‘Social Research Practice’ journal - Author guidelines
January 2015 v2
Introduction
Social Research Practice is the journal of the Social Research Association (SRA). It
launches in 2015 and will aim to produce two issues per year, containing around four
articles each of around 2,500-4,000 words. The issues will be freely available online at
the SRA website.
The journal will publish practice-based research. Articles need to be well-written and
easily readable. We are planning a ‘best paper’ award each year to encourage this.
The expected readership will be diverse, including researchers and those who use
research from a wide range of social research fields and disciplines, and at all levels from
very new to very experienced.
Editorial aims and policy
The journal is for anyone working in social research or social policy, whether they are a
producer or a user of research. It will:
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Cover practice-based rather than pure academic research (accepting that this
distinction is a loose one).
Have its main, but not exclusive focus on methodological matters; but also present
findings themselves where these are likely to be of wide interest.
Feature accounts of applications and case studies that will have practical value for
research colleagues, rather than discussion of philosophical principles and theory.
Highlight the impact of research on practice and on policy.
Focus on innovative techniques, but without excluding useful research based on
more traditional methods.
Cover the full range of approaches – quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, etc.
Have an ethos of high quality research that aims at minimising error given its
constraints.
Encourage openness from authors – honest admission of problems encountered,
and learning from mistakes.
The overall aim of the journal is to encourage and promote high standards of social
research for public benefit.
Policy for members of the SRA
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Social Research Practice is not, as with many journals, a benefit provided solely to
members. However it could not exist without the support of the membership, so as a
broad principle we will give priority to submissions from SRA members - while ensuring
quality standards are paramount. This means that amongst submissions of comparable
quality, those from SRA members will have priority.
Editorial board
Social Research Practice is managed by the editor Richard Bartholomew. It also has an
editorial board consisting of 30 senior figures in social research. The role of a board
member is to source submissions and to review articles at the editor’s request. The
board comprises practicing researchers in a range of discipline, who work in government
departments, agencies, research institutes, the voluntary sector and as independent
consultants:
Alison Park
CLOSER
Andrew Thomas
TNS BMRB
Angela Ellis Paine
Third Sector Research Centre
Bev Bishop
Health and Safety Executive
Bob Erens
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Catherine Owens
College of Policing
Clarissa White
Independent consultant
David Johnson
Department for Energy and Climate Change
Debbie Collins
NatCen Social Research
Dr Liz Brewster
Leicester University
Dr Paula Mayock
Asst Prof, school of social work & social policy
Emma Wallace
National Children’s Bureau
Gerry Nicolaas
Ipsos MORI
Isabella Pereira
Joel Williams
Ipsos MORI
TNS BMRB
Jouni Kuha
London School of Economics
Justin Davis-Smith
NCVO
Justin Guttman
Consumer Futures
Kandy Woodfield
NatCen Social Research
Kevin Pickering
Ipsos MORI
Lisa Calderwood
IoE
Matt Barnard
Head of Evaluation, NSPCC
Nick Moon
GfK NOP
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Patten Smith
Ipsos MORI
Sam Clemens
Ipsos MORI
Simon Anderson
Independent consultant
Siobhan Campbell
DECC
Stephen Morris
Department for Communities and Local Government
Susan Purdon
Independent consultant
Suzanne Hall
Ipsos MORI
Submissions
The editor is happy to receive outlines, or summaries of proposed articles, where an
author is not sure if a proposal is suitable. Please email: admin@the-sra.org.uk with
‘Social Research Practice’ in the subject header.
Articles must not have been previously published, and not currently in submission to
any other e-journal.
Software
Please send us your article in the MS Word document template provided on the SRA
website.
Title
No longer than 15 words in total. It should give the reader a good idea of the subject.
Abstract
A concise and factual abstract is required. It should summarise your article as clearly as
possible, without jargon, abbreviations, links or references. Maximum of 150 words.
Literature review
This is not required. In its absence we would expect the article to include some contextsetting and justification of the paper’s importance, to include relevant background
information such as the policy context, why the research is important, and how it came
about.
Article length
Between 2,500 and 4,000 words, although we will consider shorter articles. You need to
supply a word count.
Funding
If you are writing about a piece of funded research, please say who the funders were.
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Copyright
The author(s) holds copyright of his or her material. As Social Research Practice is freely
available on the SRA website we don’t need to licence your article. You are free to use
the article elsewhere but we ask that you do this only 6 months after publication with
the SRA, and let us know if you are planning to do this.
Style guide
Articles must be supplied in the MS Word document template downloadable from the
SRA website.
Readability
Social Research Practice is an online-only journal. Please write in short sentences and
paragraphs to help the online reader.
Format of articles
 Single spaced
 A4, portrait orientation, with standard margins (around 2.5cm) left and right
 Align text to the left
 Font colour – black only
 Font: Please use Calibri, size 12 (if unavailable, Arial or Times New Roman)
 For emphasis use bold, not italics or underline
 Use ‘single quotation marks’ if referring to a document
 Numbered or bullet-pointed lists are fine, but avoid creating lists with tabs
 Do not use the ‘Review’ function in Word to insert Comments in the text
 Leave the ‘header’ section of the document blank
 In the footer, insert page numbering (plain number, bottom right) but no text
 In general, avoid any but the most basic formatting.
Headings
In bold, font size 14. Please don’t number headings, and don’t use the ‘Styles’ function
in Word to create, number or format headings or sub-headings.
Sub-headings
In bold, font size 12.
Images, tables and figures
 Include these within the text, placed where you want them to appear. Use a logical
numbering sequence
 Images such as photos must be saved at 300 dpi resolution before you insert them
in the document
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 For each image, if you are not the copyright holder, you must get permission from
the owner to use the photo in our publication, and add ‘OWNER NAME, reproduced
with permission’ immediately below it.
Lists
 Should be auto-numbered or bullet-pointed, but please don’t create lists with tabs
or spaces
 First word in upper case
 Only the final bullet has a full stop at the end.
Capitals
Keep to a minimum, as this increases readability. Use for the names of people, places
and organisations. We use lower case for job titles.
Numbers
 Spell out one to ten. Use numerals for 11 and above
 For dates, use 1 and 2 rather than 1st and 2nd
 Use % rather than percent.
Verbatim quotes
Please ensure that the quoted words of research subjects could not be used to identify
individuals. If you are not sure, don’t use them. For lengthy quotes please ensure you
have permission to use them and add ‘quoted with permission’.
Formatting: if the quote runs over more than two lines, make it a separate paragraph,
indented once from the left. Identify direct speech by “double quotes” but use ‘single
quotes’ if paraphrasing.
Formulae
Please keep mathematical formulae as simple as possible, and consider whether there is
another way of expressing the issue, as formulae will not be read or understood by
many readers.
Abbreviations and acronyms
Spell out in full at first use, with the acronym in parentheses, eg. Marylebone Cricket
Club (MCC). Thereafter just use the acronym. There is no need to spell out if it is widely
familiar, eg. UK, MP.
Footnotes
Use these sparingly and keep them short.
References to books, reports and journal articles
Excessive references to other published work is discouraged.
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In your text, please cite by Surname and year, as in these examples: (Jones 2012) or
(Smith & Jones, 2012).
At the end of your article, in the template box provided, please list the books and
journals cited in your article. Do not add references to items not cited there.
The list should be in alphabetical order by (first) surname. Some examples:
References to books and reports:
N. Surname, N. Surname, and N. Surname, (year of publication), Title of book, Where
published: Publishing organisation.
References to Journal articles:
N. Surname, N. Surname, and N. Surname, (year of publication), Title of journal,
issue/n, pages.
In the References section you can add weblinks to the books and articles listed, but
please note that links which fail after publication cannot be updated. Start at ‘www’ (not
‘http//’ unless there is no ‘www’). Links should be wrapped around the title of the
book/journal (if you’re not sure how to do this, just add the link after the reference).
Please test links before submission.
Links in the text
When referencing a book, report or journal article, please don’t add a link to it in the
main text (just in the References section, see above). But if your article references an
item on the web that is not published in a book or journal article, please add a weblink
to an appropriate part of the text, for example “in her blog post”. Start at ‘www’ (not
‘http//’ unless there is no ‘www’). Please test links before submission. Links which fail
after publication cannot be updated.
Please do not add any internal hyperlinks to other parts of your article, references, etc.
Acknowledgements
If needed, these should be in a separate section at the very end of the article.
Peer review
Papers that the editor considers potentially suitable for Social Research Practice will be
reviewed, usually by one or more members of the editorial board. The editor will have
the final decision about publication.
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We take a supportive approach to authors. Submissions from new writers will be
encouraged, whether they are early career researchers or mid-late career researchers
who have not previously written for a journal. Standards will be maintained, but peer
reviewers will be notified when a paper is written by a novice author and will be
expected to be encouraging in their comments, whether those comments are
favourable or otherwise.
Reviews will not be ‘blind’ so reviewers will see the author’s name. Whether or not their
comments are passed back to the author is at the editor’s discretion. However the
identity of reviewers will not be disclosed to the author.
How to submit an article
Please write your article directly into the MS Word document template provided on the
SRA website. LINK TO BE ADDED.
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