Guidelines to Contributor

Following are guidelines for potential contributors to the Journal:

Review Process

All manuscripts published in the column, “Teaching, Research, and Media in Kinesiology”, are peer reviewed.

The editorial process at Sports Media, although simple, involves a number of steps. Manuscripts are required to be submitted in MS Word or RTF text formats and written in accordance with the American Psychological Association’s Publication (2010, 6^th edition) format. No other text formats will be considered.  Upon reception, manuscripts would be scrutinized for basic content and format standards (see below, under the subtitle “Manuscript Format,” suggestions regarding the maximum length of articles, e.g., 2,500 words or less, etc.). The Editors will remove all identifying markers prior to submission of the manuscript to a blind review process, i.e., a minimum of two Section Editors that have expertise in the manuscript’s topic.

A sample “Section Editor” form, for the evaluation of a manuscript is attached to the bottom of this document.  Please go over the form and provide any suggestions that you may have. A similar form is used by Daniel Frankl in his role as a section editor of a professional journal.

Timing

The Sports Media Journal’s editorial team is committed to a rapid editorial cycle and publication. It is our belief that an efficient editorial process is a valuable service both to potential authors and to the P.E. community as a whole. We therefore ask reviewers to respond promptly within a cycle of 14 days or less. If cases of an anticipated delay in the review cycle, the manuscript’s author(s) will be notified and if needed, alternate reviewers will be sought.

Final Decision

The Editor-in-Chief (when in need, will consult with Editorial Board members) will make the initial determination of the suitability of a manuscript for the Journal's scope and readers. A manuscript considered as suitable, would be next forwarded to the appropriate section editors for a double blind peer review. Based on section editors’ recommendations, the Editor-in-Chief would make the final decision whether the paper should be (1) accepted as it is, (2) required to undergo some minor revisions, (3) required to undergo moderate to extensive revisions, or (4) rejected.

Manuscript Format

1. Submitted manuscripts to Sports Media must be written in English and should be sent for consideration in a final prepublication form. Poorly written manuscripts that are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors will be rejected by the Chief Editor without any further review.
2. Manuscripts should be submitted in Microsoft Word format. Diagrams and charts may be embedded in the text or may be provided separately as Microsoft Excel files. No other formats will be considered. Since the review process in blind, all information that identifies an author must be removed from the manuscript.
3. Authors are encouraged to provide titles that are 12 or less words in length.
4. Depending on the manuscript’s type, its length may range between 2,500 to 9,000 words.
5. Authors must include a 150-to-350-word abstract with their manuscript. In addition, authors are required to provide up to six keywords which encapsulate the principal topics addressed. Manuscripts may be categorized under any one of the below listed classifications:

___ Original Research                     ___ Case Study

___ Review                                    ___ Commentary

___ Research Notes                       ___ Practitioner’s Notes

6. Footnotes should be used only when absolutely necessary and must be identified in the text by consecutive numbers; all footnotes should use a size 10pt font. The text should be in a 12pt size font.
7. References must adhere to APA Style conventions and should be carefully inspected for completeness, accuracy and consistency. Rather than provide an overly comprehensive list of references, authors are advised to restrict the list of references to sources that most directly support the manuscript’s content (i.e., 25 references or less). Unless expressly cited in the manuscript’s text, a reference may not be added to the list.
8. Manuscripts should be submitted using the following font face and font sizes: Times New Roman, 14 point for titles and 12 point for the main text (including headings). All headings should be in bold letters.
9. Use a double spaced format and leave a margin of one inch from top, bottom, left, and right edges of the typed page.
10. Submitted manuscripts for review must include pagination and line numbering.

Copyright

1. Only original manuscripts will be accepted. Published manuscripts will be submitted to be Indexed with SPORTDiscus and ERIC.

Plagiarism

The Journal maintains a zero-tolerance policy on plagiarism. Published manuscripts that the editors determine to include plagiarized content will be removed from the online archives and the readers will be notified of the action in the subsequent issue of the Journal. Furthermore, author(s) determined to have at any time submitted plagiarized materials will be banned from future publication in the Journal.

At first, our goal is to publish one to two articles per month (except during the holiday months) or minimum 8 articles per year.

Editorial Board members are encouraged to submit original manuscripts for publication. Members of the Editorial Board should send their manuscripts to Guy Van Damme in order to preserve anonymity and the proper blind review process.

Submission Process

Manuscripts should be sent via e-mail to the Editor-in-Chief:

Dr. Fu, You - assistant professor in the School of Public Health - University of Nevada, Reno

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

SEE SUGGESTED SECTION EDITOR FOR MANUSCRIPT EVALUATION FORM BELOW

Manuscript #: ________

Sample Section Editor Form

1. GENERAL MANUSCRIPT EVALUATION (Required)

(Five-Point Scale: Excellent – 5; Good – 4; Above Average – 3; Fair – 2; Poor – 1). Insert number.

ASSIGN A SCORE (1 – 5) TO EACH OF THE BELOW EVALUATION CATEGORIES:

2. RECOMMENDATIONS TO CHIEF EDITOR (Required) (Circle appropriate number: 1 - 4)
3. To be accepted in its present form
4. To be accepted following minor revisions (provide specific feedback)
   • editor control sufficient, or
   • referee control necessary (circle a or b)
5. Major revisions required – Referee control mandatory: One resubmission allowed (provide specific feedback)
6. To be rejected (brief explanation required)

3. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORY (unless rejected, check one)

___ Original Research                 ___ Case Study

___ Review                                  ___ Commentary

___ Research Notes                    ___ Practitioner’s Notes

4. NOTICE TO EDITORIAL BOARD – CONFIDENTIAL

(Use a separate sheet of paper in case more space is needed.)

Date: ____________                         ________________________________________

                                                                       (Section Editor's Signature)

5. COMMENTS TO AUTHORS (for manuscripts that require revisions)

(An evaluation of a manuscript that is assessed as in need of either minor or major revisions must include specific suggestions to the author(s) with the precise text locations indicating page and line numbers. Comments to authors may also be added to the manuscript via the MS Word 'Reviewing Pane' and 'Tracking features.'). The 'COMMENTS TO AUTHORS' section will be made available to the author(s) as a separate sheet without the identification of munuscript reviewers.