The International Journal of Community and Social Development
Social Policy (General) | Social Work & Social Policy (General) | Youth / Community Work (General)
As academic and professional interest in community and social development has grown over the years, the need for innovative literature that can inform policy and practice in the field has been widely recognised. The new International Journal of Community and Social Development, founded by Manohar Pawar, will meet this need.
Professor James Midgley
University of California
Berkeley, USA
The International Journal of Community and Social Development with its multidisciplinary focus on knowledge building, from the grassroots, documenting case studies, innovation and lessons learnt across countries, will deepen and grow social development theory and practice around the world.
Professor Leila Patel
South African Research Chair in Welfare and Social Development,
Centre for Social Development in Africa,
University of Johannesburg
South Africa
The International Journal of Community and Social Development, under Dr Pawar’s erudite leadership, will integrate both ‘community’ and ‘social development’ as a unifying fulcrum of social transformation.
Professor Brij Mohan
Dean Emeritus, School of Social Work,
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, USA
The peer reviewed journal aims to focus on community and social development theory and practice at the grassroots/local level with a view to:
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Research and document local level community and social development theories and practices mainly from, but not limited to the Asia-Pacific region, and disseminate the same throughout the world;
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Create knowledge and skills-base for social development of local level communities;
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Provide voice for grassroots level communities and social development agencies, practitioners and thinkers, who have been actively engaged with people and those who have developed innovative and unique approaches for local level development; and
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Engage researchers and scholars, from all over the world, in practice focused research and scholarship on local level communities and social development.
The scope of the journal is broad to cover multi-disciplines and multi-professions, which contribute to community and social development in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.
The features of the journal may include any combination of the following:
- Perspectives include reflective contributions on emerging issues and ideas that call for action or rethinking by community and social development practitioners, scholars and agencies.
- Research articles, which are based on rigorous research, both qualitative and quantitative, contribute to the knowledge creation while illustrating the practical applicability and/or policy implications of the research undertaken.
- Colloquium includes a debate on a contemporary topic by a small group of practitioners and scholars. Persons interested in organizing Colloquia may also write to the Editor.
- Community or social development case critically discusses a community practice case bringing out participatory process, successes, difficulties, learnings or achievements.
- Interviews with leading social development thinkers and practitioners.
- Book Reviews relevant to the community and social development theme.
| Manohar Pawar | Charles Sturt University, Australia |
| Hurriyet Babacan | James Cook University, Australia |
| Johnson Chun-Sing Cheung | The University of Hong Kong, China and East Asia |
| Manish K Jha | Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India |
| Karen Lyons | London Metropolitan University, UK |
| Gidraph G Wairire | University of Nairobi, Kenya |
| Sharvari Karandikar | College of Social Work, The Ohio State University. Ohio, USA |
| Sohini Sengupta | School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India |
| Sue Kenny | Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia |
| Shanti Khinduka | Washington University, St. Louis, USA |
| James Midgley | University of California, USA |
| Leila Patel | University of Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Neera Agnimitra | University of Delhi, India |
| Tatsuru Akimoto | Shukutoku University, Japan |
| Janki Andheria | Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India |
| Rajendra Baikady | Central University of Kerala, India |
| Julian Chun-Chung Chow | University of California, Berkeley, USA |
| Marsela Dauti | Uppsala University, Sweden |
| Murli Desai | Independent Social Work and Social Development Consultant, India |
| Rohena Duncombe | Charles Sturt University, Australia |
| John Gal | Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel |
| Sarathchandra Gamlath | University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka |
| Usha George | Ryerson University, Canada |
| Narayan Gopalkrishnan | James Cook University, Australia |
| Lauren Graham | CSDA, University of Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Mel Gray | The University of Newcastle, Australia |
| Miyuki Inaba | Kyushu University, Japan |
| Dipendra K C | Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan |
| Praveen Kumar | Boston College School of Social Work, USA |
| Bong Joo Lee | Seoul National University, South Korea |
| Gokul Mandayam | Rhode Island College, USA |
| Philip Mendes | Monash University, Austalia |
| Brij Mohan | Louisiana State University, USA |
| Ndungi Mungai | Charles Sturt University, Australia |
| Lynelle Osburn | Charles Sturt University, Australia |
| Tejaswini Patil | Monash University, Australia |
| John Pinkerton | Queen’s University Belfast, Ireland |
| Biman C Prasad | Fiji Institute of Applied Studies, Fiji |
| Azizur Rahman | Charles Sturt University, Australia |
| S Siva Raju | Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India |
| Chathapuram Ramanathan | State Illinois University, Normal, USA |
| Monica Short | Charles Sturt University, Australia |
| Shweta Singh | Loyola University Chicago, USA |
| Nathan A Stephens | School of Social Work, Illinois State University, USA |
| Ngoh Tiong TAN | Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore |
| Thomas M E | California State University, Bakersfield, USA |
| Idit Weiss-Gal | Tel Aviv University, Israel |
| Amy Conley Wright | The University of Sydney |
| Yuegen Xiong | Peking University, China |
The International Journal of Community and Social Development
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
Please read the guidelines below then visit The International Journal of Community and Social Development’s submission site https://peerreview.sagepub.com/cod to upload 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 The International Journal of Community and Social Development 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 International Journal of Community and Social Development 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 The International Journal of Community and Social Development will consider submissions of papers that have been posted on preprint servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in The International Journal of Community and Social Development . If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to The International Journal of Community and Social Development 's author archiving policy.
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
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research data
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions
6. 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
1.1 Aims & scope
Before submitting your manuscript to The International Journal of Community and Social Development, please ensure you have read the ‘Aims & Scope’ of the journal.
1.2 Article types
There could be three to six sections in The International Journal of Community and Social Developmentl, though two sections remain unchanged.
- Research Articles
- Perspectives
- Community or social development case
- Colloquium
- Notes and interviews
- Book Reviews: vary from number to number invariably guided by limits to the size of the manuscript
Full-fledged papers should be between 4,000 and 7,000 words, including figures, tables and annexures. Brief write-ups of 500 words may also be sent; these will be considered for inclusion in other sections.
1.3 Writing your paper
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online
2. Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
The International Journal of Community and Social Development operates a strictly double anonymize peer review process in which the reviewer’s name is withheld from the author and the author’s name from the reviewer. The reviewer may at their own discretion opt to reveal their name to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for both identities to remain concealed.
The International Journal of Community and Social Development is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Publons. Publons is a third party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for The International Journal of Community and Social Development can opt in to Publons in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit the Publons website.
The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in The International Journal of Community and Social Development . In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
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.
If the named authors for a manuscript change at any point between submission and acceptance, an Authorship Change Form must be completed and digitally signed by all authors (including any added or removed) . An addition of an author is only permitted following feedback raised during peer review. Completed forms can be uploaded at Revision Submission stage or emailed to the Journal Editorial Office contact (listed on the journal’s manuscript submission guidelines). All requests will be moderated by the Editor and/or Sage staff.
Important: Changes to the author by-line by adding or deleting authors are NOT permitted following acceptance of a paper.
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 Funding, Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any Notes and your References.
Any personal acknowledgements must be supplied separate to the main text, thereby facilitating anonymous peer review.
2.3.1 Writing Assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
The International Journal of Community and Social Development 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: ‘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
The International Journal of Community and Social Development encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
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
The International Journal of Community and Social Development 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 International Journal of Community and Social Development against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized 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
The International Journal of Community and Social Development 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
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and LaTex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
The manuscript should be structured as follows:
- Cover page, showing title of the paper, name of author, author’s affiliation and institutional address with pin code, email id and a 100–150 word abstract. In case there are two or more authors, then corresponding author’s name and address details must be clearly specified on the first page itself.
- The contributors should provide 4–5 keywords for online searchability.
- Text should start on a new page, and must not contain the names of authors.
- References should come at the end of the manuscript. Important note: There is no limit on the number of references allowed.
Please Note: For each text citation there must be a corresponding citation in the reference list and for each reference list citation there must be a corresponding text citation.
- Tables should be provided in editable format. Both tables and figures should be referred to in the text by number separately (e.g., Table 1) not by placement (e.g., see Table below).
Please Note: All figures and tables should be cited in the text and should have the source (a specific URL, a reference or, if it is author’s own work, ‘The author(s)’) mentioned irrespective of whether or not they require permissions.
- Mathematical formulae, methodological details, etc. should be given separately as an appendix, unless their mention in the main body of the text becomes essential.
- Only essential mathematical notations should be used. All equations and statistical formulae should be neatly typed and numbered consecutively throughout the text in Arabic numerals. Equations must provided in the text must be in editable format.
- The language and spellings used should be British (UK), with ‘s’ variant, for example, globalisation instead of globalization, labour instead of labor. For non-English and uncommon words and phrases, use italics throughout the text. Meaning of non-English words should be given in parentheses just after the word when it is used for the first time.
- Articles should use non-sexist and non-racist language.
- Spell out numbers from one to nine, 10 and above to remain in figures. However, for exact measurement (e.g., China’s GDP growth rate 9.8 per cent) use numbers. Very large round numbers, especially sums of money, may be expressed by a mixture of numerals and spelled-out numbers (India’s population 1.2 billion).
- Single quotes should be used throughout. Double quote marks are to be used within single quotes. Spellings of words in quotations should not be changed. Quotations of 45 words or more should be separated from the text.
- Notes should be numbered serially and presented at the end of each page. Notes must contain more than a mere reference. However, mere URLs may be incorporated in the endnotes.
- Use ‘per cent’ instead of % in the text. In tables, graphs, etc., % can be used. Use ‘twentieth century’, ‘the 1990s’.
- Number ranges should not be truncated, for example, 2017–2018.
- The initials must be separated by dots and space in case of proper nouns in the text.
- Abbreviations are spelled out at first occurrence. Very common ones (US, GDP, BBC) need not be spelled out.
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, including maps, graphs and drawings, should not be larger than page size. They should be numbered and arranged as per their references in the text. All photographs and scanned images should have a resolution of minimum 300 dpi and 1,500 pixels and their format should be TIFF or JPEG.
- Due permissions should be taken for copyright protected photographs/images. Even for photographs/images available in the public domain, it should be clearly ascertained whether or not their reproduction requires permission for purposes of publishing (which is a profit-making endeavour).
- All photographs/scanned images should be provided separately in a folder along with the main article.
Please Note: All figures and tables should be cited in the text and should have the source (a specific URL, a reference or, if it is author’s own work, ‘The Author’) mentioned irrespective of whether or not they require permissions.
- 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., data sets, podcasts, videos, images, etc.) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information, please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files
The International Journal of Community and Social Development adheres to the APA reference style. View the APA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
- References: A consolidated listing of all books, articles, essays, theses and documents referred to (including any referred to in the tables, graphs and maps) should be provided at the end of the article.
- Arrangement of references: Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work. In each reference, authors’ names are inverted (last name first) for all authors (first, second or subsequent ones); give the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work unless the work has more than six authors. If the work has more than six authors, list the first six authors and then use et al. after the sixth author’s name.
- Chronological listing: If more than one work by the same author(s) is cited, they should be listed in order by the year of publication, starting with the earliest.
- Sentence case: In references, sentence case (only the first word and any proper noun are capitalized—for example, ‘The software industry in India’) is to be followed for the titles of papers, books, articles, etc.
- Title case: In references, Journal titles are put in title case (first letter of all words except articles and conjunctions are capitalized—e.g., Journal of Business Ethics).
- Italicize: Book and Journal titles are to be italicized.
The International Journal of Community and Social Development is hosted on Sage Track Sage, a web-based online submission and peer review system. Visit https://peerreview.sagepub.com/cod to log in and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for The International Journal of Community and Social Development in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.
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 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 The International Journal of Community and Social Development editorial office as follows:
E-mails: MPawar@csu.edu.au