As editors of the European Journal of Social Work, we believe it is our task to support authors in publishing their work. One of the ways we do this is by giving international workshops at universities and at conferences on how to publish your paper. Of course, we only reach a small part of the audience with this. We are aware of that. Therefore, in this editorial, we want to remedy this by sharing some tips and tricks that can help authors to successfully publish their work with us.
There are some general ground rules that are best to follow when writing an academic paper. For example, it is important to develop a clear focus at the beginning of your paper and to maintain this focus. In this way, you can work towards this focus throughout the paper by providing science-based arguments. Also, think about the audience you would like to reach and how your contribution makes an original contribution to current knowledge in social work. Once this is clear, it is important to choose a scientific journal that fits your focus.
For the European Journal of Social Work, this means paying attention to the significance of your paper for the social professions in Europe. This in no way implies that papers that focus on literature or research that has not taken place in Europe cannot get a place in our journal. On the contrary. We welcome international research with open arms, but feel it is important to make clear the significance of the paper for social work taking place in Europe. In this regard, we find that authors often struggle to explain local themes, legislation and developments to a wider international audience. However, it is very important to be able to make connections with other similar developments taking place in other countries. In other words: it is important to develop arguments that can travel beyond their context. The question is always: what can be learned from your paper for your research field in general. One way to do this is to make reference to previously relevant papers that were published in the journal.
It may also help to get to know the review policy and process and specially to read the instructions for authors carefully and follow them. By the way, if you have any doubts about the suitability of your paper in the scope of the journal, or about other elements in your paper, it is never a bad idea to contact the editors. We are happy to assist you with any means possible.
Having said this, further in this issue you will find no less than thirteen good examples of what was described above. We start with four papers that deal with the topic of work conditions among social workers. The first paper was written by Guadalupe Manzano García and colleagues from Spain. In their paper, these authors look at the impact of social support on emotional exhaustion and workplace bullying in social workers. There results show that social support from family, friends, coworkers and supervisors contributes in distinct ways to reduce emotional exhaustion in social workers. They argue that workplace policies and practices in social work institutions must encourage all kinds of social supports and increase the informal exchange spaces. The second paper dealing with this topic is from the United States and was written by Jay Miller and his colleagues. They utilised data of a large-scale exploratory study designed to examine self-care practices among diverse practitioners and found that practitioners from Finland reported engaging in self-care significantly more frequently than did practitioners in other countries. Then again, the third paper, from Hungary, written by Ágnes Győri and Éva Perpék, focuses on the relationship between professional working conditions and burnout among Hungarian professionals. Two hundred and sixty-one professionals participated in their cross-sectional questionnaire survey, which showed that to prevent the burnout of professionals, it is essential not only to create organisational motivating conditions for work, but also to prepare them for the substantive parts of work, real life situations, the associated expectations for their role and conflicts management. The fourth and last paper on this topic was written by our German colleague Alfons Hollederer. He analysed the working conditions of social workers and their health. The results show occupational health risks and potentials for behavioural and situational prevention in social work. According to the author, more health promotion, company integration management and risk assessments at work are recommended.
The second theme refers to the COVID-19 pandemic that continues to impact our society, and therefore also social work. Janet Carter Anand and her Finnish colleagues kick off this theme with a paper on care homes for elderly people in Europe. Based on their findings, the authors, a group of social work academics, call for an urgent re-examination of the role of social work in relationship to care homes and the importance of re-engaging with human rights issues for care home residents. Baiba Bela and her colleagues from Latvia continue this topic by exploring the transformations in social service delivery and social work practice that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia. They found that the scope of social services remained almost the same, while the format and size of social service delivery changed considerably, that social workers demonstrated high responsiveness to the needs of service users, the ability to learn and master new technologies and to apply the new skills in social work practice. From Italy, Chiara Natalie Focacci deals with the topic of unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The result of her study shows that individuals who apply for training programmes organised by social services are mostly men who are unemployed, receive a subsidy, and previously worked in the hotel and catering industry. In the last paper on this topic, Ayelet Gur and colleagues from Israel questioned 478 Israeli social workers and found that lower levels of perceived stress and higher levels of social support, professional self-esteem, and a sense of meaningful work significantly predicted increased well-being.
The third and final theme of this issue is not new but remains very relevant and refers to the ongoing discussion of the impact of neoliberalism in social work and social work practice. We start with an article by Andreas Møller Jørgensen of Denmark. In his paper, the author argues that social workers’ knowledge and skills are employed in, rather than eliminated from, the governance of vulnerable families and that a governmental emphasis on economic considerations and cost-effectiveness affects the timing of care and weighs heavily when social workers interpret, prioritise, and respond to needs. The next paper was written by Sanne Raap and her colleagues from the Netherlands. They discuss how to maintain collective care under neoliberal care reforms and highlight the collective losses that neighbourhoods suffer within an institutional context of care as self-management and individual responsibility. They argue that sustenance of collective neighbourhood care as a context and practice of social work requires recognition of the epistemic and relational work carried out by citizens and professionals in maintaining and repairing local care infrastructures. Paul Michael Garrett from Ireland continues to discuss the dominant neoliberal ideology in social work by means of a small, qualitative, exploratory study focusing on the perceptions of six senior social workers. The findings appear to highlight how neoliberal discourses are manifesting themselves in how these practitioners conceive social ills, their causes and ‘solutions’. Xoán M. Lombardero Posada and colleagues from Spain then again, discuss the effects of crises and neoliberalism on Spanish social workers. They uncovered that social workers carry out multiple coping strategies, including practices of resistance, to encourage satisfaction and meaningfulness, minimise dissatisfaction, and avoid or postpone withdrawal. Finally, Peter Edlund and Daniel Lövgren from Sweden developed new knowledge about how eldercare professionals currently approach the role of competition in Sweden. The findings of their study indicate that perceptions of competition ranged from a more employment-focused and episodically occurring phenomenon among frontline staff, to a more visibility-focused and continuously occurring phenomenon among management staff.
We hope you enjoy this issue.