Do social work scholars respond to requests for reprints? A study of authors who publish in NASW journals

The authors of articles published in scholarly journals have an obligation to engage in correspondence about their work after it is published, including providing reprints of their entire article. We examined the compliance of the corresponding authors of all articles published in 1993 in the four journals produced by the National Association of Social Workers to such a request for a reprint. Replies were received from 62% of the authors, with most responses (79%) arriving within 60 days. The majority (82%) of the authors were affiliated with academic institutions but compliance with requests for reprints did not appreciably vary between academic (62% compliance) and non-academic (60%) authors. Several practical suggestions are given to increase the probability that social work authors will respond to requests for reprints.