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. Read more about Critical and Radical Social Work.
Frequency: January, April, July and October
Gender and Justice is open for submissions!
Gender and Justice is open for submissions!
Aims and scope
Abstracting and indexing
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Testimonials
Contact us
Critical and Radical Social Work: An international journal promotes debate and scholarship around a range of engaged social work themes.
The journal publishes papers which 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.
It welcomes contributions that consider and question themes relating to the definition of social work and social work professionalism, that look at ways in which organic and 'indigenous' practice can expand concepts of the social work project and that consider alternative and radical histories of social work activity. As a truly international journal, it actively encourages contributions from academics, scholars and practitioners from across the global village.
Critical and Radical Social Work is abstracted and/or indexed in:
Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion statement outlines the ways in which we seek to ensure that equity, diversity and inclusion are integral to all aspects of our publishing, and how we might encourage and drive positive change.
"A much-needed outlet for social workers to promote innovative and challenging standpoints. The journal stimulates debate and gives voice to those advocating for groups that are relegated to the margins."
Linda Briskman, Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Australia
"At a time when social work, both in the UK and internationally, is coming under increasing pressure for its allegiance to refugees and other oppressed and marginalised groups, Critical and Radical Social Work brings together impassioned, evidenced and progressive voices supporting social work's commitment to a social approach and social justice."
Peter Beresford, Professor of Citizen Participation at the University of Essex and Emeritus Professor at Brunel University London, UK
Editor-in-Chief
Michael Lavalette: lavalem@hope.ac.uk
Editorial Assistant
Sian Carrington: crsw-editorial@bristol.ac.uk
Book Reviews
Nicki Blundell: blunden@hope.ac.uk
Voices from the Frontline
Rich Moth: mothr@hope.ac.uk
Policy Press: bup-journals@bristol.ac.uk
Read our instructions for authors for guidance on how to prepare your submissions. The instructions include the following:
What are we looking for?
How to submit
Ethical guidelines
Copyright and permissions
Style
Alt-text
References
English language editing service
Open Access
Self-archiving and institutional repositories
How to maximise the impact of your article
Contact us
Visit our journal author toolkit for resources and advice to support you through the publication process and beyond.
Critical and Radical Social Work publishes papers which 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. It welcomes contributions that consider and question themes relating to the definition of social work and social work professionalism, that look at ways in which organic and 'indigenous' practice can expand concepts of the social work project and that consider alternative and radical histories of social work activity. As a truly international journal it actively encourages contributions from academics, scholars and practitioners from across the global village.
The following types of submissions are welcome:
All submissions should be made online at the Critical and Radical Social Work Editorial Manager website: https://www.editorialmanager.com/crsw/default1.aspx
Editorial Manager
Manuscripts must be in Word or Rich Text Format (not pdf). New users should first create an account, specify their areas of interest and provide full contact details.
Preparing your anonymised manuscript
Your initial submission must consist of the following separate files:
For help submitting an article via Editorial Manager, please view our online tutorial.
Once a submission has been conditionally accepted, you will be invited to submit a final, non-anonymised version.
Checklist: what to include in your final, accepted non-anonymised manuscript
Editorial review process
All submissions will be subject to double anonymous peer-review processes (unless stated otherwise) by referees currently working in the appropriate field. The editors aim to provide quick decisions and to ensure that submission to publication takes the minimum possible time. The final decision on publication rests with the Managing Editors.
Please also see our Journals Editorial Policies.
At Policy Press we are committed to upholding the highest standard of review and publication ethics in our journals. Policy Press is a member of and subscribes to the principles of the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE), and will take appropriate action in cases of possible misconduct in line with COPE guidance.
Find out more about our ethical guidelines.
Critical and Radical Social Work is published by Policy Press. Articles are considered for publication on the understanding that on acceptance the author(s) grant(s) Policy Press the exclusive right and licence to publish the article. Copyright remains with the author(s) or other copyright owners and we will acknowledge this in the copyright line that appears on the published article.
Authors will be asked to sign a Journal Contributor Publishing Agreement to this effect, which should be submitted online along with the final manuscript. All authors should agree to the agreement. For jointly authored articles the corresponding author may sign on behalf of co-authors provided that they have obtained the co-authors' consent. The journal contributor agreement can be downloaded here.
Where copyright is not owned by the author(s), the corresponding author is responsible for obtaining the consent of the copyright holder. This includes figures, tables and excerpts. Evidence of this permission should be provided to Policy Press. General information on rights and permissions can be found here.
To request permission to reproduce any part of articles published in Critical and Radical Social Work, please email: bup-permissions@bristol.ac.uk. For information on what is permissible use for different versions of your article, please see our policy on self archiving and institutional repositories.
In order to improve our accessibility for people with visual impairments, we are now required to ask authors to provide a brief description known as alt text to describe any visual content such as photos, illustrations or figures. It will not be visible in the article but is embedded into the images so a PDF reader can read out the descriptions. See our guidance on writing alt-text.
To ensure your bibliography is complete before submitting your final article, we recommend using a reference manager such as Zotero when writing your article. If you cannot find the style under the specific Bristol University Press journal name, the closest format is Zotero "Consumption and Society".
Download the endnote output style for Policy Press and Bristol University Press Journals.
Policy Press uses a custom version of the Harvard system of referencing:
Examples
Book:
Bengtson, V.L. and Lowenstein, A. (2003) Global Aging and its Challenge to Families, New Jersey, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Darling, D. (2010) Injustice: Why Social Inequality Persists, Bristol: Policy Press.
Book with editor:
Bengtson, V.L. and Lowenstein, A. (eds) (2003) Global Aging and its Challenge to Families, 5th edn, New Jersey, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Chapter in book or in multi-authored publication:
Bengtson, V.L. and Lowenstein, A. (2003) Citizenship in action: the lived experiences of citizens with dementia who campaign for social change, in R. Smith, R. Means and K. Keegan (eds) Global Aging and its Challenge to Families, New Jersey, NJ: Transaction Publishers, pp 305–26.
Journal reference:
Williamson, E. and Abrahams, H. A. (2014) A review of the provision of intervention programmes for female victims and survivors of domestic abuse in the UK, Journal of Women and Social Work, 29(1): 178-191. doi: doi.org/10.1177/0886109913516452
Jeffrey, C., Williams, E., de Araujo, P., Fortin-Rochberg, R., O'Malley, T., Hill, A-M., et al (2009) The challenge of politics, Policy & Politics, 36(4): 545–57. doi: doi.org/10.1177/0886108913516454
Website reference:
Womensaid (2016) What is domestic abuse?, https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/.
Michael Lavalette, Editor-in-Chief, Liverpool Hope University, UK
Dimitra-Dora Teloni, Deputy Editor, University of West Attica, Greece
Charlotte Williams, Deputy Editor, Bangor University, UK
Neil Ballantyne, Australia and New Zealand Editor, The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand
Nicki Blundell, Book Review Editor, Liverpool Hope University, UK
Iain Ferguson, Consulting Editor, University of the West of Scotland, UK
Rich Moth, Voices from the Frontline Editor, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Michael Reisch, North American Editor, University of Maryland, USA
Linda Smith, Chair of the Board and Africa Editor, Robert Gordon University, UK
Mark Baldwin, University of Bath, UK
Elaine Behring, Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), Brazil
Peter Beresford, Brunel University, UK
Francisco Branco, Catholic University of Lisbon, Portugal
Leung Chi-yuen, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Suzanne Dudziak, St Thomas University - Fredericton, Canada
Bernhard Haupert, Catholic University of Applied Sciences, Mainz, Germany
Vasilios Ioakimidis, University of Essex, UK
Fumihito Ito, Nihon Fukushi University, Japan
Sandra Joseph, Stella Maris College, Chennai, India
Masoud Kamali, Mid Sweden University, Sweden
Jerzy Krzyszkowski, University of Lodz, Poland
Sahar Makhamreh, Al-Balqa Applied University of Jordan, Jordan
Susan Maurer, University of Marburg, Germany
Anna Metteri, University of Tampere, Finland
Suriya Nayak, University of Salford, UK
Laura Penketh, Liverpool Hope University, UK
Sigrid Schilling, Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Hochschule fur Soziale Arbeit (HAS FHNW), Basle, Switzerland
Gurnam Singh, University of Warwick, UK
Anne-Margrethe Sonneland, VID Specialized University, Norway
Jessie Turton, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Dexter Whitfield, Flinders University, Australia
Bessa Whitmore, Carleton University, Canada
Bob Williams, Disabled People Against the Cuts, UK
Jelka Zorn, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
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2023 Impact Factor 1.4 (2 yr), 1.2 (5 yr)
2023 Journals Citation Indicator: 0.8
Ranking: 35/91 in Social Work
2023 Scopus CiteScore: 1.8
Ranking: 588/1466 journals in Sociology and Political Science – 57th percentile