Guidelines for Authors: Illinois Child Welfare

Illinois Child Welfare is a resource for practitioners, program managers, and policy-makers in the field of child welfare who are looking for knowledge that helps improve services to children and families. Honoring the diversity of cultures and perspectives that constitute child welfare, the journal offers dialogue, constructive debate, and innovative understandings of problems as well as effective solutions. Illinois Child Welfare is multidisciplinary, with editors drawn from the fields of social work, psychology, education, law and medicine. Grounded in an inclusive approach to research, Illinois Child Welfare has a cross-cultural and global focus. The journal is co-sponsored by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the Loyola School of Social Work. However, policy and content are decided by the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board.

Please note that all research involving human subjects should include a statement that the research has been approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board. All manuscripts including clinical data should include a statement to the effect that, in accordance with ethical guidelines and statutes, all identifying information has been thoroughly disguised, and case process material has been disguised so that even the client person from whose service the data is derived would not be able to recognize her/himself as the individual described in the article.

Contents: The journal will be comprised of

1. Full-length Papers The inclusive approach to research means that no one research methodology will have a privileged value, so for instance articles based on case studies are welcome, as are studies that use experimental designs and statistical methods. Manuscripts will be reviewed by two reviewers and the Editor-in-Chief.

2. "From the Desk of..."
An important part of the journal will be brief papers that make it possible for practitioners, administrators, advocates, and policy-makers to write about problems and solutions and share their insights. Entitled "From the Practitioner's Desk," "From the Administrator's Desk," "From the Policy-Maker's Desk," etc, the aim of these sections is to make it possible for people to share a particular point or an experience that will help others looking for effective solutions to the challenging problems we face.

3. Dialogue and Letters to the Editor
The letters to the editor and dialogue sections offer readers the opportunity to voice their opinions about articles and topics the journal is addressing. Readers can suggest topics they would like the journal to address, and share resources (e.g., books, articles, videos, websites).

4. Book and Resource Reviews
Books and resources such as videotapes and other educational materials that are relevant to those providing services and advocacy for children and families will be reviewed. If there is a resource you would like the journal to review, please contact the Editor-in-Chief.

Review process:

The Editor-in-Chief will review all submissions for length and considerations with regard to the relevance of the article for the journal's mission. Authors are welcome to contact the Editor-in-Chief with questions. The author will then be contacted and informed about whether the article will be reviewed or not. Manuscripts will not be returned. Reviewers are assigned by the Editor-in-Chief according to the reviewers' expertise with the topic, theory, and research methods used in the article. The review process aims to be completed within two months. Authors will be provided with copies of the reviewers' comments and recommendations about publication. The review process is, of course, anonymous. Articles will be reviewed by two reviewers and the Editor-in-Chief. Authors may see the "Guidelines for reviewers" on this website if they are interested.

Guidelines for Manuscripts:

1. All manuscripts should represent the original work of the author(s). Submission of a manuscript to this Journal represents a certification on the part of the author(s) that it is an original work, and that neither this manuscript nor a version of it has been published elsewhere, nor is being considered for publication elsewhere.

2. lllinois Child Welfare allows for variations in length depending on the standards of your field and also the requirements of adequately addressing your topic. As general guidelines, articles should be 9,000 words (about 30 manuscript pages) or less; brief papers should be around 3,000 words (about 10 manuscript pages).

3. Format:
References, citations, and general style of manuscripts for this journal should follow the guidelines published in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Long articles or articles containing complex material should be broken up by short, meaningful subheadings.

Margins: leave at least a one-inch margin on all four sides. Paper: use white, 8-1/2" x 11" bond paper. Number of copies: 4 (the original plus three photocopies). Manuscripts should also be submitted in electronic form (via diskette or e-mail to the Editor-in-Chief). If there are discrepancies between the hard copy and the diskette version, the journal staff will use the hard copy and notify the author. On the outside of the diskette package write include the brand name of your computer or word processor, the word-processing program that you used, the title of your article, and the file name of your article.

All tables, figures, illustrations, etc. must be "camera-ready." That is, they must be cleanly typed or artistically prepared so that they can be used either exactly as they are or else used after a photographic reduction in size. Figures, tables, and illustrations must be prepared on separate sheets of paper. In text, skip extra lines and indicate where these figures and tables are to be placed (please do not write on face of art). Photographs are considered part of the acceptable manuscript and remain with Publisher for use in additional printings.

4. To preserve anonymity, staple a cover page to the manuscript, indicating only the article title (this is used for anonymous refereeing), an abstract of 150 words or less, and 5-6 key words for index purposes;. then, enclose a regular title page but do not staple it to the manuscript. Include the title again, plus full authorship, an introductory footnote with authors' academic degrees, professional titles, affiliations, mailing and email addresses, and any desired acknowledgement of research support or other credit.

5. Copyright ownership of your manuscript must be transferred officially to Illinois Child Welfare before we can schedule your manuscript for publication. The Editor's letter acknowledging acceptance of the manuscript will be accompanied by a form fully explaining this. All authors must sign the form and return the original to the Editor before the article can be scheduled for publication.

6. Upon acceptance for publication, the author(s) will have the opportunity to revise the paper according to the feedback from the reviewers, and the article will be copy-edited by the journal staff. You will not be receiving galley proofs of your article, but the author(s) will work with journal staff and will have the opportunity to review the final version of the copy-edited article prior to its publication. Authors will include with the final draft a summary of 1-2 pages for readers who are not knowledgeable in the author's area of expertise. In addition, to make it possible for readers to obtain CEU credit, the author should add 7-10 questions that will be appended to the article, with answers that will be used by journal staff to evaluate whether the CEU credit can be awarded.