Open access
All articles published by Harm Reduction Journal are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers. Further information about our open access policy is available on the BioMed Central Open Access Charter page.
Authors of articles published in Harm Reduction Journal are the copyright holders of their articles and have granted to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate the article, according to the BioMed Central copyright and license agreement.
Article-processing charges
Open access publishing is not without costs. Harm Reduction Journal therefore levies an article-processing charge of £995/$1560/€1180 for each article accepted for publication. We routinely waive charges for authors from low-income countries. Generally, if the submitting author's institution is a BioMed Central member the cost of the article-processing charge is covered by the membership, and no further charge is payable. In the case of authors whose institutions are supporter members of BioMed Central, however, a discounted article-processing charge is payable by the author. For further details, see our article-processing charge page. A limited number of waivers for article-processing charges are also available at the editors' discretion, and authors wishing to apply for these waivers should contact the editors.
Indexing services
Following publication in Harm Reduction Journal, the full-text of each article is deposited immediately and permanently archived in PubMed Central, the US National Library of Medicine's full-text repository of life science literature, and also in repositories at INIST in France and in e-Depot, the National Library of the Netherlands' digital archive of electronic publications. Harm Reduction Journal is included in PubMed and all major bibliographic databases. A complete list of indexing web services that include BioMed Central's journals can be found here.
Harm Reduction Journal is tracked by Thomson Reuters (ISI) and has an Unofficial impact factor of 1.10
Publication and peer-review process
Criteria for Publication
Research - reports of data from original research.
Book reviews - 1000-1500 words on recent and classic works in the field.
Brief reports - brief reports of data from original research, usually about 1500 words.
Case reports - reports of clinical cases that can be educational, describe a diagnostic or therapeutic dilemma, suggest an association, or present an important adverse reaction.
Case studies - descriptions of a major healthcare intervention, usually from a public health perspective. The article should include a rigorous assessment of the processes and impact of the intervention as well as recommendations for future interventions.
Commentaries - short, focused and opinionated articles on any subject within the journal's scope. These articles are usually related to a contemporary issue, such as recent research findings or other HRJ publications.
Methodology articles - present a new experimental method, test or procedure. The method described may either be completely new, or may offer a better version of an existing method. The article must describe a demonstrable advance on what is currently available.
Reviews - comprehensive, authoritative descriptions of important subjects within the journal's scope. HRJ will regularly solicit these and is open to proposals for additional topics. These have an educational aim and are 2000-5000 words - with more extensive and wider ranging references.
Peer review policies
Peer review in Harm Reduction Journal (HRJ) is designed to ensure that the research and scholarship published is based on sound principles of science and is relevant to the important issues associated with drug use and drug policies.
HRJ considers manuscripts spanning a wide range of scientific, public health, and policy interests.
We recognize the importance of highlighting articles that contain the most interesting, important or significant research. Peer reviewers are asked to indicate articles they consider to be especially interesting or significant. These articles will be given greater prominence within HRJ and greater external publicity.
Submitted manuscripts will generally be reviewed by two external experts.
Peer reviewers will have four possible options, for each manuscript: (1) accept without revision, (2) accept after revision without expecting to check those revisions, (3) neither accept nor reject until author(s) make revisions and resubmit or (4) reject because scientifically unsound
In recommending whether to accept or reject a manuscript, a reviewer asks him/herself whether the scientific community is better served by publishing or not publishing the article. The final decision to publish rests with the Editors.
When asking for revisions, reviewers have two possible goals: to ask authors to tighten their arguments based on existing data or to identify areas where more data are needed.
HRJ normally allows authors a maximum of two revisions of a manuscript.
Peer reviewers are asked to say if the manuscript is not sufficiently clearly written for publication. In such cases authors are asked to revise the manuscript, seeking, if necessary, the assistance of colleagues or a commercial editing service.
We aim to publish research as quickly as possible. Our electronic submission process is designed to facilitate rapid publication.
Peer review
Authors will be able to check the progress of their manuscript through the submission system at any time by logging into My Harm Reduction Journal, a personalized section of the site.
Portability of peer-review
In order to support efficient and thorough peer review, we aim to reduce the number of times a manuscript is re-reviewed after rejection from Harm Reduction Journal, thereby speeding up the publication process and reducing the burden on peer reviewers. Therefore, please note that, if a manuscript is not accepted for publication in Harm Reduction Journal and the authors choose to submit a revised version to another BioMed Central journal, we will pass the reviews on to the other journal's editors at the authors’ request. We will reveal the reviewers' names to the handling editor for editorial purposes unless reviewers let us know when they return their report that they do not wish us to share their report with another BioMed Central journal.
Reprints
High-quality, bound reprints can be purchased for all articles published. Please see our reprints website for further information about ordering reprints, and to enquire about further details, including fees, please contact BioMed Central's reprint service.
Supplements
Harm Reduction Journal will consider supplements based on proceedings (full articles or meeting abstracts), reviews or research. All articles submitted for publication in supplements are subject to peer review. Published supplements are fully searchable and freely accessible online and can also be produced in print. All full length articles (proceedings, reviews or research articles) are indexed by PubMed. PubMed displays the title of the supplement only in the case of meeting abstract collections. For further information, please contact us.
Editorial policies
Any manuscript, or substantial parts of it, submitted to the journal must not be under consideration by any other journal. In general, the manuscript should not have already been published in any journal or other citable form, although it may have been deposited on a preprint server. The journal is willing to consider peer-reviewing manuscripts that are translations of articles originally published in another language. In this case, the consent of the journal in which the article was originally published must be obtained and the fact that the article has already been published must be made clear on submission and stated in the abstract. Further information on duplicate/overlapping publications can be found here. Authors are required to ensure that no material submitted as part of a manuscript infringes existing copyrights, or the rights of a third party.
Correspondence concerning articles published in Harm Reduction Journal is encouraged. A 'post a comment' feature is available on all articles published by Harm Reduction Journal. Comments will be moderated by the editorial office (see our Comment policy for further information) and linked to the full-text version of the article, if suitable.
Editorial standards
BioMed Central is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)and endorses the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Policy Statement on Geopolitical Intrusion on Editorial Decisions.
Ethical guidelines
Submission of a manuscript to Harm Reduction Journal implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content, and that any experimental research that is reported in the manuscript has been performed with the approval of an appropriate ethics committee. Research carried out on humans must be in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration, and any experimental research on animals must follow internationally recognized guidelines. A statement to this effect must appear in the Methods section of the manuscript, including the name of the body that gave approval, with a reference number where appropriate. Informed consent must also be documented. Manuscripts may be rejected if the editorial office considers that the research has not been carried out within an ethical framework, e.g. if the severity of the experimental procedure is not justified by the value of the knowledge gained.
Harm Reduction Journal's publisher, BioMed Central, has a legal responsibility to ensure that its journals do not publish material that infringes copyright, or that includes libellous or defamatory content. If, on review, your manuscript is perceived to contain potentially libellous content the journal Editors, with assistance from the publisher if required, will work with authors to ensure an appropriate outcome is reached.
For all articles that include information or clinical photographs relating to individual patients, written and signed consent from each patient to publish must also be made available if requested by the editorial staff.
The involvement of scientific (medical) writers or anyone else who assisted with the preparation of the manuscript content should be acknowledged, along with their source of funding, as described in the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) guidelines on the role of medical writers in developing peer-reviewed publications. If medical writers are not listed among the authors, their role should be acknowledged explicitly.
Standards of reporting
Harm Reduction Journal supports initiatives aimed at improving the reporting of biomedical research. We recommend authors refer to the MIBBI Portal for prescriptive checklists for reporting biological and biomedical research where applicable. Authors are requested to make use of these when drafting their manuscript and peer reviewers will also be asked to refer to these checklists when evaluating these studies.
For mutation nomenclature please use the guidelines suggested by the Human Genome Variation Society, and the recommended gene name by consulting the appropriate genetic nomenclature database, e.g., HUGO for human genes, and the International Committee on Standardized Genetic Nomenclature for Mice. We encourage the use of standardized terms for human phenotypes, such as those proposed by the Elements of Morphology working group (see: http://research.nhgri.nih.gov/morphology/index.cgi).
Checklists have also been developed for a number of study designs, including randomized controlled trials (CONSORT), systematic reviews (PRISMA), meta-analyses of observational studies (MOOSE), diagnostic accuracy studies (STARD) and qualitative studies (RATS). We recommend authors refer to the EQUATOR network website for further information on the available reporting guidelines for health research. For authors of systematic reviews, a supplementary file, linked from the Methods section, should reproduce all details concerning the search strategy. For an example of how a search strategy should be presented, see the Cochrane Reviewers' Handbook.
Authors from pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organizations that sponsor clinical trials, should adhere to the Good Publication Practice guidelines for pharmaceutical companies, which are designed to ensure that publications are produced in a responsible and ethical manner. The guidelines also apply to any companies or individuals that work on industry-sponsored publications, such as freelance writers, contract research organizations and communications companies.
Harm Reduction Journal also supports initiatives to improve the perfomance and reporting of trials, part of which includes prospective registering and numbering of clinical trials. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has implemented the World Health Organisation (WHO) definition of clinical trials which states that a clinical trial is any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes. This definition includes phase I to Phase IV trials.
Authors of protocols or reports of such clinical trials, where the primary purpose of the research is to understand the causes, development and effects of disease or to improve preventatative, diagnostic or therapeutic interventions, must register their trials prior to submission in a suitable publicly available registry. In addition to accepting registration in any of the five existing registries (http://www.icmje.org/faq.html), the ICMJE will accept registration of clinical trials in any of the primary registers that participate in the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.
The trial registration number should be included as the last line of the manuscript abstract.
Data and materials release
Submission of a manuscript to Harm Reduction Journal implies that readily reproducible materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, will be freely available to any scientist wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes. Nucleic acid sequences, protein sequences, and atomic coordinates should be deposited in an appropriate database in time for the accession number to be included in the published article. In computational studies where the sequence information is unacceptable for inclusion in databases because of lack of experimental validation, the sequences must be published as an additional file with the article.
Any 'in press' articles cited within the references and necessary for the reviewers' assessment of the manuscript should be made available if requested by the editorial office.
Nucleotide sequences
Nucleotide sequences can be deposited with the DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ), European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL/EBI) Nucleotide Sequence Database, or GenBank (National Center for Biotechnology Information).
Protein sequences
Protein sequences can be deposited with SwissProt or the Protein Information Resource (PIR).
The accession numbers of any nucleic acid sequences, protein sequences or atomic coordinates cited in the manuscript should be provided, in square brackets with the corresponding database name; for example, [EMBL:AB026295, EMBL:AC137000, DDBJ:AE000812, GenBank:U49845, PDB:1BFM, Swiss-Prot:Q96KQ7, PIR:S66116].
The databases for which we can provide direct links are: EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Database (EMBL), DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ), GenBank at the NCBI (GenBank), Protein Data Bank (PDB), Protein Information Resource (PIR) and the Swiss-Prot Protein Database (Swiss-Prot).
Mass spectrometry
Mass spectrometry data should be supplied in the mzML format recommended by the HUPO Protein Standards Initiative Mass Spectrometry Standards Working Group guidelines (http://www.psidev.info/index.php?q=node/80). We also recommend that the data is deposited in the ProteomeExchange (http://proteomexchange.org/) though the PRIDE website (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/pride/), and protein interaction data can be submitted to members of the IMEx consortium (http://disber.net/imexdrupal/).
Structures
Protein structures can be deposited with one of the members of the Worldwide Protein Data Bank. Nucleic Acids structures can be deposited with the Nucleic Acid Database at Rutgers. Crystal structures of organic compounds can be deposited with the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre.
Chemical structures and assays
Structures of chemical substances can be deposited with PubChem Substance. Bioactivity screens of chemical substances can be deposited with PubChem BioAssay.
Microarray data
Where appropriate, authors should adhere to the standards proposed by the Microarray Gene Expression Data Society and must deposit microarray data in MIAME-compliant format in one of the public repositories, such as ArrayExpress, Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) or the Center for Information Biology Gene Expression Database (CIBEX).
Computational modeling
We encourage authors to prepare models of biochemical reaction networks using the Systems Biology Markup Language and to deposit the model with the BioModels database, as well as submitting it as an additional file with the manuscript.
Plasmids
We encourage authors to deposit copies of their plasmids as DNA or bacterial stocks with Addgene, a non-profit repository, or PlasmID, the Plasmid Information Database at Harvard.
Appeals against rejection
If authors are not satisfied with the decision made on their manuscript, they should contact the Editorial Office with their appeal; additional advice on the manuscript will be sought where appropriate. Authors who have appealed against a rejection but remain concerned about the editorial process can refer their case to COPE.
Competing interests
Harm Reduction Journal requires authors to declare any competing financial or other interest in relation to their work. All competing interests that are declared will be listed at the end of published articles. Where an author gives no competing interests, the listing will read 'The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests'.
Citing articles in Harm Reduction Journal
Articles in Harm Reduction Journal should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional journal. Because articles are not printed, they do not have page numbers; instead, they are given a unique article number.
Article citations follow this format:
Authors: Title. Harm Reduction Journal [year], [volume number]:[article number].
e.g. Roberts LD, Hassall DG, Winegar DA, Haselden JN, Nicholls AW, Griffin JL: Increased hepatic oxidative metabolism distinguishes the action of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor delta from Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor gamma in the Ob/Ob mouse. Harm Reduction Journal 2009, 1:115.
Why publish your article in Harm Reduction Journal?
High visibility
Harm Reduction Journal's open access policy allows maximum visibility of articles published in the journal as they are available to a wide, global audience. Articles that have been especially highly accessed are highlighted with a 'Highly accessed' graphic, which appears on the journal's contents pages and search results.
Speed of publication
Harm Reduction Journal offers a fast publication schedule whilst maintaining rigorous peer review; all articles must be submitted online, and peer review is managed fully electronically (articles are distributed in PDF form, which is automatically generated from the submitted files). Articles are published with their final citation immediately upon acceptance in a provisional PDF form. The article will subsequently be published in both fully browseable web form, and as a formatted PDF; the article will then be available through Harm Reduction Journal, BioMed Central and PubMed Central and will also be included in PubMed.
Flexibility
Online publication in Harm Reduction Journal gives authors the opportunity to publish large datasets, large numbers of color illustrations and moving pictures, to display data in a form that can be read directly by other software packages so as to allow readers to manipulate the data for themselves, and to create all relevant links (for example, to PubMed, to sequence and other databases, and to other papers).
Promotion and press coverage
All articles published in Harm Reduction Journal are included in article alerts and regular email updates. Some may be included in abstract books mailed to academics and are highlighted on Harm Reduction Journal's pages and BioMed Central's homepage.
In addition, articles published in Harm Reduction Journal may be promoted by press releases to the general or scientific press. These activities increase the exposure and number of accesses for articles published in Harm Reduction Journal. A list of articles recently press-released by journals published by BioMed Central is available here.
Copyright
Authors of articles published in Harm Reduction Journal retain the copyright of their articles and are free to reproduce and disseminate their work (for further details, see the BioMed Central copyright and license agreement).
For further information about the advantages of publishing in a journal from BioMed Central, please click here.
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