Objective: Bibliometrics is a method of examining scholarly communications. Concerns regarding the utility of bibliometrics in general, and the impact factor score (IFS) in particular, have been discussed across disciplines including social work. While there are frequent mentions in the literature of the IFS as an indicator of the impact or quality of scholars' work, little empirical work has been published regarding the validity of such use.Method: A proportionate, stratified, random sample, of n=323 articles was selected from 17 Web of Science listed social work journals published during the 1992-1994 period. Results:The relationship between journals' impact factor scores and the actual impact of articles published in those journals (predictive validity) was r = .41 (short term) and r = .42 (long term).

Objective: Assessing the achievement of social work educational outcomes is a requirement of the Council on Social Work Education's Educational Policy and Standards (EPAS). The Evaluation Self-Efficacy Scale (ESE) was created to assess student progress in advanced concentration courses focused on evaluation and thereby provide data regarding attainment of EPAS-related objectives. Method: This social cognitive theory—derived scale was pretested, revised, and then used with a final sample of 85 master's-level students in a single-group, pretest-posttest-retrospective pretest study. Results: Cronbach alphas for the ESE were .94 or greater. Evidence of both content and construct validity was obtained. Conclusion: The results provide evidence that supports the psychometric properties of data obtained using the ESE.

Objective: The current study seeks to provide estimates of the adequacy of journal coverage in the Social Work Abstracts (SWA) database. Method: A total of 23 journals listed in the Journal Citation Reports social work category during the 1997 to 2005 period were selected for study. Issue-level coverage estimates were obtained for SWA and PsycINFO, the comparison database. Results: Both databases provided less than optimal coverage of social work journals, and SWA performed significantly worse than did PsycINFO. Both databases provided better coverage of National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Press journals than non-NASW Press journals. Conclusion: The results provide evidence of substantial deficits in SWA that merit serious concern.

This study's objective was to examine the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and childhood aggressive behavior in African-American and Puerto Rican children, as well as the relationship between maternal unconventional behavior, low maternal affection, and offspring aggression. Participants consisted of African-American and Puerto Rican children (N = 203; mean age = 8.6, SD = 0.87) and their mothers living in an inner city community. An interview consisting of a structured questionnaire was administered to the mothers and their children. Scales with adequate psychometric properties were adapted from previous validated measures. They included maternal smoking during pregnancy, maternal education, unconventionality, and warmth. Controlling for demographic factors, maternal unconventional behavior, and low maternal warmth, maternal smoking during pregnancy was associated with having offspring who were aggressive. Maternal unconventionality and warmth were independently related to childhood aggression. Although causal limitations are noted, it may be that a decrease in smoking during pregnancy is associated with a reduction in aggression in the offspring.

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