Journal of Social Work Education

The 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 (CSWE), 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. 

Where possible, authors should make connections to social work education in the United States, keeping in mind our audience and/or CSWE's 2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards.

• 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.

• 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 full-length articles should be 15–25 double-spaced pages, not including references, figures, or tables. Please read the guidelines for Notes below. 
• 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 250 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.

JSWE receives all manuscript submissions electronically via its ScholarOne Manuscripts site. 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 them at the beginning of the reference list. This applies to the primary author and all co-authors. Follow the examples below:

References:
Author. (2024). Reference removed for blind review.
Authors. (2024). Reference removed for blind review.

Text:
Author (2024) 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 (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.

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.

General Manuscripts

• 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. 
• 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 (See Aims and Scope above) 
• All submissions must conform to the standards of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition).
• Manuscripts submitted for full-length articles should be 15–25 double-spaced pages, not including references, figures, or tables. To ensure anonymity in the peer-review process, all manuscript submissions must be fully blinded. 
• Please read the below Instructions for Authors and Preparation of Manuscript sections for the full submission guidelines for full-length manuscripts. 

Field Notes, Research Notes, and Teaching Notes: In addition to full-length manuscripts, JSWE accepts Field Notes, Research Notes, and Teaching Notes.

• 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.

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. Additionally:

• Manuscripts submitted to the Notes section should be written in the same clear, readable, and scholarly style as full-length manuscripts.
• Notes should be 10–15 pages, not including tables, figures, or references; an abstract of no more than 250 words should accompany your manuscript submission.
• To ensure anonymity in the peer-review process, all Notes must be fully blinded. 
• Please submit for the Notes section using the same procedures as for general manuscripts (above), and clearly indicate in the submission that the manuscript is being submitted as a Note. All Notes submissions are peer-reviewed. 

[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.]

JSWE is NOT accepting proposals for special topic issues at this time.

The following special issues are currently in production:

Social Work Education at a Crossroads: The Impact of Anti-DEI Movements on Social Work Education
(Expected publication date: Summer 2026)

Reflection and Renewal: Revisiting and Envisioning a Half-Century of Innovation and Impact in Social Work Doctoral Education
(Expected publication date: Summer 2027)

Taylor & Francis's AI Policy: Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, such as large language models (LLMs) or multimodal models, continue to develop and evolve, including in their application for businesses and consumers.  

Taylor & Francis welcomes the new opportunities offered by Generative AI tools, particularly in: copyediting and language refinement, enhancing idea generation and exploration, supporting authors to express content in a non-native language, and accelerating the research and dissemination process.  

Taylor & Francis is offering guidance to authors, editors, and reviewers on the use of such tools, which will evolve given the swift development of the AI field.   

Generative AI tools can produce diverse forms of content, spanning text generation, image synthesis, audio, and synthetic data. Some examples include ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude, NovelAI, Jasper AI, DALL-E, Midjourney, Runway, etc.

While Generative AI has immense capabilities to enhance creativity for authors, there are certain risks associated with the current generation of Generative AI tools. 

Authors are accountable for the originality, validity, and integrity of the content of their submissions, including the references. In choosing to use Generative AI tools, journal authors are expected to do so responsibly and in accordance with our journal editorial policies on authorship and principles of publishing ethics and book authors and editors in accordance with our book publishing guidelines. This includes reviewing the outputs of any Generative AI tools and confirming content accuracy. 

Read more here. 

If you are interested in reprinting copyrighted material from JSWE, you must complete and submit a copyright form via the publisher. The copyright form is available on the JSWE Taylor & Francis page for the relevant article. Under the article title, click the “Reprints & Permissions” tab and submit the appropriate form through the Routledge RightsLink portal.

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.

If you are interested in reprinting copyrighted material from JSWE, you must complete and submit a copyright form via the publisher. The copyright form is available on the JSWE Taylor & Francis page for the relevant article. Under the article title, click the “Reprints & Permissions” tab and submit the appropriate form through the Routledge RightsLink portal.

For more information, please visit the Taylor & Francis Permissions help page. 

Please direct questions regarding subscriptions or claims for missing issues of JSWE to customerservice@taylorandfrancis.com. Questions regarding the online JSWE should be directed to support@tandf.online.

Subscription agent payment queries and claims should be sent to Agents@tandf.co.uk.

Authors for whom a valid e-mail address is received will be provided with 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 jswe@cswe.org.

JSWE is published quarterly and reaches an audience of approximately 3,500 CSWE members, accredited programs, and institutional libraries in the United States, Canada, and throughout the world.

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