Guidelines for Writers

(Notice: The New Social Worker is currently NOT accepting submissions. Please check back periodically for open calls for submissions.)

Writers’ Guidelines

     THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER seeks articles from social work practitioners, educators, and students on topics related to social work careers and career development to support social workers in reaching their goals in the profession.

What We Are Looking For

     We will consider the following types of articles:

     Feature articles—we look for constructive, practical articles that provide our readers with solutions, strategies, support, and education related to specific practice specialties, social work career development, and job search. Feature articles should be 1,250-1,500 words including resources/references and be of broad interest to our target audience. Our style is conversational, practical, and educational. Write as if you are having a conversation with a student or colleague. What do you want him/her/them to know about the topic? What would you have wanted to know when you were first starting out? Did you find a particular strategy or piece of advice helpful in working through an issue? Use hypothetical examples to illustrate your points.

    The best articles have a specific focus. If you are writing about school social work, focus on a particular aspect of school social work. When possible, include one or two resources at the end of your article—books, additional reading materials, and/or websites.

     Brief Articles—We will consider short (approximately 500 words or less) informal articles or blog posts on the above topics for publication on our website. These may present a practice tip, focus on a particular holiday or awareness month/week/day, or otherwise provide useful information for our readers in this concise format. 

     Book reviews—If you are interested in reviewing books for us, please send an email to Linda Grobman stating your interest in reviewing books, your primary area(s) of interest and expertise, and your social work credentials. Also, please include a short writing sample.

     We prefer that links to referenced sources be embedded in the text of your article, rather than including academic APA style citations/references. You may include a short resource list. Do not include footnotes.

Formatting, Editing, and Submission Instructions

     Formatting:  Please use a standard font (such as Times Roman or Arial), 12-point. Use single spacing with one inch margins. Use subheadings, and format them as such (e.g., H1, H2) in Word. Please include the article’s title, your name, credentials, and contact information on the cover page of the manuscript, and include a brief bio (1-2 sentences) at the end of your manuscript.

     Submit your article as a Word (or compatible) file. If you have a photo, chart, or table to accompany your article, submit it as a separate JPG file, not embedded in your Word file.

     Edit and Proofread: We seek excellence in writing for The New Social Worker. Once you have written a draft of your article, be sure to edit and proofread it before submitting it to The New Social Worker. Have you used correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar? Have you written in a clear and concise manner? Is the article clearly organized? Here are some great tips for tightening up your writing. These tips cover many of the common writing mistakes we find in submitted articles. Additionally, please note that all accepted articles will be edited by The New Social Worker’s editors prior to publication.

     Original work. Your submission must be your own work, must not have been previously published or pending publication, and must not be under consideration by any other publication.

     Authorship: Individual authors’ names must be listed in the byline. We do not accept anonymous submissions. (News items may be published without a byline at the editor’s discretion.)

     Please submit all materials for possible publication in The New Social Worker to Linda Grobman, Publisher/Editor, via email. In the email subject line, please put “Submission” and the title or topic of your submission. For feature articles, please send a query letter outlining the topic you are proposing. Be sure to include a sample of your writing and tell us your qualifications for writing the article.

Note to social work educators: Prior to making an assignment for your students to submit to The New Social Worker, please contact Linda Grobman to determine whether the assigned submissions are consistent with our current publishing needs. Thank you.

Note to PR firms/business owners/website owners: We do not accept “guest posts” from businesses or organizations. We do not accept sponsored posts or paid links.

What We Are Not Looking For

     Below are some examples of types of articles/content we are not seeking for publication in The New Social Worker:

• Articles that focus on the writer’s grievance and/or conflict with a specific (named or identifiable) person or entity.
• Articles that focus on the writer’s personal experience/topic without showing how the experience/topic relates to the profession of social work or social work career development, and without providing lessons learned, strategies, solutions, questions for consideration, or support for readers in regard to a problem/issue.
• Articles about a topic/issue, even if relevant to social work, without showing how the topic relates to social work, is of importance in a social worker’s career development, or providing information about the social worker’s role.
• Paid/sponsored posts.
• “Guest posts” for the purpose of SEO/promotion of a website, business, agency, or organization.
• Insertion of a link to your site in one of our articles.

     This list is not all-inclusive, and there may be occasional exceptions at the publisher’s discretion.