You are here

Adoption & Fostering

Published in Association with CoramBAAF Adoption & Fostering Academy

eISSN: 1740469X | ISSN: 03085759 | Current volume: 47 | Current issue: 4 Frequency: Quarterly
Edited by Dr Dennis Golm (Lecturer in Psychology, University of Southampton, UK) and managed by Victoria Walker, Adoption & Fostering is a quarterly peer reviewed journal which has been at the cutting edge of debate on childcare issues for over 50 years. It is the only UK journal dedicated to adoption and fostering issues, providing an international forum for a wide range of professionals: academics and practitioners in social work, psychology, law, medicine, education, training and caring for children and young people.

As the official journal of the CoramBAAF Adoption & Fostering Academy, the UK’s leading adoption and fostering charity, the journal supports CoramBAAF’s aims of promoting the highest standards of practice in adoption, fostering and childcare services, to increase public understanding of the issues and to provide an independent voice for children and families, disseminating new research and practice developments, informing and influencing policy-makers, all those responsible for children and young people, and public opinion at large.

In addition to informative and thought provoking articles from around the world, Adoption & Fostering offers regular legal notes and health notes prepared by dedicated practitioners and professionals concerned with the welfare of looked after children and young people in the UK.

Legal notes

Each issue of the journal features around 12 pages of legal notes prepared by experts in England & Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. These include commentary on specific cases and for Scotland, recent developments and updates in the law.

Health notes

Regular health notes prepared by doctors around the UK cover a range of topics, from evaluating projects and services to reporting on conferences held by the CoramBAAF Health Group.

Adoption & Fostering Journal is essential reading for all those involved in adoption and fostering, and is read and valued right around the world.”

Gillian Schofield, Professor of Child & Family Social Work, University of East Anglia

“As a practitioner, Adoption & Fostering is always the journal I turn to first. Virtually all the content has immediate relevance. Also, back copies spanning some 40 years provide an invaluable record of how research and practice have developed in the UK and overseas.”

David Pitcher, Family Court Adviser and Children’s Guardian, Child and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass)

Adoption & Fostering is the only quarterly UK peer reviewed journal dedicated to adoption and fostering issues. Edited by Dr Dennis Golm (Lecturer in Psychology, University of Southampton, UK, it also focuses on wider developments in childcare practice and research, providing an international, inter-disciplinary forum for academics and practitioners in social work, psychology, law, medicine, education, training and caring.

 

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

 

Read Adoption & Fostering’s diversity statement here

Editor
Dennis Golm University of Southampton, UK
Managing Editor
Victoria Walker CoramBAAF Adoption & Fostering Academy, UK
  • ASSIA (Online)
  • Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts (ASSIA)
  • ArticleFirst
  • British Nursing Index
  • CINAHL
  • CINAHL with Full Text
  • Child Development & Adolescent Studies
  • Clarivate Analytics: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)
  • Dietrich's Index Philosophicus
  • EBSCO: CINAHL Plus
  • EBSCO: CINAHL Plus with Full Text
  • EBSCO: Sales & Marketing Source
  • EBSCO: SocINDEX
  • EBSCO: SocINDEX with Full Text
  • EBSCOhost: Current Abstracts
  • Family & Society Studies Worldwide (NISC)
  • Gale: Academic OneFile
  • Gale: Criminal Justice Collection
  • Gale: Health Reference Center Academic
  • International Bibliography of Periodical Literature on the Humanities and Social Sciences (IBZ)
  • Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlicher Literatur
  • ProQuest: CSA Sociological Abstracts
  • SCOPUS
  • Social Services Abstracts
  • Sociological Abstracts

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aaf to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Adoption & Fostering will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

  1. What do we publish?
    1.1 Aims & Scope
    1.2 Article types
    1.3 Writing your paper
  2. Editorial policies
    2.1 Peer review policy
    2.2 Authorship
    2.3 Acknowledgements
    2.4 Funding
    2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
    2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
    2.7 Clinical trials
    2.8 Reporting guidelines
    2.9 Data
  3. Publishing policies
    3.1 Publication ethics
    3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
    3.3 Open access and author archiving
    3.4 Plain Language Summaries
  4. Preparing your manuscript
    4.1 Formatting
    4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
    4.3 Supplementary material
    4.4 Reference style
    4.5 English language editing services
  5. Submitting your manuscript
    5.1 ORCID
    5.2 Information required for completing your submission
    5.3 Permissions
  6. On acceptance and publication
    6.1 Sage Production
    6.2 Online First publication
    6.3 Access to your published article
    6.4 Promoting your article
  7. Further information

 

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Adoption & Fostering, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

1.2 Article Types

Articles may cover any of the following: analyses of policies or the law; accounts of practice innovations and developments; findings of research and evaluations; discussions of issues relevant to fostering and adoption; critical reviews of relevant literature, theories or concepts; case studies.

All research-based articles should include brief accounts of the design, sample characteristics and data-gathering methods.  Any article should clearly identify its sources and refer to previous writings where relevant.  The preferred length of articles is 5,000-7,000 words excluding references.

Contributions should be both authoritative and readable.  Please avoid excessive use of technical terms and explain any key words that may not be familiar to most readers.

Letters to the Editor. Readers' letters should address issues raised by published articles or should report significant new findings that merit rapid dissemination. The decision to publish is made by the Editor, in order to ensure a timely appearance in print.

Book Reviews. A list of up-to-date books for review is available from the journal's Managing Editor.

1.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

Back to top

2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication.
Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

  • The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
  • The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
  • The author has recommended the reviewer
  • The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).

2.2 Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

•    Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input 
•    Identify any entities that paid for this assistance 
•    Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

2.4 Funding

Adoption & Fostering requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

Adoption & Fostering encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.

 Back to top

3. Publishing Policies

3.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

3.1.1 Plagiarism

Adoption & Fostering  and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.

3.3 Open access and author archiving

Adoption & Fostering offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

3.4 Plain Language Summaries

A plain language summary (PLS) must be provided for all article types that require an abstract. The plain language title (approx. 50 words) and plain language summary (approx. 300 words) should describe the article using non-technical language, making it accessible to a wider network of readers. More information and guidance on how to write a PLS can be found on our Author Gateway.

The PLS publishes directly below the scientific abstract and are open access making it available online for anyone to read. Peer review of the PLS will be conducted following our PLS reviewer guidelines. When submitting, authors should enter their plain language title and plain language summary into the box provided in the submission system. The PLS does not need to be provided in the manuscript text or as a separate file. Manuscripts without a PLS, or a PLS which is a direct copy of the scientific abstract, will be returned. If the article type does not require an abstract and therefore does not require a PLS please enter “N/A” in each box.

If you need professional help writing your Plain Language Summary, please visit our Author Services portal.

Back to top

4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

4.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

4.3 Supplementary material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.

4.4 Reference style

Adoption & Fostering adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the the Sage Harvard EndNote output file.

4.5 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

Back to top

5. Submitting your manuscript

Adoption & Fostering is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aaf to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

5.1 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognised.

The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

Back to top

6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice. 

Back to top

7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Adoption & Fostering editorial office as follows:

Production Editor, Victoria Walker, at victoria.walker@corambaaf.org.uk

Individual Subscription, E-access


Individual Subscription, Print Only


Individual Subscription, Combined (Print & E-access)


Institutional Subscription, E-access


Institutional Subscription & Backfile Lease, E-access Plus Backfile (All Online Content)


Institutional Subscription, Print Only


Institutional Subscription, Combined (Print & E-access)


Institutional Subscription & Backfile Lease, Combined Plus Backfile (Current Volume Print & All Online Content)


Institutional Backfile Purchase, E-access (Content through 1998)


Individual, Single Print Issue


Institutional, Single Print Issue