We are excited to bring you the first SAj blog post of 2025! Before looking ahead to the new year, we would like to reflect on the activities of 2024.
2024 continued to be a busy year for the SAj Executive Editorial Team. The 44th volume of SAj, published in 2024, completed the transition to the new publisher, SAGE, Inc, with our new name, Substance Use & Addiction Journal on January 1, 2024.
The SAj Editorial Team, which include Editor-in-Chief (Dr. Gordon) and two Deputy Editors (Drs. Corte and Faseru), and our Associate Editors had some transitions. The Deputy Editors expanded their scope of activities and serve as a liaison to several AMERSA activities. Our three new Associate Editors (Taneisha Scheuermann, PhD (Psychology, University of Kansas), Elizabeth Siantz, PhD (Social Work, University of Utah), and Jessica Wyse, PhD (Psychology, Oregon Health Sciences) were fully onboarded into the editorial team. Dr. Binswanger resigned from the Associate Editorial team after a decade of service.
A major revision of our author instructions occurred. Changes highlighted SAj’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In addition, consistent with this commitment, a person with lived experience was a named author in an SAj publication in 2024. SAj is now accepting “Commentaries with Protocol” manuscripts, and several authors published this article type in 2024. Several special sections from the NIH NIDA (IMPOWR Network) and a collaboration regarding Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) were accepted for publication in 2024.
Our journal metrics continue to be robust. The 2023 Impact Factors were announced in June 2024. SAj’s impact factor was 2.8 and we continue to climb in ranking in like-minded journals. Our citations continue to be high, near 2800 citations annually. In terms of the review process, our accept/reject ratio hovers in the 30% range, average time for first decision is consistently within the low 30-day range, and average time for final decisions has been consistently below 60 days.
We are considering several new ventures for SAj in 2025: 1) develop an “SAj Editorial Fellows” program; 2) expand DEI-related content in SAj; 3) work on getting more persons with lived experiences voices in the journal; 4) revamp the greater Editorial Board of SAj; ad 5) improve promotion and dissemination of SAj content (X/Twitter followers are 5,000+).
Thank you for your interest in SAj – we look forward to an eventful 2025!
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Adam J. Gordon, MD MPH FASAM DFASAM, Editor-in-Chief, SAj