Drug and Alcohol Review

Published on behalf of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs (APSAD)

Edited by:
Professor Robin Room

Print ISSN: 0959-5236
Online ISSN: 1465-3362
Frequency: Bi-monthly
Current Volume: 28 / 2009
ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 6/21 Substance Abuse (Social Science)
Impact Factor: 1.926

TopAuthor Guidelines

AIMS AND SCOPE
Drug and Alcohol Review is the official journal of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs (APSAD), and publishes independently refereed papers on clinical, biomedical, psychological and sociological aspects of alcohol, tobacco and drug use. Papers are published in five sections: Original Papers, Reviews and Commentaries, Brief Communications, Asia Pacific Column and Harm Reduction Digest. Letters to the Editor and Book Reviews are also welcomed. The Journal also regularly publishes Special Issues and Special Sections on particular topics of interest.

EDITORIAL REVIEW AND ACCEPTANCE
The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to our readership. Except where otherwise stated, manuscripts are peer reviewed by at least two anonymous reviewers and the Editor. Final acceptance or rejection rests with the Editorial Board, who reserves the right to refuse any material for publication.
Where contributions are judged as acceptable for publication on the basis of content, the Editor and the Publisher reserve the right to modify typescripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition and improve communication between author and reader. If extensive alterations are required, the manuscript will be returned to the author for revision.

MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES
Manuscripts are published in five sections:

(i) ''Original Papers'', which are reports of new research findings that make a significant contribution to knowledge;
(ii) ''Reviews and Commentaries'', which may be critical reviews of the literature or analyses of the philosophy, organisation and development of clinical, education or preventive strategies;
(iii) ''Brief Communications'', which describe the preliminary findings of research in progress of a case report of particular interest;
(iv) ''Asia Pacific Column''; and
(v) ''Harm Reduction Digest".

Original papers and reviews should not normally exceed 2500 words and brief communications should not exceed 1000 words. Editorial articles are usually commissioned but unsolicited material may be considered. Authors should communicate with the editor in advance of submitting such material. Letters to the editor and book reviews are also welcomed.

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Manuscripts should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/dar. Authors must supply an email address as all correspondence will be by email. Two files should be supplied: the covering letter and the manuscript (in Word or rich text format (.rtf)). The covering letter should be uploaded as a file not for review.
All articles submitted to the Journal must comply with these instructions. Failure to do so will result in return of the manuscript and possible delay in publication.
Authors should note that Word 2007 is not yet compatible with journal production systems. Unfortunately, the journal cannot accept Microsoft Word 2007 documents until such time as a stable production version is released. Please use Word's 'Save As' option therefore to save your document as an older (.doc) file type.

• Submissions should be double-spaced.
• All margins should be at least 30 mm.
• All pages should be numbered consecutively in the top right-hand corner, beginning with the title page.
• Do not use Enter at the end of lines within a paragraph.
• Turn the hyphenation option off; include only those hyphens that are essential to the meaning.
• Specify any special characters used to represent non-keyboard characters.
• Take care not to use l (ell) for 1 (one), O (capital o) for 0 (zero) or ß (German esszett) for β (Greek beta).
• Use a tab, not spaces, to separate data points in tables. If you use a table editor function, ensure that each data point is contained within a unique cell (i.e. do not use carriage returns within cells).

Each figure should be supplied as a separate file, with the figure number incorporated in the file name. For submission, low-resolution figures saved as .jpg or .bmp files should be uploaded, for ease of transmission during the review process. Upon acceptance of the article, high-resolution figures (at least 300 d.p.i.) saved as .eps or .tif files should be uploaded. Digital images supplied only as low-resolution files cannot be used.
Further instructions are available at the submission site.

Covering letter
Papers are accepted for publication in the Journal on the understanding that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. This must be stated in the covering letter.
The covering letter must also contain an acknowledgement that all authors have contributed significantly, and that all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript.
Authors must declare any financial support or relationships that may pose conflict of interest.
If tables or figures have been reproduced from another source, a letter from the copyright holder (usually the Publisher), stating authorisation to reproduce the material, must be attached to the covering letter.

Author material archive policy
Authors who require the return of any submitted material that is accepted for publication should inform the Editorial Office after acceptance. If no indication is given that author material should be returned, Wiley-Blackwell will dispose of all hardcopy and electronic material two months after publication.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Authors must state that the protocol for the research project has been approved by a suitably constituted Ethics Committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken and that it conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in Tokyo 2004), available at http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm.
All investigations on human subjects must include a statement that the subject gave informed consent. Patient anonymity should be preserved. Photographs need to be cropped sufficiently to prevent human subjects being recognized (or an eye bar should be used).

COPYRIGHT
Authors publishing in the Journal will be asked to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement. In signing the form it is assumed that authors have obtained permission to use any copyrighted or previously published material. All authors must read and agree to the conditions outlined in the form, and must sign the form or agree that the corresponding author can sign on their behalf. Articles cannot be published until a signed form has been received. Authors can download the form from http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/DAR_CTA.pdf

STYLE OF THE MANUSCRIPT
Manuscripts should follow the style of the Vancouver agreement detailed in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' revised 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication', as presented at http://www.ICMJE.org/

Spelling. The Journal uses Australian spelling and authors should therefore follow the latest edition of the Macquarie Dictionary.

Units. All measurements must be given in SI or SI-derived units with traditional units in parentheses; exceptions are blood pressure which should be expressed in mm Hg and haemoglobin concentration (g/dl).

Abbreviations. An explanation of all abbreviations should be given on the first occasion of their use, with the exception of abbreviations of certain standard units of measurement and statistical measures of variation such as SD and SEM which may be used without explanation.

Trade names. Drugs should be given their approved, not proprietary, names and the source of any new or experimental preparation should be given.

PARTS OF THE MANUSCRIPT
Manuscripts should be presented in the following order: (i) title page, (ii) abstract and key words, (iii) text, (iv) acknowledgements, (v) references, (vi) appendices, (vii) figures, (viii) tables (each table complete with title and footnotes) and (ix) figure legends. Footnotes to the text are not allowed and any such material should be incorporated into the text as parenthetical matter.

Title page
The title page should contain (i) the title of the paper, (ii) the full names and qualifications of the authors and (iii) the name of department(s) and institution(s) at which the work was carried out together with (iv) the full postal and email address, plus facsimile and telephone numbers, of the author to whom correspondence about the manuscript should be sent.
The title should be concise, but informative. Do not use abbreviations in the title. A short running title (less than 40 characters) should also be provided.

Abstract and key words
The second page should carry a structured abstract of not more than 250 words, using the following headings:

For original papers - Introduction and Aims, Design and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions
For reviews - Issues, Approach, Key Findings, Implications, Conclusion

Five key words, for the purposes of indexing, should be supplied below the abstract and should be taken from those recommended by the US National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) browser list at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html

Text
The text of original papers should conform to the conventional structure for biomedical communications - introduction, methods (or patients and methods), results and discussion. The format of reviews and commentaries is likely to differ from this and authors should consult previous issues of the Journal for guidance. Brief communications should in general conform to the format of original papers except that certain sections of the text may be combined if appropriate.
It is important to justify statements concerning results by describing the statistical methods employed and the results of the tests of statistical significance.
We suggest that authors follow guidelines for the Discussion section of their paper, as reported in the British Medical Journal:

• Statement of principal findings
• Strengths and weaknesses of the study
• Strengths and weaknesses in relation to other studies, discussing particularly any differences in results
• Meaning of the study: possible mechanisms and implications for clinicians or policymakers
• Unanswered questions and future research
(From: Docherty M, Smith R. The case for structuring the discussion of scientific papers. BMJ 1999;318;1224-1225)

Acknowledgements
The source(s) of support in the form of financial grants, equipment or drugs may be stated in the acknowledgement section. The contribution of colleagues or institutions should also be acknowledged. Personal thanks and thanks to anonymous reviewers are not appropriate.

References
The Vancouver system of referencing should be used. References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Indicate in the text with Arabic numbers inside square brackets (e.g. [1] or [2-7] or [4, 5]). If cited in tables or figure legends, number according to the first identification of the table or figure in the text.
In the reference list, cite the names of all authors when there are six or fewer; when seven or more, list the first three followed by et al. Names of journals should be abbreviated in the style used in Index Medicus. Authors should try to avoid using abstracts as references. Reference to unpublished data and personal communications should not appear in the list but should be cited in the text only (e.g. Smith A, 2000, unpublished data). Manuscripts accepted but not yet published may be referenced as usual; in the list of references, the journal should be named and the phrase ''in press'' should follow. All citations mentioned in the text, tables or figures must be listed in the reference list.
We recommend the use of a tool such as EndNote or Reference Manager for reference management and formatting. EndNote reference styles can be searched for here: http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp. Reference Manager reference styles can be searched for here: http://www.refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp
References should be formatted as follows:

Journal articles
[1] Rose G. International trends in cardiovascular disease: implications for prevention and treatment. Aust NZJ Med 2005;14:375-80.
[2] Smith AD, Phillips M, Gillis BZ, et al. Drugs and their impact on society. Br J Psychiatry 2006;80:415-17.

Online article not yet published in an issue
[3] Leggio L, Ferrulli A, Malandrino N, et al. Insulin but not insulin growth factor-1 correlates with craving in currently drinking alcohol-dependent patients. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2007; doi: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2007.00589.x

Book
[4] Henderson S, Byrne DG, Duncan-Jones P. Neurosis and the social environment, 3rd edn. Sydney: Academic Press, 1981.

Chapter in a book
[5] Weinstein L, Swartz MN. Pathogenic properties of invading microorganisms. In: Sodeman WA Jr, Sodeman WA, eds. Pathologic physiology: mechanisms of disease. Philadelphia: WB Saunders, 1999:457-72.

Website
[6] Cancer-Pain.org [homepage on the Internet]. Association of Cancer Online Resources, New York c2000-01. Available at: http://www.cancerpain.org/ (accessed June 2007).

Tables
Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text. Number tables consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals. Explanatory matter, including definition of abbreviations, should be placed in footnotes. Type tables on a separate page with the legend above; legends should be concise but comprehensive - the table, legend and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses. If data are used from another published or unpublished paper, the original source should be cited.

Figures
All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures. Figures should be cited in consecutive order in the text. Figures should be sized to fit within the column (82 mm), intermediate (120 mm) or the full text width (172 mm). Magnifications should be indicated using a scale bar on the illustration.
Line figures should be sharp, black and white graphs or diagrams, drawn professionally or with a computer graphics package. Lettering must be included and should be sized to be no larger than the journal text.
Type figure legends on a separate page. Legends should be concise but comprehensive - the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.
There is an upper limit of five (5) tables and figures (combined) per manuscript. If a paper requires more than this number of tables and figures, the author(s) should provide justification in their cover letter.

ONLINE GUIDELINES
Visit the Drug and Alcohol Review home page at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/dar for more information, and Wiley-Blackwell's web pages for submission guidelines and digital graphics standards at http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/journal.asp and http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/illustration.asp
Author Services enables authors to track their article, once it has been accepted, through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated emails at key stages of production so they do not need to contact the production editor to check on progress. Visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor for more details on online production tracking and for a wealth of resources, including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.
Drug and Alcohol Review is also available online at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com

Early View
Drug and Alcohol Review is covered by our Early View service. Early View articles are complete full-text articles published online in advance of their publication in a printed issue. Early View articles are complete and final. They have been fully reviewed, revised and edited for publication, and the authors' final corrections have been incorporated. Because they are in final form, no changes can be made after online publication. The nature of Early View articles means that they do not yet have volume, issue or page numbers, so Early View articles cannot be cited in the traditional way. They are therefore given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows the article to be cited and tracked before it is allocated to an issue. After print publication, the DOI remains valid and can continue to be used to cite and access the article. More information about DOIs can be found at http://www.doi.org/faq.html

PROOFS
It is essential that corresponding authors supply an email address to which correspondence can be emailed while their article is in production. Notification of the URL from where to download a Portable Document Format (PDF) typeset page proof, associated forms and further instructions will be sent by email to the corresponding author. The purpose of the PDF proof is a final check of the layout, and of tables and figures. Alterations other than the essential correction of errors are unacceptable at PDF proof stage. The proof should be checked, and approval to publish the article should be emailed to the Publisher by the date indicated, otherwise, it may be signed off on by the Editor or held over to the next issue.

OFFPRINTS
A free PDF offprint will be supplied to the corresponding author. Paper offprints may be ordered online. Please visit http://offprint.cosprinters.com/, fill in the necessary details and ensure that you type information in all of the required fields. If you have queries about offprints please email offprint@cosprinters.com

EDITORIAL OFFICE ADDRESS
Editorial Officer
Drug and Alcohol Review
PO Box 73, Surry Hills
NSW 2010 AUSTRALIA
Email: dar@apsad.org.au