Journal

The Journal, originally called the Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, is the oldest substance-related publication in the United States, which helped establish the study of substance use as a legitimate area of scientific investigation. The Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol evolved from early efforts at abstracting, indexing, and collecting literature on alcohol. It was founded by Howard W. Haggard, M. D., director of Yale University’s Laboratory of Applied Physiology. Now called the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, it is the longest-running addiction journal in the US.

Published by Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc. based at the Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, JSAD is a multidisciplinary journal publishing research on all aspects of substance use. The Editorial Board consists of prominent scholars of the field.

A brief history of the Journal

The Journal was founded in 1940 by Howard W. Haggard, M.D., director of Yale University’s Laboratory of Applied Physiology, a physiologist studying the effects of alcohol on the body. He started the Journal as a way to publish the increasing amount of research on alcohol use, abuse, and treatment that emerged from Yale and other institutions in the years following the repeal of National Prohibition in 1933.

Dr. Haggard built a large team of alcohol researchers within the Laboratory of Applied Physiology—including E. M. Jellinek, who became managing editor of the Journal in 1941. In 1943, to bring together the various alcohol research projects conducted by the Laboratory, Dr. Haggard formed the Section of Studies on Alcohol, which also became home to the Journal and its editorial staff. In 1950, the Section was renamed the Center of Alcohol Studies.

In addition to original research, the Journal also published abstracts summarizing other published documents dealing with alcohol. Supplements to the journal were published starting from 1961. Most of them are available online with subscription.

Editors of the Journal

Dr. Haggard served as the journal’s editor (which means editor-in-chief) from its inception through 1958, followed by Mark Keller, who moved with the Journal in 1962, when the Center and its faculty relocated to Rutgers University. Keller held the position until 1977, when Timothy Coffee, a faculty member at the Center of Alcohol Studies, succeeded him. In 1984, Jack H. Mendelson, M.D., and Nancy K. Mello, Ph.D., of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Center, Harvard Medical School-McLean Hospital, became the first editors of the journal not affiliated with the center. The position of the editor shifted back to Rutgers with the appointment of John A. Carpenter, Ph.D., in 1991.

In 1994, Marc A. Schuckit, M.D., of the University of California and Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Diego became editor, expanding the scope with studies dealing with drugs other than alcohol. He was followed by Thomas F. Babor, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in 2015. As of July 1, 2023, the editor is Jennifer P. Read, Ph.D., of the University at Buffalo.

--Adopted from JSAD: About the Journal