2016 is a significant year for our journal, Child Abuse Review, as we celebrate 25 years of journal production. During that time the journal has proved a positive forum for the publication of research, policy and practice in relation to child abuse and neglect. So we were particularly pleased to hear this week that, once again, the journal’s impact factor has risen by 12% on last year’s figure. This puts us 17th out of 41 social work journals and on a par with much larger journals such as the British Journal of Social Work and the Children and Youth Services Review.
We are obviously really pleased with this progress and hope to be able to build on it. But mostly I am pleased because this is on a base of striving to ensure that the journal is relevant and accessible to those on the front line of child protection practice.
We will shortly be publishing issue three of this anniversary year, with an emphasis on continuity and change in child protection research and practice, and our special issue, due out later in the year, will focus on digital technologies, child abuse and child protection. You can view these, our open access virtual issues, and sign up for free contents alerts at the journal home page.
‘Evidence–Informed Practice, Practice-Informed Research’
On the 18th November in Birmingham we will be hosting a special anniversary conference. This will include parallel sessions on child sexual exploitation, neglect, domestic violence, and on translating research into practice. We are inviting submission of abstracts for research to present at the conference, and it promises to be a really engaging day, with high quality free papers, and prominent keynote speakers.
The deadline for abstract submission is 30th June, so if you have some research or practice evaluation to present, I would encourage you to submit an abstract.
To submit an abstract or register for the event, go to the BASPCAN events page:
http://www.baspcan.org.uk/events-national.php