Goals & Guidelines

History l Goals l First Issue Theme l Submission Guidelines l Method of Review

The Journal of Intimate Partner Violence Intervention is designed to be a resource for professionals working with perpetrators of family violence. It provides a forum of discussion of the concerns and activities of professionals and researchers working in domestic violence. With its focus on effective intervention and support for practitioners, the journal publishes articles addressing both research and practice and allows the readers to share their thoughts and experiences in the op/ed section.

History of this Journal

For more than 20 years, a group of practitioners who work with perpetrators of domestic violence has met, informally, to offer support, new ideas, approaches and strategy to improve their work. This group, warmly referred to as PW, has the rather arduous name of People Who Work With People Who Batter or PWWWPWB. Our decision to name our journal something more, well, accessible, should be understandable in this light. However, meeting members (and numbers vary from month to month between 3 and 30 people) often gain the experience of not feeling isolated and alone in doing this work and it is this sense that we hope to bring to the readers of the Journal of Intimate Partner Violence Intervention.

In addition to the inspiration we gained from PWWWPWB, we also noticed the real value of continued sharing of strategies and thoughts relative to the work done with abusers that was made obvious during the FVPF’s “Big Tent” discussion in the Spring and Summer of 2003. We recognize that these discussions and meetings that so benefit the practitioner also truly benefit the people we with whom we work. They gain from their group facilitators learning new techniques for intervening, they gain from the indirect experience of other facilitators providing input and consultation, and they benefit from the broad and deep thinking that has occurred over the last twenty plus years.

In the end it seemed time that a more consistent and broad-ranging forum is needed. It is our hope that this journal brings you increased awareness, understanding, and learning as well as providing you with the knowledge that you are not alone in your work. The more we learn from each other’s experience, the better prepared we are for addressing the issues inherent to intimate partner violent and the more effective we are in facilitating groups and developing programming to help end it.

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Goals

The overarching goals of this journal are to:

  • Collect and disseminate information regarding the experience of other professionals in this field.
  • Provide a forum for beneficial interaction between professionals in the field of intimate partner violence and with those professionals in related fields.
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    First Issue Theme

    Enhancing motivation for program participation during the initial stages of contact in our work with abusers is this first journal’s theme. In other words, Initial Contact with Abusers: What do we know, what do we do and what should we know or do? We are hoping that these phrases bring to mind for you both the research you have done or perhaps want to review, some techniques and strategies you have found to be useful for developing a working alliance with abusers in your program. There are several other aspects that may tie into this theme including: enhancing program participation motivation, first steps in the process when working with abusers, making the initial contact with abusers, participation at the beginning stages of the program, building relationships with abusers without colluding, using empathic confrontation at the initial contact, motivational interviewing, initial assessments, using assessments to increase program participants’ motivation. These suggestions are simply meant to offer you a spring board for thinking and we are not limited to only these areas.

    It is our desire that as we begin this journal to find articles and contributions that relate to the process of beginning work with abusers. Getting the abuser’s attention and buy-in to the program has consistently been a concern of many programs. We now understand that we cannot just throw the information at the people in the groups and hope something sticks. It is important to have a catalyst or other assistance in helping the information to stick and for many of us it happens at those critical and often times most significant moments in the beginning of our work with a person in the program.

    The two particular types of papers or contributions to this journal we are looking for are: First, either some research, preliminary research or review of the research on these topics; second, descriptions of your strategies and approaches that directly tie into the topic with your personal reflections on what makes it easy, how you got to the place of using that particular strategy and how you have seen it benefit participants, the overall program or yourself.

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    Submission Guidelines

    In order to submit your paper, research or review of related research please use the following guidelines:

    Manuscripts should be submitted via the Domestic Abuse Project website at http://www.domesticabuseproject.org. Manuscripts should not exceed 20 typed double-spaced pages, including references, tables, and figures. References must conform to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Fourth Edition). Each manuscript should include an abstract and biographical statement of the author(s).

    Submission of a manuscript implies commitment to publish in the journal. Authors submitting manuscripts to the journal should not simultaneously submit them to another journal, nor should manuscripts have been published elsewhere in substantially similar form or with substantially similar content. Authors in doubt about what constitutes prior publication should consult the editor.

    1. Manuscripts, in English, should be submitted to the website for submissions at: http://www.domesticabuseproject.org/journal/journal.asp
    2. Submission is a representation that the manuscript has not been published previously and is not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. A statement transferring copyright from the authors (or their employers, if they hold the copyright) to the Domestic Abuse Project will be required before the manuscript can be accepted for publication. DAP will supply the necessary forms for this transfer. Such a written transfer of copyright, which previously was assumed to be implicit in the act of submitting a manuscript, is necessary under the U.S. Copyright Law in order for the publisher to carry through the dissemination of research results and reviews as widely and effectively as possible.
    3. Type double-spaced on one side of 8 1/2 × 11 inch white paper using generous margins on all sides.
    4. A title page is to be provided and should include the title of the article, author‘s name (no degrees), author‘s affiliation, and suggested running head. The affiliation should comprise the department, institution (usually university or company), city, and state (or nation) and should be typed as a footnote to the author‘s name. The suggested running head should be less than 80 characters (including spaces) and should comprise the article title or an abbreviated version thereof. For office purposes, the title page should include the complete mailing address and telephone number of the one author designated to review proofs.
    5. An abstract is to be provided, preferably no longer than 150 words.
    6. A list of 4–5 key words is to be provided directly below the abstract. Key words should express the precise content of the manuscript, as they are used for indexing purposes.
    7. Tables should be numbered (preferably with Roman numerals) and referred to by number in the text. Center the title above the table, and type explanatory footnotes (indicated by superscript lower-case letters) below the table.

      List references alphabetically at the end of the paper and refer to them in the text by name and year in parentheses. Where there are three or more authors, only the first author‘s name is given in the text, followed by et al. References should include (in this order): last names and initials of all authors, year published, title of article, name of publication, volume number, and inclusive pages.
    8. Footnotes should be avoided. When their use is absolutely necessary, footnotes should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals and should be typed at the bottom of the page to which they refer. Place a line above the footnote, so that it is set off from the text. Use the appropriate superscript numeral for citation in the text.
    9. In general, the journal follows the recommendations of the 1994 Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Fourth Edition), and it is suggested that contributors refer to this publication.
    10. The journal makes no page charges. Reprints are available to authors.

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    Method of Review

    For the first two sections of this journal three peer reviewers, the guest editor, and editorial executive board will review each submission. A predetermined number of papers will be chosen for each issue. After initial review by the guest editor and the editorial peer reviewers, the paper will be judged in one of three ways:

  • Not a match or fit with the goals and journal audience
  • A match with the goals of the journal, needs further clarification and editing by author with possible publication in future issue
  • A match with the goals of the journal, accepted for inclusion in one of the next issues
  • Reviews and choices of publishing the opinions and community editorials about previous papers will be done among the editorial executive staff.

    All links and resources provided are not necessarily the opinions or views of the journal publishers. Over time it is hoped they become an inclusive list of most of the related resources for people who work with people who abuse.

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    ©2004 Domestic Abuse Project 1-612-874-7063