Voluntary Sector Review

Voluntary Sector Review, the new journal of VSSN, will publish high-quality, peer-reviewed, accessible papers on third sector research, policy and practice. It will be an invaluable cutting-edge resource for all those researching or working in the fast-growing voluntary, community and wider third sectors.

Aims and scope
The journal will be published by The Policy Press (TPP) and will cover the full range of issues relevant to voluntary sector studies, including: definitional and theoretical debates; management and organisational development; financial and human resources; philanthropy; volunteering and employment; regulation and charity law; service delivery; civic engagement; industry and sub-sector dimensions; relations with other sectors; social enterprise; evaluation and impact.

Voluntary Sector Review will cover voluntary sector studies from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, social policy, politics, psychology, economics, business studies, social anthropology, philosophy and ethics. The journal will include work from the UK and Europe, and beyond, where cross-national comparisons are illuminating. With dedicated expert policy and practice sections, it will also provide an essential forum for the exchange of ideas and new thinking.

Rigorous and stimulating, Voluntary Sector Review will be an indispensable tool for everyone who values empirically-grounded, theoretically-informed and policy-relevant reviews of the future direction of the voluntary sector.

Publication details
Voluntary Sector Review will be available in print and online (print ISSN 2040-8056; online ISSN 2040-8064). There will be three issues a year (March, July and November), each including five research articles, three short practice papers and two short policy reviews. More information is available in the flyer here (PDF).

The contents of the first issue (March 2010) is available here.

Editorial management board
The governance structure of the journal will involve a small editorial team whose members will be directly responsible for the journal. They will be advised by a wider Editorial Management Board; this body will be elected by the VSSN membership and will be responsible for appointing the editorial team members, in consultation with TPP. The Editorial Management Board will also be responsible for assembling an International Advisory Board, comprising major figures who can advise on the development and direction of the journal.

This structure is intended to provide VSSN membership with an active role in its journal, not only by publishing their work in it but also by participating in the elections to the Editorial Management Board, as candidates and voters. The results of the first election was announced at the VSSN Annual General Meeting on 2 December 2009. Members elected to the Editorial Management Board are:

Pete Alcock (University of Birmingham)
Margaret Harris (Institute for Voluntary Action Research)
Rob Macmillan (University of Birmingham)
John Mohan  (University of Southampton)
Gareth Morgan (University of Sheffield Hallam)
Cathy Pharoah (Cass Business School, City University)

Editorial team
Editor: Peter Halfpenny (University of Manchester)
Assistant Editor: Pete Alcock (University of Birmingham)
Assistant Editor: Cathy Pharaoh (Cass Business School, City University)
Practice Papers Editor: Colin Rochester (Roehampton University)
Policy Reviews Editors: Chris Cornforth and Julie Charlesworth (Open University Business School)

International advisory board
Helmut Anheier (University of California Los Angeles, USA)
Rene Bekkers (VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Carlo Borzaga  (University of Trento, Italy)
Jacques Defourny (University of Liege, Belgium)
Alnoor Ebrahim (Harvard Business School, USA)
Wendy Earles (James Cook University, Australia)
Adalbert Evers (Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany)
Ben Gidron (Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel)
Michael Hall (Imagine Canada)
Ewa Leś (Warsaw University, Poland)
Kym Madden (Queensland University of Technology, Australia)
Lucas Meijs (Erasmus University, The Netherlands)
Marthes Nyssens  (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium)
Steven Rathgeb Smith (University of Washington, USA)
Filip Wijkström (Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden)
Annette Zimmer (University of Münster, Germany)

Subscription information
A printed copy of the journal will be a new VSSN membership benefit, included in membership subscriptions from autumn 2009. There will be five income-related bands representing a considerable discount on the cost of the journal to non-members, which is another reason to join the Network.

VSSN members (print copy only)

VSSN organisational member will receive one print copy of VSR.

Non members (print copy only)

Institutional rates

Call for papers
Submissions are now invited for the following three sections of the journal:
Academic articles (7-8000 words): These may cover research and analysis of any part of the voluntary sector – or the third sector and civil society more generally. Articles may include scholarly inquiry, research findings and applied analysis of relevance to practitioners and decision-makers.
Practice papers (1500-2000 words): Short contributions from practitioners commenting on governance, management, fundraising or operational issues, including case-studies or examples of change and development within their own organisations, lessons learned, and wider practice implications.
Policy reviews (1500-2000 words): Short commentaries on recent changes or new initiatives within the UK policy environment or within other comparable national or regional policy contexts, including new policy ideas emanating from think tanks and voluntary sector agencies as well as formal proposals from government.

In all three sections, contributions with an international scope are especially welcome, especially where comparisons illuminate the UK experience.

All submissions will be subject to normal peer review processes. The Editorial Team aim to provide quick decisions and to ensure that submission to publication takes the minimum possible time. Notes for contributors on style will be available shortly.

For more information, download the VSR notes for contributors here.

Free trial
Voluntary Sector Review will be available free of charge to institutions in 2010: sign up here for a free trial subscription.

Contact
For further information, or to submit a paper, please contact VSReditor@vssn.org.uk (Peter Halfpenny, Editor).

Further details about the Journal are available via the Policy Press.