Guide for Authors

Submission System

Articles should be submitted via journal's website at: AHJ.kmu.ac.ir 

Registration and login are required to submit items online and to check the status of current submissions.

Article Processing Charge/Open Access Fee

There is no processing or publishing charge for publication in this journal.

 

Article Types

Addiction and Health accepts a variety of research types as follows:

  • Original Article should clearly describe the reason for undertaking the work, and present methods used and the results found in separate sections. Scientific interpretations based on the findings should be presented in a discussion section; a self-critical/examination of the findings is encouraged. The manuscript should be limited to 5,000 words and should be arranged in the following order: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgement, and References.
  • Review Article in one of the following forms:

- Systematic reviews that could be accompanied by meta-analysis, meta-synthesis or non-statistical analysis. These studies should follow an appropriate guideline (e.g. PRISMA) and should be arranged in the following order: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgement, and References.

 - Narrative reviews that discuss significant aspects of a topic relevant to addiction according to the existing literature. The paper should be prepared in maximum of 5000 words and could contain section headings according to the subject of the study, but should contain Title Page, Abstract, Acknowledgement, and References.

  • Case report provides a presentation of rare case with significane implications in addiction and should be prepared with a maximum of 3000 words. Case reports must include Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, Presentation of the Case, Discussion, Acknowledgement, and References.
  • Short Communication might be an original article, a systematic review or ongoing research (research project progress report) which is as reported as interesting/important findings it contains. The components of such an article should be similar to original research articles; however, they are smaller and should be made a maximum of 2000 words.
  • Letter to Editor should be in terms of criticizing the previously published articles/books, analyzing a relevant subject to addiction, elaboration and explanation of an idea or clarification of a complex subject in the field of addction. Letters should be prepared in maximum 1500 words.
  • Editorial is written by the journal editor or one of the journal editorial board members or the order of such articles is provided by the editor-in-chief to experts. The content of such articles might be in-depth analysis of trending subjects in the addiction field and must be prepared in maximum 2000 words.

Guides for Preparing the Manuscript

Manuscript Structure: The manuscript should be prepared in MSWord (.doc or .docs) format using 1 inch margins all around and double line spacing. Providing a Title Page, Abstract and Covering Letter is mandatory for all research types.

Title page: The title page should contain a concise informative title for the article, authors’ details (full name, academic membership and affiliation), running title as well as mailing address, telephone/ fax numbers and e-mail address of the corresponding author.

Abstract:

- The abstract of the original articles and systematic reviews should be structured in separate parts, including background, methods, results, conclusion and three to five keywords selected from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). The abstract should not exceed 250 words (150 words for short communications).

- The abstract of case reports should contain a summary of the presented case and the significane of reporting the case.

- The abstract of narrative review articles should contain a concise summary of the main points addressed in the article.

Introduction: The introduction section should contain the background and rationale of the study as well as indicating the objectives of the research.

Methods: The methods section should contain a detailed explanation of all the steps taken in the research except those that refer to standard techniques. The inclusion and exclusion of study subjects must be clearly provided. All the drugs and chemicals used in the study should be identified precisely (generic name, dose, and route of administration). For all used instruments give the manufacturer’s name and location (city/state/country). Mention any statistical method or computer program used in the study.

Results: This part could be presented in the form of text, tables, and illustrations and should contain only the results of the presented study. The results should be organized according to their order of importance.

Discussion: This section discusses the findings of the study and compares the findings according to the existing literature. Authors shoud avoid repeating whatever has been said in the introduction or results sections. Rather, they should emphasize on the significant aspects of the study. Limitations, conclusions, and future remarks could be provided at the end of this section.

Acknowledgment: Any type of technical, financial, and material help that does not justify authorship should be mentioned as acknowledgment at the end of the text.

Conflicts of interest: Authors must acknowledge and declare any sources of funding and potential conflicting interest, such as receiving funds or fees by, or holding stocks and shares in, an organization that may profit or lose through the publication of your paper. Declaring a competing interest will not lead to the automatic rejection of the paper, but we would like to be made aware of it.

Tables: Tables should be simple, self-explanatory, and organized according to the order they appear in the text. Assign each table a number and a brief title placed above. Any additional explanation should be given in the footnotes. Tables could be provided at the end of the manuscript or in separate files.

Figures: Figures must be numbered and cited in the text in numerical order. Place captions below. Figures should be uploaded as separate files.

Abbreviations and Symbols: While using only standard abbreviations, give the complete form of the abbreviation in its first use. Do not use abbreviations in the title and abstract.

References: References should be complied numerically according to the order of their appearance in the text and be written in Vancouver style. All articles should have related references and authors should verify the accuracy of the used references in order to minimize errors in references. References should be written in English and should be numbered inside parentheses in the article’s text and listed at the end of the article according to the order of mentioning:

Examples of references:

- Journal article: Yigit S, Korkmaz A, Sekerel B. Drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome in a premature infant. Pediatr Dermatol 2005; 22(1): 71-4.

- Complete book: Sundel M, Sundel SS. Behavior change in human services. 5th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications; 2005. p. 16-8.

- Chapter in book: Pinter JD, Sarnat HB. Neuroembryology. In: Winn HR, Editor. Youmans Neurological Surgery. 5th ed. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders; 2004. p. 5-45.

- Thesis & dissertations: Hofland HEJ. Vesicles as transdermal drug delivery systems. [Ph.D. thesis]. Leiden, The Netherlands: University of Leiden; 1992; p. 24-8.

- Papers presented in conferences: Bengtsson S, Solheim BG. Enforcement of data protection, privacy, and security in medical informatics. In: Lun KC, Degoulet P, Piemme TE, Reinhoff O, Editors. MEDINFO 92. Proceedings of the 7th world congress on medical informatics; 1992 Sep 6-10; Geneva, Switzerland. Amsterdam: North-Holland; 1992. p. 1561-5.

- Electronic references: Morse SS. Factors in the emergence of infectious disease. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 1995 Jan-Mar [cited 1999 Dec 25]; 1(1): [24 screens]. Available from URL: http://www/cdc/gov/ncidoc/EID/eid.htm

Covering letter

All manuscripts (except letters to the editor) should be accompanied by a covering letter referred to the editor-in-chief. In this letter, the authors are advised to provide a brief overview of their research significance, state that the manuscript has not been published previously or submitted simultaneously elsewhere.

Ethical guidelines

Ethical Issues is an obligatory section in all types of articles. If there is no ethical issue to be considered, please declare it as “not applicable” or “None to be declared”. Every experimental or clinical study may raise controversial ethical issues (e.g., Institutional Ethical Approval for working with animal or human subjects). Thus, Addiction and Health expects all authors, reviewers and editors to consider COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics)ICMJE and Equator Network’s reporting guidelines in medical ethics plus scientific writing. If any, authors should state related declaration(s), unless otherwise the following sentence should be given “None to be declared”. 

Ethical considerations must be addressed in the main body.

1) Please state that informed consent was obtained from all human adult participants and from the parents or legal guardians of minors. Include the name of the appropriate institutional review board that approved the project.

2) Indicate in the text that the maintenance and care of experimental animals comply with National Institutes of Health guidelines for the humane use of laboratory animals, or those of your Institute or agency.

Please take a look at the following guidelines provided by COPE for editors and reviewers that may be helpful for authors, too:

Financial support

In case of any financial support, it is important to mention the name of the respective organization/institute and the project number at the end

Plagiarism

Addiction and Health is committed to publish original studies and timely reviews that have neither been published nor is under review elsewhere.

Addiction and Health is powered by DOI, plagScan software for plagiarism check. Taken all, the plagiarized materials will incur the “Plagiarism Sanctions”. Submitted manuscripts, which are found to be published or under review elsewhere, will be sustained and experience the “Duplicated Publication Sanctions”. Submitted Manuscripts, which are found to include either fabricated or falsified data including the manipulation of images, will confront with the “Data Fabrication/Falsification Sanctions”.

Misconduct

Addiction and Health will follow the COPE guidelines to deal with cases of potential publication misconduct.

Copyright

Open Access agreement

Upon submitting an article, authors are asked to indicate their agreement to abide by an Open Access Creative Commons license. Under the terms of this license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), authors retain ownership of the copyright of their articles. However, the license permits any user to download, print out, extract, reuse, archive, and distribute the article, so long as appropriate credit is given to the authors and the source of the work. The license ensures that the article will be available as widely as possible and that the article can be included in any scientific archive.

Retraction

Based on the COPE guidelines, Addiction and Health will consider retracting a publication if:

  • It has clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error).
  • The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication) 
  • It constitutes plagiarism.
  • It reports unethical research.

Sanctions

In the case of occurrence documented violations of the aforementioned policies of  addiction and Health, it is the journal’s right to apply the following sanctions:

  • journal’s keeps all the rights to retract the infringing published works at any time found based on the COPE guideline for retracting articles.
  • Immediate rejection of the infringing manuscript and sanction of the infringed author(s).
  • Prohibition against all the authors for any new submissions to addiction and Health for a minimum of 24 months.
  • Prohibition against all the infringed authors from serving as a reviewer of acting as a member of the Editorial Board of Addiction and Health for a minimum of 36 months.
  • In cases of occurrence of violations found to be particularly ostensible, Addiction and Health reserves the right to apply additional sanctions beyond the aforementioned actions. 

Final proof

After acceptance and editing of the article, the galley proof is sent to the corresponding author via e-mail and the author is responsible for proofreading. Corrections should be marked clearly and the article should be returned within 48 hours.

Privacy  Statement

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