Families, Relationships and Societies
An international journal of research and debate
Families, Relationships and Societies (FRS) is a vibrant social science journal advancing scholarship and debates in the field of families and relationships. It explores family life, relationships and generational issues across the life course. Bringing together a range of social science perspectives, with a strong policy and practice focus, it is also strongly informed by sociological theory and the latest methodological approaches. The title encompasses the fluidity, complexity and diversity of contemporary social and personal relationships and their need to be understood in the context of different societies and cultures. Read more about Families, Relationships and Societies.
Impact Factor: 1.3 Frequency: February, May, August and November
Volume 13 (2024): Issue 4 (Nov 2024)
Gender and Justice is open for submissions!
Be one of the first to publish in this new journal advancing critical feminist scholarship on justice.
Gender and Justice is open for submissions!
Be one of the first to publish in this new journal advancing critical feminist scholarship on justice.
Aims and scope
Journal metrics
Abstracting and indexing
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
David Morgan Prize
Testimonials
Contact us
Aims and scope
Families, Relationships and Societies (FRS) is a vibrant social science journal advancing scholarship and debates in the field of families and relationships. It explores family life, relationships and generational issues across the life course. Bringing together a range of social science perspectives, with a strong policy and practice focus, it is also strongly informed by sociological theory and the latest methodological approaches. The title encompasses the fluidity, complexity and diversity of contemporary social and personal relationships and their need to be understood in the context of different societies and cultures.
International and comprehensive in scope, FRS covers a range of theoretical, methodological and substantive issues, from large-scale trends, processes of social change and social inequality to the intricacies of family practices. It welcomes scholarship based on theoretical, qualitative or quantitative analysis. High-quality research and scholarship is accepted across a wide range of issues. Examples include family policy, changing relationships between personal life, work and employment, shifting meanings of parenting, issues of care and intimacy, the emergence of digital friendship, shifts in transnational sexual relationships, effects of globalising and individualising forces and the expansion of alternative ways of doing family. Encouraging methodological innovation, and seeking to present work on all stages of the life course, the journal welcomes explorations of relationships and families in all their different guises and across different societies.
Articles and contributions are drawn from a number of disciplines and subject areas including sociology, social policy, social work, childhood studies, demography, youth studies, family studies, gender studies, ageing and gerontology, health and social care, education, psychology, social history, sociolegal studies, politics, criminology and psychosocial studies.
The applied focus of the journal embraces a diverse global field and encourage a critical engagement with policy and practice developments and issues within and across welfare regimes.
The Open Space section of the journal offers a unique opportunity to consider facets of family lives, relationships and societies from unexpected and novel (including non-academic) perspectives. The Open Space section is included in special and themed issues of the journal only, so do look out for future calls. These calls will offer and encourage dialogue with a broader community than usually found in academic journals and enable alternative perspectives and insights to be shared. Contributions to this section usually range between 1,000 and 3,000 words. Further guidance will be provided as particular calls are made. For further details please contact the Open Space editor Tina Miller (tamiller@brookes.ac.uk).
Journal metrics
Impact Factor and rankings
2023 Impact Factor: 1.3 (2yr), 1.4 (5yr)
Ranked 41st out of 66 in Family Studies
2023 Journal Citation Indicator: 0.59
Ranked 39th out of 66 in Family Studies
2023 Scopus Cite Score: 2.1
Abstracting and indexing
Families, Relationships and Societies is abstracted in:
- European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS)
- ProQuest Central
- ProQuest Sociology Collection
- ProQuest Social Science Premium Collection
- Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) (Web of Science)
- 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.
David Morgan Prize
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of FRS, we launched a prize to recognise outstanding contributions made to the journal.
The prize is created in memory of David Morgan, former president of the British Sociological Association (BSA), and past member of the FRS editorial team.
Announcing the 2024 winners of the David Morgan Prize
We are delighted to announce that the 2024 winners of the David Morgan Prize are Tom Witney, Jacqui Gabb, Catherine Aicken, Salvatore Di Martino and Mathijs Lucassen for their article Configuring the digital relationship landscape: a feminist new materialist analysis of a couple relationship app. This article is available to read with open access.
We would also like to give an honourable mention to the following articles, which are free to access until 1 April 2025.
Digital technologies in children’s everyday lives and in ‘doing family’
Eva-Maria Schmidt
Intimacy as a competency: information-seeking practices in (marriage) migration online support groups
Laura Odasso
Eligibility
The winning paper will be selected by the FRS Editorial Panel who will draw up an initial shortlist from articles published (or due to be published) in the current volume of the journal.
The authors of the shortlisted papers are asked whether they would like to be considered for the prize ahead of final nomination. Contributions to the journal from editorial board members are excluded from the article prize selection process.
Assessment criteria
A panel involving Editorial Board members will judge the applications on the written material provided. The assessment criteria are:
- Published (or due to be published) in the current year.
- Research papers only
- Originality: a novel contribution to the field of families and relationships
- Significance: the work is likely to exert influence within its field of study
- Demonstrates rigorous social science methods and theory: uses compelling evidence to argue its case
Previous winners
Find a list of all of the winners of the David Morgan Prize here.
Testimonials
"Families, Relationships, and Societies fills an important niche, providing a forum as dynamic as families themselves to enhance our understanding of the vitality and complexity of relationships today."
Jessica L. Collett, University of Notre Dame, USA
"Across the world, family practices and ways of ‘doing’ family are undergoing profound changes. This welcome addition to the field will open up new avenues for international scholarship; counter the stereotype that 'family is primarily about parenting’; and challenge us to think critically about the changing relationship between families and the state. It is also refreshing — and timely — to see older people placed centre stage in these considerations."
Professor Miriam Bernard, Emeritus Professor of Social Gerontology, Keele University, UK
Contact us
Editorial office
frs-editorial@bristol.ac.uk
Editor-in-Chief
Esther Dermott: Esther.Dermott@bristol.ac.uk
Co-Editors
Isabella Crespi: isabella.crespi@unimc.it
Manik Deepak-Gopinath: manik.deepak-gopinath@open.ac.uk
Sara Eldén: sara.elden@soc.lu.se
Elena Moore: elena.moore@uct.ac.za
Open access, subscriptions and free trials:
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 we're looking for
How to submit an article
Ethical guidelines
Copyright
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 we’re looking for
Academic articles should not be longer than 8,000 words, including abstract (150 words maximum), notes, tables, figures and references. The journal provides a forum for dialogue between research, policy and practice in the field of families and relationships across the life course. It is underpinned by sociological understandings of the fluid, complex and diverse nature of contemporary relationships, seen in varied social, cultural and historical contexts. While rooted in sociological theory and methods, submissions to Families, Relationships and Societies come from subject areas across the social sciences and related life course disciplines and from policy and practice communities. Papers are expected to have relevance to academic, policy and practitioner audiences, enabling a wide range of perspectives to be brought together in one place to foster innovation and development within disciplines and advance interdisciplinary research and practice.
Open Space: Information on how to submit an Open Space contribution
The Open Space section of the journal Families, Relationships and Societies offers a unique opportunity to consider facets of family lives, relationships and societies from unexpected and novel (including non-academic) perspectives. The Open Space section is included in special and themed issues of the journal only, so do look out for future calls. These calls will offer and encourage dialogue with a broader community than usually found in academic journals and enable alternative perspectives and insights to be shared. Contributions to this section usually range between 1,000 and 3,000 words. Further guidance will be provided as particular calls are made. For further details please contact the Open Space editor Tina Miller (tamiller@brookes.ac.uk).
Please follow the instructions below on how to submit your Open Space article to Editorial Manager. Open Space submissions do not carry abstracts. Contact the Editorial Assistant (frs-editorial@bristol.ac.uk) if you require any assistance.
Special issue guest editors will be responsible for supplying the whole issue of a journal, including Open Space articles that fit the theme of the special issue, if they wish to include these. Support from the Open Space editors will be provided if guest editors struggle to find Open Space pieces.
All articles are refereed to assess their suitability for publication.
How to submit an article
Editorial Manager
All submissions should be made online at the Families, Relationships and Societies Editorial Manager website: http://www.editorialmanager.com/frs/default.aspx, 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.
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:
- 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. Please include the ORCIDs for all authors on the cover page of your final version to ensure they are published. A cover page template is available to download here.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
The non-anonymised final manuscript including:
- 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].'
- 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 University Press/ Policy Press Ethical Guidelines.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 editors.
Ethical guidelines
At Policy Press we are committed to upholding the highest standards 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.
Copyright and permissions
Families, Relationships and Societies 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 original 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 Families, Relationships and Societies, 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.
Please also read our Journals editorial policies.
Style
- British English spelling and punctuation is preferred.
- Non-discriminatory language is mandatory. 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, before the references. 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).
- A comprehensive style guide can be found here (Editorial and Production Guidelines)
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.
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/.
Management Board
Harriet Churchill, Co-Editor-in-Chief, University of Sheffield, UK
Katherine Davies, Co-Editor-in-Chief, University of Sheffield, UK
Majella Kilkey, Co-Editor-in-Chief, University of Sheffield, UK
Julie Walsh, Co-Editor and Special Issues Editor; University of Sheffield, UK
Sundari Anitha, Co-Editor, University of Sheffield, UK
Adam Carter, Co-Editor; University of Sheffield, UK
Guanyu Jason Ran, Assistant Co-Editor, Edinburgh Napier University, UK
Sue Scott, Chair of the Board; Newcastle University, UK
Charlotte Faircloth, Associate Editor, University College London, UK
Patricia Hamilton, Associate Editor, University of York, UK
Junko Yamashita, Associate Editor, University of Bristol, UK
Kristoffer Chelsom Vogt, European Regional Editor, University of Bergen, Norway
France Winddance Twine, North American Regional Editor, University of California Santa Barbara, USA
Lynn Jamieson, Consulting Editor, University of Edinburgh, UK
Bren Neale, Consulting Editor, University of Leeds, UK
Tess Ridge, Consulting Editor, University of Bath, UK
International Editorial Advisory Board
Jessica Hung-Chieh Chang, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Sarah Cunningham-Burley, University of Edinburgh, UK
Barbara Fawcett, University of Strathclyde, UK
Tom Fletcher, Leeds Beckett University, UK
Jacques-Antoine Gauthier, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Daniela Grunow, Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Anna Gupta, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Florencia Herrera, Diego Portales University, Chile
Sarah Irwin, University of Leeds, UK
An-Magritt Jensen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
Sibel Kalaycioglu, Middle East Technical University, Turkey
Travis Kong, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Eva Lloyd, University of East London, UK
Kate Morris, University of Sheffield, UK
Tulsi Patel, University of Delhi, India
Lars Plantin, Malmö University, Sweden
Pia Schober, Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen, Germany
Call for Special Issue Proposals
Deadline 24 January 2025
Families, Relationships and Societies (FRS) aims to advance social science scholarship and inter-disciplinary debates in the fields of family life, relationships, care, intergenerational relations and life-course studies. FRS welcomes explorations of these areas from theoretical, methodological and empirical perspectives; seeks to bring together a range of social science research perspectives; and seeks to strongly engage with debates about research, policy and practice connections and innovations. FRS welcomes explorations that advance inter-disciplinary, international and methodological dialogue and innovation.
The Editors welcome proposals for Special Issues. The next deadline for proposals is 24 January 2025.
Reflecting the broad social science and international scope of the journal, we invite Special Issue proposals that engage with prominent and emerging theoretical, methodological and substantive issues across the fields of families and relationships studies broadly defined and international in scope. The FRS special issue edition comprises an editorial, a series of original research articles that engage with a focal shared theme, and an ‘open space’ section that engages wider and related policy, practice and public dialogue and contribution. Proposals for Special issues are considered annually.
Special Issue Proposals
Proposals should be prepared and submitted by the Guest Editors, in collaboration with the contributing authors. Articles published in the special issue should be within the journal scope. Guest Editors should consult with the Special Issues Editor via frs-editorial@bristol.ac.uk if they would like to discuss proposals and journal scope.
Proposals should be no more than 5 single-spaced pages in length and should contain the following:
- A title, clearly reflecting the content of the proposed special issue;
- A rationale: justification of the topic, description of the theme, coherence and overall contribution including distinctiveness;
- Elaboration of how the issue fits within the journal scope and how it will increase the journal’s profile and quality;
- If authors have already been approached, a provisional table of contents with article titles and authors (8-10 Articles plus 3-4 Open Space; contributions are recommended); If available, abstracts of all the papers (500 words per abstract max);
- If authors have not already been approached, please outline how the special issue will be advertised to prospective authors;
- A section about the inclusion of an editorial or editors’ review article and an abstract for the latter;
- A section about the Open Space section and the approach to be taken for this section;
- A timetable for the preparation of articles, review process and submission preparation (we recommend allowing a minimum of 8 weeks for initial assessment and peer review plus a minimum of 6 weeks for authors to revise their articles);
- Bio notes (100 words max) for each contributing author (if available);
- Bio notes (200 words max) for the guest editors, including past editorial experience.
- Ideas for how and where the special issue can be promoted post-publication.
Additional information
When preparing the special issue proposal, rationale and the individual abstracts, please review the journal scope and article types on the ‘About page and the ‘Author instructions’ pages on the journal homepage. Please note Special Issue submissions are required to complete routine journal peer review procedures.
Key dates in timeline for Special Issue 2027 preparation
- Deadline for submission of Special Issue call proposals 24 Jan 2025
- Notification of Special Issue proposal approved March 2025
- Authors contacted (or calls for papers sent out) Spring 2025
- Initial submissions received Autumn 2025
- Revised submissions received late Spring – early Summer 2026
- Special Issue ready for publication – Nov 2026 & publication Feb 2027. (Individual articles can however be published online in EarlyView 5 weeks after acceptance.)
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2023 Impact Factor: 1.3 (2yr), 1.4 (5yr)
Ranking: 38/66 in Family Studies
2023 Journal Citation Indicator: 0.57
Ranking: 42/66 in Family Studies
2023 Scopus CiteScore: 2.1
Ranking: 517/1466 in Sociology and Political Science – 64th percentile
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