After 16 years, Professor Robert West has retired as Editor-in-Chief of Addiction Journal. From 1 January 2021, Professor John Marsden has taken on this role.
Professor West and Professor Marsden
Professor West was Editor-in-Chief of Addiction from 2005. Since that time, the size, impact and processes of the journal have been transformed. Initially, in 2005 articles were transported across London by couriers in boxes full of files and floppy disks. An early challenge for Professor West was to manage the transfer to an online submissions system.
Professor West has dramatically expanded the editorial team working at Addiction; there are now 7 head office staff, 40 senior editors, 13 statistics reviewers and 140 associate editors. He introduced a whole tier of senior editors as well as the statistics review team. He has continuously innovated to improve addictions research, part of which involved developing the Paper Authoring Tool (PAT). The impact factor of Addiction has continued to increase during his time as editor. The SSA is incredibly grateful for Professor West’s work at Addiction as well as the impact he has had on addiction research overall.
Professor John Marsden has been Addiction’s Deputy Editor-in-Chief since 2016, before which he was the Regional Editor for Europe, Africa and Asia. The SSA was delighted when Professor Marsden accepted the role of Editor-in-Chief. He has a compelling vision for the journal and the SSA looks forward to him continuing the development and innovation that has made Addiction so important to the field. Professor Marsden outlines his vision and editorial team in an editorial for Addiction published today (5 January 2021).
In late 2020, the SSA recorded an interview between the outgoing and incoming Editors-in-Chief. The interview covered Professor West’s experiences editing the journal. Both Professor West and Marsden discuss current advances in addictions research, sharing their insights and experiences on this fascinating subject. The interview will be available on the SSA and Addiction Journal websites from 11 January 2020.
