of societal and/or interpersonal importance. Interventions include behavior analysis and therapy, psychotherapy or counseling with individuals, case management/care coordination, education, supervision, practice involving couples, families, or small groups, advocacy, community practice, organizational management, and the evaluation of social policies. At least one author of a submitted article must be a professional social worker, and/or the interventions evaluated must have been provided by professional social workers.
The journal is received by over 5800 individual and institutional subscribers around the world in its print and on-line versions. Its 2007 impact factor was .957. During 2007 the journal had about 150,000 full-text articles downloaded from the publisher’s website, reflecting a scholarly impact far beyond its subscriber base.
The journal will primarily serve as an outlet for the publication of:
1. Original reports of empirically-based evaluation studies on the outcomes of social work practice;
2. Original reports of empirical studies on the development and validation of social work assessment methods; and
3. Original systematic reviews, including meta-analyses, of the practice-research literature that convey direct applications (not simply implications) to social work practice. The website of the Campbell Collaboration provides exemplary guidelines for the design and conduct of systematic reviews, and authors contemplating submitting such studies are urged to follow the Campbell Guidelines (see www.Campbellcollaboration.org). The two types of systematic reviews considered for publication are:
A. Systematic reviews of the evidence-based status of a particular psychosocial intervention or assessment method, or
B. Systematic reviews of several psychosocial interventions applicable to clients with a particular psychosocial problem.
Manuscripts which do not fit into one of the above categories should not be submitted, and if received will be returned to the author un-reviewed. Occasionally other types of submissions apart from those listed above are published in the journal (guest editorials, research center descriptions), but these are usually invited and accepted at the discretion of the Editor.
How to submit a manuscript: The journal requires authors to use the MANUSCRIPT CENTRAL web-based portal to submit their manuscripts. The submission portal is available via the link below:
Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rswp
The authors of reports of randomized controlled trials, quasi-experiments, or meta-analyses are asked to familiarize themselves with the reporting standards found in the following article:
APA Publications and Communications Board Working Group on Journal Article Reporting Standards. (2008). Reporting standards for research in psychology: Why to we need them? What might they be? American Psychologist, 63, 839- 851.
The authors of all papers reporting original data-based research are now required to follow the reporting standards found in Table 1 of the above paper. Papers reporting an RCT or quasi-experimental study must follow the standards found in Tables 1, 2 and 3, and Figure 1 in the above paper. Papers reporting an original meta-analysis must provide the information found in Table 4 of the above paper. The Editor is available to consult with you about any questions you may have regarding complying with these standards. They have been adopted to help promote consistency in research reporting, to try and further elevate the standards of work appearing in Research on Social Work Practice, and to ultimately improve the credibility of research findings available to the profession and the public.
The journal welcomes evidence-based research appropriately derived from a variety of etiological and interventive theories, as well as studies which focus on evaluation and assessment issues not based upon formal theoretical frameworks. Studies using diverse methodologies, such as group or single-system research designs, and/or quantitative and qualitative approaches, are invited, as are interdisciplinary works. Replication studies are welcome, as are well-designed studies with negative findings or reports of treatment failures. Authors are encouraged to submit only articles of the highest quality for editorial review and possible publication. The submission of seriously flawed or marginal studies is discouraged. All submissions must be correctly formatted in current APA-style. Reports of inferential statistics involving significant differences must be accompanied by suitable measures (and a discussion of their clinical importance) of effect sizes and/or proportions of variance potentially accounted for by an intervention.
Inappropriate Submissions: The journal does not usually publish surveys, program descriptions, theoretical, philosophical or conceptual works, correlational investigations, retrospective predictor studies, purely methodological articles, descriptive studies, or needs assessments. Authors are urged to submit such studies to the many other social work journals which do not have the intervention-research focus of Research on Social Work Practice.
The journal uses a blind peer review system to evaluate manuscripts, and the expertise of the Editorial Board members is augmented by the extensive use of Guest Reviewers. Most authors receive an initial editorial decision within three months of submission, accompanied by constructive peer commentary. Most articles eventually accepted for publication undergo extensive author-completed revisions, based on peer-review commentary, prior to acceptance. The journal has an extensive backlog of accepted manuscripts, thus the authors of accepted manuscripts can expect a lag of about 12 months from final acceptance to print publication. However the journal has a publish-ahead-of-print service in that the final, corrected and accepted version of their paper will be published electronically on the journal’s website, with a DOI. This will permit its ready access to the community of scholars, students, and practitioners months ahead of print publication. These articles will be both citable and downloadable. Articles are published in the general order of their acceptance.
The journal publishes occasional special issues devoted to a particular topic, and readers with an interest in proposing a topic for such a special issue and to serve as a Guest Editor, are welcome to contact the Editor.
An invitation to join the journal’s Editorial Board is published every three years. These have appeared in 1993, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2008. All readers possessing suitable backgrounds in social work practice and research are welcome to nominate themselves. The next such call for nominations to join the Editorial Board will appear in the Spring of 2011. Individuals, including experienced MSWs and doctoral students, who wish to serve as occasional Guest Reviewers are welcome to contact the Editor about their interest.
The journal does publish book reviews, and the authors of newly published books who believe that their book’s subject matter is congruent with the focus of the journal are encouraged to contact the Editor with respect to arranging a review, as are individuals who themselves wish to author a book review of a newly published book. The submission of unsolicited book reviews is welcome, providing the work relates to research on social work practice. Book reviews should be formatted in strict APA-style, and submitted as an email attachment in MicroSoft Word, to the Editor, at Bthyer@fsu.edu. A copy of RSWP Guidelines for Book Reviews is also available from the Editor, upon request.
Research on Social Work Practice is sponsored by the Society for Social Work and Research and is provided to members of the Society as a membership benefit. All social workers are strongly encouraged to join the SSWR. For information about joining the SSWR, please see the SSWR webpage at www.sswr.org.
