THE

INDIAN JOURNAL
OF
SOCIAL WORK
Guidelines for Authors
COMMUNICATION
Communication with reference to articles should be addressed to the Associate Editor of
The Indian Journal of Social Work (IJSW). The Associate Editor (IJSW) will correspond
with the main author. In case of electronic submission of your article, please direct it to
p_unit@tiss.edu

PRELIMINARY REQUIREMENTS
The preliminary requirements of an article, before it is processed for review, are as
follows:

Appropriateness of the title to the goals and scope of the journal.

An abstract of the article, not exceeding 100 words.
Conformation to the Reference Style of the journal.
Length of up to 6,000 words.

If a new article does not meet these requirements, it is sent back to the author(s).

DECLARATION
Each article should be accompanied with a declaration by all the authors that:

they are the authors of the article in the order in which listed; and
the article is original, has not been published, and has not been submitted for
publication elsewhere.

If the author has quoted more than 500 words/a table/a figure from a published work, in
the article, a copy of permission obtained from the respective copyright holder needs to
be enclosed.

TYPESCRIPT
The article should be submitted in triplicate; be typed in double space on one side of A4
paper; and not exceed 6,000 words. The Title Page should include the title of the article,
the authors name and the author blurb. The first page of the article should not carry the
authors name or the author blurb.

REVIEW SYSTEM AND COPY-EDITING

The criteria used for reviewing an article are: contemporary relevance, contribution to
knowledge, originality, clarity and logic in analysis, methodology of research articles,
implications for intervention, appropriateness of references, and language. Every article
undergoes a masked peer review process. The review process takes up to six months.
Every accepted article is copy-edited.
COPYRIGHT
The author owns the copyright of the article until the article is accepted by the journal for
publication. After the acceptance communication, the copyright of the article is owned by
the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. It should not be reproduced elsewhere without the
written permission of the Associate Editor (IJSW).

SCHEDULING
Accepted articles are scheduled for publication in the chronological order in which they
are accepted. The publication lag of an accepted article is generally a year. Each author
gets two complimentary copy of the journal issue in which his/her article is published.
The first author gets six original reprints of the article.

REFERENCE STYLE

Citation/Paraphrasing in the Text

Each statement, in the text of the article, may be supported by the author with a logical
explanation, the authors opinion, illustration, or citation/paraphrasing of another authors
work. Without citing the source, use of others written work amounts to plagiarism and,
thereby, fraud.
Citation in the text briefly identifies the source for the readers, and enables them to locate
the details of the source in the References at the end of the paper. The last name of the
author and the year of publication are cited in the text.

References
The Reference List, given at the end of the typescript, should provide complete
information necessary to identify and retrieve each source cited in the article: text, tables
or figures. Conversely, each entry in the References must be cited in the text. Both should
be identical in spellings and year. Arrange entries in the References in the alphabetical
order by the last name of the first author and then by his/her initials. The IJSW Reference
Style requires the following format.

1. References should be listed in two columns, separated by a colon. The left hand
column contains the details of the author(s) and the year of publication. The right hand
column contains the title of the publication and other data related to that publication.

2. An article published in a journal should contain the following details: Authors last
name, initials, year of publication, name of the article, name of the journal (underlined/
italicised), volume number, issue number in parentheses, and page numbers. For
example:

Joseph, H. : Social Work with Groups: A Literature Review, The Indian

1997 Journal of Social Work, 58(2), 195211.
3. An article published in an edited book should contain the following details: Authors
last name, initials, year of publication, title of the article, initials and last name of editors,
Ed./s. in parentheses, title of the book (underlined/italicised), place of publication, name
of the publisher and page numbers of the article. For example:

Silverman, M. : Approaches to Suicide Prevention: A Focus on Models. In

1996 R.F. Ramsay and B.L. Tanney (Eds.), Global Trends in
Suicide Prevention: Towards the Development of National
Strategies for Suicide Prevention, Mumbai: Tata Institute of
Social Sciences, 2594.

4. A book should be listed in the following format: Authors last name, initials, year of
publication, title of the book (underlined/italicised), place of publication and name of the
publisher. For example:

Tilak, D. : Destination Unknown: A Case Description of a Mentally

1994 Handicapped Daughter, Mumbai: Tata Institute of Social
Sciences.

5. When a reference has more than one author, list all the authors names. For example:

Desai, M., : Towards People-Centred Development, Mumbai: Tata

Monteiro, A. and Institute of Social Sciences.
Narayan, L.(Eds.)
1998

6. For an institutional report, write full name of the institution as the author. For example:

Tata Institute : Towards People-Centred Development: Report of TISS

of Social Diamond Jubilee Conference on Movements and Campaigns
Sciences for the Empowerment of Marginalised Groups, Mumbai.
1997

7. For a government report, the author is the name of the country/state and the name of
the Ministry/Department, separated by a colon. For example:

India: Ministry : Directory of Social Work Education Facilities in India, New

of Welfare Delhi.
1995

8. When ordering more than one reference by the same author, list the earlier publication
before the later publication. For example:

University Grants : Social Work Education in Indian Universities, New Delhi.

Commission
1965

1980 : Review of Social Work Education in India: Retrospect and

Prospects, New Delhi.
1990 : Report of the UGC Curriculum Development Centre in
Social Work Education, New Delhi.

9. References by the same author with the same publication year are arranged
alphabetically by the title, and suffixes a, b, c and so on are added to the year. The same
suffixes should be added in the text also. For example:

Lingam, L. : Locating Women in Migration Studies: An Overview, The

1998a Indian Journal of Social Work, 59(3), 715726.

1998b : Migrant Women, Work Participation and Urban

Experiences, The Indian Journal of Social Work, 59(3),
807823.

10. When a reference has no author, type the first two to three words, ellipses and year in
the left column. This entry should be alphabetised by the first letter of the title.

Peoples Global... : Peoples Global Action, Lokayan Bulletin, 14(5), 4164

1998

11. When a reference has no year, state no date. in place of the year.

Chatham, L. : Psychotherapy for the Laity (Mimeograph), Reading:

no date University of Reading.
 Guidelines for Book Reviewers

COMMUNICATION
All communication pertaining to book reviews should be addressed to the Book Review
Editor, The Indian Journal of Social Work.

PRELIMINARY REQUIREMENTS
The preliminary requirements of a book to be reviewed, before it is processed, are
appropriateness of the title of the book to the goals and scope of the journal' should have
been published in the last two years.

EXPECTATIONS OF A BOOK REVIEW

A book review should comment upon the following, besides the objectives/theme and
contents/organisation of the book, among others: contemporary relevance, contribution to
knowledge, conceptual clarity and logic of analysis, methodology, implications for
intervention, originality, language and presentation, applicability to Indian conditions, in
the case of a foreign book, and potential readership and utility.

TYPESCRIPT FOR A BOOK REVIEW

A book review should be submitted in duplicate; be typed in double space on one side of
A4 paper; and not exceed 1200 words. The title of the review should contain the
following details: Title of the book (underlined/ italicised), names(s) of the
author(s)/editor(s), year of publication, place of publication and name of publisher
(separated by a colon), number of pages and the price of the book. For example:

Social Intervention for Justice, edited by R.K. Hebsur, 1996, Mumbai: Tata Institute of
Social Sciences, pp. 310, Rs. 150/-.

BOOK REVIEW ESSAY

A book review essay is an in depth review of a book presented in an essay like form.
While a book review essay should comment upon all criteria outlined in the previous
section, it could also present a comparison of books on the same topic. A book review
essay may go up to 4,000 words.

COPY-EDITING
Every scheduled book review is copy-edited. The reviewers concurrence to copy-editing
is assumed, unless specified otherwise by the reviewer.

SCHEDULING
Book Reviews on the themes of special issues are scheduled in the respective special
issues by the Guest Editor. Other book reviews are scheduled in general issues by the
Book Review Editor, according to the order of arrival, quality of the review and
contemporary relevance. Priority will be given to invited book reviews. Every book
reviewer gets a complimentary copy of the journal issue in which their review gets
published.