The
Open Addiction Journal
ISSN: 1874-9410 Volume 1, 2008
Instructions for Authors
The Open Addiction Journal is an Open
Access online journal, which publishes Research articles,
Reviews and Letters in the field of pre-clinical and clinical
addiction and substance abuse research, aiming at providing
the most complete and reliable source of information on current
developments in the field.
Manuscripts may be submitted directly to toaddj@benthamopen.org.
Each peer-reviewed article that is published in a Bentham
OPEN Journal is universally and freely accessible via
the Internet in an easily readable and printable PDF format.
ONLINE MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION: An online submission
and tracking service via Internet facilitates a speedy and
cost-effective submission of manuscripts.1
The full manuscript has to be submitted using our online submission
service available via FTP at www.bentham-ftp.org/open/?toaddj
Manuscripts must be submitted by one of the authors of
the manuscript, and should not be submitted by anyone on their
behalf. The principal/corresponding author will be required
to submit a Covering Letter along with the manuscript, on
behalf of all the co-authors (if any). The author(s) will
confirm that the manuscript (or any part of it) has not been
published previously or is not under consideration for publication
elsewhere. Furthermore, any illustration, structure or table
that has been published elsewhere must be reported, and copyright
permission for reproduction must be obtained.
For all online submissions, please provide your complete manuscript
in the form of a single zipped folder containing soft copies
of all the materials (main text in MS word format, figures
/ illustrations in TIFF, PDF or JPEG, tables in MS Word, and
chemical structures drawn in ChemDraw (CDX) / ISISDraw (TGF))
as separate files, while a PDF version of the entire manuscript
must also be included, embedded with all the figures / illustrations
/ tables / chemical structures etc.
It is imperative that before submission, authors should carefully
proofread the files for special characters, mathematical symbols,
Greek letters, equations, tables and images, to ensure that
they appear in proper format.
A successful electronic submission of a manuscript will be
followed by a system-generated acknowledgement to the principal/corresponding
author within 72 hours of the dispatch of
the manuscript. Any questions with regards to the preparation
of and submission of your manuscript to the journal should
be addressed to toaddj@benthamopen.org
and copied to shehzad@benthamscience.org
NOTE: Any queries therein should be addressed
to oa@bentham.org and
copied to Jalil@bentham.org
Manuscript Preparation:
The manuscript should be written in English in a clear, direct
and active style. All pages must be numbered sequentially,
facilitating in the reviewing and editing of the manuscript.
For further convenience, the customer support team available
at Bentham Publication Services (www.benthampublishingservices.com)
can provide assistance to authors for the preparation of manuscripts.
TeX/LaTeX File Users:
Though Bentham OPEN prefers manuscripts in MS Word
format, users of *TeX/LaTeX processor may
submit the original/source file of their manuscript along
with a camera-ready PDF file in a presentable form (refer
to Sample
File)
Manuscript Length:
Letters: The maximum total page length for
Letter type articles published in the journal is nine journal
pages. Each journal page is on average 900 words.
Research Articles: The minimum total page
length for Research articles is ten journal pages, and the
maximum thirty pages. Each journal page is on average 900
words.
Review Articles: The maximum page length
limit for comprehensive Review articles is forty pages. For
Mini-Review articles, the maximum page length is nine journal
pages. Each journal page is on average 900 words.
There is no restriction on the number of figures, tables
or additional files e.g. video clips, animation and datasets,
that can be included with each article online. Authors should
include all relevant supporting data with each article.
Manuscripts Published: The Journal accepts
letters/ short communications, original research articles,
and mini- and full-length review articles written in English.
Supplements and proceedings of conferences may also be considered
for publication.
Supplements: The journal will consider for
publication supplements. A supplement will be a collection
of articles (6 to 10 articles) based on a theme or topic of
great importance to the field. A short summary proposal for
editing a supplement should be submitted to the Editor at
e-mail toaddj@benthamopen.org
with a copy to oa@bentham.org
Conference Proceedings: The journal will
consider for publication proceedings of relevant conferences
in the field. Proposals for publishing conference proceedings
should be submitted to the Editor at e-mail toaddj@benthamopen.org
with a copy to oa@bentham.org
MANUSCRIPT SECTIONS FOR PAPERS: Manuscripts
for research articles and letters submitted to the journal
should be divided into the following sections; however, there
can be an extension in the number of sections in review articles
in accordance with the requirements of the topic.
Covering letter
Title page
Abstract
Text organization
List of abbreviations (if any)
Conflict of interest (if any)
Acknowledgements (if any)
References
Figures/illustrations (if any)
Chemical structures (if any)
Tables and captions (if any)
Supportive/supplementary material (if any)
COVERING LETTER: For e-mail submission of
a manuscript , it is a mandatory requirement that a covering
letter be also submitted, delineating the scope of your submitted
article, declaring any potential competing interests, acknowledging
contributions from authors and funding agencies, and certifying
that the paper is prepared according to the ‘Instructions
for Authors’. All inconsistencies in the text and in
the reference section, and any typographical errors must be
carefully checked and corrected before submission of the manuscript.
The covering letter, however, is not required for FTP submission
of manuscripts to the journal.
Download the Covering letter
TITLE: The title should be precise and
brief and must not be more than 120 characters. Authors should
avoid the use of non-standard abbreviations. The title must
be written in title case except for articles, conjunctions
and prepositions.
Authors should also provide a short ‘running title’.
ABSTRACT: The abstract should not exceed
250 words for review and research papers and should be limited
to only 150 words for letters, summarizing the essential features
of the article. The use of abbreviations should be reduced
to a minimum and the references should not be cited in the
abstract.
TEXT ORGANIZATION: The main text should begin
on a separate page and should be divided into separate sections.
For Research articles, the preparation of the main text must
be structured into separate sections as Introduction,
Materials and Methodology, Results, Discussion, Conclusion
and Trial Registration. For Review and Letter
articles, the manuscript should be divided into title page,
abstract and the main text. The text may be subdivided further
according to the areas to be discussed, which should be followed
by the Acknowledgement (if any) and Reference sections. The
review article should mention any previous important reviews
in the field and contain a comprehensive discussion starting
with the general background of the field. It should then go
on to discuss the salient features of recent developments.
The authors should avoid presenting material which has already
been published in a previous review. Trial Registration.
If your research article reports the results of a controlled
health care intervention, list your trial registry, along
with the unique identifying number, e.g. Trial registration:
Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN73824458. Note that there
should be no space between the letters and numbers of your
trial registration number. For this purpose, a clinical trial
is any study that prospectively assigns human subjects to
intervention or comparison groups to evaluate the cause-and-effect
relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome.
All clinical trials, regardless of when they were completed,
and secondary analyses of original clinical trials must be
registered before submission of a manuscript based on the
trial. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study
pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g., phase 1 trials),
are exempt. Trial registry name, registration identification
number, and the URL for the registry should be included at
the end of abstract and also in the space provided on the
online manuscript submission form. If your research article
reports the results of a controlled health care intervention,
list your trial registry, along with the unique identifying
number. Note that there should be no space between the letters
and numbers of your trial registration number.
Authors will submit the Trial Protocols along
with their manuscript. The CONSORT
(Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) Checklist and
Flowchart is also required when submitting the results
of randomized control trials (RCTs).
Ethical Approval of Studies and Informed Consent:
For human or animal experimental investigations, it is a prerequisite
to provide a formal review and approval, or review and waiver,
by an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee
and should be documented in your paper. For investigations
undertaken on human subjects, state in the Methods section
the manner in which the informed consent was obtained from
the study participants (i.e, oral or written), where there
is an unavoidable risk of breach of privacy- e.g., in a clinical
photograph or in case details- the patient’s written
consent or that of the next of kin, to publication must be
obtained. We will ask you to send a signed consent form before
publication. Consent must be obtained for all Case Reports
and Clinical Pictures.
The authors are advised to present and discuss their observations
in brief. The manuscript style must be uniform throughout
the text and 10 pt Times New Roman fonts should be used. The
full term for an abbreviation should precede its first appearance
in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement. The
reference numbers should be given in square brackets in the
text. Italics should be used for Binomial names of organisms
(Genus and Species), for emphasis and for unfamiliar words
or phrases. Non-assimilated words from Latin or other languages
should also be italicized e.g. in vivo, in vitro, per
se, et al. etc
Greek Symbols and Special Characters: Greek
symbols and special characters often undergo formatting changes
and get corrupted or lost during preparation of manuscript
for publication. To ensure that all special characters used
are embedded in the text, these special characters should
be inserted as a symbol but should not be a result of any
format styling (Symbol font face) otherwise they
will be lost during conversion to PDF/XML.2
Authors are encouraged to consult reporting guidelines. These
guidelines provide a set of recommendations comprising a list
of items relevant to their specific research design. All kinds
of measurements should be reported only in International System
of Units (SI). Chemical equations, chemical names, mathematical
usage, unit of measurements, chemical and physical quantity
& units must conform to SI and Chemical Abstracts or IUPAC.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS: If abbreviations are
used in the text either they should be defined in the text
where first used, or a list of abbreviations can be provided.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Financial contributions
to the work being reported should be clearly acknowledged,
as should any potential conflict of interest.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Please acknowledge anyone
(individual/company/institution) who has contributed to the
study by making substantial contributions to conception, design,
acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data,
or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising
it critically for important intellectual content. Please list
the source(s) of funding for the study, for each author, and
for the manuscript preparation in the acknowledgements section.
REFERENCES: References must be listed in
the numerical system (Vancouver). All references should be
numbered sequentially [in square brackets] in the text and
listed in the same numerical order in the reference section.
The reference numbers must be finalized and the bibliography
must be fully formatted before submission.
See below few examples of references listed in the correct
Vancouver style:
Typical Paper Reference:
[1] Boehm M, Nabel EG. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2-a new
cardiac regulator. N Engl J Med 2002; 347: 1795-7.
[2] SoRelle R. Long reach of the N-terminal of B-type natriuretic
peptide. Circulation 2002; 106: 9059-63.
Typical Chapter Reference:
[3] Stevenson WG, Friedman PL. In: Hennekens CH, Ed. Clinical
trials in cardiovascular disease. Philadelphia, WB Saunders
Co. 1999; 217-30.
Book Reference:
[4] Carlson BM. Human embryology and developmental biology.
3rd ed. St. Louis: Mosby 2004.
Edited Book:
[5] Brown AM, Stubbs DW, Eds. Medical physiology. New York:
Wiley 1983.
Conference Paper:
[6] Anderson JC. Current status of chorion villus biopsy.
In: Tudenhope D, Chenoweth J, Eds. Proceedings of the 4th
Congress of the Australian Perinatal Society; 1986: Brisbane,
Queensland: Australian Perinatal Society 1987; pp. 190-6.
Conference Proceedings:
[7] Harris AH, Ed. Economics and health: 1997: Proceedings
of the 19th Australian Conference of Health Economists; 1997
Sep 13-14; Sydney, Australia. Kensington, N.S.W.: School of
Health Services Management, University of New South Wales
1998.
Journal Article on the Internet:
[8] Aylin P, Bottle A, Jarman B, Elliott, P. Paediatric cardiac
surgical mortality in England after Bristol: descriptive analysis
of hospital episode statistics 1991-2002. BMJ [serial on the
Internet]. 2004 Oct 9; [cited 2004 October 15]; 329: [about
10 screens]. Available from: http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7470/825
Book/Monograph on the Internet:
[9] Donaldson MS, Ed. Measuring the quality of health care
[monograph on the internet]. Washington: National Academy
Press; 1999 [cited 2004 Oct 8]. Available from: http://legacy.netlibrary.com/
Website / Homepage:
[10] HeartCentreOnline [homepage on the Internet]. Boca Raton,
FL: HeartCentreOnline, Inc.; c2000-2004 [updated 2004 May
23; cited 2004 Oct 15]. Available from: http://www.heartcenteronline.com/
Journal with Part / Supplement:
If a journal carries continuous pagination throughout the
volume, then the issue number can be omitted
Issue with Supplement:
[11] Glauser TA. Integrating clinical trial data into clinical
practice. Neurology 2002; 58(12 Suppl 7): S6-12.
Volume with Part:
[12] Abend SM, Kulish N. The psychoanalytic method from an
epistemological viewpoint. Int J Psychoanal 2002; 83(Pt 2):
491-5.
Issue with Part:
[13] Ahrar K, Madoff DC, Gupta S, Wallace MJ, Price RE, Wright
KC. Development of a large animal model for lung tumors. J
Vasc Interv Radiol 2002; 13(9 Pt 1): 923-8.
Patent:
[14] Pagedas AC, inventor; Ancel Surgical R&D Inc., assignee.
Flexible endoscopic grasping and cutting device and positioning
tool assembly. United States patent US 20020103498. 2002 Aug.
Some important points to remember:
* All references must be complete and accurate.
* If the number of authors exceeds six then et al.
will be used after three names (the term “et al.”
should be in italics).
* Online citations should include the date of access.
* Journal abbreviations should follow the Index Medicus/MEDLINE.
* Take special care of the punctuation convention as described
in the above-mentioned examples.
* Avoid using superscript in the in-text citations and reference
section.
* Abstracts, unpublished data and personal communications
(which can only be included if prior permission has been obtained)
should not be given in the reference section but they may
be mentioned in the text and details provided as footnotes.
* The authors are encouraged to use a recent version of EndNote
(version 5 and above) or Reference Manager (version 10) when
formatting their reference list, as this allows references
to be automatically extracted.
FIGURES / ILLUSTRATIONS: The authors should
provide the illustrations as separate files, as well as embedded
in the text file, numbered consecutively in the order of their
appearance. Each figure should include a single illustration.
No charges will be levied on the use of color figures except
in the reprints. Each figure should be closely cropped to
minimize the amount of white space surrounding the illustration.
If a figure consists of separate parts, it is important that
a single composite illustration file be submitted, containing
all parts of the figure.
Photographs should be provided with a scale bar if appropriate,
as well as high-resolution component files.
Scaling/Resolution
For Line Art image type, which is generally an image
based on lines and text and does not contain tonal or shaded
areas, the preferred file format is TIFF or EPS, with colour
mode being Monochrome 1-bit or RGB, in a resolution of 900-1200
dpi.
For Halftone image type, which is generally a continuous tone
photograph and contains no text, the preferred file format
is TIFF, with colour mode being or RGB or Grayscale, in a
resolution of 300 dpi.
For Combination image type, which is generally an image containing
halftone in addition to text or line art elements, the preferred
file format is TIFF, with colour mode being or RGB or Grayscale,
in a resolution of 500-900 dpi.
Formats
For illustrations, the following file formats are acceptable:
• Illustrator
• EPS (preferred format for diagrams)
• PDF (also especially suitable for
diagrams)
• PNG (preferred format for photos
or images)
• Microsoft Word (version 5 and above;
figures must be a single page)
• PowerPoint (figures must be a single
page)
• TIFF
• JPEG (conversion should be done using
the original file)
• BMP
• CDX (ChemDraw)
• TGF (ISISDraw)
Bentham OPEN does not process figures submitted in GIF
format.
If the large size of TIFF or EPS figures acts as an obstacle
to online submission, authors may find that conversion to
JPEG format before submission results in significantly reduced
file size and upload time, while retaining acceptable quality.
JPEG is a 'lossy' format, however. In order to maintain acceptable
image quality, it is recommended that JPEG files are saved
at High or Maximum quality.
Files should not be compressed with tools such as Zipit or
Stuffit prior to submission as these tools will in any case
produce negligible file-size savings for JPEGs and TIFFs,
which are already compressed.
Please do not:
1. Supply embedded graphics in your word processor (spreadsheet,
presentation) document;
2. Supply files that are optimized for screen use (like GIF,
BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low;
3. Supply files that are too low in resolution;
4. Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the
content.
Image Conversion Tools
There are many software packages, many of them freeware or
shareware, capable of converting to and from different graphics
formats, including PNG.
Good general tools for image conversion include GraphicConverter
on the Macintosh, PaintShop Pro, for Windows, and ImageMagick,
which is available on Macintosh, Windows and UNIX platforms.
Note that bitmap images (e.g. screenshots) should not be converted
to EPS, since this will result in a much larger file size
than the equivalent JPEG, TIFF, PNG or BMP, with no increase
in quality. EPS should only be used for images produced by
vector-drawing applications such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw.
Most vector-drawing applications can be saved in, or exported
as, EPS format. In case the images have been originally prepared
in an Office application, such as Word or PowerPoint, then
the original Office files should be directly uploaded to the
site, instead of being converted to JPEG or another format
that may be of low quality.
TABLES:
* Data Tables should be submitted in Microsoft Word table
format.
* Each table should include a title/caption being explanatory
in itself with respect to the details discussed in the table.
Detailed legends may then follow.
* Table number in bold font i.e. Table 1,
should follow a title. The title should be in small case with
the first letter in caps. A full stop should be placed at
the end of the title.
* Tables should be embedded in the text exactly according
to their appropriate placement in the submitted manuscript.
* Columns and rows of data should be made visibly distinct
by ensuring that the borders of each cell are displayed as
black lines.
* Tables should be numbered in Arabic numerals sequentially
in order of their citation in the body of the text.
* If a reference is cited in both the table and text, please
insert a lettered footnote in the table to refer to the numbered
reference in the text.
* Tabular data provided as additional files can be submitted
as an Excel spreadsheet.
SUPPORTIVE/SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: We strongly
encourage to append supportive material, for example a PowerPoint
file containing a talk about the study, a PowerPoint file
containing additional screenshots, a Word, RTF, or PDF document
showing the original instrument(s) used, a video, or the original
data (SAS/SPSS files, Excel files, Access Db files etc.).
Published/reproduced material should not be included unless
you have obtained written permission from the copyright holder,
which should be forwarded to the Editorial Office in case
of acceptance of your article for publication.
Supportive/Supplementary material intended for publication
must be numbered and referred to in the manuscript. In-text
citations (for example "see PowerPoint Appendix 1")
as well as a section with the heading "Supportive/Supplementary
Material" before the "References" section should
be provided. Here, list all Supportive/Supplementary Material
and include a brief caption line for each file describing
its contents.
Any additional files will be linked into the final published
article in the form supplied by the author, but will not be
displayed within the paper. They will be made available in
exactly the same form as originally provided. Please also
make sure that each additional file is a single table, figure
or movie (please do not upload linked worksheets or PDF files
larger than one sheet). Supportive/ Supplementary material
must be provided in a single zipped file.
Authors must clearly indicate if these files are not for publication
but meant for the reviewers'/editors' perusal only.
PERMISSION FOR REPRODUCTION: Published/reproduced
material should not be included unless you have obtained written
permission from the copyright holder, which should be forwarded
to the Editorial Office in case of acceptance of your article
for publication.
For obtaining permission for reproducing any material published
in a paper by a Bentham Science, please fill in the request
FORM
and send to toaddj@benthamopen.org
for consideration.
AUTHORS AND INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATIONS: The
author will be required to provide their full names, the institutional
affiliations and the location, with an asterisk in front of
the name of the principal/corresponding author. The corresponding
author(s) should be designated and their complete address,
business telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address must
be stated to receive correspondence and galley proofs.
REVIEWING AND PROMPTNESS OF PUBLICATION:
All manuscripts submitted for publication will be immediately
subjected to peer-reviewing, usually in consultation with
the members of the Editorial Advisory Board and a number of
external referees. Authors may, however, provide in their
Covering Letter the contact details (including e-mail addresses)
of four potential peer reviewers for their paper. Any peer
reviewers suggested should not have recently published with
any of the authors of the submitted manuscript and should
not be members of the same research institution.
All peer-reviewing will be conducted via the Internet to facilitate
rapid reviewing of the submitted manuscripts. Every possible
effort will be made to assess the manuscripts quickly with
the decision being conveyed to the authors in due course.
LANGUAGE AND EDITING: Manuscripts must be
written in good English in a clear and correct style. In order
to maintain uniformity throughout the text, the manuscript
should be written in either American or British English. Submitted
manuscripts will not be edited for style or language, and
reviewers may advise rejection of a manuscript if it is compromised
by grammatical errors. Non-native speakers of English may
choose to make use of a copyediting and language editing service
such as that provided by Bentham Publication Service (please
contact at email: info@benthampublishingservices.com).
PROOF CORRECTIONS: Authors are required to
proofread the PDF versions of their manuscripts before submission.
To avoid delays in publication, proofs should be checked immediately
for typographical errors and returned within 48 hours.
Major changes are not acceptable at the proof stage. If unable
to send corrections within 48 hours due to
some reason, the author(s) must at least send an acknowledgement
on receiving the galley proofs or the article will be published
exactly as received and the publishers will not be responsible
for any error occurring in the manuscript in this regard.
The corresponding author will be solely responsible for ensuring
that the revised version of the manuscript incorporating all
the submitted corrections receives the approval of all the
authors of the manuscript.
COPYRIGHT: Authors who publish in Bentham
OPEN Journals retain copyright to their work. Submission
of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors have
read and agreed to the content of the Covering Letter. It
is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to
this journal have not been published and will not be simultaneously
submitted or published elsewhere. Once submitted to the journal,
the authors will not withdraw their manuscript at any stage
prior to publication. Plagiarism is strictly forbidden.
PUBLICATION FEES: The publication fee details
for each article published in the journal are given below:
Letters: The publication fee for each published
Letter article submitted is $600.
Research Articles: The publication fee for
each published Research article is $800.
Mini-Review Articles: The publication fee
for each published Mini-Review article is $600.
Review Articles: The publication fee for
each published Review article is $900.
Once the paper is accepted for publication, the author will
receive by email an electronic invoice. The fee form is also
available on the Web site at www.bentham.org/open/feeform
. Submissions from the Editorial Board Members of the journal
will receive a special discount of 50% on the total publication
fee. Submissions by authors from developing countries will
receive a discount of 30% on the total publication fee charge.
MEMBERSHIP: Join as a member of Bentham
Open today to obtain great discounts on your article publication
fees! For details click here.
REPRINTS: High quality printed reprints of
published articles are available for purchase, if ordered,
with a minimum number of 100 reprints.
1 The submission process
is compatible with version 3.0 or later of Internet Explorer
and Netscape Navigator, and with most other modern Web browsers.
It can be used from PC, Mac, or Unix platforms.
2 In this connection, we
recommend the use of Microsoft Word version 2000 and above. |
