Journal profile · SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs
ISSN 1455-0725 · eISSN 1458-6126 · SAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs: CAS Zone 4 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.03; fully open access; APC charged, amount not published; median 245 days to acceptance (55 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 30.9% (journal website); 41 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs is published by SAGE Publishing and is in Zone 4 of Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes, Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects and Gambling Behavior and Treatments, together about 38.5% of its articles. Its main subfields are General Health Professions. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Rigorous peer review of your researchPrompt publishingMultidisciplinary audienceHigh visibility for global exposureAPC covered by Nordic Welfare Ce...
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Editor-in-chief Matilda HellmanPublisher website
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named Sweden 15, Denmark 9, Norway 9, Finland 9, Australia 3 (52 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Substance Abuse Treatment and OutcomesMedicine25.3%
- Alcohol Consumption and Health EffectsMedicine8.1%
- Gambling Behavior and TreatmentsPsychology5.1%
- Social and Educational SciencesSocial Sciences5%
- Homelessness and Social IssuesHealth Professions5%
- Health Policy Implementation ScienceHealth Professions4.7%
- Mental Health and Patient InvolvementHealth Professions4.3%
- HIV, Drug Use, Sexual RiskMedicine4%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Medicine Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Substance Abuse | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Substance Abuse | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Sociology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Substance Abuse | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 2.03LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 2.1Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 2.2Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.3LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.5LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.86LetPub ·
- h-index
- 33OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 296OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.55OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 14.3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 28LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,872 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 30 | 30 | 6 |
| 2025 | 41 | 41 | 55 |
| 2024 | 38 | 38 | 108 |
| 2023 | 47 | 47 | 232 |
| 2022 | 44 | 44 | 454 |
| 2021 | 46 | 46 | 439 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with PubMed · to
245 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 153 days – 345 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 29 days (55 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 273 days
- Sample
- 55 articles with submission and acceptance dates (80 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 30 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 30.9%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 13 daysPublisher website ·
- First decision after review
- 61 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 184 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 27 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewLetPub
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessOpenAlex
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 0 | — | — | |
| LetPub | No APC | No | — | |
| Publisher website | No APC | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare6 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≥ 250 words
- Keywords
- ≥ 5
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 7,000 words
- Reference style
- APA
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
Article types accepted16, with length limits
- book review, while also offering critical account. Book reviews should not exceed 2000 words, and should include the names of the author(s), and publishmain text ≤ 2,000 words
- commentariesCommentaries are very short articles, 500-1500 words, with few references and no abstract.Length not stated
- commentaryResearch reports are original research article, presenting new, scientific findings. They should include an abstract (approx. 250 words) with proposed key words…main text ≤ 1,500 words
- editorialResearch reports are original research article, presenting new, scientific findings. They should include an abstract (approx. 250 words) with proposed key words…main text ≤ 1,000 words
- editorialsEditorials stimulate debate, raise new or neglected questions, and identify interesting problems, fundamental concepts and topics for future research.Length not stated
- for debate articlesFor Debate articles are opinion pieces up to 3000 words in length.Length not stated
- meta-analysisResearch reports are original research article, presenting new, scientific findings. They should include an abstract (approx. 250 words) with proposed key words…Length not stated
- opinionto 5000 words. For Debate articles are opinion pieces up to 3000 words in length. They build on research literature but add importmain text ≤ 3,000 words
- original research articleResearch reports are original research article, presenting new, scientific findings. They should include an abstract (approx. 250 words) with proposed key words…Length not stated
- overviewsOverviews can vary in form.Length not stated
- perspectiveResearch reports are original research article, presenting new, scientific findings. They should include an abstract (approx. 250 words) with proposed key words…Length not stated
- research reportResearch reports are original research article, presenting new, scientific findings. They should include an abstract (approx. 250 words) with proposed key words…main text ≤ 7,000 words
- research reportsResearch reports are original research article, presenting new, scientific findings.Length not stated
- reviewResearch reports are original research article, presenting new, scientific findings. They should include an abstract (approx. 250 words) with proposed key words…Length not stated
- reviewsReviews summarize a body of literature in order to reach one or more major conclusions.Length not stated
- systematic reviewResearch reports are original research article, presenting new, scientific findings. They should include an abstract (approx. 250 words) with proposed key words…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- Authorship Authorship
Please view our authorship policies, which includes information on criteria for authorship, who should be the corresponding author and more. Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages. Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical considerations
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright
Manuscript content licensed under Creative Commons Licenses Model summary
Manuscript content on this site is licensed under Creative Commons Licenses
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. All accepted articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication, are published under a Creative Commons license, and hosted online in perpetuity. There are currently no Article Processing Charges (APCs) to publish in this journal. For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Ac…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Double anonymized peer review Model summary
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency: Double-anonymized Reviewer interacts with: Editor, Associate Editor Review information published: None Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
Preprints allowed Model summary
The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers. Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission. Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Trial registration / reporting guidelines Clinical trial registration
The journal conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first participant enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- SAGE Publishing
- Country or region
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish
- ISSN
- 1455-0725
- Electronic ISSN
- 1458-6126
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs
What CAS zone is Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs is in Zone 4 of Medicine, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Substance Abuse. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 2.03; CiteScore 4.3, h-index 33.
How long does peer review take at Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs?
Based on the dates recorded on 55 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 245 days (interquartile range 153–345 days); authors report an average review time of about 30 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 30.9%. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≥ 250 words; Keywords: ≥ 5; Manuscript length: ≤ 7,000 words; Reference style: APA; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Suggested reviewers: Optional. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs based?
Of the 52 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Sweden (15), Denmark (9) and Norway (9). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs is indexed in SSCI, Scopus and DOAJ.
Is Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs open access, and what is the APC?
Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs is a fully open-access journal. APC charged, amount not published.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .