Narrative Review Guidelines

The abstract of critical reviews need not be structured. All accompanying information should be supplied as required by the journal, similar to other submissions, including the names of potential peer reviewers. All critical reviews should be submitted through our online system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/acer. Please indicate in the online system that the manuscript is to be considered a Critical Review, whether it is a narrative or systematic review, and whether it was invited or not.

Narrative review guidelines:

1) Provide a concise introduction whose content would be difficult to derive from the field without reading the entire literature. This is particularly important because the readership of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research is multidisciplinary.

2) Focus critically upon a set of findings and methodologies and define the criteria for inclusion/exclusion. The focus should generally be a subpart of a larger area. For example, a review of alcohol’s actions on the liver would be so expansive as to be impossible to manage given space limitations. However, a critical review of the effects of oxidative stress on liver function could be reviewed comprehensively.

3) Include at least one figure that provides an overarching perspective on the topic being reviewed. Include tables to augment descriptions in text.

4) Provide an insightful discussion of the conclusions from a review of the evidence and suggestions for future research directions.

5) Explain the significance of the area of research to a multidisciplinary audience.