Endorsement of the CONSORT Principles in Reporting Alcohol Clinical Trials in ACER.
THIS ISSUE OF Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research (ACER) contains two critical reviews by Witkiewitz and colleagues (2015a,b) on alcohol clinical trials methods and reporting. These are comprehensive reviews of key areas of importance to alcohol clinical trialists and readers of their reports in the literature. As a co-author of the reviews, I concur with their recommendations for alcohol clinical trial design and reporting, as do the other senior editors ofACER. We have taken this occasion of the publication of the reviews as an opportunity to implement new policies on trial reporting. Henceforth, all clinical trials to be reported in ACER must adhere to the principles of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT), as embodied in the CONSORT checklist (http://www.consort-statement. org/checklists/view/32-consort/66-title) and the CONSORT flow diagram (http://www.consort-statement.org/consortstatement/flow-diagram), both of which must accompany the manuscript at the time of its initial submission. Details of this requirement now appear in the journal’s instructions for authors. The goal of this change is to improve the quality of clinical trial reports published in ACER, consistent with the findings by Ladd and colleagues (2010) that the quality of alcohol treatment outcome studies was greater in journals that adopted the CONSORT principles than those published by nonadopters. This change in policy puts ACER in the company of 585 other journals that endorse CONSORT (http://www.consort-statement.org/about-consort/endorsers). The reviews by Witkiewitz and colleagues (2015a,b) provide a clear rationale for the reporting requirements and a detailed discussion of the best methods to use in alcohol clinical trials. A concern that may arise in implementing these standards is the impact ofACER’s page limitations, which remain in place despite the journal’s move to electronic publication. In this regard, it should be noted that the checklist is required only for the purposes of the review and will not be published. Further, the inclusion of the CONSORT diagram in the body of the report does not count toward the word limits that are applied to research reports in ACER. The diagram can also be presented in supplementary material, along with lengthy descriptions of any methodological issues (e.g., power calculations), which does not affect the journal’s word limits or page charges. We look forward to continuing to publish topquality alcohol clinical trials in ACER, an effort that we believe will be enhanced by these changes.