As newsletter readers will know, the Social Services Research Group (SSRG) and LARIA are now merged. LARIA members may not be aware that SSRG has been publishing a peer review journal – Research Policy and Planning – for the past 30 years.  LARIA does not have its own journal so we hope that the merger, and availability of the journal will be a significant new addition to the things we provide for our members.

The latest edition of Research, Policy and Planning – http://ssrg.org.uk/research-policy-and-planning-volume-32-2/– is available online and is OPEN ACCESS (18 August 2017). We try to publish the journal three times a year, and are keen to publish research by researchers and practitioners working in both in local and central government, as well as other statutory bodies and voluntary agencies and academic institutions. We define ‘research’ quite broadly: we welcome empirical studies, policy analyses, planning reports, literature reviews and review articles. Descriptive accounts and case studies may be published as short reports.

Research Policy and Planning’s focus is social care, but this is also broadly interpreted. As well as publishing articles on research carried out in the fields of adult social care or children’s services, we have also published papers in other related fields such as health, housing, welfare, substance misuse, telecare, re-ablement, and other topics which we think will be of interest to our readers.

Following the merger of our two organisations, we wanted to extend a warm invitation to LARIA members who may not have come across our journal before to consider submitting their work to us. If you’re unsure about whether something you’ve written would be suitable, please feel free  get in touch with one of us – john.woolham@kcl.ac.uk  or guy.daly@coventry.ac.uk . We’d be happy to discuss your ideas.