JFTR’s Many Venues and Voices

The Journal of Family Theory & Review (JFTR) is a multidisciplinary journal with a goal to advance theory and critical review in the field of family science. JFTR encourages integration and growth in the intersectional, interdisciplinary, and international domains of inquiry that define contemporary family science. The journal does not publish empirical reports, with the exception of meta-analyses. It publishes original articles in the following areas. See JFTR’s March and June 2023 issues for recent examples.

Theoretical Advances

The process of theorizing and generating new interpretations of established frameworks is the life’s blood of JFTR. The journal publishes original contributions in all areas of family theory, including advances in theory development, critical analyses of existing theory, new applications of theory, new interpretations of conceptual positions or concepts once thought to be distinct, and essays in the conduct of theory construction.

Critical Literature Reviews

Also central to the mission of JFTR is critically evaluating a research literature, especially from the viewpoint of one or more theoretical positions. JFTR publishes integrative reviews of content areas, including systematic reviews, scoping reviews, narrative reviews, and meta-analyses.

Methodological Innovations

Although JFTR is a theory and review journal, we also publish methodological innovations and analyses at the interface of theory and method. The journal welcomes publishing advances in the methods of theory development, as well as advances in the methods for conducting integrative reviews.

Book and Media Reviews

Critical book and media reviews are generally 8-12 APA-style manuscript pages that analyze books and media in a scholarly way. These can situate books and media within existing research within family science, provide an explicit discussion of underlying family theory, and offer examples of how the book and other media might be useful in teaching, research, and/or practice.

Emerging Voices Feature

JFTR’s Emerging Voices feature offers brief and timely theoretical commentaries (10-15 manuscript pages) from students and new professionals about current topics and ideas that they would like to bring to the interdisciplinary study of families. We invite submissions that feature underrepresented issues in family science and that demonstrate innovative theoretical thinking on topics that resonate with the new generations of scholars.

Reflexive Voices Feature

JFTR’s Reflexive Voices feature unearths the messy side of scholarship, by revealing the person behind the science, and champions the often invisible and complicated intersections across lived experience and knowledge production. In a Reflexive Voices paper, family theorizing and scholarship is positioned in dialog with the author’s analysis of their personal, professional, and political commitments.

Original Voices Feature

JFTR’s Original Voices feature invites highly prolific and esteemed scholars to analyze the theoretical implications of their work and augment their legacy of scholarship. Original Voices manuscripts are invited by the JFTR Editor.