Journal of Human Rights and Social Work

The Journal of Human Rights and Social Work is pleased to announce a call for papers for a special issue entitled: Social Work Despite Hostility: Hope, Human Rights, and Resistance, co-edited by David Androff, PhD, MSW, Emilio José Gómez-Ciriano, PhD, MSW, and Jane McPherson, PhD, MSW, MPH.  

This Special Issue critically examines how social workers are responding to these hostile social environments. We seek to foreground human rights–based perspectives and to explore how social workers navigate, contest, resist and transform these constraints in practice, education, and scholarship. The global definition of social work (IFSW, IASSW, 2014) contains principles that can inspire social workers to reflect on and find ways to address this new context. It also seeks to elucidate the transformative potential inherent in the profession of social work to cultivate hope among service users and the broader citizenry by demonstrating how fidelity to its foundational values, ethical commitments, and emancipatory principles enables academics and practitioners to contribute meaningfully to structural change and the advancement of human rights.

Guest Editors: David Androff, PhD, MSW, Emilio José Gómez-Ciriano, PhD, MSW, and Jane McPherson, PhD, MSW, MPH.

Timeline:

Call for Papers: May 1^st to September 30^th, 2026

First Draft of Papers: September 30^th, 2026

Papers sent for Peer Review: October 15^th, 2026

Blind Reviews Completed: December 15^th, 2026

All reviews sent to authors: January 15^th, 2027

Revised Manuscripts: March 15th, 2027

Final Manuscripts to production: April 15^th, 2027

Publication planned: June 2027

Each year, the Journal of Human Rights and Social Work chooses a particularly noteworthy article from the previous year to receive special recognition. 

For 2024, the journal has selected "Religion, Women, and Girls’ Rights in Zimbabwe: The Case of Zimbabwe’s Johanne Marange Apostolic Church" by Cornelius Dudzai, Kwashirai Zvokuomba, and Tarisai Gracious Mboko. 
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41134-023-00271-2

Please join us in congratulating these authors on their accomplishment. 

We are proud to acknowledge that over 50% of the articles published in this journal in 2025 were related to one or more of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Interested in submitting a proposal for a special issue in the Journal of Human Rights and Social Work? Learn more about the elements required upon submission, the submission process, and the criteria used to evaluate proposals.