Submissions

Author Guidelines

JOURNAL DESCRIPTION

Journal of Social Work Education and Practice or JSWEP (ISSN: 2456-2068) is an international peer-reviewed open-access social work journal published by Social Workers in India Forum. It is an effort to publish research articles from the social work fraternity around the world. The high-quality research articles published by the journal will be available to social work professionals free of charge. It will help social work professionals to acquire advanced knowledge in the various fields of social work.

INTRODUCTION TO SUBMITTING TO JSWEP

Prior to submission, authors should review the Journal’s “Aim and Scope of the Journal.” Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the Aim and scope of the JSWEP will be reviewed.

Before submitting your manuscript, please read the guidelines below. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned to the author.

Please also be sure to look over the Journal’s submission checklist before submitting.

Once ready to submit, visit our “Submit Manuscript” page to upload your submission to our online system. The Journal uses Open Journal Systems (OJS) as our online submission and peer review system. 

All inquiries about the Journal should be addressed to the:

editor@jswep.in

PEER REVIEW PROCESS

All manuscripts are to be submitted to JSWEP’s online submission system. The submitting author will receive an automated acknowledgment by email confirming the manuscript submission.

In their cover letter, authors are required to submit the names and e-mail addresses of up to three individuals who could, in their opinion, expertly review their manuscripts. They may also indicate the names of those whom they wish not to review their manuscript. The Editors, however, reserve the right to choose all reviewers.

All manuscripts are initially reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief and, if appropriate, will be assigned to an Associate Editor. If the paper is considered suitable for publication, it will be sent to two or more external reviewers using our database of experts. All articles undergo this process with the exception of Letters to the Editor,  Guest Editorials, and Book Reviews, which are based on the decision of the Editor, who may ask experts on the merit of their contents.

Where papers are not considered suitable for peer review, authors will be notified promptly so that the work can be submitted elsewhere as appropriate.

JSWEP employs a single-blind review process. The identities of the reviewers and the author(s) are kept confidential. The manuscript under review is not revealed to anyone other than the reviewers and editorial staff. Reviewers are required to maintain confidentiality about the manuscripts they review.

Authors should expect to receive an initial decision on their manuscript within 12–16 weeks of submission. If revision of the manuscript is required, the authors must submit it within four weeks of the request. If accepted for publication, articles will be published within 6-9 months of acceptance.

COVER LETTER

A cover letter must be included with each manuscript submission. It should be a single page and serves to assure the Editors that the article and the authors meet the conditions of publication. The authors are also welcome to include a brief explanation of the paper's findings, why it is suited for the Journal and any other information that may be useful to the Editors. The cover letter must include the following:

• The affiliation and contact information of the corresponding author
• A statement that all individuals who meet these criteria of JSWEP Authorship are listed as authors and that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the manuscript prior to submission.
• A confirmation that the manuscript has not been previously published is not before another journal for consideration, nor will it be until after the such time the manuscript has either been withdrawn from further consideration or it has been decided that the manuscript will not be published in CGJ, or an explanation has been provided to the Editor.
• The names and contact details (including email addresses) of three potential peer reviewers for your manuscript. Any submission without including peer reviewer suggestions will be returned to the author without a review.
• The names of any referees you would like excluded from reviewing (if applicable).

TITLE PAGE

The title page is the first page of the manuscript and should include:

• The title of the article.
• The full names of the authors (written as first name, middle initial(s) and last name), with the highest academic degree(s), attained.
• The affiliation or affiliations for each author. For each affiliation, include the name of the department (if any), the institution, the city, and the state/province and country where the work was done. Link the authors to their designations using superscript numbers.
• A shortened version of the title for use as a running header (no more than 60 characters, upper case).
• The usual full name of the corresponding author, with postal address, e-mail address, and phone number. (Please take note that all published work may include the corresponding author’s contact information to ensure the accountability and transparency of the work.)
• The heading “Statements of Declaration” and include the following statements (Note: these statements must also appear within the text of your article, but should also be included in your title page so they are easily accessible to Editors and Reviewers):
• Acknowledgements (even if there are none to declare)
• Funding (even if there are none to declare)
• Conflicts of Interests Disclosure (even if there are none to declare)
• Full details on any possible previous or duplicate publication of any content of the paper (if applicable).
• A word count for the text only (excluding abstract, acknowledgments, figure legends, tables, references and appendices).
• The number of figures and tables.

ABSTRACT AND KEYWORDS

For Original Research and Review Articles (Systematic and Meta-Analyses), include a structured abstract of no more than 250 words. Use these subheadings or the headings suggested by the relevant reporting guidelines:

• Background
• Methods
• Results
• Conclusions

The Methods should describe the study design, setting, population (including number and selection criteria), intervention and measurements where appropriate. The Results should report the main findings, including numerical values where appropriate. Where possible, report the estimates of dispersion (e.g., standard deviation, range, or confidence interval) and p-value where appropriate. The Conclusions must relate to the primary hypothesis (when appropriate) and be supported by the data presented.

For Narrative Review Articles, include an unstructured abstract of no more than 250 words that summarizes the article's objective, main points, and conclusions.

Do not include abstracts for Editorials and Letters to the Editor.

An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or references.

After the abstract, list up to eight keywords or phrases for indexing. The keywords should be different from those used in the title. A list of keywords is required for all articles except for Editorials and Letters to the Editor.

REFERENCES

JSWEP uses the reference style outlined by the American Psychological Association (APA), also referred to as "APA Style 7th edition".

Please note it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) to reproduce figures, tables, or excerpted text that have previously been published elsewhere. This includes a full bibliographic reference to the original publication and an acknowledgement that the material is reproduced with permission from the rights owner. Authors are responsible for any fees that may be incurred by securing permission to reproduce or adapt material from other published sources. Permission should be obtained prior to submission, and evidence of permission should be supplied by the author at the time of submission. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

AUTHORSHIP

Criteria for Authorship

Only those persons who contributed directly to the intellectual content of the manuscript should be listed as authors.

JSWEP is not considering AI tools as authors and cannot be listed as authors. Therefore, AI tools do not meet the criteria of authorship. Authors will need to disclose in the paper which AI tools were used in the process of drafting the paper and how it was used. The authors will be responsible for the content of the paper, including those generated by AI tools. Authors will also be liable for any publication ethics breach. 

When a large multi-author group has conducted the work, the group ideally should decide who will be an author before the work is started and confirm who is an author before submitting the manuscript for publication. All members of the group named as authors should meet the criteria for authorship, including approval of the final manuscript, and they should be able to take public responsibility for the work and should have full confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the work of other group authors. They will also be expected as individuals to provide conflict-of-interest disclosures.

Role of the Corresponding Author

The corresponding author is the one individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the Journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process. Only one author can be the corresponding author. The role of the corresponding author is to:

• meet submission requirements and submit the manuscript to the Journal
• ensure all authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript prior to submission
• ensure that all the Journal’s administrative requirements are met – including submission of all required forms
• ensure the Journal’s editorial and publication ethical policies are met by all authors
• distribute decision letters, reviewer comments, and other messages from the Journal, and distribute proofs among co-authors for review
• return corrections and ensure that all authors approve each version of the article
• be available after publication to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the Journal for data or additional information should questions about the paper arise after publication

Author Affiliations

Authors should identify their institution(s) as the facility where the work was performed and executed.  Changes in an author’s affiliation after the work was completed but prior to the submission or publication of the manuscript should be noted by including an asterisk as a superscript to the name in the author listing, as well as a corresponding footnote on the title page indicating “Current Affiliation” listing the new affiliation.  Corrections to affiliations or contact information due to relocation after publication are not permitted.

Changes to Authorship

Authors should carefully consider the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the Editor. To request a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (1) the reason for the change in the author list and (2) written confirmation (email or letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal, or rearrangement. In the case of the addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the authors' addition, deletion, or rearrangement after the manuscript has been accepted. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

DUPLICATE PUBLICATION AND CONCURRENT SUBMISSION

Publishing duplicate content refers to presenting a paper that significantly overlaps with a previously published article without clear reference to it. To avoid any confusion, the title page must include detailed information about any possible duplicate or prior publication. If previously published content is referenced or used in the manuscript, it should be acknowledged explicitly, and permissions should be obtained where necessary. While the publication of a small portion of content may not hinder publication, editors need to know about prior publications to make informed decisions about space allocation in the Journal. Failure to disclose previous publications constitutes a breach of scientific ethics. Authors must provide a copy of any document that might be considered as a previous publication.

Submitting duplicate or redundant manuscripts refers to submitting the same data or manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously. International copyright laws, ethical considerations, and efficient resource use necessitate that readers can be confident that what they are reading is original. Therefore, manuscripts submitted to JSWEP should not have been published before or under consideration elsewhere.

PLAGIARISM POLICY

• The publisher and journal have a “Zero Tolerance on Plagiarism policy.” We check the plagiarism issue through the reviewer check and plagiarism prevention tool (ithenticate.com).
• If a plagiarism issue arises, it will be the sole responsibility of the Author(s). Journal, Editor or anyone associated with this journal will not be responsible for that, and the article will be removed from the journal archives with immediate effect without any notice to the author(s).
• All submissions will be checked by iThenticate or any other plagiarism-checking software before being sent to reviewers.

FUNDING

JSWEP mandates authors to declare funding sources for their research and manuscript preparation, including financial and in-kind support from funding bodies, sponsors, industry, and collaborators. Funding organizations' involvement in data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript writing, and publication approval should be briefly described. If the funding source had no role, state it explicitly. The funding statement should be under a separate heading, 'Funding' after Acknowledgments and Conflicts of Interest Disclosure. Any involvement of medical writers/researchers, especially those supported by the pharmaceutical industry, must be disclosed in the Acknowledgment statement.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Authors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest related to their manuscript to ensure transparency and maintain the credibility of the publication. Conflicts of interest may arise from financial relationships, personal relationships, or intellectual beliefs that may influence professional judgment. Authors must disclose any grants, contracts, royalties, consulting fees, or other financial or non-financial interests within the past 36 months that may affect the content of their manuscript. All authors must declare whether or not they have a conflict of interest, and this statement must be included on the title page and within the body of the manuscript.

The following statement must be included in the title page and within the body text of your manuscript under the heading “Conflicts of Interest Disclosure”:

“I/We have read and understood the Journal of Social Work Education and Practice’s policy on conflicts of interest disclosure and declare the following interests: [list them or state that you have none].”

Examples:

No competing interests
“We have read and understood the Journal of Social Work Education and Practice’s policy on disclosing conflicts of interest and declare that we have none.”

INFORMED CONSENT

Every individual has the right to privacy, which should not be violated without obtaining informed consent. This means that identifying information such as names, initials, or identity numbers of respondents must not be disclosed in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless it is necessary for scientific purposes and the respondent (or parent/guardian) has provided written informed consent for publication. Authors who plan to include personal information and/or images of patients in their manuscript must obtain signed informed consent to publish from patients (or their relatives/guardians) before submitting their work to JSWEP. If anonymity is necessary, authors should ensure that alterations made to protect the patient's identity do not compromise the scientific purpose. In some cases, complete anonymity may not be possible, and authors must obtain informed consent to publish if there is any doubt. The process of obtaining consent to publish includes sharing the article with the individual (or whoever is consenting on their behalf) so that they are fully aware of the content of the article before it is published. It is important to disclose to participants that the published content will be available via the Internet and may also be available in print after publication and in sublicensed and reprinted versions (including translations). In the Methods section of the manuscript, authors should indicate the procedure used to ensure adherence to ethical guidelines on informed consent and confirm that they have obtained written and signed informed consent to publish.

Authors should not submit the actual written informed consent with their article, as this would breach the patient's confidentiality. Instead, the authors/investigators must store and archive the consent themselves. A consent letter sample may be uploaded with the submission as a separate file.

AUTHOR FEES

JSWEP is committed to making all articles published in the journal freely accessible to the public online without any barriers immediately upon publication. We believe that open access to research is crucial to advancing scientific knowledge and promoting innovation. JSWEP does not charge any fees to contributors for publishing their work. Our goal is to ensure that scientific research is accessible to everyone and that authors can share their findings without financial burden.

COPYRIGHT

The author(s) of any article published in JSWEP retain the copyright of their work. Upon acceptance, authors grant the Journal of Social Work Education and Practice (Publisher) a License to Publish the final article in the Journal, with exclusive, royalty-free rights. The article will be distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, allowing unrestricted use and distribution, provided the original work is properly cited. As an Open Access publication, articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication.

TYPES OF SUBMISSIONS