It is my great pleasure and honor to have been selected as the new Editor-in-Chief of The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Dr. Thomas Kosten, the previous Editor-in-Chief, and his Assisting Editor, Dr. Coreen Domingo, have dramatically increased the stature and quality of the Journal over the past 5 years. Their efforts have left us in an excellent position to further increase the Journal’s visibility and impact. Our Impact Factor has increased to 1.553 and we are now ranked 10 out of 29 addiction journals and 51 out of 109 psychology journals. I have greatly appreciated our Board’s, and particularly our Associate Editor Dr. Ralph Tarter’s, support during this transition.
The direction of the Journal will continue Dr. Kosten’s efforts to increase our neurobiological focus, including preclinical studies, clinical translation investigations, and pharmacological treatments. We will, of course, maintain an interest in publishing important papers on public policy, psychosocial treatments, and risk and resilience factors related to alcohol and drug use disorders as well as the behavior addictions. New areas of focus include public policy approaches related to harm reduction and the medicinal use of substances traditionally considered substances of abuse. We will also be continuing our annual Special Issue, focusing on an emerging area of investigation in the addictions. Our last issue presented a superb compilation on “Advancing American Indian/Alaska Native Substance Abuse Research,” guest edited by our colleagues at NIDA and NIAAA.
This issue also introduces a new feature, Perspectives, offering the opportunity for authors to present controversial views on public policy, etiological, or treatment issues related to addiction. In this issue, Dr. Anna Lembke offers an alternative view of Dr. Khantzian’s Self-Medication Hypothesis (SMH) of addictive disorders. We hope these articles encourage and provoke discussion.
Other new features and guidelines of interest:
| • | The maximum length of original manuscripts has been increased from 2400 words to 3000 words. | ||||
| • | Reviews of up to 4000 words will now be considered. | ||||
| • | Commentaries from leaders in the field will be invited to their offer insights on original manuscripts being published in the Journal. | ||||
| • | Letters to the Editor will be considered for publication. Letters can include either short case reports or comments on recently published original manuscripts or reviews. | ||||
| • | Open access will be available for two selected manuscripts in each issue upon print publication. These manuscripts will be available for 2 weeks on the Journal home website (http://informahealthcare.com/toc/ada/current) and for 4 weeks on the Informa Reading Room (http://informahealthcare.com/readingroom). | ||||
Please feel free to contact me with queries regarding potential manuscripts or other comments or questions. Robbi Banks ([email protected]), our Editorial Assistant, may be contacted for administrative issues related to manuscript submission and reviews.
Bryon Adinoff, M.D.
UT Southwestern Medical Center,
VA North Texas Health Care System
E-mail: [email protected]