Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs

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NOTICE: THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS TO THE ATOD SECTION HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15.

Call for Abstracts for the 2008 Annual Meeting

Each year, members of the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs (ATOD) Section have the opportunity to present papers and research results during the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association. The Section typically sponsors over 70 Scientific and Poster Sessions, during which about 500 oral and poster presentations are made. Preparations are being made now for the 2008 Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA.

The ATOD section invites abstracts in all areas pertaining to alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, including:
  • ATOD Screening
  • ATOD-Evaluation
  • Alcohol-Policy and Advocacy
  • Alcohol-Prevention
  • Alcohol-Treatment
  • Alcohol-general
  • Tobacco-Cessation
  • Tobacco-General
  • Tobacco-Policy and Advocacy
  • Tobacco-Prevention
  • Other Drugs-General
  • Other Drugs-Policy and Advocacy
  • Other Drugs-Prevention
  • Other Drugs-Treatment
The Section encourages members interested in health services research, media, advocacy, public policy, prevention and treatment practice to submit abstracts for 2008. Topics of particular interest include:

• Prevention measures that address all addictive substances and access by minors

• Models of science-based prevention and coordinated community and legal action

• Advocacy in all venues

• Early detection and screening for substance use in various settings

• Integration of substance use treatment with mental or physical health care

• Relationship of substance use and health outcomes

• Special problems of special populations

• Effective treatment and aftercare in all settings and for all problems

• International comparisons and impacts

• Best practices in prevention, screening, treatment and aftercare

• Evaluations, performance measures, and cost-effectiveness studies

Once again this year, the Program Committee will select the best student abstract submitted, and its authors will receive the new Award for Best Student Abstract in November.

Abstracts are submitted electronically through the APHA Web site, < www.apha.org >. The Web site provides complete instructions on the length and format of abstracts and the information required on authors. Electronic submission is scheduled to open December 17, 2007. The deadline for submissions is now February 15, 2008. (NOTE THIS IS EXTENDED FROM THE ORIGINAL DUE DATE.)


Abstracts may be designated “Oral Only”, “Poster Only”, or “No Preference”. Oral sessions are limited and very competitive, so you are encouraged to consider selecting “No Preference”—each year we must turn down abstracts of merit because we do not have space and authors selected “Oral Only”. Please give the Program Committee as many options as possible to accept your presentation.

The ATOD Section ranks abstracts through a multi-tier peer review process. Abstracts are evaluated on importance (does the presentation provide new findings and/or innovative ideas with significant impact on policy, practice or advocacy in the ATOD field?), methodological/project soundness (is the methodology sound, clearly stated, and appropriate to the topic or project? Are the sample and data and/or the population and community recent, representative, unbiased and of adequate size?), and clarity (is the content communicated in a clear, logical and understandable way?), as well as relation to overall Section priorities. Abstracts that do not make this clear are usually ranked lower by reviewers due to incomplete information. Topical sessions are then assembled from high-ranked abstracts. Please note that APHA suggests the program include only one presentation by any individual, and the Section endeavors to abide by this guideline.

Session Proposals. Proposals for entire sessions (90 minutes in length and at least five presentations) may be submitted for multiple analyses or results from large data sets or projects. They will be ranked in competition with separately submitted abstracts, and the session topic will be weighed against the topics of interest for the Annual Meeting as well as the topics addressed in separately submitted abstracts. The Program Committee reserves the right to break session proposals apart and consider the individual abstracts separately without prior notification to the session organizer.

Only session proposals which include abstracts for each presentation, an overall session abstract, and have the Confex-assigned ID numbers for abstracts in the session inserted into every abstract, will be considered. The session abstract must include the rationale, moderator, presentation titles, order and length of time for each presentation, and be clearly labeled SESSION ABSTRACT - “your proposed title” on the electronic submission. Each individual abstract should also include the session title and contact information (phone and e-mail) for the person in charge of sessions so we can contact you easily.

Notification of acceptance or rejection for all abstracts submitted is sent in May by e-mail to the contact person designated in the abstract submission. Presenters are notified of date, time and location of their sessions during the summer. Should you withdraw an accepted abstract, the Program Chair will select a replacement; please do not provide a substitute. Information detailing the ATOD Section’s Preliminary Program and Final Program will be available on the ATOD Section Web site and copies of the Final ATOD Section Program including locations and last-minute changes will be available at the ATOD Section Booth.
Submit Abstract

Program Planner Contact Information:
Linda M. Bosma, MA, PhD
Bosma Consulting, LLC
3422 44th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55406
Phone: 612-721-4998
linda@bosmaconsulting.com