Critical Social Policy
Critical Social Policy provides a space for critical approaches to the production, development and receipt of social policy and welfare. By engaging with issues rooted in political, economic, social and cultural power the journal interrogates conventional approaches to social policy and offers alternative and critically informed perspectives. In keeping with the commitment to confronting hierarchical ways of functioning that inevitably lead to unequal power positions, Critical Social Policy operates as a collective.
From the moment of inception, Critical Social Policy has been a political project confronting orthodox and traditional approaches to social policy, welfare and the state, seeking to put people before profit. Its original aims were, and continue to be, grounded in socialist, feminist, anti-racist and radical perspectives relating to the experiences of people struggling within or against the state. The journal continues to evolve, therefore, by engaging with questions of identity, position and power such as class, gender, ‘race’, disability, sexuality and age, so as to try and counteract exclusion, subordination and domination. The journal aims to interrogate critically social policy within the context of national and global social change.
The Critical Social Policy editorial collective welcomes contributions from activists, advocates, academics, practitioners, policy-makers, and users of services who are engaging with perspectives on power, resistance, emancipation, social justice and political transformation. We also welcome debate on how to initiate, engender and support struggles within the sphere of social policy.
Critical Social Policy provides a space for critical approaches to the production, development and receipt of social policy and welfare. By engaging with issues rooted in political, economic, social and cultural power the journal interrogates conventional approaches to social policy and offers alternative and critically informed perspectives. In keeping with the commitment to confronting hierarchical ways of functioning that inevitably lead to unequal power positions, Critical Social Policy operates as a collective.
From the moment of inception, Critical Social Policy has been a political project confronting orthodox and traditional approaches to social policy, welfare and the state, seeking to put people before profit. Its original aims were, and continue to be, grounded in socialist, feminist, anti-racist and radical perspectives relating to the experiences of people struggling within or against the state. The journal continues to evolve, therefore, by engaging with questions of identity, position and power such as class, gender, ‘race’, disability, sexuality and age, so as to try and counteract exclusion, subordination and domination. The journal aims to interrogate critically social policy within the context of national and global social change.
The Critical Social Policy editorial collective welcomes contributions from activists, advocates, academics, practitioners, policy-makers, and users of services who are engaging with perspectives on power, resistance, emancipation, social justice and political transformation. We also welcome debate on how to initiate, engender and support struggles within the sphere of social policy.
| Andrea Tara-Chand | University of Huddersfield, UK |
| Alastair Christie | University College Cork, Ireland |
| Rachel Fyson | University of Nottingham, UK |
| Paul Michael Garrett | University of Galway, Republic of Ireland |
| Norman Ginsburg | London Metropolitan University, UK |
| Chris Grover | Lancaster University, UK |
| Surinder Guru | University of Birmingham, UK |
| Syd Jeffers | University of East London, UK |
| China Mills | Healing Justice Ldn, UK |
| Suryia Nayak | University of Salford, UK |
| Arianna Silvestri | London School of Economics, UK |
| Sirin Sung | Queen's University, UK |
| David Taylor | University of Brighton, UK |
| Lizzie Ward | Independent Scholar, UK |
| Nicki Ward | University of Birmingham , UK |
| Joe Whelan | Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Republic of Ireland |
| Jay Wiggan | University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Jenna Allsopp | Administrator, UK |
| Donna Baines | University of British Columbia |
| Jacqueline Heinen | University of Versailles, France |
| Fabain Kessl | University of Wuppertal, Germany |
| Gianinna Muñoz-Arce | University of Chile, Chile |
| Pauline Stoltz | Aalborg University, Denmark |
| Julia Szalai | Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary |
| Charlotte Williams | Bangor University, UK |
Please read the below information and new author guidelines prior to submitting your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Critical Social Policy will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Critical Social Policy may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint when making your submission.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
2.7 Clinical trials
2.8 Reporting guidelines
2.9 Data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Critical Social Policy, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Critical Social Policy publishes original research and reviews in areas of social policy that matches its aims and scope.
Commentary & Issues is designed for shorter, topical pieces. Contributors should aim to comment on changes in social policy and its implementation. Detailed specialist knowledge on the part of readers should not be assumed. Contributions on policy changes in countries other than the UK are welcome.
Members of the CSP editorial collective are happy to discuss and offer advice on ideas for papers, particularly for inexperienced and non-academic contributors.
Two types of papers may be submitted for consideration : articles and commentaries
Articles may either report original research, or review and critically analyse aspects of social policy which are within the journal’s aims and scope. All articles are expected to be theoretically informed. Articles reporting original research must include an overview of the research methods used, including a consideration of ethical issues. Detailed specialist knowledge on the part of readers should not be assumed. Articles on social policy from all national contexts are welcome.
We only accept TWO documents – the article or commentary - and a cover letter.
Articles should be between 6,000 – 8,000 words, do include abstract, keywords, references, tables, diagrams and endnotes, which should be kept to a minimum. Please note that CSP does not accept footnotes. All tables, diagrams and figures should be at the end of the article with an indication in the text where they should go (e.g., “table one here”). There should be nothing in the text indicating authorship. Self-citations should appear in the text as Author, date of publication and nothing else, and appear in the same form in references, under ‘A’ for author.
The cover letter should confirm
- the word count, (including endnotes and references),
- that the text has been fully anonymised, including self-citations; -and
- that the article is not being considered for publication in any other context or format;
It should give the full name and affiliation of the author/s; the author/s postal and email address; a short biography (50-100 words) of the author/s including affiliation and details, if appropriate, of up to two recent publications.
All documents should be in Word format. Articles and cover letters should be emailed to Jenna Allsopp, journal administrator at articlescsp@gmail.com
We aim to acknowledge all submissions within 48 hours of receipt. However, occasionally this may take a little longer. If you have not received an acknowledgement of your submission within seven days, please contact the journal administrator, at articlescsp@gmail.com
Commentaries (3,000 - 4,000 words, including abstract, keywords, references and endnotes) differ from longer articles in that they do not usually report original research and they must be topical, i.e. they should relate to a change in policy or be concerned with a policy which has recently been newsworthy. Commentaries may be used to offer service user or frontline practitioner perspectives on the implementation of social policies. Commentaries may also be used to challenge or debate positions adopted by authors of recently published CSP articles; where this happens the authors of the original article will normally be offered a right of reply. Commentaries from all national contexts are welcome. (All Commentaries must also be accompanied by a cover letter.)
Commentaries should be emailed to Jenna Allsopp, Journal Administrator, at: articlescsp@gmail.com
Themed Issues
CSP normally publishes one themed issue per year/volume on a topic which contributes to the journal’s overall remit. Calls for proposals from prospective editors external to the editorial collective, will be made via an announcement on the website and/or in the published journal. For guidance on submitting a themed issue proposal click here.
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
It is the responsibility of the author to anonymise fully the text submitted. This includes self-citations.
All submissions to Critical Social Policy are refereed anonymously by three members of the editorial collective. One of these is appointed the convenor for each paper and will write to the contributor with our decision. Three decisions can be made: Acceptance (which may include minor editing); Rejection; or Resubmission. Please note that resubmitted articles are refereed again and that there is no guarantee that they will be accepted for publication.
Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.
The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:
(i) Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
(ii) Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
(iii) Approved the version to be published,
(iv) Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
Critical Social Policy requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Critical Social Policy encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Critical Social Policy and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Critical Social Policy offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
Only electronic files conforming to the journal's guidelines will be accepted. Please submit MS Word for Windows format files only. Word templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.
Critical Social Policy adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
All article submissions should include:
the title, an abstract (100-150 words) covering the key argument(s) and conclusion(s) of the paper; up to five key words, arranged alphabetically. For advice on choosing your keywords and maximising the discoverability of your article see: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/help-readers-find-your-article. The article should have 2.5 cm margins all round and the text should be standard 12 point with 1.5 spacing throughout
All submissions must also include a covering letter
1 Confirming the word count, including endnotes and references; that the text has been fully anonymised including self- citations ; and that the article is not being considered for publication in any other context or format.
2 Giving full name, affiliation, postal and email addresses of each author and indicating the name of the the corresponding author; short biographies (50-100 words) of each author including details, if appropriate, of up to two recent publications.
Email the two documents (anonymised article; covering letter) in MS Word for Windows to the following as appropriate (see below):
Articles or commentaries, with their cover letters, should be emailed to Jenna Allsopp (journal administrator) at articlescsp@gmail.com. We aim to acknowledge all submissions within 48 hours of receipt. However, occasionally this may take a little longer. If you have not received an acknowledgement of your submission within seven days, please contact the journal administrator.
The maximum length for articles should be 8000 words, and for Commentary and Issues 4000 words, including endnotes and references. Articles that significantly exceed these limits may be returned to the contributor for editing before being considered. The typescript should be carefully checked for errors before it is submitted for publication. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of quotations, for supplying complete and correct references, and for obtaining permission where needed to cite another person's material. Articles are expected to be accessible and jargon-free. Texts should be submitted in UK English.
Lengthy quotations of more than 40 words should be indented; shorter quotes should be retained within the body of the text. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. Tables and Figures should be presented on separate sheets of paper at the end of the article. Their position within the text should be clearly indicated.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Jenna Allsopp, journal administrator, at: articlescsp@gmail.com