An Empirical Evaluation of the Editorial Practices of Social Work Journals

Abstract

The authors of articles published in 21 North American social work journals during 1998 were contacted and asked to complete a survey evaluating their experiences with these journals’ review processes. Anonymous replies were received from 261 of these 438 potential respondents, yielding a return rate of 60%. This article presents information pertaining to the timeliness of editorial communications, the provision and length of editorial reviewer comments, the helpfulness of these remarks, the respect with which they were framed, the apparent competence of the reviewers, and the overall quality of the editorial review process.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bruce A. Thyer

Portions of this paper were previously presented at the 5th Annual Conference of the Society for Social Work and Research, in Atlanta, GA, January 19-22, 2001.