School Social Work Journal

Editorial Policy and Author Guidelines

The School Social Work Journal is a refereed journal directed primarily to the interests of social work practitioners in the public schools and school social work educators. Preference is given to articles directly related to the improvement of social work practice in the schools, which may report original research, integrative and comprehensive reviews, conceptual and practical position papers, effective assessment and intervention methodologies, and model service delivery programs.

Authors may submit for review in any of these categories within the general length requirements of the journal or may choose to submit a paper as a Brief Report. Papers appropriate for the Brief Report category include new innovations in school social work practice, current legislative and policy concerns affecting school social work practice, trends in social work practice, licensure, and social work education related to school social work.

Submission Requirements. Manuscripts together with a brief abstract should be submitted to the Editor, Carol Massat, Jane Addams College of Social Work (M/C 309), University of Illinois at Chicago, 1040 West Harrison Street, Room 4038 ECSW, Chicago, IL 60607-7134. Six (6) high quality copies of the entire manuscript, without author identification, should be submitted along with a cover letter to identify the corresponding author(s) and stating the paper is not being submitted to another journal for review.

Manuscript Preparation. The School Social Work Journal requires that authors follow the 2001 Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). In general, papers should be approximately 15–20 pages and should be typed double-spaced on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper with a 1 to 1 1/2 inch margin on all sides using 12 point font size. Use endnotes rather than footnotes and place them at the end of your article before the reference list. Six (6) copies should be submitted; the author(s) should retain the original. If an editorial decision is made to publish the article, the author(s) will then be requested to submit, if possible, the electronic file, along with the name(s), platform(s), and version number(s) of all software used to create the document. A hard copy of the article should also be submitted to verify that all of the information was transferred correctly. Camera-ready prints of figures and photographs should not be submitted until after an editorial decision to publish has been communicated to the author(s): clean copies of these materials are sufficient for the review process. Because manuscripts are reviewed anonymously, a running head (not the author(s)' name) should appear on each page, and any information identifying the author(s) should be avoided in the initial review copy.

Title Page. The title page should list (a) the title of the manuscript; (b) the author(s)' name, present affiliation, address, telephone number, fax number, and email address; (c) a concise running title; and (d) five to six key words or descriptors for indexing purposes. The manuscript itself should contain no information that would identify the author(s) or their organizational affiliation.

Language. Contributors should follow the APA guidelines for nonsexist language and exercise appropriate care in referring to persons with disabilities as persons first and foremost, for example, "children with mental retardation," rather than "the retarded."

Review Process and Editorial Decision. Articles submitted are sent anonymously by the editor to five reviewers from the advisory board. The review process takes approximately 2 months, after which the time the editor will communicate the editorial decision to the author(s) along with a summary of information about the decision and, if appropriate, recommendations for revision of the manuscript for publication or resubmission for a second review.

Permission to Reproduce Articles. The appearance of the code at the bottom of both the inside cover and this page indicates the copyright owner's consent that copies of the article may be made for personal or internal use, or for the personal or internal use of specific clients. This consent is given on the condition, however, that the copier pay the stated per-copy fee through the Copyright Clearance Center Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 for copying beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law. This consent does not extend to other kinds of copying, such as copying for general distribution, for advertising or promotional purposes, for creating new collective works, or for resale.

Special Orders. Request for special permission or bulk orders should be addressed to School Social Work Journal, 341 N. Charlotte Street, Lombard, Illinois 60148.

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