A NEW YEAR MESSAGE AND A DECLARATION

Abdulla A.-B. Badawy

Happy New Year to our readers and contributors, to members of the Editorial Advisory Board and the many independent expert referees for this journal, to members of the Editorial Team, and to members, officers and staff of the Medical Council on Alcohol (MCA), the European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ESBRA), and our publisher Oxford University Press (OUP). I wish everyone a healthy, happy and successful 2003.

I should like to take this opportunity to give special thanks to all members of the Editorial Team, Editorial Advisory Board and the independent expert referees for their most valued contributions to the smooth and effective running of the journal, their high standards of editing and peer reviewing and their expeditious processing and refereeing. I am sure that the journal readership, as well as the officers and members of MCA, ESBRA and OUP would wish to join me in acknowledging their vital roles.

I am pleased to reiterate that the journal now stands at its highest position ever in the citation impact system, being 4th in the Substance Misuse category of journals, and, undoubtedly the premier European multi-disciplinary journal in the alcoholism field with a strong commitment to a major biomedical component. We believe that this is primarily due to both the high standard and superior quality of our published material, and our contributors’ confidence in, and appreciation of, the efforts of the Editorial Team in ensuring expeditious processing, critical appraisal coupled to competent and constructive peer review, and sympathetic handling of submissions. As always, the Editorial Team of Alcohol and Alcoholism values its partnership with contributors to the journal and assures them of our strong commitment to promoting both their interests and our partnership to enhance alcohol research and its dissemination. Our special thanks are therefore also due to our contributing authors for their continued confidence and support of the journal and its Editorial Team.

As expeditious processing of submissions is a major policy of this journal, from time to time, evolving professional commitments prevent members of the Editorial Team from devoting the necessary time to their journal editorial activities. On this basis, I regret to announce that our two distinguished Associate Editors in Psychiatry and Psychology, Professor Mats Berglund and Dr Steven Rollnick respectively, have announced their resignations. I should therefore like to take this opportunity to thank them both most warmly for their valuable membership of the Editorial Team of Alcohol and Alcoholism over the previous several years and their significant editorial contributions during their tenures. I should also like to take this opportunity to welcome to the Editorial Team the distinguished psychologist Professor Carlo C. DiClemente, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychology of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, as our new Associate Editor in Psychology. Professor DiClemente is well known leading authority in the field of psychology and its role in treatment and I am certain that his appointment will have a significant positive impact on the image and standing of the journal. I therefore jointly with other members of the Editorial Team extend a warm welcome to Professor DiClemente.

The present MCA Chief Editor, representing Alcohol and Alcoholism, is a Founder Member of the International Society of Addiction Journal Editors (ISAJE). Before the establishment of ISAJE, the founding group of Editors formulated the declaration known as the Farmington Consensus (see Badawy and Tipton, 1998Go; Special Commentary, 1998Go), designed to provide a broad framework for addiction journals within which to conduct their professional activities and to safeguard moral and ethical principles. A requirement of ‘Farmington’ is an annual declaration affirming editorial independence from potential commercial and other influences. I am pleased to declare that both myself and other members of the Editorial Team of Alcohol and Alcoholism enjoy full editorial independence. In particular, as the MCA Chief and Executive Editor, I have never experienced any interference in the editorial process of this journal. The journal owners, the Medical Council on Alcohol, have, in the past year, received funding from the Robertson Trust, ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries), the Portman Group, Merck-Lipha, Scriptographic Publications and Priory Healthcare (Medical Council on Alcohol, 2002Go). The journal, however, is self-financing through its subscription and other activities and, in fact, accrues income to the MCA.

REFERENCES

Badawy, A. A.-B. and Tipton, K. F. (1998) Editorial: The Farmington Consensus. Alcohol and Alcoholism 33, 1–5.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline]

Medical Council on Alcohol (2002) Annual report. Medical Council on Alcohol, London.

Special Commentary (1998) The Farmington Consensus. Alcohol and Alcoholism 33, 6–7.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline]





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