ISAJE Annual Meeting 2003
2003, 4 - 6 September
Egham, UK
Editorial staff from 16 addiction journals came to the meeting along with people from two publishing houses (Elsevier and Blackwell), Andrea Mitchell from SALIS (Substance Abuse Librarians and Information Specialists), Steve Gust of NIDA’s International Program, and an invited guest from outside our field - Rolf Zetterstrom, editor-in-chief of ACTA PAEDIATRICA. Here is a summary of the proceedings.
We asked Desmond Reaney, from the Institute of Physics, to give us a talk on the electronic revolution. He was deliberately and provocatively partisan – an adherent of progress rather than traditionalism – but escaped the crossquestioning that many of us would like to have subjected him to, since time was short. Next year we will seek a speaker to put the opposing view.
Rolf Zetterstrom spoke fluently on ethical challenges in his talk “Editorial responsibility and scientific truth”.
Andrea Mitchell (SALIS) introduced a new initiative - the Virtual Library on ATOD (Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs) - and the text of her talk can be obtained on request to Susan Savva [email protected].
ISAJE is building a strong relationship with NIDA and Steve Gust, the director of its International Program. It is becoming clear that our two organisations share similar aims with regard to support for authors working in countries which lack a well-established research base. Steve intimated that he would be inviting ISAJE journals to help publicise NIDA’s fellowship programs.
A new Special Interest Group headed by Griffith Edwards (ADDICTION) will consider ways to build links and share views with addiction scientists in the developing world. To start the dialogue, Isidore Obot (AFRICAN JOURNAL OF DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE) offered a chance for ISAJE to send a representative to next year’s biennial meeting in Nigeria for African researchers.
A issue for many journals which publish in languages other than English is how to gain entry to the big (often US-based) bibliographic databases. Gerhard Bühringer (SUCHT) is to lead a Special Interest Group on database and impact factors for ISAJE. A summary of the group’s tasks – as well as a note of the minimum entry requirements for non-English language journals – is available from Susan Savva.
The seminar On Doing and Writing Up Addiction Research was run in May 2003 at Leeds, UK, in partnership with Leeds Addiction Unit and the Society for the Study of Addiction. This was the pilot for a series of events to be run in different parts of the world – the first probably in Thailand next year – with Eastern Europe and Latin America very much in the frame. The events will be carefully planned to address local concerns and will have local administration and local speakers. Richard Pates (JOURNAL OF SUBSTANCE USE) of the Training & Education Group is the lead person here.
The Language Issues Group is developing a research programme and an open discussion held at Egham helped to crystallise ideas, in particular a comparative mapping of work published in, say, three sample countries; and an analysis of the citation history of chosen classic papers. A programme will be presented in due course.
Finally, the business of the Ethics Group – which runs like the streaks in marble through all ISAJE’s concerns. Tom Babor, on behalf of the group, presented the results of a questionnaire which sought views on the ISAJE Guidelines. It concludes that “ … there is a need for an operational set of procedures that journal editors can use in their everyday activities.” A model journal policy and procedures document will therefore be developed. The full text of the Guidelines may be found elsewhere on this website.
At the annual general meeting, ISAJE’s president Kerstin Stenius (NORDISK ALKOHOL OCH NARKOTIKATIDSKRIFT) gave a report on behalf of the management board and treasurer Rick Seymour (JOURNAL OF PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS) presented the accounts for the period to 31 December 2002.
Susan Savva ISAJE
Executive Officer
October 2003
Egham, UK
Editorial staff from 16 addiction journals came to the meeting along with people from two publishing houses (Elsevier and Blackwell), Andrea Mitchell from SALIS (Substance Abuse Librarians and Information Specialists), Steve Gust of NIDA’s International Program, and an invited guest from outside our field - Rolf Zetterstrom, editor-in-chief of ACTA PAEDIATRICA. Here is a summary of the proceedings.
We asked Desmond Reaney, from the Institute of Physics, to give us a talk on the electronic revolution. He was deliberately and provocatively partisan – an adherent of progress rather than traditionalism – but escaped the crossquestioning that many of us would like to have subjected him to, since time was short. Next year we will seek a speaker to put the opposing view.
Rolf Zetterstrom spoke fluently on ethical challenges in his talk “Editorial responsibility and scientific truth”.
Andrea Mitchell (SALIS) introduced a new initiative - the Virtual Library on ATOD (Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs) - and the text of her talk can be obtained on request to Susan Savva [email protected].
ISAJE is building a strong relationship with NIDA and Steve Gust, the director of its International Program. It is becoming clear that our two organisations share similar aims with regard to support for authors working in countries which lack a well-established research base. Steve intimated that he would be inviting ISAJE journals to help publicise NIDA’s fellowship programs.
A new Special Interest Group headed by Griffith Edwards (ADDICTION) will consider ways to build links and share views with addiction scientists in the developing world. To start the dialogue, Isidore Obot (AFRICAN JOURNAL OF DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE) offered a chance for ISAJE to send a representative to next year’s biennial meeting in Nigeria for African researchers.
A issue for many journals which publish in languages other than English is how to gain entry to the big (often US-based) bibliographic databases. Gerhard Bühringer (SUCHT) is to lead a Special Interest Group on database and impact factors for ISAJE. A summary of the group’s tasks – as well as a note of the minimum entry requirements for non-English language journals – is available from Susan Savva.
The seminar On Doing and Writing Up Addiction Research was run in May 2003 at Leeds, UK, in partnership with Leeds Addiction Unit and the Society for the Study of Addiction. This was the pilot for a series of events to be run in different parts of the world – the first probably in Thailand next year – with Eastern Europe and Latin America very much in the frame. The events will be carefully planned to address local concerns and will have local administration and local speakers. Richard Pates (JOURNAL OF SUBSTANCE USE) of the Training & Education Group is the lead person here.
The Language Issues Group is developing a research programme and an open discussion held at Egham helped to crystallise ideas, in particular a comparative mapping of work published in, say, three sample countries; and an analysis of the citation history of chosen classic papers. A programme will be presented in due course.
Finally, the business of the Ethics Group – which runs like the streaks in marble through all ISAJE’s concerns. Tom Babor, on behalf of the group, presented the results of a questionnaire which sought views on the ISAJE Guidelines. It concludes that “ … there is a need for an operational set of procedures that journal editors can use in their everyday activities.” A model journal policy and procedures document will therefore be developed. The full text of the Guidelines may be found elsewhere on this website.
At the annual general meeting, ISAJE’s president Kerstin Stenius (NORDISK ALKOHOL OCH NARKOTIKATIDSKRIFT) gave a report on behalf of the management board and treasurer Rick Seymour (JOURNAL OF PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS) presented the accounts for the period to 31 December 2002.
Susan Savva ISAJE
Executive Officer
October 2003