Guide for Authors
An International Journal on Biomedical and Psychosocial Approaches
Sponsored by the
College on Problems of Drug Dependence
Drug and Alcohol Dependence is an international journal devoted to publishing original research, scholarly reviews, commentaries,
and policy analyses in the area of drug, alcohol and tobacco use and dependence. It is sponsored by the College on Problems of Drug Dependence
(CPDD), the oldest scientific organization in the United States concerned with research on addiction. The goal of its editors is to promote
mutual understanding of the many facets of drug abuse to the benefit of all investigators involved in drug and alcohol research, and
to facilitate the transfer of scientific findings to successful treatment and prevention practices. Drug and Alcohol Dependence is currently
being distributed to all the members of CPDD.
Submission of Manuscripts
All submissions to Drug and Alcohol Dependence
are made online. Before beginning the submission process, authors are advised to read these instructions carefully and prepare the following
separate files in advance: 1) Abstract 2) Manuscript text including a title page, abstract, references and figure legends, 3) tables
(if any), 4) graphics files of figures (if any), 5)author disclosure statements (NEW! -see below) and 6) supplementary material for
viewing with the online version of the journal (if any). Although it is possible to perform the submission in several steps, authors
will find it easier to have all of the needed documents ready before they begin the process so it can be completed in one session.
By accessing the online submission system at
http://ees.elsevier.com/dad authors will be guided stepwise through the
creation and uploading of the various files. Authors will be requested to direct the manuscripts to the most appropriate Section/Category
of research to assist in editor assignment, to provide some Key Words to assist with indexing the article as well as to select one or
more scientific Classifications which will be used by the editor to identify reviewers with the appropriate expertise. There is a section
for Editor Comments where authors are invited to direct comments to the editors or suggest possible reviewers (please also provide e-mail
adresses) for their paper. If the paper has been invited to be part of a special issue of the journal, this issue can be selected during
the Section/Category step.
Once the uploading is done, the system automatically generates an electronic (PDF) proof, which is then
used for reviewing. The submitting author will be required to view this PDF and approve it for release to the journal office. All correspondence,
including the Editor's decision and request for revisions, will be processed through the system and will reach the corresponding author
by e-mail. Once a manuscript has successfully been submitted, authors may track the status of their manuscript using the online submission
system (details will be provided by e-mail).
For further details on how to submit online, please refer to the online Tutorial for
Authors which can be accessed on the submission page. Authors may send technical queries concerning the submission process to the Author
Support Team at
esubmissionsupport@elsevier.com. Alternatively, contact the Central Editorial Office for the journal
at
dad@vcu.edu.
Elsevier also provides 24/7 Telephone Support for:
The Americas: +1 888 834 7287
Asia & Pacific: +81 3 5561 5032
Europe & the rest of the world: +353 61 709 190
Preparation of manuscripts
Manuscripts
should be written in English. Drug and Alcohol Dependence is an international journal. Authors should avoid overly parochial national
or regional perspectives. Addressing a geographically, politically, and culturally diverse readership will enhance the impact of your
paper.
Types of Papers
Full-length Reports reporting original results of research within the field of
drug, alcohol and tobacco use and dependence.
Review Articles of specialized topics within the scope of the journal. Typically,
these are critical reviews of a field of research.
Short Communications reporting on research that has progressed to the stage
where a preliminary publication is appropriate. The maximum length allowed will be 2000 words plus references and illustrations. There
should be not more than 2 illustrations (figure or tables).
Commentaries express points of view on scientific matters or published
papers. Typically, commentaries are solicited by the editors, but authors who wish to submit commentaries are advised to contact the
editor-in-chief to discuss the suitability of the proposed paper. The journal does not publish letters to the editor, individual case
studies or book reviews.
Manuscript submission requirements
The online manuscript submission system will guide you when
and how to submit the following required items:
1) There should be a
title page which provides a title and
addresses
(including postal codes)
for all of the authors as they should appear in the publication and full
contact details for the corresponding
author (address with postal codes and countries, phone, FAX and E-mail).
2) An
abstract with a 200-word summary
(250-word maximum). Abstracts can be either unstructured or structured with specific sections describing the background, methods, results
and conclusions.
3) 3-6
key words or phrases for indexing placed on the bottom of the abstract page.
4)
The body of research reports will generally include introduction, methods, results and discussion sections. Further subheadings
are acceptable. Review papers should also use section headings and subheadings. Sections should be numbered using the 1., 1.1, 1.1.1,
2., 2.1 etc. system. Extensive use of footnoting is not encouraged.
5) References should be assembled beginning on a separate
sheet. Within the text they should be referred to by author surname and year. When referring to a work by more than two authors, the
name of the first author should be given followed by et al. Examples of the correct format for citation within the text are (Jessor and
Jessor, 1977; Smith and Davis, 1975) and (Chutuape et al., 2001). Citations to organization reports should spell out the name of the
organization (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2005). Personal communications and papers submitted for publication should be so indicated
and appear with the source or author's name(s) in the text in parentheses. In the References section of the manuscript, they should be
listed alphabetically by first author surname and must consist of names and initials of all authors, year, title of paper, abbreviated
title of journal, volume number and first and last page numbers of the paper. Abbreviations of journal titles should conform to those
used by Index Medicus (
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html). References to journals, books, chapters and reports
should be in accord with the following examples:
Chutuape, M.A., Katz, E.C., Stitzer, M.L., 2001. Methods for enhancing transition
of substance dependent patients from inpatient to outpatient treatment. Drug Alcohol Depend. 61, 137-143.
Jessor, R., Jessor, S.L.,
1977. Problem Behaviour and Psychosocial Development: A Longitudinal Study of Youth. Academic Press, New York.
National Institute on
Drug Abuse, 2005. Epidemiologic Trends in Drug Abuse. Vol. 1: Proceedings of the Community Epidemiology Work Group. Highlights and
Executive Summary. NIH Publication No. 07-5879A. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC.
Smith, S.G., Davis,
W.M., 1975. A method for chronic intravenous drug administration in the rat. In: Ehrenpreis, S., Neidle, A. (Eds.), Methods in Narcotics
Research. Marcel Dekker, New York, pp. 3-21.
To cite material on the internet, the authors (if known) or organization, title of the
page and the URL should be provided along with an [accessed on [date]] to indicate a date on which the cited material was present. Only
internet pages of a relatively permanent nature should be cited (e.g. reports, data bases, electronic journals).
6) Figure legends
(descriptive captions) should be numbered consecutively and typed on a separate page as a text file and included as part of the manuscript,
not placed within the graphics file of the illustration. If there is more than one figure, the legends should be placed together on one
page (or more if necessary).
7) Tables should be prepared as text files and are to be numbered consecutively (Table 1, Table
2, etc.) and uploaded as a step in the submission process. The captions go above the body of the Table and are left justified; Tables
are read from the top down, consistent with others in this journal.
8) Figures of good quality should be submitted online
as a separate file. The lettering should be large enough to permit photographic reduction. Simple black on white reproduces best, so
avoid shading in the background and the use of 3D and other enhancements. If possible, place the key to the symbols or lines within
the axes of the graph. Do not place the legend within the graphics file, as this is printed below the image by the publisher. If there
are more than one panel in the figure, please assemble the panels as you would like them to appear in the journal within a single graphics
file. Please refer to the generic Elsevier artwork instructions available in the "Author Information" menu on
http://ees.elsevier.com/dad/
NOTE:
Tables and figures should be so constructed that they, together with their captions and legends, will be intelligible
with minimal reference to the text.
Clinical Trials
9)
Drug and Alcohol Dependence endorses the policy of the International
Committee of Medical Journal Editors (guidelines available at
www.icmje.org) on the
registration of clinical trials.
The ICMJE defines a clinical trial "as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or concurrent comparison
or control groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Medical interventions
include drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, process-of-care changes, and the like." Any trial that started recruiting
on or after 1 July 2005 should be registered in a publicly owned, publicly accessible registry and should satisfy a minimal standard
dataset. Please include the trial identification number within the manuscript. Should the ms be accepted, trials registered in
www.clinicaltrials.gov
will be hyperlinked in the online version of papers. There will be considerable flexibility in this policy during the first years of
its implementation, so authors should not be discouraged from submitting reports of unregistered but well designed and conducted trials
initiated after July 2005 without first contacting the editors.
Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs
Reports of clinical
trials are not always optimal and the editors of DAD encourage prospective authors to familiarise themselves with guidelines for reporting
essential elements for the relevant study design. For reports of randomized controlled trials authors should refer to the CONSORT statement
http://www.consort-statement.org/. The CONSORT guidelines provide a set of recommendations comprising a list of items to
report and a patient flow diagram. Reporting guidelines have also been developed for a number of other study designs:
Prior Publication of Results
The editors of
Drug and Alcohol Dependence believe that interpretation
of trial results and discussion of their clinical relevance are best suited to a peer-reviewed journal; however, we support disclosure
of non-peer reviewed study results in publicly accessible databases, subject to their presentation in a 'dispassionate' format. Should
you be considering disclosure of your results in a results database, please indicate which database and the timeframe of disclosure in
the accompanying submission letter (and include a copy of the results as they are planned to be disclosed). Presentation of results in
abstract, poster or oral presentation at a clinical or scientific meeting does not count as prior publication.
10) Author Disclosures - NEW!!
As is widely acknowledged within medical publishing, the integrity of articles
published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence depends in part on how well the Journal handles author disclosure. As described in detail below,
authors are requested to provide three mandatory and one optional author disclosure sections; please do not include them in the manuscripts.
The author disclosures will be automatically incorporated in the PDF builder of the online submission system. These statements will appear
in the journal article if the paper is accepted. It is highly recommended that authors prepare these author disclosures prior to going
online to submit the paper.
Sequence should be
Role of Funding Source (required; default text "Nothing declared"),
Contributors
(should always state something when more than 1 author),
Conflict of Interest (required; default text "No conflict declared")
and
Acknowledgements (optional).
The four statements should not be numbered
Headings should be in bold
No white
space between the heading and the text
Same font size as the references
Role of Funding Source (mandatory)
Authors
are kindly requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the manuscript
and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data;
in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement,
authors should so state.
eg, Funding for this study was provided by NIMH Grant XXXXXXX; the NIMH had no further role in study design;
in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the paper for publication.
Contributors (mandatory)
Authors are required to declare their individual contribution to the manuscript under a subheading
Contributors. All authors must have materially participated in the research and/or manuscript preparation, so roles for all authors
should be described. The statement that all authors have approved the final manuscript should be true and included in the disclosure.
eg, Authors X and Y designed the study and wrote the protocol. Author Z managed the literature searches and summaries of previous related
work . Authors X and Z undertook the statistical analysis, and author W wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed
to and have approved the final manuscript.
Conflict of Interest (mandatory)
The third aspect of the Journal's new policy
concerns Conflict of Interest. ALL authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial,
personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three (3) years of beginning the work submitted that could
inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work.
Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be
disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership (except for personal investment purposes equal to the lesser of one percent
(1%) or USD 5000), honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications, registrations, and grants. If there are no conflicts of interest,
authors should state that there are none.
eg, Author Y owns shares in pharma company A. Author X and Z have consulted for pharma
company B. All other authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgements (optional)
Finally, the
Journal will publish Acknowledgements, in a separate section, and not as a footnote on the title page. If there are no acknowledgements
there would be no heading or default language.
eg, We thank Mr A, who kindly provided the data necessary for our analysis, and Ms
B, who assisted with the preparation and proof-reading of the manuscript.
11) Supplementary material (when applicable). Elsevier
now also accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files will be published
online with the electronic version of your article in Elsevier web products, including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com.
NOTE: Your published article will be assigned a digital object identifier (DOI) which is used to cite and link to the electronic
documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial
electronic publication. The DOI will never change. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly Articles in Press
because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. The DOI can also be used to create an URL hyperlink to supplementary
material associated to an article.
When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never
to change.
Readers will complete the following steps to view the supplementary material for your paper:
1. Open the following
DOI site with a browser:
http://dx.doi.org
2. Enter the entire DOI citation in the text box provided, and then click
Go.
The article or supplementary material that matches the DOI citation appears in the browser window.
The DOI scheme is administered
by the International DOI Foundation. Many of the world's leading learned publishers have come together to build a DOI-based article linking
scheme known as
CrossRef.
The article in the journal must be complete and fully comprehensible without reference to the
Supplementary Material. The purpose of Supplementary Material is to provide additional and usually more detailed information for readers
who are particularly interested in the study. Supplementary Material is not an integral part of a published paper; the suitability of
the Supplementary Material is assessed by the editor but it is not subject to the peer review procedure as applied to articles in the
journal. Supplementary Material may either accompany the first version of a manuscript submitted to the journal or in response to a request
from an editor.
Scope of Supplementary material
. Several types of material may be included in Supplementary Material.
These may include more detailed tables of demographic data and of results and statistical analyses. In other cases, Supplementary Material
provides an opportunity for authors to publish questionnaires used for data collection that are too long for inclusion in the journal
article. Additional and more detailed figures and photographs, including colour pictures, can be reproduced in this way.
There is
also a possibility of supplying audio and video files as Supplementary Material; in such cases, authors are advised to seek the advice
of the Editor before preparing the material.
Format for submission
. Supplementary Material should begin with a statement
of the Title and Authors of an article exactly as they appear in the main manuscript, followed by the statement "This material supplements
but does not replace the content of the peer-reviewed paper published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence". Authors should ensure that the
journal article contains at least one footnote referring to the Supplementary Material.
The text of the Supplementary Material should
to the extent possible be styled according to the usual format of the journal. However, when the intention is to display materials in
an existing format (e.g. a questionnaire or psychological test materials), they may be reproduced without change.
Word-processor
or rtf files for widely-used computer systems are acceptable. Word-processor files may include graphics. Separate graphic items may also
be submitted in standard file formats such as metafiles, bitmaps, jpg or gif. Scanned images are acceptable but image sizes, colour depth
and resolution should be adjusted to the minimum necessary to convey the required information at high quality. Files should not be submitted
in proprietary formats that cannot be read without special software. At this time only media that can be read by Windows systems can
be accepted.
Supplementary Material relating to a particular article may be submitted as more than one file. However, if a large
number of files are submitted, editors may request they be combined into a smaller number of larger files. Editorial offices will convert
all submitted files to pdf format; all Supplementary Material for any one article will be incorporated into one pdf file.
There is
at present no specific limit on the file sizes for Supplementary Material but editors reserve the right to refuse excessively large files
or material that they consider unsuitable for any other reason.
Colour reproduction
Drug and Alcohol Dependence
is included in a new initiative from Elsevier: 'Colourful e-Products'. Through this initiative, figures that appear in black & white
in print can appear in colour, online, in ScienceDirect at
http://www.sciencedirect.com. There is no extra charge for authors
who participate.
For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of
your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for colour in print or on the Web only.
Because of technical complications
which can arise by converting colour figures to "grey scale" (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please
submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the colour illustrations. For further information on the preparation of electronic
artwork, please see the "Author Information" menu at
http://ees.elsevier.com/dad/
Ethics of experimentation
The journal and CPDD are committed to the protection of animal and human research subjects and ethical practices in science publishing.
Studies submitted to Drug and Alcohol Dependence must have been conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and according
to requirements of all applicable local and international standards. An example of a widely accepted standard for research subject protection
is the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Subjects as adopted and promulgated by the US National Institutes of Health. Studies
that entail pain or distress will be assessed in terms of the balance between the distress inflicted and the likelihood of benefit, and
must be of such a nature that their objectives could not have been achieved by using less stressful procedures. All authors must conform
to the highest standards of ethical conduct in the submission of accurate data, acknowledging the work of others, and divulging potential
conflicts of interests. Policies on the handling of evidence for scientific misconduct can be obtained from the editors.
Copyright
transfer
Upon acceptance of an article, you will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright see right
hand menu "Author Information" at
http://ees.elsevier.com/dad). This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination
of information. If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included in the submission, the author(s) must obtain written permission
from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has pre-printed forms for use by authors in these cases:
contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Philadelphia, PA, USA: phone (+1) 215 238 7869, fax (+1) 215 238 2239, e-mail
healthpermissions@elsevier.com
Requests for materials from other Elsevier publications may also be completed on-line via the Elsevier homepage
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions.
Proofs
One set of proofs will be sent to the corresponding author. A form with queries from the copyeditor may accompany
your proofs. Please answer all queries and make any corrections within 2 days of receipt. No alteration of the substance of the text,
tables or figures will be allowed at this stage. Should there be no corrections, please confirm this.
Elsevier will do everything
possible to get your article corrected and published as quickly and accurate as possible. In order to do this we need your help. When
you receive the (PDF) proof of your article for correction it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us
in one communication. Subsequent corrections will not be possible, so please ensure your first sending is complete.
Tracking Accepted
Manuscripts
After acceptance of your article by the journal, and following receipt of the files at Elsevier, authors can keep
track of the progress of their accepted article, and set up e-mail alerts informing them of changes in their manuscript's status using
the 'Track Your Paper' feature of Elsevier's Author Gateway (
http://authors.elsevier.com/TrackPaper.html). You will receive
a unique reference code together with the acknowledgement e-mail from Elsevier sent upon receipt of your manuscript files in the Elsevier
production system.
Authors in Japan please note
Upon request, Elsevier will provide authors with a list of people who
can check and improve the English of their paper (before submission). Please contact our Tokyo office: Elsevier Japan, 4F Higashi-Azabu,
1-Chome Bldg, 1-9-15 Higashi-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0044, Japan, Phone: (03)-5561-5032; Fax: (03)-5561-5045; e-mail:
jp.info@elsevier.com
Reprints
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. The PDF file
is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining
the terms and conditions of use.
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