Editor's Corner

Editor’s Corner

I hope everyone’s 2019 is off to a great start.  I am so excited to present the second issue of the newly revamped SoAP Box.   I appreciate the positive feedback we’ve gotten about the new online format and am thankful for the suggestions we’ve received thus far.  If I can ask one favor of you all, it is to please be sure to click through all the articles in both the past issue and this current issue.  One of things we want to be able to track are metrics of how often articles are read, so please help us boost our presence online!  For those people who prefer a more traditional newsletter, I have also compiled a very basic PDF newsletter where you can find all of the content in one place.

I am also thrilled to introduce Jennifer Cadigan, PhD who has graciously agreed to serve as Assistant Editor.  Jennifer received her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri and completed her Clinical Internship at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She is a licensed psychologist and postdoctoral research fellow on a NIAAA-funded Individual National Research Service Award (F32) in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at University of Washington. Her program of research explores adolescent and young adult health behaviors, with an emphasis on the etiology, prevention, and intervention of high-risk substance use. 

We received many great submissions from SoAP members for the new columns I introduced in the last issue and I am so excited for you all to hear from our fellow members.  In particular, please be sure to check out all the great submissions we got for Show and Tell, SoAP Box Sound Bites, and Community Corner.  Clayton Neighbors has also graciously shared a series of anecdotes with us in the Finding Success Through Failures column that I think many of us can relate to. These columns are only as successful as the entries we get, so please don’t be shy and share your stories!

This current issue includes updates on both the Collaborative Perspectives on Addiction (CPA) Conference as well as Division Programming at APA. Attending these conferences is a great way to not only share your work but to learn about ways to get involved in our division.  One of the most exciting updates is that CPA has had so many interested parties this year that they had to close enrollment earlier than expected.  It looks like this small conference is on its way to hitting the big time! We also have some great updates about the amazing programming that will be offered at the APA Convention this year.  Speaking of conferences, Aaron Weiner has written a great article about networking tips and strategies at conferences that I hope everyone, particularly our early career readers, will find valuable.

Related, this issue also includes information about the upcoming SoAP elections and SoAP Award Winners for 2019.  We also have a council report from James Bray that outlines topics discussed at the APA Council of Representatives meeting in February. In addition, Nancy Piotrowski has included her regular Advocate’s Alcove Column where she covers the most recent advocacy-related issues relevant to our division. This issue also includes a wonderful clinical translation piece written by Jennifer Cadigan and Michael Bernstein that covers how research from the event-specific drinking literature can be utilized in clinical practice.

For the next issue, I am hoping to continue soliciting new content. I am so excited about the submissions we received this time and I am hopeful that more people will feel comfortable submitting content in the coming issues.  Please submit any of the content requested below to me (dana.litt@unthsc.edu) by June 1, 2019.

-SoAP Box Sound Bites. In 50 words or less, please respond to the following prompt—“How can our division better support the clinicians and researchers of tomorrow?”

-Show and Tell.  This is the place to show off your recent accomplishments, accolades, awards and/or to and highlight all the important work you are doing.  Send us a link and description of your lab branding, current projects, awards, or media attention you may have received, and any other information that you would like to share with our readers. Please limit responses to 200 words.

-Community Corner.  For the coming issue, I want to hear about ways in which you are using novel methods and approaches to active engaging in the community. Please limit responses to 200 words.

-Finding Success in Failure.  In line with the recent trend of prominent academics sharing their “CVs of Failures”, we want to hear about a time in your career that things didn’t go your way.  For this next issue, we want to hear about how you deal with manuscript rejections?  What is your process for overcoming the disappointment and what did you learn from these experiences and what would you recommend to others experiencing this same disappointment? Please limit responses to 500 words.

-Ethical Issues.  In this column, we are looking for articles focused on describing ethical issues you may come across in your research and/or addiction-related clinical practice.  Specifically, we want to hear what the ethical issue was, how you handled it, and lessons learned. Some examples could be issues related to googling patients, how you handled it when a patient contacted you on social media, or what happens when you run into a research participant out in the real world.

If you have any suggestions for how we can make TAN more relevant and impactful for you, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Wanting to see articles on a specific topic? Send your topic ideas to me for upcoming issues. I am always open to ideas for new columns, hot topics to cover, or anything else you think would be useful for our readers.