Guide for Authors

JOURNAL SCOPE AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Archives of Behavioural Addictions is a trimonthly peer reviewed open access online publication. The journal is a broad focused interdisciplinary one that publishes manuscripts on different approaches of non-substance addictions, research reports focusing on the addictive patterns of various behaviours. Coverage ranges from genetic and neurobiological research through psychological and clinical psychiatric approaches to epidemiological, sociological and anthropological aspects. It collects original works, reviews and case reports concerning etiology, diagnosis and treatment of behavioural addictions. It includes a poster section for young researchers and a visual communication corner. Archives of Behavioural Addictions represents to the specialist a mean for updating and widening his knowledge in the research and clinical practice fields.

CONDITIONS OF SUBMISSION AND COPYRIGHT ISSUES
Manuscripts are considered for publication with the understanding that they do not contain previously published material, have not been published previously and are not currently under review at another journal. All manuscripts must also be accompanied by an adequately compiled and signed Journal Publishing Agreement.
If the manuscript is accepted for publication in Archives of Behavioural Addictions, the authors guarantee that it will not be published elsewhere in any other language without permission from the copyright holder.
The authors of manuscripts that include illustrations, tables and/or sections of text that have been published previously elsewhere must request permission to reproduce the material from the copyright holder. This permission must be presented in written form during submission of the manuscript. In the absence of such permission, all material received will be regarded as the authors’ own work.
Manuscripts that report the results of research conducted on human subjects must include a declaration in the Methods section that the study protocol was approved by the competent Ethics Committee, that the study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards established in the Declaration of Helsinki of 1946, and that informed consent was obtained from all participants before enrolment in the study. All details that could reveal the identity of a patient (including initials of the patient name and unnecessary reference to personal data such as occupation and residence) must be omitted from the text and illustrative materials. The patients must provide written informed consent to the publication.
If experiments have been conducted on animals, the study must have been conducted in accordance with the International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the use of laboratory animals, and such adherence must be explicitly stated in the manuscript.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
Once a manuscript is accepted for publication, each author must complete and sign a Conflict of Interests disclosure form, which specifies all economic, personal and professional relationships that could become a conflict of interests, that could be perceived as a possible conflict of interests, or that could influence the work of the author described in the manuscript. All of the declarations will appear after the Acknowledgements section of the article. The editorial office reserves the right to reject any manuscript that does not conform to the above-described instructions. The authors will be held responsible for any false declarations or noncompliance with the instructions specified above.
The conflict of Interests disclosure form must be sent, compiled and signed, alongside with the Journal Publishing Agreement to the editorial office e-mail address: info@aba-journal.com.
Full Authors Guidelines, online Submission System link, Journal Publishing Agreement and Conflict of Interests forms are available on Journal website: www.aba-journal.com

REVIEW PROCEDURE
The decision to publish a manuscript is based on a peer-review process, and acceptance of an article will be based on criteria of originality, relevance, and scientific content of the contribution. Each paper will be read by at least two referees. ABA applies a double-blind review process, in which both the authors’ and the reviewers’ identities are concealed. It is the authors’ responsibility to see that the manuscript itself contains
no clues to the authors’ identity. The authors may be requested to modify the text based on the comments of reviewers. Statements made in the manuscripts are the responsibility of the author and not of the editor. The opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and may not reflect the position of the editors.

ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGES
ABA Journal is an Open Access journal. The corresponding author of every manuscript submitted is requested, after acceptance, to pay the Article Processing charge to cover the publishing costs of the paper. Publishing fees vary depending on the article type.

The publishing fees for longer articles will have an ad hoc assessment.
Manuscripts with outstanding payment will not be published until the balance is cleared.
Once the paper is accepted for publication in ABA Journal the author will be requested to submit a Licence Statement. Upon acceptance of the Licence Statement the author will receive an invoice. Article processing will commence after the amount due has been remitted to Edra’s account. (Please note that there is no peer review charge, the only applicable fee is the article processing charge for authors of accepted papers).
The Open Access policy of the journal includes the free and unrestricted self-archiving of the final published version if papers on the Author’s webpage or on the Author’s institutional repository with open or restricted access. When self-archiving or communicating a paper via e-mail, the Author should quote the correct citation and enclose a link to the published article.

PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

Types of article
 Original Article (Research Report). These submissions must report important and novel material within the field of behavioural addictions. Manuscripts should not exceed 5000 words. This type of article can be developed as a Short Paper too (1200/1500 words; maximum 15 references).
 Review. These must attain to specific topics within the scope of the journal. Typically, these are systematic reviews or critical analyses of a field of research. Manuscripts should not exceed 5000 words.
 Position Paper. These are essays that present an opinion about an issue, enabling discussion on emerging topics within the behavioural addictions field. Manuscripts should not exceed 5000 words.
 Case Report/Series. Only exceptional cases will be considered for publication as a single case report. Case reports should describe novel, well-documented findings that will be of help and interest to the practitioner. Manuscripts should not exceed 1200/1500 words.
 Epidemiology and Real-World Studies. Essentially, these studies help fill the knowledge gap between clinical trials and actual clinical practice. Manuscripts should not exceed 5000 words.
 Visual Communication. These should be made up by a single picture that express an original and significant contribution to the research on behavioural addictions, a title of maximum 20 words and eventually a caption of no more than 300 words.
 Poster Session for young researchers. A poster should illustrate research methods and outcomes.
 Letter. Short reports (up to 1000 words, plus one figure or table and no more than 15 references) with no abstract. Manuscripts should not exceed 1200/1500 words with no more than 5 references. The letter can be a comment to an article.
 Editorial. Editorials are solicited by the editors. An Editorial typically should not exceed 2000 words.

The publication of longer articles will have an ad hoc assessment.

All submissions have to include a separate Title page and the manuscript.

In the Title page the following information should be reported:

• manuscript title (and a short title version).
• names of the authors: full names and surnames of each author.
• each author’s affiliation.
• name and address of the Institution where the work was carried out.
• address of the corresponding author for proofreading, completed with e-mail address to which the PDF of the drafts will be sent, telephone and FAX numbers, and postal address.
• Funding: the authors must indicate if the study received funding or did not receive funding.
• Conflict of interest: All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the work submitted that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. Also state if no conflict was present by writing “The authors declare no conflict of interest” or ”The authors report no financial or other relationship relevant to the subject of this article” or any other similar statement.
• An Acknowledgements section could be added if the Authors wish to disclose further information.

The first page of the manuscript must contain:

• Manuscript title (and a short title version).
• Abstract (about 850 characters, spaces included).
  A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions structured thusly: Objective, Methods, Results and Conclusions (except for case reports/series, that should have the following structure: Background, Case presentation/study, Discussion, Conclusions). An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, references should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
• Keywords.
  Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 5 keywords, avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, ‘and’, ‘of’). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

On the pages that follow, develop the manuscript as follows:

• Introduction.
  Give a brief description of the scope and objectives of the proposed research.
• Materials and Methods.
  Provide a detailed description of the materials and methodologies used, clarify all ethical aspects (see the General Principles and Ethical Aspects section).
• Results.
  Present the results of the research clearly and exhaustively.
• Discussion.
  Analyze the results obtained and their clinical implications.
• Conclusions.
  Present the significance of the results and the final observations of the authors.
• Take-home message.
  The main message that readers learn from the article. It is a handy way of thinking about – and really focusing on – what it is you want people to remember most after they have finished reading.
• References.
  References should be in the order:
   – the order number corresponding with that of appearance in the text;
   – the author’s name(s), followed by initial or first name;
   – the title of the work, in the original language;
   – for journals: usual title abbreviations according to international nomenclature and in the order: year, volume number, issue number (in parenthesis), first and last page numbers of the work.
  For example: Stein GN, Pretorius A, Stein DJ, Sinclair H.The association between pathological gambling and suicidality in treatment-seeking pathological gamblers in South Africa. Ann Clin Psychiatry 2016; 28(1):43-50.
   – for books: name of the author/editor, title, publisher/institution, town where published, first and last page number of the work.
  For example:
  Grant JE, Potenza MN (Eds). Pathological Gambling: A Clinical Guide to Treatment. Amer Psychiatric Pub, Arlingtion, 2004: 111-35.Note: Do not write the references using uppercase, small caps or italics. For abbreviation of titles, use the international standards from Index Medicus.
  Please note that all authors should be cited.
• Web references.
  As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.Tables:
  All tables must be presented in separate files in a text format. Tables must be identified and referred in the manuscript with roman numerals and accompanied by a brief caption.
  Tables will not be accepted in PowerPoint, PDF or JPG formats, which require retyping of the text for uniformity of style with journal graphics.
  Figures:
  The figures (i.e., photographs, graphs, and diagrams, including flow charts) themselves should be submitted separately from the manuscript file (one file for each figure). Each figure should be numbered with an arabic numeral (according to its citation in the text). For composite figures, each component should be labeled with lowercase letters (e.g., Fig. 1a).
  Photographs, graphs, diagrams, and flow charts must be supplied in one of the following formats: JPG (high resolution: min 300 dpi), TIFF (high resolution: min 400 dpi), or EPS (high resolution: min 600 dpi).
  Scanned images must be acquired with high resolution and saved in a high-resolution format.
  Illustrative material included in the article should ideally be unprotected by copyright. For tables or figures that have already been published (by the authors or others), permission to reproduce must be obtained from the copyright holder (generally, the journal in which the material was originally published) and attached to the submission. Failure to obtain this permission prior to submission can delay publication of an accepted manuscript.
  Authors should make sure that photographs of patients contain no identifying features. The patient must be asked to provide written informed consent to the publication of the photograph.
  In addition, the Publisher reserves the right to not publish images not conforming to these requirements, which could affect the graphical quality of the journal.
  Note: Figures must be presented separately, not inserted in the manuscript text and must not contain trade names or bibliographic references.
  Legends:
  A caption should comprise a brief title and a description of the illustration. Captions for figures are to be provided in the text file at the end of the manuscript.
  Acronyms, abbreviations, units of measurements:
  Archives of Behavioural Addictions recognizes the adoption of the International Systems of Units (SI-Units). Acronyms, abbreviations, and units of measurements without a legend and/or incomprehensible are not permitted. When necessary, a list of abbreviations may be inserted after the abstract.

Online proof correction
Proofreading is the responsibility of the authors regarding content, and of the editors regarding the technical part. The proofs for correction will be sent to the corresponding author indicated in the manuscript. These must be corrected and returned to the editorial office by the date indicated in the accompanying letter and within 5 working days of their receipt.
After this deadline, ex officio correction and/or postponing of publication will occur, depending on the editorial priority of the Editor in Chief.
Responses received after the indicated date and requests for sending to another or more than one author, different from the one indicated in the manuscript, will not be accepted.
Note: proofreading corrections must avoid modifying the graphics already defined or modifying the content so to require a new peer-review process.

Submission checklist
The following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal for review. Ensure that the following items are present: One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:
– E-mail address
– Full postal address
All necessary files have been uploaded, and contain:
– Keywords
– All figure captions
– All tables (including title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations:
– Manuscript has been “spell-checked” and “grammar-checked”
– References are in the correct format for this journal
– All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa
– Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)

Use of the Digital Object Identifier
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document.
When you use a DOI to create links to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change.

ADDRESS
Edra SpA, Via Spadolini 7 – 20141 Milan
E-mail address of Archives of Behavioural Addictions Editorial Office: info@aba-journal.com