Critical and Radical Social Work

An international journal

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

Restricted access

Aims and scope
Abstracting and indexing
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Testimonials
Contact us

Aims and scope

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.

Abstracting and indexing

Critical and Radical Social Work is abstracted and/or indexed in:

  • Emerging Sources Citation Index (Web of Science)
  • European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS)
  • ProQuest Central
  • ProQuest Sociology Collection
  • ProQuest Social Science Premium Collection
  • Scopus
  • Social Care Online

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

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. 

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Testimonials

"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

Contact us

Editorial enquiries:

Editor-in-Chief
Michael Lavalette: lavalem@hope.ac.uk

Editorial Assistant
Sian Carrington: 
crsw-editorial@bristol.ac.uk

Journal sections:

Book Reviews 
Nicki Blundell: blunden@hope.ac.uk

Voices from the Frontline
Rich Moth: mothr@hope.ac.uk

Open access, subscriptions and free trials:

Policy Press: bup-journals@bristol.ac.uk

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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.

What are we looking for?

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:

  • Academic articles: between 6,000 and 8,000 words, including abstract (150 words maximum), notes, tables, figures and references. Articles should 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. Contributions are welcome 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.
  • Commentaries: 4,000 words including abstract (75 words maximum) and references. Commentary on policy developments/struggles and social movement activity.
  • Voices from the front line: 2,0004,000 words, including references. Articles which address the experience of front-line workers and service users. Please also see our Voices from the Frontline author guidelines. 
  • Pioneers of the radical tradition: 5,0006,000 words. Articles that look at the life, times and practice of various radical pioneers.
  • Book reviews: for information on how to submit a book review, please contact the Book Review Editor, Nicki Blundell: blunden@hope.ac.uk
    All articles are refereed to assess their suitability for publication.

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How to submit

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:

  1. A cover page including: the article title, author name(s) and affiliations (institution affiliation and country only, no department details required), the article abstract (up to 150 words), up to five key words/short phrases and the article word count including references. A cover page template is available to download here.
  2. A fully anonymised manuscript which does not include any of the information included in the cover page. It should not include any acknowledgements, funding details or conflicts of interest that would identify the author(s). References to the author's own work should be anonymised as follows: 'Author's own, [year]'. Please note that submissions that have not been sufficiently anonymised will be returned.
  3. If you have any figures and tables please upload them as separate files at the end of the manuscript. Please indicate where these should be placed in the text by inserting: ‘Figure X here’ and provide numbers, titles and sources where appropriate. 
  4. 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. Guidance on how to write this is available here: Bristol University Press | Alt-text guidance for authors.

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

  1. A cover page including: the article title, author name(s) and affiliations (institution affiliation and country only, no department details required), the article abstract (up to 150 words), up to five key words and the word count.
  2. Funding details: list any funding including the grant numbers you have received for the research covered in your article as follows: 'This work was supported by the [Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx].'
  3. Conflict of interest statement: please declare any possible conflicts of interest, or state 'The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest' if there are none. Find out more about declaring conflicts of interest in the Bristol Universty Press/ Policy Press Ethical Guidelines.
  4. Acknowledgements: acknowledge those who have provided you with any substantial assistance or advice with collecting data, developing your ideas, editing or any other comments to develop your argument or text.
  5. Figures and tables: should be included as separate files at the end of the manuscript. Please indicate where these should be placed in the text by inserting: ‘Figure X here’ and provide numbers, titles and sources where appropriate. For advice about less common file formats, please contact bup-journalsproduction@bristol.ac.uk.
  6. Alt text: 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. Guidance on how to write this is available here: Bristol University Press | Alt-text guidance for authors.
  7. Supplemental data: We recommend that any supplemental data are hosted in a data repository (such as figshare) for maximum exposure, and are cited as a reference in the article.
  8. Journal Contributor Publishing Agreement: please upload a scanned copy of the completed and signed  agreement with your final non-anonymised manuscript. The Journal Contributor Publishing Agreement can be downloaded here.

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.

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Ethical Guidelines

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.

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Copyright and permissions

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.ukFor information on what is permissible use for different versions of your article, please see our policy on self archiving and institutional repositories.

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Style

  • British English spelling and punctuation is preferred.
  • Non-discriminatory language is mandatory. Please see our guidelines to sensitive language (appendix C of document).
  • Explanatory notes should be kept to a minimum. If it is necessary to use them, they must be numbered consecutively in the text and listed at the end of the article. Please do not embed notes in the text.
  • Please do not embed bibliographic references in the text, footnotes, live links or macros; the final submitted file should be clear of track changes and ready for print.
  • Tables and charts should be separated from the text and submitted in a Word or Excel file, with their placement in the text clearly indicated by inserting: ‘Table X here’. Please provide numbers, titles and sources (where appropriate).
  • Figures, diagrams and maps should be separated from the text and, ideally, submitted in an Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) file. Figures created in Word or Excel are acceptable in those file formats. If the figures, diagrams and maps are in other formats (i.e. have been pasted into a Word file rather than created in it) please contact bup-journalsproduction@bristol.ac.uk for advice. Please indicate where figures should be placed in the text, by inserting: ‘Figure X here’ and provide numbers, titles and sources (where appropriate).

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Alt-text

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.

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References

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:

  • In-text citations: give the author’s surname followed by year of publication in brackets;
  • If there is more than one reference to the same author and year, this should be distinguished by a, b, c, d and so on being added to the year.
  • In lists of references given within the text, place in chronological order, from old to new. For example (Smith, 1989; Jones, 1990; Amler, 2002; Brown, 2007).
  • List all references in full at the end of the article and remove any references not cited in the text;
  • Names should be listed in the references as cited, for example, surnames containing de, De, de la, Le, van, von, Van, Von should be listed under ‘D’, ‘L’ and ‘V’ respectively. If in doubt, check the author ORCID or a recognised database such as Scopus or Web of Science to verify their most known surname.
  • For works with multiple authors, list all names up to six. For works with more than six authors, list the first six names followed by ‘et al’.
  • Book and journal titles should be in italics;
  • Website details should be placed at the end of the reference;
  • Ibid/op cit: please do not use; we would prefer that you repeated the information.
  • Immediately before submitting your final version, check that all references cited in the text are in the bibliography and that references in the bibliography are cited correctly in the text.

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/.

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Management Board

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 BallantyneAustralia and New Zealand Editor, The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand
Nicki BlundellBook 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

Editorial Advisory Board

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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