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Taylor & Francis

Prepare your manuscript for The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse.

Review the checklist, choose your article type, and turn your draft into a cleaner submission package.

Checked 2026-08-01
Check readiness freePrepare this manuscript

Article types

Review
Clinical Trial
Original Article
Perspective
Letter to the Editor
Case Report
Editorial
Protocol
Lectio
Systematic Review

Readiness requirements

Review the key details below, or download the complete checklist with every stored source-backed requirement.

Abstract length

  • Provide an author-written abstract of no more than 250 words.
  • Use a structured abstract.
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  • Abstract must be no more than 250 words.
  • Please include a tentative title and abstract.
  • Abstract: The Abstract must be included in the Main Document.
  • Include sample size and sex/gender in Abstract Methods or Abstract Results (provide sample size and sex/gender distribution and, when appropriate, cell size).
  • Trial registration numbers should be included in the abstract, with full details in the methods section.
  • Your abstract should focus on what your research is about, what methods have been used, and what you found out.
  • Letters must not include an abstract.
  • Original Article: For Reviews and Original Articles (including Meta-analyses), the Abstract must be structured as follows: Background: provide a specific rationale for the study in light of existing literature.
  • Conclusion: state clinical significance of the findings and, when applicable, translational possibilities, expanding above and beyond the results of the study. “Future research” should not be addressed in the Abstract Conclusion.
  • Clinical Trial: For clinical trials, the clinical trials registry number should be noted in the abstract [e.g., Clinicaltrials.gov, Universal Trial Number (UTN), or EU Clinical Trial Register (EudraCT)].
  • Second language abstract: If you would like a second abstract in a non-English language, this second abstract should follow your initial abstract in the primary manuscript.
  • The instructions for authors for each journal will give specific guidelines on what’s required here, including whether it should be a structured abstract or graphical abstract, and any word limits.
  • Review: If we do not have the capability to vet your translation, the abstract will be followed with a disclaimer (“This abstract was not included in the peer review process.”).

Keywords

  • Include or confirm the keywords required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Reference style

  • Articlo formats your supplied references to the journal's stored style and checks that citations match the reference list; source validity is not verified.
  • Case Report: Brief letters (maximum of 500 words, including references) will be considered if they include a cover letter indicating that the correspondence is “for publication.” Case reports will be peer reviewed.
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  • Do not use the word “abuse” in reference to substance use unless referring to a diagnosis in pre-DSM 5 versions of the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM). “Abuse” has a negative, violent connotation.
  • Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text.
  • Figures: The significance of the figures should be evident from the figure and legend alone, without reference to the text, e.g. figure legends should describe the gist of the significance of the figure.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors take full responsibility for the integrity of the whole content, including accuracy of references.
  • Please include figure caption in primary text in page following references.

Figure and table rules

  • Keep every figure and table numbered, captioned, and cited in the manuscript. Keep figures embedded; Articlo also extracts numbered source files for the package.
  • Group figures at the end of the manuscript.
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  • Group tables at the end of the manuscript.
  • Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size).
  • Tables and figures Show clearly in your article text where the tables and figures should appear, for example, by writing [Table 1 near here].
  • Figures and appendices should not be included in the primary text.
  • Each figure should be uploaded as a separate document.
  • Figures should be saved separately from the text.
  • Figures should uploaded individual in high resolution format from their parent program.
  • Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text.
  • It’s very important that you have been given permission to use any tables or figures you are reproducing from another source before you submit.
  • Figures should include statistics.
  • Do not include figures in the text.
  • Figures should be supplied in one of our preferred file formats: PS, JPEG, TIFF, or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX) files are acceptable for figures that have been drawn in Word.
  • Check the instructions for authors to see how you should supply tables and figures, whether at the end of the text or in separate files, and follow any guidance given on the submission system.

Funding statement

  • You should declare only the acquired funds and grants that are directly relevant to the work reported in your article; for example, This work was supported by the [Funding Agency #1] under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency #2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency #3] under Grant [number xxxx].
  • If there are no relevant financial or non-financial conflicts to disclose, authors should state “The authors report no relevant financial or non-financial conflicts of interest.” If no funding was received in support of the manuscript, authors should state “No funding was received for support of this manuscript.” Incomplete or erroneous disclosures may result in withdrawal of an accepted or published manuscript.

Competing interests

  • Include or confirm the competing interests required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Data availability statement

  • Include or confirm the data availability statement required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Ethics statement

  • Add or confirm the author-written Ethics statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Please use “person first” language (e.g. “person/patient/participant with alcohol use disorder”, rather than “alcoholic”).
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  • Do not use “drunk, pothead, crackhead, meth addict, etc.” Instead use “patient/participant with [insert substance] use disorder.” c.
  • In settings where ethics approval for non-interventional studies (e.g. surveys) is not required, authors must include a statement to explain this.
  • Authors should familiarise themselves with our policy on participant/patient privacy and informed consent.
  • Review: Methods should briefly describe the informed consent process, including the Institutional Review Board (IRB)/Ethics Committee (EC) or Animal Care and Use Committee (ACUC) that reviewed and approved (or exempted) the study.
  • Review: All original research papers involving humans, animals, plants, biological material, protected or non-public datasets, collections or sites, must include a written statement in the Methods section, confirming ethical approval has been obtained from the appropriate local ethics committee or Institutional Review Board and that where relevant, informed consent has been obtained.
  • Editorial: Consent All authors are required to follow the ICMJE requirements and Taylor & Francis Editorial Policies on privacy and informed consent from patients and study participants.
  • Authors must include a statement to confirm that any patient, service user, or participant (or that person’s parent or legal guardian) in any type of qualitative or quantitative research, has given informed consent to participate in the research.
  • Case Report: a clinical case report detailing their medical history, identifiable images or media content, etc), authors must include a statement to confirm that they have obtained written informed consent to publish the details from the affected individual (or their parents/guardians if the participant in not an adult or unable to give informed consent; or next of kin if the participant is deceased).
  • Research has shown that language matters; clinicians and lay people are less likely to attribute blame to people with SUDs when they are described using person-first language (Kelly, Dow, & Westerhoff, 2010; Kelly & Westerhoff, 2010; Ashford, Brown, & Curtis, 2018). “Addict” and “alcoholic,” while popular among some patients and the lay public, can be stigmatizing, dehumanizing, and do not reflect the very human condition of addiction.
  • Case Report: For submissions where patients or participants can be potentially identified (e.g.

Blinded manuscript

  • Remove author names, affiliations, acknowledgements, and other direct identifiers from the blinded manuscript file.
  • Please note: The AJDAA no longer requires manuscripts to be blinded to author identifying information.

Cover letter

  • Provide the claims and editor-specific context for the cover letter; Articlo creates an editable companion without inventing content.
  • Using Third-Party Material You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article.
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  • Review: The use of short extracts of text and some other types of material is usually permitted, on a limited basis, for the purposes of criticism and review without securing formal permission.
  • If you wish to include any material in your paper for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by this informal agreement, you will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission.
  • Read our guidance on when you’ll need to seek written permission for third-party material.

Author contributions

  • Submitting authors should be prepared to submit CRediT roles for themselves and their co-authors (where applicable) as part of the submission process.

Title page and author information

  • All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript.
  • One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article PDF (depending on the journal) and the online article.

Article structure and word limits

  • Abstracts, inclusive of the five subheadings, must not exceed 250 words.
  • Letters commenting on an article published in the Journal must be received within 3 months of the article’s print publication.
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  • Abstracts, inclusive of five subheadings, must not exceed 250 words.
  • For specificity, “history of” and “active” should be avoided in favor of more specific descriptions (e.g. “past 30-day use,” “current [past year] diagnosis”). d.
  • Text should appear in 12-point Times New Roman or other common 12-point font.
  • Margins Margins should be at least 2.5cm (1 inch).
  • Perspectives must not exceed 2000 words.
  • Reviews must not exceed 5000 words.
  • Abstracts must not exceed 250 words.
  • Examples include “dependence” when referring to pre-DSM 5 or International Classification of Diseases (ICD) diagnoses, or the ICD diagnosis “Harmful Use.” Note that “drug” should not be used when the more appropriate term is “substance” (i.e., drug, alcohol, and tobacco) or “medication” (i.e., drug intended for medical use).“Person who uses drugs” should be used rather than “drug user.”.
  • It should be a maximum width of 525 pixels.
  • Review: These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly.
  • Discussions should address the translational application of the reported findings.
  • Case Report: A novel case report and other uncontrolled observations should be submitted as Letters to the Editor.
  • Such letters must include the title and author of the article and the month and year of publication.
  • Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): Novel methodological or analytical tools.
  • Your research funder or your institution may require you to publish your article open access.
  • Use our APC finder to view the APC for this journal.
  • Abstracts may be unstructured and do not require subheadings.
  • Generic names should be used for all medications.
  • Similarly do not use the word “abuser.” “Misuse,” “problematic use,” or “hazardous use” are appropriate replacements for “abuse” depending on the context.
  • Use of terms in other diagnostic systems are acceptable provided the terms are used as defined.
  • Terminology that attempts to quantify or risk by stratifying substance use or other behaviors should be defined within the manuscript.
  • https://www.asam.org/advocacy/find-a-policy-statement/view-policy-statement/public-policy-statements/2014/08/01/terminology-related-to-the-spectrum-of-unhealthy-substance-use.
  • Do not use the terms “frequent flyer” or “recidivist”.
  • Protocol: Do not use “drop-out” to refer to an individual who has left treatment or a study protocol.
  • Please use “cannabis” instead. “Marijuana” may be used if the authors are referencing a specific diagnosis, survey item, etc.
  • The main document should be double-spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides, and all pages should be numbered consecutively.
  • Please include identifying information on the first page of the manuscript.
  • Review: Please use this link to find out more information and carefully review policies for authors.
  • For all NIH/Welcome-funded papers, the grant number(s) must be included in the declaration of interest statement.
  • Clinical Trial: Clinical trials should be registered prospectively – i.e. before participant recruitment.
  • Editorial: Authors of retrospectively registered trials must be prepared to provide further information to the journal editorial office if requested.
  • Clinical Trial: The clinical trial registry should be publicly accessible (at no charge), open to all prospective registrants, and managed by a not-for-profit organization.
  • All research studies on humans (individuals, samples, or data) must have been performed in accordance with the principles stated in the Declaration of Helsinki.
  • Please include all relevant safety precautions; and cite any accepted standard or code of practice.
  • To comply with both NIH and Taylor & Francis policies when publishing in the journal, you should choose to make your article open access (OA) if accepted for publication.
  • Before you submit your article, make sure you’ve checked the instructions for authors for your chosen journal, so you are aware of everything required.
  • Most journals create image descriptions during the production process, but a minority may require authors to provide image descriptions.
  • Review: Running heads and received dates These aren’t required when submitting a manuscript for review.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Originality and accuracy of content has been confirmed by the authors.
  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable.
  • Authors must retain the original and revised versions which must be shared upon request.
  • The PLSP guidelines for authors must be followed at all times.
  • Use this checklist to find out Skip to main content.
  • Use this article submission checklist to find out.
  • By the time you’re ready to submit your paper to a journal, there are a lot of things you’ll need to have checked, understood, and incorporated into your article.
  • You should also check whether your research funder’s policy requires you to make your work open access.
  • Your article should be a good fit and format for the target journal’s style guide.
  • Your study design, research argument strength and positioning should be structured and articulated properly.
  • Make sure your article is revised appropriately to address possible issues before you submit.
  • When appropriate, this narrative should reflect how the presented findings promote the reduction of substance use and/or prevalence of substance use disorders via prevention, treatment, service delivery, or policy.
  • Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): Updates of good practices for conducting experimental and clinical research and for conducting and reporting data analysis.
  • Preferred terms for use that may have health consequences include “at-risk” or “risky” or “hazardous use.” “Harmful Use” is an ICD diagnosis and its use should be restricted to that diagnosis. “Problem use” or “problematic use” can refer to use associated with consequences that do not meet criteria for a substance use disorder/addiction. “Unhealthy use” refers to the full spectrum from risky use to a disorder.
  • Please use SI units (non-italicized).
  • Clinical Trial: Clinical Trials Registry In order to be published in a Taylor & Francis journal, all clinical trials must have been registered in a public repository, ideally at the beginning of the research process (prior to participant recruitment).
  • The process of obtaining consent to publish should include sharing the article with the individual (or whoever is consenting on their behalf), so that they are fully aware of the content of the article before it is published.
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: European accents (Greek, Hebrew, or Cyrillic letters, or phonetic symbols): choose Times New Roman font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: Asian languages (such as Sanskrit, Korean, Chinese, or Japanese): choose Arial Unicode font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • A return to substance use following a period of non-use should carefully consider the context.
  • Please do not embed it in the manuscript file but save it as a separate file, labelled GraphicalAbstract1.
  • Effective July 1, 2025, if your research is funded by NIH, the NIH public access policy requires your Accepted Manuscript or final published version of your article ( Version of Record ) to be deposited in National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central for immediate public access.
  • Letters that do not meet these specifications will be returned un-reviewed.
  • If you haven't submitted a paper to this journal before, you will need to create an account in ScholarOne.
  • If you are at the early stage of your research, you may also need to read how to start writing a journal manuscript.
  • Image descriptions are typically used by systems such as pronouncing screen readers to make images accessible to people that cannot read or see the object due to a visual disability.

Reporting guidelines

  • Include or confirm the reporting guidelines required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Preprints and prior publication

  • If you upload an early version of your article to a non-commercial preprint server, you can subsequently submit to a Taylor & Francis or Routledge journal.
  • If you’ve posted your AOM to a preprint server, please cite your preprint in the manuscript you submit to the journal, to ensure there will be a link to the AOM from the final Version of Record (VOR).
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  • If you have shared an earlier version of your Author’s Original Manuscript on a preprint server, please be aware that anonymity cannot be guaranteed.
  • Review: Although readers need to keep in mind that preprints will not have been through a formal peer review process.
  • We do not consider posting on a preprint server to be duplicate publication and this will not jeopardize consideration for publication.

Artificial intelligence disclosure

  • Add or confirm the author-written Artificial intelligence statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Please include a statement disclosing whether and how generative AI has been used in the research and manuscript preparation process.
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  • Use of AI tools as part of ethical research studies is permitted.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: The name and version number of the AI tool used.
  • Systematic Review: Use of AI tools as part of ethically conducted literature reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analysis and bibliometrics studies is permitted.
  • Use of AI tool assisted plain language summaries (PLS) of authors own work is permitted.
  • Please read our guidance on using AI tools in your research and manuscript preparation to understand scenarios where their use may be permissible, and the required information that must be disclosed.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors have checked terms of use for the specific AI tool used, and therefore confirm suitability for publication.

Article type and manuscript length

  • Original Article: Original articles must not exceed 4000 words (main text only, excluding title page, abstract, references, figures, and tables).
  • Reviews must not exceed 5000 words (main text only, excluding title page, abstract, references, figures, and tables).
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  • Perspectives must not exceed 2000 words (main text only, excluding title page, abstract, references, figures, and tables).
  • Letters must not exceed 500 words (main text only, excluding title page, references, figures, and tables).
  • Please include a word count for your paper.
  • Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; funding; disclosures; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; references; figure captions (as a list); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; appendices (as appropriate).
  • Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; funding; disclosures; abstract; keywords; main text; acknowledgments; references; figure captions (as a list); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; appendices (as appropriate).
  • Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list).

Authorship and originality

  • Editorial: The Editorial Policies apply to all Taylor & Francis journals, and all authors should read them before submitting.
  • All authors submitting to medicine, biomedicine, health sciences, and allied and public health journals should conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
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  • Preparing Your Paper All authors submitting to medicine, biomedicine, health sciences, allied and public health journals should conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Statistical reporting

  • Original Article: Original Articles: Original articles must not exceed 4000 words (articles using qualitative or mixed methods statistical approaches must not exceed 4500 words).

Manuscript structure

  • Authors interested in having their work considered for this section should indicate so during the submission process by checking the “Methods in Addiction Research” box in Step 4: Details and Comments.
  • Original Article: Papers for this journal should be no more than 5000 words for Reviews, 4000 words for Original Articles (4500 for qualitative/mixed methods papers), 2000 for Perspectives, and 500 words for Letters to the Editor.
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  • Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): Reviews of existing methods that are either under or misused in our field.
  • Review / Perspective: Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): Critical review or perspective of existing methods or techniques including laboratory procedures, laboratory models, and behavioral assessment instruments.
  • Do not refer to “dirty” or “clean” urine or test results; instead use the terms “positive” or “negative” urine or “urine positive for cocaine”, or “cocaine detected,” etc. b.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: First-level headings (e.g. Introduction, Conclusion) should be in bold, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Authors must retain full records of the methods undertaken, including full descriptions and records of the prompts used, which must be shared with the journal upon request.
  • Clinical Trial: However, for clinical trials that have not been registered prospectively, Taylor & Francis journals requires retrospective registration to ensure the transparent and complete dissemination of all clinical trial results which ultimately impact human health.

Supplementary material

  • Supplemental file should be uploaded as a separate document.

Language and text style

  • Please use American spelling style consistently throughout your manuscript.
  • Please use double quotation marks, except where “a quotation is ‘within’ a quotation”.
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  • Please note that long quotations should be indented without quotation marks.
  • All abbreviations and acronyms (other than those for units of measure) should be spelled out the first time they are used.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fourth-level headings should be in bold italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fifth-level headings should be in italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Use medical, not non-medical language: a.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Second-level headings should be in bold italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Third-level headings should be in italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.

Study reporting guidelines

  • For animal studies, approval must have been obtained from the local or institutional animal use and care committee.
  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable (e.g. CONSORT-AI, STARD-AI, GAMER, TRIPOD-AI, etc).
Save journal and get updates Download complete checklist

What your package checks

Abstract: 250 words
Paper: 4,000 words
Cover letter: requested
Declarations: Ethics, Artificial intelligence
Format: Times New Roman, double spacing, 1" margins

Source transparency

This preparation guide uses published journal-specific author requirements. Journal instructions can change, so authors should complete a final review before submission.

Open official guideline source