Author Guidelines
AUTHOR GUIDELINES
These guidelines are based upon “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals” (www.icmje.org).
GENERAL INFORMATION
All manuscripts should be submitted to the European Journal of Sports Medicine (EUJSM) electronically online at www.eujsm.com or www.eujsm.eu. Hard copy submission and electronic submission via e-mail are not accepted. Submitted manuscripts undergo peer review by three independent reviewers. The review process is fulfilled six to eight weeks after the submission of the article and the Editor-in-Chief notifies the decision letter to the authors.
AIMS AND SCOPE
The European Journal of Sports Medicine (EUJSM) is the official journal of the European Federation of Sports Medicine Associations (EFSMA). The journal publishes original articles, reviews, case reports, and letters to the Editor. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must contain novel data on theoretical, clinical or experimental research or on practical applications in the field of Sports Medicine. Indicative categories include:
- Sports Injuries
- Exercise and Disease
- Drug testing and Doping
- Athletic Performance Enhancement
- Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation in Sports
- Exercise in special populations (children, women, elderly, disabled athletes)
- Sports and the Environment
- Nutrition and Metabolism in Exercise
- The Preparticipation Examination
- Exercise Physiology
- Exercise Psychology
- Other
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TYPES OF ARTICLES ACCEPTED FOR REVIEW
Original articles: Clinical, theoretical or experimental (basic or applied) research or practical applications in the field of Sports Medicine. Original articles should not exceed 10 pages or 15,000 characters, including tables, figures and references. References should be limited to 50.
Review articles: Review articles in topics of Sports Medicine are welcome. These articles should not exceed 20 pages or 24,000 characters, including references and figures. Review articles are considered by the Editorial Team and expert reviewers before acceptance. There is no reference limit. Systematic reviews are also considered for publication.
Case reports: Short reports presenting findings alone or in combination with a review of the literature in which standard or novel methods have been used. New trends in Sports Medicine diagnosis and treatment can also be included. The manuscript must not exceed 4 typewritten pages or 2,500 characters. References should be limited to 15.
Letters to the Editor: They are welcome and will be published if appropriate. Letters (maximum length 800 words) relating to material previously published in the EUJSM should be submitted within 6 months after publication of the topic the letter is referring to.
STYLE OF THE MANUSCRIPTS
All manuscripts must be written in English in a precise and clear language. Manuscripts may be rejected without review on the basis of poor English or lack of conformity to given standards.
Format: All manuscripts are to be written in A4 page size, with double space and margins of 2.5cm, using the size 12 of the Times New Roman style. Pages are to be numbered sequentially, with the title page as number 1. Abbreviations should be written initially in parenthesis next to the full phrase. A number in the beginning of a sentence should be fully written. Do not break and hyphenate words.
First page: The first page of each paper should indicate the full title of the paper, author(s) name(s), affiliations, the institute where the work was conducted (not in capital letters), complete name and address for correspondence with telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address, type and category of the article and running head not exceeding 50 characters including spaces. In order to ensure a blind review no other sign able to identify the author(s) should be included in any other part of the manuscript.
Second page: The second page should contain only the full title and the running head. This page will serve as the cover when the manuscript is sent to reviewers.
Sections: The main manuscript of the articles (except from the Letters to the Editor) should be divided into sections with the headings: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion.
Abstract: It has to be informative, self- explanatory without references to the text of the manuscript. It should include essential significant results that support the conclusions. The abstract has to be very precise and contain no more than 250 words. The following subheadings must be included in the abstract: Objectives, Material and Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Key-words should be 3-5, representative of the subject studied or discussed and not included in the title. Please avoid abbreviations.
Introduction: It should be comprehensible and give a clear statement of the purpose of the paper and provide relevant context to support the aim of the paper and the significance of the work. Do not exhaustively review the literature or refer results from the submitted manuscript.
Materials & Methods: Provide sufficient information in the text or by reference to other work to permit the submitted work to be repeated without the need to communicate with the authors. Relevant validity and reliability data should be provided for critical methods. State the type of statistical tests used. Include the number of observations and the statistical findings when appropriate. Parametric and nonparametric statistics must be used as appropriate. Experiments on human subjects should conform to the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation. Do not use patients' names, initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material such as figures. Reporting results from experiments on animals on the care and use of laboratory animals should conform to the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 1983. One should indicate whether the researchers followed the law of the institution's or a national research council's guide. All drugs and chemicals used are to be designated by their general names, active principles and dosage.
Results: Should be presented precisely and should not contain material suitable for the Discussion section. Results shall appear only once in Tables or Figures. Do not duplicate information, and present only the most relevant results. Units, quantities, and formulas should be expressed according to the Systeme Internationale (SI units). All measurements should be given in metric units.
Discussion: Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and conclusions derived from it. Do not repeat results. Data relevancy should be compared to existing information from previous research. Do not speculate, otherwise carefully supported, in a way, by insights from your data analysis. Final discussion should be summarized in its major points.
Acknowledgements: These should be as brief as possible. Any grant that requires acknowledgement should be mentioned. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.
References: Titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the latest edition of Index Medicus. All authors should be named (do not use "et al."). Authors bear complete responsibility for the accuracy of the references. The references must be written according to Vancouver System (http://barrington.cranfield.ac.uk/help/vancouver-system-for-citing-references). Number references (Arabic numbers) consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text. Type reference in the text using Arabic numbers as superscripts (above the line of the text) and if appears at the end of a sentence, place it after the period. Only published or "in press" papers or books may be cited in the reference list. Information from manuscripts submitted but not yet accepted should be cited in the text as "unpublished data" in parentheses. Personal communications should be listed in the text in parentheses. Published abstracts could be used as references only if the full text has not been published yet. Use of a large number of abstracts or non peer reviewed articles in the reference section will be grounds for rejection of the submission without review.
Examples:
a) Journal article: Hubbard TJ, Hertel J. Mechanical contributions to chronic lateral ankle instability. Sports Med. 2006;36(3):263-77.
b) Complete book: Hutson M.A. Sports Injuries. Recognitions and management. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1990.
c) Chapter in a book: Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Leregh JH, Brenner BM, editors, Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995. p. 465-78.
d) Conference/Congress proceedings: Tocitu D. Enzymatic of the adaptative processes in High Performance Sport. Proceedings of the 12th Balkan Sports Medicine Congress, 6th International Congress of the Sports Medicine Association of Greece, 3rd Hellenic-Cyprus Sports Medicine Congress 2002 March 21-24; Thessaloniki, Greece.
e) Dissertation Thesis: Natsis K. Ultrastructural study of the skeletal muscle fibers after an experimental muscle atrophy [dissertation number 870]. Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 1993.
f) Journal article in electronic format: Christodoulou A., Terzidis I., Natsis K., Gigis I., Pournaras J. Soleus accessorius, an anomalous muscle in a young athlete: case report and analysis of the literature. Br J Sports Med 2004;38(6):e-38.
Figures: Figures, illustrations, or halftones should be used when findings are best visually communicated. They should be clear and even throughout and of sufficient size that when reduced for publication each item will still be legible. Figures, illustrations or halftones must be sharp and high contrast. Uniform typographical setup (font style & size, line thickness) of all figures in the paper is highly recommended. Number all figures in the order of their citation in the text (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc…). Include figure legends after the References. Abbreviations used in the figure must be explained in the legend. Reference to the figure should be made in the text. Figures should be submitted as separate image files, one figure per file in .TIF file format, with an analysis of at least 300 dpi. Images are published in color in the online version at no additional charge to the author.
Tables: Tables should be used to provide information concisely. Results whose interpretation is more easily comprehended by knowing the means and SEM (or SD) may be presented in a table(s). Tables should be self-explanatory and bear a short title. Tables should be presented within the same rules as figures. Tables´ footnotes should be used only to describe abbreviations used. Include Tables after the References.
PREREQUISITES FOR PUBLICATION
By submitting a paper, authors guarantee that they have not submitted and will not submit a similar paper for publication elsewhere in any language. The journal subscribes the recommendations formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org) regarding criteria for authorship. Accordingly, each person listed as a co-author for a submitted manuscript (not including review articles) must meet all three of the following criteria.
1. Conceived, planned, and performed the work leading to the report, or interpreted the evidence presented, or both.
2. Written the report or reviewed successive versions and shared in their revisions.
3. Approved the final version.
Meeting these criteria should provide each author with sufficient knowledge of and participation in the work that he or she can accept public responsibility for the report. The corresponding author is requested to certify that all listed authors meet the above three criteria.
Articles accepted for publication become the property of EFSMA and may not be published elsewhere in the same form without the written consent of the Editor-in-Chief of the EUJSM.
Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines:
1. This work has not been published elsewhere, is not under revision and will not be published in the future in any journal.
2. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, and the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
3. Each person listed as a co-author for a submitted manuscript (not including review articles) meets all three of the following criteria.
- Conceived, planned, and performed the work leading to the report, or interpreted the evidence presented, or both.
- Written the report or reviewed successive versions and shared in their revisions.
- Approved the final version.
4. Humane procedures have been followed in the treatment of experimental animals (if applicable); investigations in humans were done in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation or with the Helsinki Declaration (if applicable).
Copyright Notice
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following term: The copyright of the article is transferred from the authors to the EFSMA (European Federation of Sports Medicine Associations) upon acceptance of the manuscript.
PRIVACY STATEMENT
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Konstantinos Natsis
Editor-in-Chief
E-mail: natsis@med.auth.gr
