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Policies

Contents

Philosophy of Journal of Family Strengths

For more information, please see Journal of Family Strengths Aims and Scope page.

Who Can Submit?

Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in Journal of Family Strengths provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article. Authors are the initial owners of the copyrights to their works (an exception in the non-academic world to this might exist if the authors have, as a condition of employment, agreed to transfer copyright to their employer).

General Submission Rules

Journal of Family Strengths charges no submission fee or article processing fee.

Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in a journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a dissertation or working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to Journal of Family Strengths, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process of Journal of Family Strengths. If you have concerns about the submission terms for Journal of Family Strengths, please contact the editors.

Author(s) must accept full responsibility for the content of their submitted works. Articles submitted must be the original work of the Author(s), and must not have been previously published; nor can they be pending review elsewhere, nor planned to be submitted for review elsewhere, until this Journal’s editorial decision process is complete. By submitting your work, you represent and warrant that the work meets all the above stipulations.

Further in regard to originality: intentional plagiarism, including re-publication of one’s own work with only minor modifications, is not tolerated by Journal of Family Strengths. When plagiarism is detected by peer reviewers or journal editorial staff, whether before, during or after the publication process, the article will be rejected, and further action may be taken, to include notification of any institutions and funding agencies connected with the authors and the research discussed.

In the case of minor, evidently unintentional infractions, authors will be contacted by editorial staff and asked to make the necessary corrections to text and add appropriate attributions and references to sources before the article can be accepted.

Book Review Submissions

POLICY AND PROCEDURES

A book review in a professional journal is a service to the readers. It brings to the reader’s attention new publications in the field that the reader might want to add to his or her own library or use in the academic or work setting. Thus, one purpose of the review is to help the reader decide whether the new book is worth acquiring. But a reviewer is also part of a dialogue shaping the field itself and determining how books and authors can reinforce dominant understandings or suggest new directions. Therefore, another purpose of the review may be to push the boundaries of the field; to question stagnant positions and promote promising ones; to help locate a book within current perspectives and issues; and to challenge conventional criteria for judgment where necessary.

Finally, all reviewers should detect and report any implicit bias or exclusion related to gender, race, class, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion. The review, therefore, must simultaneously convey the content and contribution of the book to the field, and critically assess its quality and usefulness for various audiences.

JFS is devoted to presenting theoretical, practice, and evaluation articles on the strengths perspective in family-centered practice to improve services that promote and sustain family systems. The journal’s goal is to facilitate family, worker, supervisor, educator and agency interchange. The overall goal is to promote research and evaluation and disseminate information for best practices that support family centered practice. The journal is intended to positively impact the form and type of services provided with families. Books suitable for review may include child welfare, mental health, substance abuse, juvenile justice, developmentally challenged, schools, health care, elders, and other social welfare services. The journal provides a forum for practitioners, program designers, administrators, researchers and educators to present and critically review programs, policies, practice methods and research findings from a family strengths perspective. The special issue editor will decide whether a particular book is appropriate for review in the journal. If necessary, this decision will be made in consultation with the editors of the journal.

More specifically books that will be reviewed address one or more of the following: • Represent areas of scholarship that are minimal or absent. • Are theoretical, scholarly and move the field in novel and unique ways. • Demonstrate innovative, proactive and timely contributions to the field.

Book reviews for JFS is approximately 1800 – 2000 words. A good review is concise, thoughtful, and bold. Lively writing is always welcome, but clarity is essential. An effort will be made to publish reviews that critically evaluate the book as well as capsulize its content. On occasion, decisions to vary standard procedures may be made by the book review editors in consultation with the editors.

Book reviews for the Journal of Family Strengths will be solicited by the journal’s special issue editors according to the following procedures: • The special issue editor will invite individuals to review books related to the theme of the issue. • Alternatively, individuals interested in reviewing a book may approach the special issue editor and arrange to review the book in question. In this case, the special issue editor will supply a copy of the “Book Review Policies and Guidelines” for development of the review. • After the review is submitted to the special issue editor, the editor will determine whether it is in accordance with the guidelines. If it is, it will be edited as necessary and forwarded to the journal editors for consideration for publication. If the review does not meet the guidelines and/or requires other than minor editing, it will be returned to the author for revisions. The special issue editor may determine that the book review is inappropriate at any point in the process. • The special issue editor will decide when the review is due; the editors have the option of not considering reviews received after the agreed-upon date. • Unsolicited reviews will be considered by the special issue editor in accordance with the above procedures. If an unsolicited and a solicited review of the same book are received by the special edition editor, the solicited book review will receive preference.

GUIDELINES

In order to provide you with a guideline that offers you an opportunity to shape the review in response to your reading and to the message you want to share with readers, we ask that you choose aspects from the bulleted list below to help structure your review. We will format your review, using the aspects as headings for sections within the review. We will, when available, include a photograph of the cover of the book you review with your review. We will provide you with an opportunity to read the abstracts of papers that will be published in the journal issue in order to allow you to add a paragraph to your review that provides a connection between your review and the text you are reviewing with the topics that will be addressed in the rest of the journal issue.

• What potential contribution does the book make as related to the theme of the journal? • What is your position as a reviewer? • Is there a provocative statement in the text that you can quote and then react to as part of your introduction to the book review? • What is the author’s perspective, and where is it located in the current theory and issues of the field? • What is the main problem or thesis in the text? • What type of evidence is used by the author; Poetry? Images? • Provide a synthesis of the central arguments. So, for instance if the primary argument that an author is using is that science is not actually a pure objective entity, it is actually a social institution born of social processes, then you may cite from the text, indicating that this is a summary of the main argument in the text being reviewed. • A critical analysis of arguments and evidence, i.e. as a reviewer, what is my professional opinion supported by analysis? • What are the strengths and areas of need of the text as related to my discipline? • Other thoughts? • To whom would you recommend the book? In what ways would you suggest the book be used?

MECHANICS

1. The review should be approximately 1800 - 2000 words in length, double-spaced, and typed. Please justify only the left margin of the text. 2. If quoting directly from the book, place a page number in parentheses after the quote. 3. If quoting from a source other than the book itself, use the appropriate format from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), 6th edition. 4. At the top of the review include author, title, publisher, place and date of publication, number of pages and price. Here is a sample of the format to use: A Transactional Perspective on Teaching and Learning: A Framework for Higher Education, by D. Randy Garrison and Walker Archer. New York, NY: Elsevier Science, 2000. 222 pp., $89.00 (hardcover). 5. If quoting from a source other than the book itself, use the appropriate format from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), 6th edition. 6. At the end of the review list your name and institutional affiliation as you want it to appear when the review is printed, in the following format:

GYPSY M. DENSZINE

Northern Arizona University

SUBMISSION OF BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviews should be submitted to the Book Review Editor listed in the Call for Manuscripts for the themed issue of the journal. Our Book Review Editors are:

Ron Beebe, Ph.D., beeber@uhd.edu

Michael Connell, Ph.D., connellm@uhd.edu

Formatting Requirements

Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition. Manuscripts must be submitted as Microsoft Word, or WordPerfect or RTF files that can be converted to PDF. See the Style Guide for details.

Rights for Authors and DigitalCommons@TMC

As further described in our submission agreement (the Submission Agreement), in consideration for publication of the article, the authors assign to Journal of Family Strengths all copyright in the article, subject to the expansive personal-use exceptions described below.

Attribution and Usage Policies

Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted by a personal-use exemption or by written agreement of DigitalCommons@TMC, requires credit to DigitalCommons@TMC as copyright holder (e.g., DigitalCommons@TMC © 2024).

Personal-use Exceptions

The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from DigitalCommons@TMC provided the author does not alter the format or content of the articles, including the copyright notification:

  • Storage and back-up of the article on the author's computer(s) and digital media (e.g., diskettes, back-up servers, Zip disks, etc.), provided that the article stored on these computers and media is not readily accessible by persons other than the author(s);
  • Posting of the article on the author(s) personal website, provided that the website is non-commercial, the published source is acknowledged with a citation, and a link is provided to the original work in JFS;
  • Posting of the article on the Internet as part of a non-commercial open access institutional repository or other non-commercial open access publication site affiliated with the author(s)'s place of employment and provided that the published source is acknowledged with a citation and a link is provided to the original work in JFS; and
  • Posting of the article on a non-commercial course website for a course being taught by the author at the university or college employing the author provided that the published source is acknowledged with a citation and a link is provided to the original work in JFS

People seeking an exception, or who have questions about use, should contact the editors.

General Terms and Conditions of Use

The failure of Journal of Family Strengths to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between Journal of Family Strengths and the author(s) regarding submission of the article.

Uploading to PubMed Central

Authors who publish articles that arise from any NIH funding are responsible for uploading their final peer-reviewed manuscripts to the PubMed Central archive when they are accepted for publication into the journal, after the final copy edited version has been approved. It's fairly easy and we can help you with it if you have any problems. Here are some quick instructions:

    Upload your manuscript to PubMed Central
  1. Go to the "NIH Manuscript Submission System" at http://nihms.nih.gov/db/sub.cgi and log in. There are several options for different kinds of authors but you will probably need to create an account using "myNCBI."
  2. Enter in your contact information and click "Submit New Manuscript." Enter in the journal, article, authors' names, grant information, etc.
  3. Upload your manuscript file(s). The system will generate a receipt summarizing the information you entered and merging your files into one viewable document. Check and confirm your documents. You will receive an NIHMSID number. This is your temporary ID number until you finish the entire process and receive your permanent PMC ID number.
    4. Approve the PDF
  4. PubMed Central will convert your files to PDF. You will receive an email asking you to approve the PDF and indicate a date for the manuscript to be made publicly available in PubMed Central.
    5. Approve web version
  5. PubMed Central will convert your files to an XML web version. Review and approve it.
    6. For more help:

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