International Journal of Social Welfare

Edited by:
Sven Hessle

Print ISSN: 1369-6866
Online ISSN: 1468-2397
Frequency: Quarterly
Current Volume: 19 / 2010
ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 17/29 Social Work
Impact Factor: 0.631

TopAuthor Guidelines

The editor welcomes contributions from across the world. In particular, authors are invited to discuss the relevancy and implications of their research for the global picture:

• Empirical studies of social welfare policies and social work practices
• Conceptual analyses of trends and issues
• Comparative studies, case studies, evaluative studies
• Contributions in theory, practice and methodology

Submission
Articles submitted to the journal should be original contributions that are not under consideration for any other publication at the same time. Manuscripts should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijsw. Full instructions and support are available on the site and a user ID and password can be obtained on the first visit. Support can be contacted by phone (+1 434 964 4100) Monday-Friday, or at http://mchelp.manuscriptcentral.com/gethelpnow/index.html. If you are unable to submit online, please contact the Editor at noella.bickham@socarb.su.se.

All articles should be submitted in the journal's style, as follows.

Checklist: Please use the checklist available from this link to ensure your submission is complete.

Language: correct English that meets the requirement of effective scientific communication: logical, clear and concise. Manuscripts that do not meet this requirement will be returned to the author for professional language editing. Consistent use of either UK or US spelling and punctuation is acceptable.
Maximum length: 6000 words, excluding tables, figures and the reference list. The maximum length of the Abstract is 150 words. Longer manuscripts will be processed only in exceptional cases.
Format: typed double-spaced on plain white background, size ISO A4 (210x297 mm) or US letter size (8.5x11 inches) with 2.5 cm margins all around, in Times Roman typeface, 12 pitch font (12 characters per inch) for the body of the text. Avoid footnotes and appendices and use no more than 3 levels of headings, clearly marked.
Title page: to be submitted as a separate file and to contain the article title, names of all authors and their institutional affiliations, key words, a short running title and the corresponding author's name and complete mailing address (including post code), phone and fax numbers and e-mail address.
Tables and figures: to be submitted as a separate file with self-explanatory legends. All figures are to be submitted as Camera Ready Copy, i.e. ready for printing, at a resolution of no less than 600dpi for line drawings or graphs and no less than 300dpi for images. Further details can be obtained from the publisher's website at http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/illustration.asp. Indicate the approximate location for tables and figures in the text.
Cited references: replace references to the submitting author's own work by the word 'Author' followed by the year of publication. All other text citations should have the format: Compton & Galaway, 1990. If more than one article by the same authors in the same year is cited, letters a, b, etc. should follow the year. For articles by more than three authors, use the format 'first author et al.'. When several works are cited at the same time, list them in alphabetical order (not chronologically).
Reference list: all references cited in the text - and only those - are to be listed at the end in alphabetical order by surname. Put references by the same authors in chronological order with the most recent last. Check that the text citations correspond exactly with the reference list. Give journal and book titles in full. If non-English references are included, translate the title of the book or article. For example: Plovsing J, Jörgensen W (1979). Byförnyelse på Nörrebro [Urban renewal in Nörrebro]. Copenhagen, National Institute for Social Research (Publication No. 90).

Format for authored book:
Compton BR, Galaway B (1979). Social work processes (revised edition). Homewood, IL, Dorsey Press.

Format for chapter in an authored book:
Maluccio AN (1985). Education and training for child welfare practice. In: Laird J, Hartmann A, eds. A handbook of child welfare, pp. 3-12. New York, Free Press.

Format for journal article:
Midgley J (2001). The United States: welfare, work and development. International Journal of Social Welfare 10(4): 284-293.

Proofs
The corresponding author will receive an email alert containing a link to a web site. A working e-mail address (along with telephone and fax numbers where possible) must therefore be provided for the corresponding author. The proof can be downloaded as a PDF (portable document format) file from this site. Acrobat Reader will be required in order to view this file. This software can be downloaded (free of charge) from the following web site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.
This will enable the file to be opened, read on screen and printed out in order for any corrections to be added. Further instructions will be sent with the proof. Excessive changes made by the author in the proofs, excluding typesetting errors, will be charged separately.

On publication, authors will be sent a PDF offprint of their final article by email.

Copyright
Authors will be required to sign an Exclusive Licence Form (ELF) for all articles accepted for publication. Signature of the ELF is a condition of publication and articles will not be forwarded to the publisher for production unless a signed form has been received. Please note that signature of the Exclusive Licence Form does not affect ownership of copyright in the material. (Government employees need to complete the Author Warranty sections, although copyright in such cases does not need to be assigned). After submission authors will retain the right to publish their paper in various medium/circumstances (please see the form for further details). To assist authors an appropriate form will be supplied by the editorial office. Alternatively, authors may wish to download a copy of the form at here.

Author Services
Author Services enables authors to track their article - once it has been accepted - through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated e-mails at key stages of production. The author will receive an e-mail with a unique link that enables him/her to register and have the article automatically added to the system. Please ensure that a complete e-mail address is provided when submitting the manuscript. Visit http://authorservices.wiley.com for more details on online production tracking and for a wealth of resources including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.

Early View
International Journal of Social Welfare is covered by Wiley-Blackwell's Early View service. Early View articles are complete full-text articles published online in advance of their publication in a printed issue. Articles are therefore available as soon as they are ready, rather than having to wait for the next scheduled print issue. Early View articles are complete and final. They have been fully reviewed, revised and edited for publication, and the authors' final corrections have been incorporated. Because they are in final form, no changes can be made after online publication. The nature of Early View articles means that they do not yet have volume, issue or page numbers, so Early View articles cannot be cited in the traditional way. They are therefore given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows the article to be cited and tracked before it is allocated to an issue. After print publication, the DOI remains valid and can continue to be used to cite and access the article.

Pre-submission English-language editing
Authors for whom English is a second language may choose to have their manuscript professionally edited before submission to improve the English. A list of independent suppliers of editing services can be found at http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/english_language.asp. All services are paid for and arranged by the author, and use of one of these services does not guarantee acceptance or preference for publication.