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Guide for Authors
Contributors are invited to submit their manuscripts in English to the Editor for critical review. The Journal of Science and Medicine
in Sport considers for publication original research, review papers, opinion pieces, short reports, methodological/technical notes, book
reviews and letters in the sub-disciplines of biomechanics (gait and movement), biomechanics (injury and impact), biomechanics (sports
performance), clinical sports medicine, exercise physiology, injury epidemiology, injury prevention, motor behaviour and control, physical
activity and health, physiotherapy, podiatry, psychology, public health, rehabilitation and injury management, sports medicine, sports
nutrition, sports science, and others having an interdisciplinary perspective with specific applications to sport and exercise and its
interaction with health. Only studies involving human subjects will be considered.
Authors must declare that manuscripts submitted
to the Journal have not been published elsewhere or are not being considered for publication elsewhere and that the research reported
will not be submitted for publication elsewhere until a final decision has been made as to its acceptability by the Journal.
Manuscripts
submitted to the Journal must conform to the style and submission instructions (particularly concerning word and reference counts) outlined
here, or they will be returned without review.
The refereeing process will consist of reviews by at least two independent reviewers.
Contributors should suggest the names and full contact details of 2 possible reviewers. The Editor may (at her or his discretion) choose
no more than 1 of those suggested. The reviewers will be blinded to the authorship of the manuscript. The Editor will make a final
decision about the manuscript, based on consideration of the referees' comments.
Papers accepted for publication become the copyright
of Sports Medicine Australia. Authors will be asked to sign a transfer of copyright form, on receipt of the accepted manuscript by Elsevier.
This enables the publisher to administer copyright on behalf of the authors and the society, while allowing the continued use of the
material by the author for scholarly communication.
CATEGORY OF MANUSCRIPTS
Original research papers
Original
research papers should describe original research, be no more than 3800 words long including references. References must be limited to
30.
Short reports and methodological/technical notes
Short reports and methodological/technical notes should describe pilot
study work, small scale studies, new methods, technical procedures or preliminary research findings. The Journal does not typically
publish case reports, but may consider them if they are of topical interest. Short reports and technical notes should contain no more
than 1500 words including references. Two tables or illustralions are permitted. References must be limited to 10.
Opinion pieces
Opinion pieces should be no more than 1200 words including references and do not contain any tables, figures or graphs. References
must be limited to 20.
Review articles
Review articles should be both concise and in-depth and have no more than 6500
words including up to 80 references.
Letters
Letters should be no more than 500 words, with no more than 5 references
and no tables or figures.
SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
All manuscripts, correspondence and editorial material for publication
should be submitted online via the Elsevier Editorial System at  http://www.ees.elsevier.com/jsams. Authors simply need to
"create a new account" (i.e., register) by following the instructions at the website, and using their own e-mail address and selected
password. Authors can then submit manuscripts containing text, tables, and images (figures) online. The entire peer-review process will
then be managed electronically to ensure timely review and publication. Authors can expect an initial decision on their submission within
6 weeks.
Following registration, enter the "Author area" and follow the instructions for submitting "Entry data" and a complete manuscript,
including abstract, tables, figures and the cover letter.
Under "Entry data," indicate the number of authors in the box and justify
more than 7 authors. If you wish to publish colour figures and agree to pay the "colour charge" check the appropriate box. Colour illustrations
incur a colour charge of 312 US dollars for the first page and 208 US dollars for every additional page containing colour. Figures can
be published in colour at no extra charge for the online version. If you wish to have figures in colour online and black and white figures
printed, please submit both versions.
Every submission, regardless of category, must include:
A cover letter stating:
the category of article (i.e., original article, review paper, opinion piece, short report, methodological/technical note, book review,
letter) in the subdisciplines of biomechanics (gait and movement), biomechanics (injury and impact), biomechanics (sports performance),
clinical sports medicine, exercise physiology, injury epidemiology, injury prevention, motor behaviour and control, physical activity
and health, physiotherapy, podiatry, psychology, public health, rehabilitation and injury management, sports medicine, sports nutrition,
sports science, and others having an interdisciplinary perspective with specific applications to sport and exercise and its interaction
with health.
When the proposed publication concerns any commercial product, either directly or indirectly, the author must include
in the cover letter a statement (1) indicating that he or she has no financial or other interest in the product or distributor of the
product or (2) explaining the nature of any relation between himself or herself and the manufacturer or distributor of the product. Other
kinds of associations, such as consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interests or patent-licensing arrangements, also must
be disclosed. If, in the Editor's judgment, the information disclosed represents a potential conflict of interest, it may be made available
to reviewers and may be published at the Editor's discretion; authors will be informed of the decision before publication.
Sources
of outside support for research (including funding, equipment and drugs) must be named in the cover letter.
The complete manuscript,
including title page, abstract, text, tables, acknowledgments, required disclosures (see below), references and illustrations. Financial
support for the project must be acknowledged, or "no external financial support" declared. The ethical guidelines that have been followed
must be stated clearly. The role of the funding organisation, if any, in the collection of data, their analysis and interpretation, and
in the right to approve or disapprove publication of the finished manuscript must be described in the Methods section of the text.
Note
that the online manuscript submission program requires separate entries of some information that also appears in the manuscript. These
separate entries are needed to manage processing and reviewing your manuscript and correspondence.
Written permission from the publisher
(copyright holder) must be submitted in hard copy direct to the Editorial Office for the reproduction of any previously published table(s),
illustration(s) or photograph(s) in both print and electronic media or from any unmasked subjects appearing in photographs.
Regulatory
requirements
Research protocol: Authors must state that the protocol has been approved by the appropriate ethics committee.
Name the committee.
Human investigation: The ethical guidelines followed by the investigators must be included in the Methods section
of the manuscript. In Australia, all work should conform to the ?Statement on Human Experimentation? by the National Health and Medical
Research Council of Australia. State clearly that the subject gave informed consent. Anonymity should be preserved.
PREPARATION
OF MANUSCRIPTS
Microsoft Word is the preferred software program. Manuscripts written in 11 point Arial or Times New Roman fonts are
preferred and more reliably convert to PDF files during electronic submission.
Manuscripts should be typed double-spaced throughout
(including title page, abstract, text, references, tables, and legends) with one (1) inch (2.5 cm) margins all around.
Arrange manuscript
as follows: (1) title page, (2) abstract and keywords, (3) text, (4) acknowledgments, (5) disclosures, (6) references, (7) tables (each
complete with title and footnotes) (8) figures and (9) figure legends. Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page as page
1 and ending with the legend page.
Word limits
Original research papers
3800 word count limit, including
all text, references, tables/figures, table/figure legends and footnotes, acknowledgements and practical implications
Each table/figure
is to be counted as the equivalent of 300 words, within the overall word count. Long tables should only be included as supplemental
files and will be made available on-line only
Maximum number of references is 30
Maximum number (combined) of tables and figures
is 6
Unstructured abstract of less than 250 words
Short reports and methodological/technical notes
1500 word count
limit, including all text, references, tables/figures, table/figure legends and footnotes, acknowledgements
Each table/figure is
to be counted as the equivalent of 300 words, within the overall word count. Long tables should only be included as supplemental files
and will be made available on-line only
Maximum number of references is 10
Maximum number (combined) of tables and figures is
2
Unstructured abstract of less than 250 words
Opinion pieces
1200 word count limit, including all text, references
and acknowledgements
Maximum number of references is 20
No tables or figures
No abstract
Review articles
6500
word count limit, including all text, references, tables/figures, table/figure legends and footnotes, acknowledgements
Each table/figure
is to be counted as the equivalent of 300 words, within the overall word count. Long tables should only be included as supplemental
files and will be available on-line only
Maximum number of references is 80
Maximum number (combined) of tables and figures is
2
Unstructured abstract of less than 250 words
Letters
500 word count limit, including references
No more than
5 references
No tables or figures
STRUCTURE OF MANUSCRIPTS (in order)
Title page (first page) should contain:
a.
Title. Short and informative
b. Running head. Short title of 30 characters and spaces
c. Authors. List all authors by first name,
all initials and family name
d. Institution and affiliations. List the name and full address of all institutions where the study
described was carried out. List departmental affiliations of each author affiliated with that institution after each institutional address.
Connect authors to departments using numbered superscripts.
e. Corresponding author. Provide the name and e-mail address of the author
to whom communications, proofs and requests for reprints should be sent.
Abstract and keywords.
Purpose, procedures, findings
and principal conclusions must be covered in under 250 words and must not include references. The abstract must be suitable for use by
abstracting journals without rewording. The Journal does not use a structured format for the abstract but requires that it states what
was done, what was found and what was concluded. The first sentence of the abstract must give a rationale, a foreground or background
to the study. The abstract must be an unstructured, one-paragraph summary of the study and include no sub-headings. For a review article,
the abstract should be a concise summary. Avoid abbreviations and acronyms. Provide up to six keywords, at least four of which should
be selected from those recommended by the Index Medicus Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) browser list (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/meshhome.html).
These keywords should not reproduce words used in the paper title.
Main body of the text
For original articles, text should
be organised as follows:
Introduction, describing the (purpose of the study with a brief review of background);
Methods,
described in detail. This section must be called Methods (not Materials and Methods) and should not include subheadings. Do not use the
term "subjects" - use terms such as athletes, patients, footballers, females, etc.
Results, concisely reported in tables
and figures, with brief text descriptions. Do not include subheadings. Use small, non-italicized letter p for p-values with a leading
zero, e.g. 0.05; Measurements and weights should be given in standard metric units; Do not replicate material that is in the tables or
figures in the text.
Discussion, containing a clear and concise interpretation of results. Cite references, illustrations
and tables in numeric order by order of mention in the text. Do not include subtitles.
Conclusion.
Practical implications,
three to five dot (bulleted) points (but no more than three in short reports) summarising the practical of findings to the real-world
setting of sport and exercise, the aim being to provide statements that can be understood by a lay audience. Each point should be written
in plain language, avoiding overly scientific terms. Dot points should not include recommendations for further research or use abbreviations.
They should nor repeat results from the study but should detail practical applications that derive from the results.
Acknowledgments
This field is compulsory. Grants, financial support and technical or other assistance are acknowledged at the end of the text before
the references. All financial support for the project must be acknowledged. If there has been no financial assistance with the project,
this must be clearly stated.
References
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references.
Conference and other
abstracts should not be used as references. Material referred to by the phrase ?personal communication? or ?submitted for publication?
are not considered full references and should only be placed in parentheses at the appropriate place in the text (eg, (Hessel 1997 personal
communication). References to articles submitted but not yet accepted are not encouraged but, if necessary, should only be referred
to in the text as ?unpublished data?.
References should be numbered consecutively within square brackets in normal text where they
occur in the text, tables, etc, (eg, [1,2]), as part of the text but not superscripted, and listed numerically at the end of the paper
under the heading ?References?. All authors should be listed where there are three or fewer. Where there are more than three, the reference
should be to the first three authors followed by the expression ?et al?. Book and journal titles should be in italics. No more than
three references should be used to support a specific point in the text.
Footnotes are unacceptable. For guidance on abbreviations
of journal titles, see Index Medicus at www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html.
Book references
Last name and initials of
author, italicised title of book, edition (if applicable), editor, translator (if applicable), place of publication, publisher, year
of publication, eg:
Brukner P, Khan K, Bradshaw C. Shin Pain, Chapter 26, in Clinical Sports Medicine, 2nd ed. Sydney. The McGraw
Hill Companies, Inc. 2000.
Journal references
Last name and initials of principal author followed by last name(s) and initials
of co-author(s), title of article (with first word only starting in capitals), abbreviated and italicised title of journal, year, volume
(with issue number in parenthesis if applicable), inclusive pages, eg:
Bishop D, Spencer M, Duffield R et al. The validity of a
repeated sprint ability test. J Sci Med Sport 2001; 4(1):19-29.
Internet references should be as follows:
3. Health Care Financing
Administration. 1996 statistics at a glance. Available at: http://www.hcfa.gov/stats/stathili.htm. Accessed 2 December 1996.
Tables
Keep the use of tables, figures and graphs to a minimum. Tables should be typewritten double-spaced on separate sheets (one to each
page). Do not use vertical lines. Each table should be numbered (Arabic) and have a title above. Legends and explanatory notes should
be placed below the table. Abbreviations used in the table follow the legend in alphabetic order. Lower case letter superscripts beginning
with "a" and following in alphabetic order are used for notations of within-group and between-group statistical probabilities. Tables
should be self-explanatory, and the data should not be duplicated in the text or illustrations. Tables must be submitted as part of the
text file and not as illustrations.
Figure legends
Figure legends should be numbered (Arabic) and typed double- spaced in order
of appearance beginning on a separate sheet. Identify (in alphabetic order) all abbreviations appearing in the illustrations at the end
of each legend. All abbreviations used on a figure and in its legend should be defined in the legend. Cite the source of previously published
(print or electronic) material in the legend.
Illustrations
Images or figures are submitted online as one or more separate files
that may contain one or more images. Within each file containing images, use the figure number (eg, Figure 1A) as the image filename.
The system accepts image files formatted in TIFF and EPS. Powerpoint (.ppt) files are also accepted, but you must use a separate Powerpoint
image file for each Powerpoint figure.
Symbols, letters, numbers and contrasting fills must be distinct, easily distinguished and
clearly legible when the illustration is reduced in size.
Black, white and widely crosshatched bars are preferable; do not use stippling,
gray fill or thin lines.
Written permission from unmasked patients appearing in photographs must be obtained by the authors and must
be surface mailed or faxed to the editorial office once the manuscript is submitted online.
Formulae, equations and statistical notations
Structural formulae, flow-diagrams and complex mathematical expressions are expensive to print and should be kept to a minimum.
Present
simple formulae in the line of normal text, where possible. Use a slash (/) for simple fractions rather than a built up fraction. Do
not use italics for variables.
In statistical analyses, 95% confidence intervals should be used, where appropriate. Experimental
design should be concisely described and results summarised by reporting means, standard deviations (SD) or standard errors (SE) and
the number of observations. Statistical tests and associated confidence intervals for differences or p-values should also be reported
when comparisons are made. Only use normal text for statistical terms: do not use bold, italics or underlined text.
Headings
All
headings (including titles) should be in sentence case only and not in capital letters.
Scientific terminology
To enable
consistency, authors should generally follow the technical guidelines of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, unless otherwise
stipulated in these Instructions. Following are some examples of the Journal style in the most basic cases and some general SI unit
guidelines.
Mass: 10 g, 2 kg
temperature: 20 o C
distance: 10 cm, 4 m, 20 km
time: 10 s, 20 min, 2 hr, 5 wk, 1 y
power:
10 W
energy: 400 J, 10 kJ.
The centigrade scale (? C) and the metric units (SI) must be used, except in the case of heart rate
(beats per min: bpm), blood pressure (mmHg) and gas pressure (mmHg).
When opening a sentence, numbers should be expressed in words,
eg:
Forty seven patients were contacted by phone?
The 24-hour clock should be used.
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