Bridging academia and Nordic Societies

Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs (NAD) has a dual role in that the journal strives to be internationally relevant, but also solidly anchored in a Nordic context. NAD accepts submissions not only in English, but also in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, in order to help Scandinavian researchers express ideas and develop concepts in their native languages. This is important for us, as much of our content concerns local questions and contexts, and research must be communicated in a language that makes it possible to apply and relevant for the people involved.

For NAD, the language question has always been reoccurring, and there has always been a tension between English and the Scandinavian languages. This has been extensively discussed over the years (e.g., Andersen & Hellman, 2021; Hellman, 2018, 2020; Room, 2014; Stenius, 2018). However, at the same time, the journal content has slowly come to be dominated by the English language. NAD moved from exclusively publishing in Swedish, Norwegian or Danish with English summaries starting from its first issue in 1984, to publishing one yearly English language supplement with selected translated articles (1994–2006), to alternating between English language and Scandinavian language issues (2007–2009), to finally publishing mixed language issues from 2010 onwards. Nowadays, NAD only publishes a handful of articles every year in Scandinavian languages even though more than 80% of our authors are from the Nordics (since 2017).

When perusing older issues of NAD, one can find reports from various Nordic meetings, seminars and conferences, as well as news bulletins and country reports (e.g., Meddelanden, 1992; Thorsen, 1990). There is more material that deals with praxis and policy, and the content reflects an engagement with a much wider community of people working with alcohol- and drug-related issues in the Nordic countries. The popular scientific website PopNAD (popnad.com) was originally established in 2012 to preserve this dialogue between research and policy/practice. The original idea with PopNAD was to disseminate research in a popularised form in Scandinavian languages. PopNAD serves as a bridge between academia and the Nordic citizens, civil society, policymakers and welfare professionals. Since 2018, PopNAD also publishes articles in Finnish and English – the authors get to choose their preferred language.

Popular scientific publishing is crucial and has inherent added value, especially in times of fake news and industry misinformation campaigns. Many research funders and universities are today formulating new third task requirements to communicate to broader audiences.

In 2023, PopNAD published 47 articles written for the website by researchers, debaters and journalists from across the Nordics. Approximately half of the articles are in English. A quarter of the articles published on the site originate directly from NAD. For example, these three articles written in English – (1) a Norwegian study exploring whether various interventions had any impact on drug overdose trends (Amundsen et al., 2024); (2) a Swedish study investigating possible associations between problematic familial alcohol use and adolescent outcomes (Wahlström et al., 2023); and (3) a Danish study focusing on the dilemma-filled relationship with drinking and partying among young Muslim women in Denmark (Bærndt & Frank, 2023) – have corresponding articles published in PopNAD (Amundsen, 2023; Bærndt, 2023; Wahlström, 2023) written in Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, respectively.

In addition to popularised versions of NAD articles, the content on PopNAD stems from or serves as commentaries to research reports, data, policies, debates, conference reports and developments from the Nordic region from the whole Alcohol, Narcotics, Doping, Tobacco, and Gambling (ANDTG) field. Over the years, one of PopNAD's most popular services has been the section on alcohol statistics, providing concise information on alcohol markets in all Nordic countries and areas, including Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Åland Islands.

PopNAD's presence and activities on social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, X) also underscore its availability as a one-stop shop for anyone interested in Nordic ANDTG questions.

In this issue

When examining the need for a recovery capital assessment tool, Sofia Härd found that professionals in substance use treatment will ultimately rely on their own know-how when supporting service users regardless of any manuals that regulate their work (Härd, 2024). According to a study by Heradstveit et al. (2024), adolescent use of risky substances is a strong predictor for school dropout, and externalising factors play a major part. Doris Ochterbeck et al. (2024) explored how addiction researchers view the implications of brain-based explanations of addiction and found that a main concern is a possible neglect of non-biomedical factors. The implementation of Minimum Pricing for Alcohol legislation in Wales in March 2020, which has thus far had little influence on drinking patterns and was overshadowed by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, shows a study by Holloway et al. (2024). Justina Kievišienė (2024) explored the attitudes of Lithuanian social workers towards people with alcohol use problems and found that although social workers understand their professional responsibilities, their motivation and dedication to work are low. And lastly, Mäkelä et al. (2024) describe the development and validation of the Nurses’ Skills to Care for Alcohol-Intoxicated Patients in Emergency Department (NSCAIP-ED) instrument.