Journal profile · SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Substance Abuse-Research and Treatment
ISSN 1178-2218 · eISSN 2976-8357 · SAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
Substance Abuse-Research and Treatment: CAS Zone 4 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1.8 (journal website); fully open access; APC about USD 2,650; median 109 days to acceptance (66 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 42.7% (journal website); 3 articles a year; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Substance Abuse-Research and Treatment 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, Opioid Use Disorder Treatment and Prenatal Substance Exposure Effects, together about 45.6% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Journal HighlightsIndexed using ESCI, DOAJ, PsycINFO, EBSCO, PubMed Central (PMC), and ScopusPublished since 2008Publication is subject to payment of an article processing charge (APC)Substance Use: Research and Treatment is an open access, peer reviewed international focusing on human substance use research and treatment, including medical treatment and screening, mental health services, research, and evaluation of substance use programs. Please see the Aims and Scope tab for further information.This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).Submission InformationSubmit your manuscript at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sa-rt.Please see the Submission Guidelines tab for more information on how to submit your article to the journal.Open access article processing charge (APC) informationPublication in the journal is subject to payment of an article processing charge (APC). The APC serves to support the journal and ensures that articles are freely accessible online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.The APC for this journal is $3200. The article processing charge (APC) is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Please see further details here.ContactPlease direct any queries to SAT@sagepub.com
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Editor-in-chief Gregory L. StuartPublisher website
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 30, United Kingdom 1, India 1, Italy 1, Belgium 1 (35 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Substance Abuse Treatment and OutcomesMedicine26.3%
- Opioid Use Disorder TreatmentMedicine13.1%
- Prenatal Substance Exposure EffectsMedicine6.3%
- HIV, Drug Use, Sexual RiskMedicine5.8%
- Cannabis and Cannabinoid ResearchMedicine5.4%
- Smoking Behavior and CessationMedicine5%
- Homelessness and Social IssuesHealth Professions4.3%
- Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on BehaviorNeuroscience3.7%
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)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
ESCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
PMCPsycINFOPublisher website
Other: EBSCO
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
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 (publisher)
- 1.8Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 1.8Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 2.7LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.83LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.77LetPub ·
- h-index
- 42OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 196OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 383 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 57 | 57 | 559 |
| 2022 | 56 | 56 | 640 |
| 2021 | 29 | 29 | 476 |
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
109 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 85 days – 144 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 30 days (66 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 146 days
- Sample
- 66 articles with submission and acceptance dates (70 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 8 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 42.7%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 5 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 36 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 8 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
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 accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | USD 2,650 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC | |
| OpenAlex | USD 2,650 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 2,650 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | USD 3,200 | — | — |
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)
Article types accepted10, with length limits
- commentaryded or discussed in the original paper. Commentary material may be peer-reviewed at the editor’s discretion Word limit: 1500 Word count includes abstract/refere…main text ≤ 1,500 words
- editorialWritten by the Editor-in-Chief, deputy Editor-in-Chief or Guest Editor of a journal, editorials are intended to inform readers of changes concerning the journal…Length not stated
- letter to the editorA letter to the Editor is a brief communication that addresses the contents of a published article. Its purpose is to make corrections, provide alternative view…Length not stated
- meta-analysisView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Research Article Research Articles should present original work within the journal's scope, with c…Length not stated
- opinionView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Research Article Research Articles should present original work within the journal's scope, with c…Length not stated
- perspectiveView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Research Article Research Articles should present original work within the journal's scope, with c…Length not stated
- research articleView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Research Article Research Articles should present original work within the journal's scope, with c…Length not stated
- reviewView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Research Article Research Articles should present original work within the journal's scope, with c…Length not stated
- short reportShort reports present new research that adds to previous studies.Length not stated
- systematic reviewView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Research Article Research Articles should present original work within the journal's scope, with c…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- Authorship Author contributions
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review and publication process, this journal has adopted CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy). CRediT is a high-level taxonomy, including 14 roles, which is used to describe each author’s individual contributions to the work. You will be asked to list the contribution of each author as part of the submission process. Please…
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
COPE member Model summary
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 ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
Substance Use: Research and Treatment 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. If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge (APC) is payable to cover the cost of publishing,…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Single anonymized peer review Model summary
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency: Single Anonymized Reviewer interacts with: 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 may be desk rejec…
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
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
- ISSN
- 1178-2218
- Electronic ISSN
- 2976-8357
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Substance Abuse-Research and Treatment
What CAS zone is Substance Abuse-Research and Treatment in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Substance Abuse-Research and Treatment is in Zone 4 of Medicine, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Substance Abuse. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Substance Abuse-Research and Treatment?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 1.8; this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 2.7, h-index 42.
How long does peer review take at Substance Abuse-Research and Treatment?
Based on the dates recorded on 66 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 109 days (interquartile range 85–144 days); authors report an average review time of about 8 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 42.7%. 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.
Where are the editorial board members of Substance Abuse-Research and Treatment based?
Of the 35 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (30), United Kingdom (1) and India (1). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Substance Abuse-Research and Treatment?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Substance Abuse-Research and Treatment is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists PMC and PsycINFO; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Substance Abuse-Research and Treatment open access, and what is the APC?
Substance Abuse-Research and Treatment is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 2,650.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex, DOAJ; 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: .