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: 1.4 Frequency: February, May, August and November
Volume 12 (2023): Issue 4 (Nov 2023)
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Research Articles
Editors' Choice collection
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Editors' Choice collection
Access highlights from our journals for free.
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
2022 Impact Factor: 1.4 (2yr), 1.3 (5yr)
Ranked 44th out of 46 in Family Studies
2022 Journal Citation Indicator: 0.44
Ranked 43rd out of 65 in Family Studies
2022 Scopus Cite Score: 1.5
Abstracting and indexing
Families, Relationships and Societies is abstracted in:
- European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS)
- Journal Citation Reports, Social Science Edition
- ProQuest Central
- ProQuest Sociology Collection
- ProQuest Social Science Premium Collection
- Social Science Citation Index
- 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, the journal will be launching 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 2022 winners of the David Morgan Prize
We are delighted to announce that the 2022 winners of the David Morgan Prize are Jesper Andreasson and Marcus Herz for their article 'Family practices, deportability and administrative violence: an ethnographic study on asylum seekers’ family life in the Swedish migration context'. This article is Open Access.
We would also like to give an honourable mention to the following articles, which are free to access until the 31 January 2023
Faithfulness without sexual exclusivity: gendered interpretations of faithfulness in rural south-western Uganda, and implications for HIV prevention programmes
Dominic Bukenya, Billy N. Mayanja, Elizabeth A. Sully and Janet Seeley
Couples’ daily childcare schedules: gendered patterns and variations
Ursula Henz
Creating online participatory research spaces: insights from creative, digitally mediated research with children during the COVID-19 pandemic
Helen Lomax, Kate Smith, Jo McEvoy, Eleanor Brickwood, Katherine Jensen and Belinda Walsh
Prize
A prize of £100 worth of Policy Press/Bristol University Press books will be awarded to the winner. The paper will be made freely available for a period of three months and promoted widely.
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 year.
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
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. 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 dave.j.worth@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 Policy Press: pp-info@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 dave.j.worth@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).
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
Download the Endnote output style for Bristol University Press and Policy Press Journals.
Bristol University Press and Policy Press use a custom version of the Harvard system of referencing:
- In-text citations: give the author’s surname followed by year of publication in brackets.
- List all references in full at the end of the article and remove any references not cited in the text.
- Book and journal titles should be in italics.
- Website details should be placed at the end of the reference.
- Spell out all acronyms in the first instance.
Example of book reference:
Dorling, D. (2010) Injustice: Why social inequality persists, Bristol: Policy Press.
Example of journal reference:
Warin, P. (2012) 'Non-demand for Social Rights: A new challenge for social action in France', Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 20(1): 41-53.
Example of chapter within edited / multi-authored publication:
Levitas, R. (2011) 'Utopia Calling: Eradicating child poverty in the United Kingdom and beyond', in A. Minujin and S. Nandy (eds), Global Child Poverty and Well-being: Measurement, concepts, policy and action, Bristol, Policy Press. pp. 449-73.
Example of website reference:
Womensaid (2016) What is domestic abuse? https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/.
Management Board
Esther Dermott, Editor-in-Chief: University of Bristol, UK
Isabella Crespi, Co-Editor; The University of Macerata, Italy
Manik Deepak-Gopinath, Co-Editor; Open University, UK
Sara Eldén, Co-Editor; Lund University, Sweden
Guanyu Jason Ran, Co-Editor; Edinburgh Napier University, UK
Lynn Jamieson, Editor at large; University of Edinburgh, UK
Margaret O'Brien, Chair of the Board; University College London, UK
Kathryn Almack, Associate Editor; University of Hertfordshire, UK
Harriet Churchill, Associate Editor; University of Sheffield, UK
Charlotte Faircloth, Associate Editor; University College London, UK
Mastoureh Fathi, Associate Editor; University College Cork, Ireland
Patricia Hamilton, Associate Editor; University of York, UK
Tina Miller, Associate Editor; Oxford Brookes University, UK
Helen Norman, Associate Editor; University of Leeds, UK
Julie Walsh, Associate Editor; University of Sheffield, 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
Bren Neale, Consulting Editor; University of Leeds, UK
Tess Ridge, Consulting Editor; University of Bath, UK
Julia Mortimer, Publisher; Bristol University Press and Policy Press, 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 Co-Editors of Families, Relationships and Societies
Application deadline: 29 February 2024
The Editorial Management Board of Families, Relationships and Societies (FRS) invites applications to lead the editorial team for a period of three years from September 2024. The current Editor-in-Chief, Professor Esther Dermott and Co-Editors Professor Isabella Crespi, Dr Manik Deepak-Gopinath, Dr Sara Eldén and Dr Jason Ran are stepping down at the end of 2024 and so we are looking to appoint a new Editorial team of 3-5 Co-Editors in Summer 2024 to shape and develop the journal.
Families, Relationships and Societies aims to be a journal of choice for family studies scholars who are addressing issues of theoretical, methodological and empirical importance. Having been founded in 2012 it has established significant reach and reputation. The journal also aims to have a reputation for providing a fair, constructive, consistent and timely editorial process that offers genuine engagement with submissions. More information about the journal can be found here: https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/frs/frs-overview.xml
The journal reflects diverse theoretical and methodological approaches and draws on international research and global perspectives. It is not aligned to one social science discipline: it welcomes scholarship from sociology, social policy, and social work, and also more widely, human geography, demography, anthropology, childhood studies, socio-legal studies, and explicitly interdisciplinary perspectives. It includes work based in a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods. Families, Relationships and Societies 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. It prioritises work that makes original empirical contributions, challenges theoretical understandings, and/or contributes to ideas about practice, including challenging alternatives.
Applications are invited for Co-Editors who reflect the multi-disciplinary and international nature of the journal in their expertise (sociology, social policy, social work, and related disciplines) and complement the interests of the current Editorial board. This is an exciting opportunity to help shape and develop the journal over the coming years. Candidates may either apply as an editorial team (a group of scholars applying for the Co-Editor roles together), or as individuals for a Co-Editor role. We are particularly interested in building a diverse editorial team with good international networks that reflect the breadth of our intended readership.
Co-Editors work closely together with the other members of the Management Board who are very supportive and meet at least twice a year, either in person or virtually, to help inform the future content of the journal. They handle manuscripts (allocation of Associate Editors and/or reviewers, final decision making, liaison with the editorial assistant; support authors in enhancing the quality of their manuscripts for publication; develop and sustain a network of referees) and they also promote the journal through their professional and disciplinary networks.
Applications for Co-Editor should include a short CV (no more than two pages) highlighting relevant experience and a cover letter (up to two pages long) addressing the following:
- Your vision and a clear editorial strategy for the journal to show how you would like to see it develop over the next three years.
- How you will ensure the editorial team is soliciting and receiving articles that make substantial and meaningful contributions across the multiple fields and world regions that make up the journal’s scope.
- How you will consolidate and increase the growing international presence of Families, Relationships and Societies and ensure the high quality of articles published to achieve impressive results across a wide range of current quality indicators, including citation metrics.
- What you can bring to the journal in terms of your experience of working on other journals, your areas of relevant expertise and why you feel you meet the requirements of the role.
- How you will work collaboratively and divide tasks and responsibilities between members of the editorial team.
- How you will ensure effective team working.
Applications will be evaluated by a Selection Committee including representatives of the publisher, Bristol University Press, and the Editorial Board.
Please make it clear in your application whether you are applying as part of a joint editorial team, or as an individual.
Prospective applicants who would like to informally discuss the role may contact:
- Professor Esther Dermott, current Editor in Chief (esther.dermott@bristol.ac.uk)
- Emeritus Professor Margaret O’Brien, Chair of the Board (m.obrien@ucl.ac.uk)
- Ms Julia Mortimer, Publisher (julia.mortimer@bristol.ac.uk)
Please submit your application by 29 February 2024 to Sharon Harris, Journals Development Editor at Bristol University Press (sharon.harris@bristol.ac.uk).
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2022 Impact Factor: 1.4 (2yr), 1.3 (5yr)
Ranking: 44/46 in Family Studies
2022 Journal Citation Indicator: 0.44
Ranking: 43/65 in Family Studies
2022 Scopus CiteScore: 1.5
Ranking: 594/1415 in Sociology and Political Science – 58th percentile
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