Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care
The Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care is a peer-reviewed journal published twice a year. Its purpose is to advance the discussion of the theory and practice of Christian formation and soul care for the sake of the educational ministries of the church, Christian education, and other para-church organizations through scholarly publications that are rooted in biblical exegesis, systematic theology, the history of Christian spirituality, philosophical analysis, psychological theory/research, spiritual theology, and Christian experience.
The journal features articles which develop an in-depth understanding of the need, nature, and practical components of spiritual transformation in Christ as well as articles which articulate the theory and practice of various kinds of soul care that are vital to such formation. In addition to full-length articles, the journal also publishes shorter essays that offer scholarly reflection on issues in the field of spiritual formation and soul care, alongside select book reviews and review essays. The major intent of the editors is to place before the scholarly and lay communities writing that will foster the field of spiritual formation and soul care as that has been understood and developed within historic Christianity.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
The Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care is a peer-reviewed journal published twice a year. Its purpose is to advance the discussion of the theory and practice of Christian formation and soul care for the sake of the educational ministries of the church, Christian education, and other para-church organizations through scholarly publications that are rooted in biblical exegesis, systematic theology, the history of Christian spirituality, philosophical analysis, psychological theory/research, spiritual theology, and Christian experience.
The journal features articles which develop an in-depth understanding of the need, nature, and practical components of spiritual transformation in Christ as well as articles which articulate the theory and practice of various kinds of soul care that are vital to such formation. In addition to full-length articles, the journal also publishes shorter essays that offer scholarly reflection on issues in the field of spiritual formation and soul care, alongside select book reviews and review essays. The major intent of the editors is to place before the scholarly and lay communities writing that will foster the field of spiritual formation and soul care as that has been understood and developed within historic Christianity.
| Steven L. Porter | Biola University, USA |
| John H. Coe | Biola University, USA |
| Kyle Strobel | Biola University, USA |
| Angela Wisdom | Biola University, USA |
| Keith R. Anderson | The Seattle School of Theology, USA |
| Richard Averbeck | Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, USA |
| Betsy Barber | Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, USA |
| Ruth Haley Barton | The Transforming Center, USA |
| Simon Chan | Trinity Theological College, Singapore |
| Diane J. Chandler | School of Divinity, Regent University, USA |
| Larry Crabb | NewWay Ministries, USA |
| Bruce Demarest | Denver Theological Seminary, USA |
| Todd Hall | Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University, USA |
| Bruce Hindmarsh | Regent College, Canada |
| James Houston | Regent College, Canada |
| Evan B. Howard | Spirituality Shoppe, USA |
| Klaus Issler | Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, USA |
| Bill Johnson | Cornerstone Church of Boston, USA |
| Eric L. Johnson | Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, USA |
| Kelly M. Kapic | Covenant College, USA |
| Catherine Looker, SSJ | Chestnut Hill College, USA |
| Richard Lovelace | Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, USA |
| Keith Meyer | Becoming the Change Ministries, USA |
| Gary Moon | Dallas Willard Center for Christian Spiritual Formation, Westmont College, USA |
| J. P. Moreland | Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, USA |
| Richard Peace | Fuller Theological Seminary, USA |
| Greg Peters | Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University, USA |
| Todd Pickett | Biola University, USA |
| Rob Rhea | Trinity Western University, Canada |
| William Roth | Loma Linda University, USA |
| Steve Sandage | Boston University, USA |
| Fred Sanders | Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University, USA |
| Tom Schwanda | Wheaton College, USA |
| Glen G. Scorgie | Bethel Seminary San Diego, USA |
| Gerald Sittser | Whitworth University, USA |
| Gordon T. Smith | Ambrose University, Canada |
| James Bryan Smith | Friends University, USA |
| Kyle Strobel | Biola University, USA |
| Debbie Swindoll | Grafted Life Ministries, USA |
| Siang Yang Tan | School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary, USA |
| Judy Ten Elshof | Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, USA |
| Theresa C. Tisdale | Azusa Pacific University, USA |
| Michael Wilkins | Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, USA |
| James Willhoit | Wheaton College, USA |
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal's submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jsf to submit 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 Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care 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 Journal 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 Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print 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 journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - 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 - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
1.Articles
The preferred length of articles is between 5,000 and 9,000 words.
2. Reflections
Preferred length of reflections is between 3,000 and 5,000 words. Brief discussions of focused issues in the field of spiritual formation and soul care, including responses to previously published articles in the journal.
3. Book Reviews
800-1200 words. The journal accepts unsolicited book reviews but it is advisable to consult the Editor [steve.porter@biola.edu] in advance.
4. Review Essays
These may be slightly longer than the book review word limit.
The Editors reserve the right to return papers to authors where they exceed word limits. Submission of a manuscript to another journal while under review by the Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care is unethical. Breach of this principle will result in the paper being removed from consideration for publication in Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care. Each manuscript must be accompanied by a signed statement that it has not been published previously and that it has not and will not be sent for consideration by another journal while submitted to the Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care.
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:
• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
• The author has recommended the reviewer
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).
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.
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.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care 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 that: 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
Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
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
Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care 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 journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised 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
Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care 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 (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
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 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. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.
Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care adheres to the Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.) reference style. Please submit manuscripts with references formatted accordingly.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you carefully read and adhere to all the guidelines and instructions to authors provided below. Manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts.
Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jsf to login 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 journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
1. Manuscripts should be double-spaced with margins and in 12-point font.
2. Manuscripts should be submitted with the name and affiliation of the author as a supplementary document to preserve anonymity. Please include address, title, degree(s) and institutions(s) where earned, specialization(s), telephone number, fax number, and email address if available.
Please provide the word count on the manuscript.
3. All manuscripts should be accompanied by an abstract of maximum 150 words plus 5 or 6 key words.
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 our editing portal Sage Edit or by 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 Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care Editor: steve.porter@biola.edu