Academic merit, professional needs, and social work education

It may be claimed that journals catering primarily to the needs of social w ork practitioners should place more emphasis on the practice wisdom and exp eriences of reviewers than on the academic criteria normally used by schola rly journals. This claim is rejected by the author and instead, it is argue d that social work journals need to be doubly vigilant to ensure that work only of the highest qualify is published. Strict adherence to academic meri t will nor only serve fire needs of social work educators but also of profe ssional practitioners.