Science to improve care for people affected by unhealthy alcohol and other drug use

Although drug and excessive alcohol use clearly have social and other environmental determinants and consequences, there is little doubt that health care should play a major role in addressing them. In the health-care sector, attention to unhealthy substance use cannot be limited to highly specialized care settings; most patients with these conditions appear in general health settings where such problems are all too often ignored. In 2006, the IOM urged improvements in the quality of care for substance use conditions [5]. Responding to that report is a major impetus for the establishment of Addiction Science & Clinical Practice (ASCP). We see this focus as unique among journals that address addictions.Addiction Science & Clinical Practice was founded in 2002 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), an agency of the US National Institutes of Health and the largest funder of drug-abuse research in the world. In 2011, NIDA discontinued ownership of the journal and transferred editorial control to us. We hope to see all of their subscribers and authors continuing the dialogue they established so well. Under NIDA's stewardship, ASCP excelled at bringing researchers and clinicians together to better translate science into practice and back again--to blend the two by publishing reviews and roundtables. We aim to take the next steps in this thematic direction: to serve as a forum for clinically relevant research and perspectives that contribute to improving the quality of care (prevention and treatment) for people with unhealthy alcohol, tobacco, or other drug use and addictive behaviors across a spectrum of clinical settings--from emergency departments to prisons, from primary-care offices to the Internet, and from general hospitals to specialty care programs.To achieve these aims, we have moved firmly into the cutting edge of 21st-century publishing practices by teaming with BioMed Central. Although some feel tied to print publications, we realize that, in 2012, mo