Submission Checklist for Authors, Family Relations Journal

As you prepare to submit your manuscript, this checklist may be helpful to ensure that your manuscript is not returned to you for incomplete content or formatting reasons. Please note that all submissions are prescreened for suitability. Papers that fail to comply with manuscript preparation guidelines may be rejected without peer review at the discretion of the Editor.

Making a submission decision

Is Family Relations, the Journal of Marriage and Family, or the Journal of Family Theory & Review the right venue for your article?

Family Relations (FR) publishes articles that are original, innovative, interdisciplinary, or translational. Articles focus on diverse families and family issues. Audiences include Family Science researchers and practitioners, family policy specialists, educators in academic or community settings, as well as program evaluators. Appropriate articles include empirically based applied research; critical syntheses or relevant substantive areas; and reports of systematic program evaluations, analyses and assessments of developed curricula for applied or academic programs. FR also accepts manuscripts related to professional development in Family Science, as well as manuscripts addressing philosophical underpinnings of the main activities in Family Science (e.g., educating Family Scientists, design and delivery of tools used in practice, and refinement and expansion of research methods). Shorter communication manuscripts facilitate diffusion of Family Science innovation and are vehicles for publishing novel or emerging ideas; ideas requiring further development (theoretically, methodologically, or both); and advances representing calculated scientific risks that have great potential to take the family discipline in fruitful, new directions.

The Journal of Marriage and Family (JMF) is the leading research journal in the family field and has been so for over 70 years. JMF features original research and theory, research interpretation and reviews, and critical discussion concerning all aspects of marriage, other forms of close relationships, and families. (The Journal does not publish book reviews.)

The Journal of Family Theory & Review (JFTR) seeks to encourage integration and growth in the multidisciplinary and international domains of inquiry that define contemporary family studies. The journal publishes original contributions in all areas of family theory, including new advances in theory development, reviews of existing theory, and analyses of the interface of theory and method, as well as integrative and theory based reviews of content areas, and book reviews. The Journal draws from a broad range of the social sciences although scholarship based within the fields of family studies, sociology, and allied disciplines, developmental and social psychology, communications, health and allied fields is favored. Families are viewed broadly and inclusively to include individuals of varying ages and genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities, and nationalities.

Acceptance rates for each of the journals may be a factor in your decision. In addition, the typical amount of time between submission and editorial decision may be important to you. While your article is under review for an NCFR journal, it cannot be submitted for consideration by any other publication. See summary information on the journals' acceptance rates and operation.

Preparing your manuscript-resources for authors

Detailed instructions on preparing your manuscript, including information on formatting, creating tables and figures, manuscript length, listing references and other important information is here:

Take special care to prepare your document for blind review. In order to submit your manuscript to a blind review, the manuscript must conceal your identity. Compose your manuscript in such a way that reviewers cannot identify you as the author. Ways in which a reviewer may infer your identity include writing in the first person or including numerous references to your own work. After review, when the final version is submitted, these self-citations can be added.

Prepare your abstract for readability, and keep it to no more than 150 words. Within your abstract be sure that you have fully described your results and succinctly summarized the most important contributions that your paper makes to the field. Wiley Blackwell's information for authors offers advice on optimizing your article and choice of keywords for search engines-an important factor in your research being cited.

Need more guidance? We suggest reading both of these articles:

Submitting your manuscript

All manuscripts are submitted online through the ScholarOneTM "manuscript central" website. You will need to establish an author's account if you have not done so already. There is a detailed ScholarOneTM User's Guide (PDF) that explains the process step by step. There is a non-refundable submission fee assessed at the time of submission ($25 for NCFR members, $35 for nonmembers). Have your credit card ready for this transaction.

Our publisher, Wiley-Blackwell (WB), has a website, "Author Services" that explains journal publishing and important information about publishing research that is funded by federal agencies such as NIH. There are other links with information such as how to track the progress your article is making in the editorial process.

If your manuscript is accepted for publication, you will be required to sign a copyright agreement. They are located here: