Submitting to JSWE

Submitting to JSWE

Submissions to the Journal of Social Work Education (JSWE) are accepted only through the online manuscript submission system. Submissions received via mail, fax, or email will be returned unread.

Aims and Scope
Instructions for Authors
Preparation of Manuscript
Blinding Your Submission
Tables and Figures
Notes Submissions
Statistical Copy
Letters to the Editor
Special Topics
Proofs
Copyright and Permissions
Complimentary Policy and Reprints

 

Aims and Scope

The 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. 

JSWE is an international journal that values innovative ideas relevant to social work education with primary readership in the United States given its connection to the Council on Social Work Education, the accrediting body for U.S. social work education. However, given the broad readership of this journal internationally and an increasing number of international submissions, authors are encouraged to consider and communicate the broad implications of their work for both a U.S. and international audience.

  • 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, as well as complete reporting of methods and analyses. “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.
 

Instructions for Authors

Thank you for choosing to submit your paper to the Journal of Social Work Education (JSWE). These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly. Please take the time to read and follow them as closely as possible, as doing so will ensure your paper matches the journal’s requirements.

JSWE uses ScholarOne Manuscripts to peer review manuscript submissions. All submissions must be made via ScholarOne; hard copies and e-mailed manuscripts will not be processed.
 

Preparation of Manuscript

  • All submissions must conform to the standards of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition). Manuscripts that do not meet this requirement will not be processed.

  • 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 1-inch margins on all sides.

  • An abstract of no more than 200 words must be included with the manuscript text and is considered in the page count. Abstracts should include problem focus, brief conceptualization or description of innovations, and implications for social work education.  Abstracts of empirical articles should mention the research aims, methods, results, and conclusions.

  • Avoid abbreviations, diagrams, citations, and reference to the text in the abstract.

  • Number manuscript pages consecutively throughout the paper.

  • Include a running head, not exceeding 50 character spaces.


Blinding Your Submission

JSWE receives all manuscript submissions electronically via its ScholarOne Manuscripts site located at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jswe. Manuscripts are not accepted via surface mail or e-mail.

To ensure anonymity in the peer-review process, all manuscript submissions must be fully blinded. Remove all author information (i.e., name, position, institutional affiliation, and contact information) before submitting the 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 co-authors.

Example:

References:
Author. (2017). Reference removed for blind review.
Authors. (2017). Reference removed for blind review.

Text:
Author (2017) conducted a study in which students were held to a different standard of conduct.

Similarly, do not include names of institutions affiliated with the author(s) and research.

Example:

X University’s School of Social Work was recently awarded a grant to fund the study.

After the manuscript enters the review process, it is reviewed by two or three consulting editors. Every effort will be made to notify authors of publication decisions within 4–6 months of receipt of a manuscript.
 

Tables and Figures

Tables and figures (illustrations) should not be embedded in the text of the submission, but should be included as separate files.

Tables must be able to stand alone without reference to the text (e.g., abbreviations must be defined in notes, the title must be simple but thorough). Do not mix types of data in the same column (e.g., do not include means and standard deviations in the same column). Tables that do not meet these minimum standards will be returned to the author for revision. Refer to A. A. M. Nicol and P. M. Pexman Presenting Your Findings: A Practical Guide for Creating Tables, 6th edition (American Psychological Association, 2010) for information on proper table formats for a wide range of statistical analyses.

Figures should be completely labeled, taking into account necessary size reduction. For peer review, illustrations (line drawings, halftones, photos, photomicrographs) should be supplied as high quality grayscale digital files, 300 dpi or higher, sized to fit on the journal page, in JPG or PDF format. Final files for printing may also be sent in EPS or TIFF format.
 

Notes Submissions

In addition to full-length manuscripts, JSWE accepts manuscripts for the Notes section, including Field Notes, Research Notes, and Teaching Notes.

  • Notes should challenge readers to implement new ideas and evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies, and thereby generate new knowledge. Manuscripts must still reflect originality, conceptual and empirical soundness, and be well-argued.

  • Manuscripts submitted to the Notes section should be written in the same clear, readable, and scholarly style as full-length manuscripts.

  • Notes should not exceed 10 pages, not including tables, figures, or references; an abstract of no more than 200 words should accompany your manuscript submission.

Please submit for the Notes section using the same procedures as for general manuscripts, and clearly indicate in the submission that the manuscript is being submitted as a Note.

Field Notes: Feature brief reports of promising yet "untested" experimental teaching strategies in the field setting or innovative models of field curriculum or field supervision.

Teaching Notes: Feature 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.

Research Notes: Feature brief reports about research methodology, questions, or findings. This might include a discussion of standards for reporting research, or issues related to use of data collection, data analysis strategies, or research findings of relevance to social work education.
 

Statistical Copy

Authors submitting statistical copy should adhere to formatting instructions specified in the APA manual. Authors are asked to refer to the report of the Working Group on Journal Article Reporting Standards.
 

Letters to the Editor

JSWE welcomes letters to the editor that are relevant to articles that have been published in the journal or to issues of concern to social work education. Letters should not exceed five pages, not including tables, figures, or references. JSWE reserves the right to refuse publication of letters due to length or subject matter.
 

Special Topics

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:

  • an overview of the issue/section theme, including a discussion of the purpose of the issue and its contribution to the knowledge base;

  • a summary of anticipated article topics;

  • a proposed timeline from distribution of the call for papers to final acceptance of all manuscripts;

  • a list of guest reviewers with CVs; and

  • CVs of the proposed guest editor(s).

Articles must be submitted via the online submission system normally used by JSWE and go through 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 [email protected]. They will be reviewed by the editor-in-chief and the JSWE Editorial Advisory Board.
 

Proofs

Page proofs are sent to the designated author using Taylor & Francis’ Central Article Tracking System (CATS). Manuscripts accepted for publication are sent to CATS and the Taylor & Francis production team for typesetting in the order in which they were accepted. Once proofs are available to authors, they must be carefully checked and returned within 48 hours of receipt.
 

Copyright and Permissions

Taylor & Francis offers two types of open access publishing.

JSWE does not consider manuscripts that have been published or are under consideration elsewhere. Unless an article is to be published as open access, 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 Social Work 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” (a new figure or table derived from a copyrighted source). Manuscripts will not be accepted without the proper permissions.
 

Complimentary Policy and Reprints

Authors for whom a valid e-mail address is received 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. Members of the Council on Social Work Education receive online access as a member benefit.

Please note that the 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.

ScholarOne technical support can be accessed at http://scholarone.com/services/support. If you have any other requests, please contact [email protected].


[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.]