Resources from SSWR DSC’s Monthly Monitor
Publishing 101: Basics for Publishing Research
Resources and tips for finding a journal
It’s important to consider journal fit and suitability by evaluating the extent to which the content of the manuscript fits within the scope of different journals. This step is integral to the process for two main reasons. First, desk rejection is prevalent among articles that do not match the stated scope of a journal, and careful consideration is a way to avoid this disappointment, and second, the journal selected could ultimately be the permanent outlet of your manuscript’s contents.
Read the “Aims and Scope” information carefully!
Every journal has a section that introduces its aims and scope. Reading this carefully can help you decide whether the manuscript fits. Sometimes this is very straightforward; for example, some journals do not publish literature reviews or conceptual articles. Other times, it might be more vague. When in doubt, it’s always helpful to email the editor(s) with an overview of the manuscript to get their opinion.
Email the editor(s)!
The first way, and probably the most straight forward way, would be to email the editor(s) with your research topic and research questions, asking whether they feel that the topic and questions are a good fit. Here are examples of what the emails might look like, focusing on the key points that might be covered in the email:
Literature reviews/conceptual articles
Dear [editor(s)],
I am interested in submitting an article to [name of the journal]. Before submitting the manuscript, I wanted to verify whether the journal publishes literature review and conceptual type of articles.
Here is a brief overview of the manuscript to provide more insight: Here, it might be beneficial to synthesize your topic, sample, timeframe, key findings, and main implications within 2-5 sentences.
I look forward to hearing back from you regarding whether a manuscript of this type aligns with your journal.
Quantitative and qualitative research articles
Dear [editor(s)],
I am interested in submitting an article to [name of the journal]. Before submitting the manuscript, I wanted to verify whether the manuscript might be a good fit for the journal.
Here is a brief overview of the manuscript to provide more insight: Here, you might want to introduce the aim of the manuscript, the sample, data collection procedures, analysis type, key findings, and key implications in about 4-6 sentences.
I look forward to hearing back from you regarding whether a manuscript of this type aligns with your journal.
Consider special issues
Often, the timeline from submission to publication for special issues is a little bit faster than regular submissions. Keeping tabs on whether journals have special issues can be helpful, and often these are narrowly tailored, which can make it easier to identify the potential fit between a manuscript and a journal.
Journal Author/Name Estimator (JANE)
Jane is a free search tool that allows you to find journals, authors, or articles, based on abstracts or keywords. Jane compares the information you provide to documents in PubMed to find best matching journals, authors, or articles.
Web of Science Core Collection Manuscript Matcher
This requires a university subscription and a log-in, so it may not be as accessible as Jane. However, it allows users to “find relevant, reputable journals for potential publication of your research based on an analysis of tens of millions of citation connections in Web of Science Core Collection using Manuscript Matcher.” You can learn more about it here.
Resources for writing up your research
Coming soon…
Resources for authorship and ethical considerations
Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers, COPE (2017).
Peer-Reviewed Journals
Below is a list of journals, which may act as a starting point for identifying potential places for publication. However, this list is not exhaustive. If you would like to suggest a journal to add, please fill out the contact form here.
Journals operated by the major social work professional organizations
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Founded in 2009, the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research (JSSWR) is the flagship publication of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR), a freestanding organization founded in 1994 to advance social work research.
JSSWR is a peer-reviewed publication dedicated to timely dissemination of innovative interdisciplinary research on pressing and complex social problems, methodological advances, and programs, interventions, and policies that contribute to meaningful and actionable social change. Committed to publishing social work and social justice scholarship that aims to improve the lives of communities and individuals who have been historically marginalized, JSSWR prioritizes research grounded in anti-oppressive, antiracist, and intersectional frameworks that challenge existing paradigms and structures that produce and sustain social inequalities and inequities. JSSWR publishes a wide range of perspectives, research approaches, and types of analyses that advance knowledge useful for designing social programs and interventions, developing innovative public policies, and improving social work research and practice globally. Visit JSSWR’s website here!
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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. Learn more here!
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Social Work is the premier journal of the social work profession. Widely read by practitioners, faculty, and students, it is the official journal of NASW and is provided to all members as a membership benefit. Social Work is dedicated to improving practice and advancing knowledge in social work and social welfare. Its articles yield new insights into established practices, evaluate new techniques and research, examine current social problems, and bring serious critical analysis to bear on problems in the profession. Major emphasis is placed on social policy and the solutions to serious human problems.
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For 20 years, human services professionals have relied on Health & Social Work for the latest advances in areas such as aging, clinical work, long-term care, oncology, substance abuse, depression, and maternal health. Articles also cover research, policy, specialized services, quality assurance, in-service training, and other topics that affect the delivery of health care services. Health and Social Work is from NASW. Learn more here!
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Children & Schools publishes professional materials relevant to social work services for children. The journal publishes articles on innovations in practice, interdisciplinary efforts, research, program evaluation, policy, and planning. Topics include student-authority relationships, multiculturalism, early intervention, needs assessment, violence, and ADHD. Children & Schools is a practitioner-to-practitioner resource. Children and Schools is from NASW. Learn more here!
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Social Work Research publishes exemplary research to advance the development of knowledge and inform social work practice. Widely regarded as the outstanding journal in the field, it includes analytic reviews of research, theoretical articles pertaining to social work research, evaluation studies, and diverse research studies that contribute to knowledge about social work issues and problems. Social Work Research is from NASW. Learn more here!
Social work, social policy, and social services journals with population and research specific foci
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The mission of Affilia is to give voice to the myriad ways that feminist praxis manifests in social work. As such, Affilia is a living record of feminist social work and inquiry. Realization of its mission to provide an alternative space necessarily shifts as the material conditions and ideas change over time. Consideration of whose voices and perspectives—what identities, from which social, geographical, and theoretical locations—should be included in the forged space of Affilia is, therefore, subject to ongoing review, reexamination, and renewal. Affilia’s editorial board embraces its responsibility to continually trouble its own views and assumptions. Learn more here!
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Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work is a peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal dedicated to the development and dissemination of abolitionist values, theory, and praxis within the profession of social work, including research, education, policy, and practice. The journal provides a space to explore the contradictions and value conflicts that exist in the social work profession, as well as the possibilities that can emerge from challenging these contradictions. The journal also provides space to name and explore the challenges associated with raising abolitionist perspectives in social work, which are often marginalized and demeaned within the profession. Learn more here!
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Journal of Human Rights and Social Work brings together knowledge about addressing human rights in practice, research, policy, and advocacy as well as teaching about human rights from around the globe.
A resource for educators, practitioners, and administrators in the field of social work, with a focus on human rights practice in social work research, practice and education. The journal provides research-based human rights tools, theoretical discussions of human rights, and guidelines for improving practice.
Welcomes interdisciplinary and international work including the fields of psychology, sociology, social policy, social welfare, and social development.
Articles explore the history of social work as a human rights profession, familiarize participants on how to advance human rights using the human rights documents from the United Nations, present the types of monitoring and assessment that takes place internationally and within the U.S., demonstrate rights-based practice approaches and techniques, and facilitate discussion of the implications of human rights tools and the framework for social work practice. Learn more here!
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Sexual and Gender Diversity in Social Services provides empirical knowledge and conceptual information related to sexual minorities and their social environment.
Filled with innovative ideas and resources for the design, evaluation, and delivery of social services for these populations at all stages of life, the journal is a positive influence on the development of public and social policy, programs and services, and social work practice. Dedicated to the development of knowledge which meets the practical needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people in their social context, Sexual and Gender Diversity in Social Services is a forum for studying, for example, the connection between the public issues of homophobia and heterosexism and the personal, day-to-day experiences of people affected by these attitudes. Learn more here!
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Journal of Policy Practice and Research brings together research and practice insights that can inform, develop, and affect social policy.
Outlet for research and scholarship on policy practice, macro-social work practice, community practice, social policy, social policy analysis, the creation and administration of social policy and programs and related topics.
Welcomes research on the education of students and practitioners on these topics.
Published in affiliation with Influencing Social Policy. Learn more here!
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Critical and Radical Social Work promotes debate and scholarship around a range of engaged social work themes.
The journal publishes papers that seek to analyse and respond to issues, such as the impact of global neoliberalism on social welfare; austerity and social work; social work and social movements; social work, inequality and oppression. Learn more here!
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Trauma, Violence, & Abuse (TVA), peer-reviewed and published five times per year, is a review journal devoted to organizing, synthesizing, and expanding knowledge on all forms of trauma, abuse, and violence. Dedicated to professionals and advanced students, TVA is intended to compile knowledge that clearly affects practice, policy, and research. Reviewed literatures may come from the social or behavioral sciences or the law.
A practitioner-oriented journal, TVA publishes review manuscripts that cover a body of empirical research and legal analyses, including briefs, which are based on research, laws, and case outcomes. Reviews must be based on a sufficient body of research or legal findings to warrant a review. Learn more here!
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Children and Youth Services Review is an international, multidisciplinary journal that focuses on disadvantaged or otherwise vulnerable children, young people, families and the systems designed to support them. The journal provides a forum for rigorous scholarship relevant to policies, interventions, programs and services intended to improve well-being. We invite original scholarly works including empirical research, methodological developments, theoretical perspectives, and practice and policy assessments related to services that address individual and societal factors that negatively affect the welfare of children, youth, and young adults ages 0 to 25 and their families. Submissions that acknowledge and engage with issues of racial equity and social justice in research design, intervention design, service delivery and outcomes are strongly encouraged. Learn more here!
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Qualitative Social Work provides a forum for those interested in qualitative research and evaluation and in qualitative approaches to practice. Learn more here!
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The Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work® is dedicated to the examination of multicultural social issues as they relate to social work policy, research, theory, and practice. The journal helps readers develop knowledge and promote understanding of the impact of culture, race, ethnicity, and class on the individual, group, organization, and community on the delivery of human services. Learn more here!
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The Journal of Community Practice is an interdisciplinary journal grounded in social welfare. The journal provides a forum for community practice, including community organizing, planning, social administration, organizational development, community development, social action, and social change. The journal contributes to the advancement of knowledge related to numerous disciplines, including social work and the social sciences, urban planning, social and economic development, community organizing, policy analysis, urban and rural sociology, community health, public administration, and nonprofit management. As a forum for authors and a resource for readers, this journal makes an invaluable contribution to practice in community settings from conceptualization to implementation to evaluation. Learn more here!
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Founded in 1927, Social Service Review is devoted to the publication of thought-provoking, original research on pressing social issues and promising social work practices and social welfare policies. Articles in SSR analyze issues from the vantage points of a broad spectrum of disciplines, theories, and methodological traditions, at the individual, family, community, organizational, and societal levels.
Social Service Review features balanced, scholarly contributions from social work and social welfare scholars and from members of the various allied disciplines engaged in research on human behavior, social systems, social structure, history, public policy, and social services. Learn more here!
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Social Policy & Administration is the longest established journal in its field. Whilst remaining faithful to its tradition in academic excellence, the journal also seeks to engender debate about topical and controversial issues. Typical numbers contain papers clustered around a theme. The journal is international in scope. Quality contributions are received from scholars world-wide and cover social policy issues not only in Europe but in the USA, Canada, Australia and Asia Pacific. Learn more here!
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Social Work Education publishes articles of a critical and reflective nature concerned with the theory and practice of social care and social work education at all levels. It presents a forum for international debate on important issues and provides an opportunity for the expression of new ideas and proposals on the structure and content of social care and social work education, training and development. The journal hopes to contribute to fostering critical thinking skills within our student community and so particularly welcomes articles that are challenging, attempt to think through difficult ethical dilemmas, and foster viewpoint diversity and constructive debate. Learn more here!
Research-Focus Specific Journals
Within each category are lists of relevant journals. This list is not exhaustive, and we are always accepting updates!
The journal options provided in this webpage are not exhaustive and do not claim to represent the interests of SSWR of the SSWR Doctoral Student Committee. A journal’s reference in this list is not an endorsement. The information provided is for educational, informational, and reference purposes only.