Editorial

The `Write´ Advice

At the December 2020 Editorial Board meeting with German, Italian, Spanish and USA representatives from the NSWR International Editorial Board we jointly reviewed an anonymous manuscript, as a new quality assurance initiative. This proved to be such a fruitful exercise, generating important advice for early-stage researchers, intending to publish in the journal. In this editorial we will briefly elaborate on the advice given for writing and submitting manuscripts for publications, hence the title for the editorial. The main message delivered from our international editors is to encourage authors to place greater emphasis on the contextualization and description of their research to ensure successful publication.

The advice is mainly directly towards early-stage researchers. In most Nordic and European countries social work students opt to undertake doctoral studies, by articles, rather than the traditional monography format, a trend actively encouraged by universities. For many PhD candidates, writing for journal publication, involves learning new skills and a different mindset towards writing (Healy and Mullholand, 2019). The pressure to publish articles in peer reviewed journals has significantly increased, together with experiential growth of journal, online and social media publication options. Publications are critical to both professional and academic success; they help facilitate access to further degrees, job offers, research grants, tenure, and promotions in practice and administrative roles in various capacities. In short, as professionals ‘we are what we write’ (Hyland 2013, 53). The NSWR editorial policy has always viewed the journal as an important platform for social work practitioners and early-stage researchers to publish their practice and dissertation findings.

The NSWR website encourages prospective authors to take a close look at the scope and aims of the journal prior to submitting manuscripts. In fact, all journals provide extensive advice on how to prepare manuscripts for submission, paying attention to the four A’s, namely, start with the aims, think about your target audience, provide greater awareness of the issues involved, and clearly articulate the method, findings, and conclusion (Taylor and Francis 2021). The NSWR aims to promote and disseminate high-quality research on social work in the Nordic countries by publishing peer reviewed original articles, with social work understood in its broadest sense, including practices as well as conditions and policy. Prospective authors are therefore encouraged to connect their research ideas, issues, and topics to the scope of the journal as well as refer to the insights and interpretations represented in the publication. This may involve challenging, confirming, or re-examining the debates, and topics represented in scope of the journal or it may mean illuminating neglected, or seemingly unconnected topics. Therefore, the scope of the journal is very broad.

The NSWR represents a readership of social work academics, students, professionals, and social welfare employers across Nordic countries. Prospective authors should consider whether the journal will offer them access to the most relevant audience for their research? Targeting optimal readership is an important factor for all authors aiming to achieve academic impact, which is measured by the number of citations their published articles receive. It may help new authors to review some of the most downloaded NSWR articles, summarized in Table 1 below.

Table 1. Most NSWR downloaded articles in the past 12 months (from past 3 years)

Article Title	Authors	Volume and Issue	Number of Downloads	Open Access Articles
Decision-making in Social Work	Frank Ebsen	Volume 1 Issue 1	2,769	No
Social Work and the management of complexity in Swedish welfare services	Evelyn Khoo, Ahmet Gümüscü, Lennart Nygren	Volume 10 Issue 3	1,748	Yes
Diversity barometer: attitude changes in Sweden	Nader Ahmadi, Mehrdad Darvishpour, Irving Pam, Fereshteh Ahmadi	Volume 10 Issue 1	1,271	Yes
The role of social support for social workers engaged in preventing radicalization and violent extremism	Hävard Haugstvedt	-	1,156	Yes
Negotiating the social work profession	Maria Eriksson, Bagga Bjerge	Volume 9 Issue 1	1,150	No
`The needs of the child have been met´: preliminary assessments regarding domestic violence in Swedish Child Protection Services	Ann-Charlotte Münger, Tina Mattsson	Volume 10 Issues 2	1,097	Yes
Conditions for helping relations in specialized social services – a client perspective on the influenced of organizational structure	Björg Blom, Pär Grell, Nader Ahmadi	-	927	Yes
`Well, it’s up to me now´- young care leavers´ strategies for handling adversities when leaving-out- of-home care in Sweden	Mattias Brangtsson, Peter Öberg, Yvonne Sjöblom	Volume 8 Issues sup 1	915	Yes
Reframing from reporting crimes: accounts from young male crime victims with an immigrant background	Anna Rypi, Malin Åkerström, Veronika Burcar	Volume 9 Issue 2	874	Yes
Report recovery in social work with persons having co-occurring problems – clients´ and professionals’ perceptions	Ninive Von Greiff, Alain Topor, Lisa Skogen	Volume 10 Issue 2	832	Yes

The articles represented are of a good quality with an obvious social work focus! The following link can be used by authors, editors and reviewers to access the latest Altmetric trends for the NSWR https://www.altmetric.com/explorer/report/fba5515f-220f-40d1-87be-c0249f5aad32. As you can see Swedish and Norwegian studies and authors are well represented in publications, however, the editors are keen to encourage authors from all the Nordic countries and internationally, to contribute to both the journal and special issue calls.

Given that the NRSW covers such a diverse social, cultural, and geographical region, including Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, authors should be mindful to contextualize their research. Many professional and theoretical concepts and terms used by authors, reflect local approaches and definitions, which may not be fully understood in other Nordic countries, or internationally for that matter. For example, expressions such as child protection, social welfare, child welfare and children’s services are commonly used in social work but easily misconstrued because of specific definitions in different countries. The simple advice is to explain and define key concepts, as if the reader is new to the field. The effective contextualization of research involves not only positioning the study within a national or regional cultural context, but explaining its relevance to current international debates, literature, and evidence. We live in a glocalized world, were the global and local merge, and our readers are seeking state of the art ideas that have local and international currency. Given that social work is an applied science it is critical that publications include a discussion on how the research findings impact on social work practice, policy, or theory. Lack of relevance or application to social work practice may result in an excellent study being rejected for publication. The title of the manuscript also plays a critical role in positioning the manuscript, as it helps capture the attention of reviewers and should encapsulate the key concepts and message contained in the article.

The second issue raised in the International Editorial Board discussion, relates to the importance of authors providing a clear methodological description of the study design, so as to facilitate the review process. Pressure to write within a strict word count may lead to authors minimizing text on the study design and methodology. However, editors, reviewers and readers expect a clear and concise summary of how the study was justified and undertaken. The importance of discussing methodology in a journal specializing in research, is not only of interest to the readership but vital to understanding the social work research process. A good methodological description helps the reviewers assess the rigour, trustworthiness and the replicability of the study submitted for publication. Ethical considerations and approval are essential to this description. The NSWR Editorial Board actively encourages the submission of studies that involve multiple and creative methodologies. NSWR aims to promote emerging and distinct methodologies in social work inquiry across the Nordic region.

The role of the international editors and manuscript reviewers for the NSWR is worthy of special mention. It is appreciated that their contribution is both gratuitous and generous. While there are very few incentives or benefits for academics to undertake this role, it remains an important part of academic scholarship. For early-stage researchers, the opportunity to review articles, for a journal, is an excellent way of improving your own academic writing skills. The NSWR review process gives reviewers and editors a wide range of assessment options in determining the suitability of a manuscript for publication, namely minor revision, major revision, reject and resubmit, and reject. The editors are currently considering new strategies for recruiting reviewers through Nordic networks and providing clearer online guidelines for both authors and reviewers in the review process.

Articles in the current issue provide practical examples of what the NSWR is looking for in manuscripts. Eva Hämberg article, The legitimacy and implications of inspection in social services organizations in Sweden, offers a clear description of the concept of `inspection´ as a critical issue of governance in the Swedish context and explodes the implications for social workers, social service organizations and managers. The article, Intersectional patterns of social assistance eligibility in Sweden by Klara Hussénius, examines social worker decisions on social assistance eligibility in Sweden. This study describes a sophisticated quantitative methodology. Riitta-Liisa Kokko and Kaija Hänninen’s article, titled Age and work – social support received by mature employees, explores the social support received by mature employees in the context of the intermediate labour market and outside of working life. Frail paths home: former long-term homeless women and men narrate their experiences and meanings of home, an article by Kirsi Nousiainen, captures the narratives of homeless people experiencing housing and home issues over the life course. The study suggests that social workers should consider the application of narrative methods to understand how clients’ identities and experiences are constructed and empowered. In the article Parenting in double translation: lived experiences of Ugandan immigrant parents in Norway, Carol Lynnet Kabatanya and Åse Vagli, examine cultural shifts in parenting. This article describes a methodology involving narrative inquiry and micro-ethnography of everyday family life, using thematic narrative analysis. Truls I. Juritzen, Eivind Engebretsend and Par Koren Solvange article, The enactment of multiple return-to-work bodies in labour and welfare administration: a qualitative study of compulsory stakeholder meetings, studies how caseworkers in a Scandinavian street-level labour and welfare administration run a return-to-work program. The findings broaden our understanding of dialogical practices contained in return-to-work processes and services.

Robert Lindahl’s review of the book Kinship Care. Between Child Welfare and Family [Slektsfosterhjem. Mellom barnevern og familie], written by Amy Holtan, Renee Thørnblad and Jeanette Skoglund, discusses the impact of more than 20 years of research on kinship care in Norway, Nordic countries and internationally. His review stresses the important contribution of changing theoretical perspectives in the conceptualization of family and relationships, over the decades. While, Firouz Gaini’s review of Runa Preeti Ísfeld’s, PhD on Marriage Migrants to the Faroe Islands. An Analysis of the Life-World of Non-Western Women Married to the Faroe Islands, highlights the contributions of a very unique study of marriage-migration.

To conclude the NSWR Editorial board continues to aim to drive and sustain the impact of the journal and grow its regional and international reach, as well as attract high-quality submissions, and citations. The editors would like to thank the contributions of Runa Baianstovu as NSWR Book Editor and her innovations in promoting the inclusion of book and PhD reviews. We look forward to working with our new Book Editor, Anu-Riina Svenlin. In summary, we encourage authors and reviewers to consider the advice offered by our international editors.

The editorial board is open to advice on how the journal can better support the publishing aspirations of early-stage researchers and work of editors and reviewers, especially during these difficult pandemic times.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.