Journal Policies

The journal follows recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to ensure the rigorousness of its review and publication processes.

Editorial Policies

International Journal of Sport, Exercise and Health Research is committed to the timely publication of peer-reviewed articles in journals. Journal requires all authors to comply fully with current ethical standards for publication in their disciplines. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must represent reports of original research, and the original data must be available for review by the editor if necessary. All authors of a manuscript must have agreed to its submission and are responsible for its content, including appropriate citations and acknowledgments, and must also have agreed that the corresponding author has the authority to act on their behalf in all matters pertaining to publication of the manuscript. By submission of a manuscript to the journal, the authors guarantee that they have the authority to publish the work and that the manuscript, or one with substantially the same content, was not published previously, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. When submitting papers for publication, it is expected that the authors will provide written assurance and describe the novelty of their work or in the approach taken in their research in a covering letter.

International Journal of Sport, Exercise and Health Research insists on ethical practices in both human and animal experimentation. Evidence for approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human as well as animal studies) must be supplied by the authors on demand. Animal experimental procedures should be as humane as possible and the details of aesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated. The ethical standards of experiments must be in accordance with the guidelines provided by the CPCSEA (animal) and ICMR (human). The journal will not consider any paper which is ethically unacceptable. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the ‘Materials and Methods’ section. Authors must be careful when they reproduce text, tables or illustrations from other sources. Plagiarism will be viewed seriously. All accepted papers are subject to editorial changes.

Peer Review Policy

Journal employs the double-blind peer review process, where both reviewers and authors remain anonymous throughout the review process. Every proposal submitted for publication is read at least by an editor, for an initial review. If the paper agrees with editorial policies and with a minimum quality level, is sent to two reviewers. The reviewers won't know the author's identity, as any identifying information will be stripped from the document before review.

Reviewers' comments to the editors are confidential and before passing on to the author will made anonymous. Based on the reviewers' comments, the Editorial Board makes a final decision on the acceptability of the manuscript, and communicates to the authors the decision, along with referees' reports. Whether significant revisions are proposed, acceptance is dependent on whether the author can deal with those satisfactorily.

On average, the submitted manuscripts are reviewed as quickly as possible, and it takes 4-6 weeks from submission to an acceptance/rejection decision. The accepted manuscript takes 2-3 weeks to online publication.

Corrections and Retractions Policy

Journal will consider correcting or retracting articles in rare cases. The Journal follows the COPE and ICMJE guidelines for Retraction and Correction of articles.

According to ICMJE Recommendations, honest errors are a part of science and publishing and require publication of a correction when they are detected. It is our responsibility to correct errors in previously published articles. In such case, the corrections will be published as soon as possible once errors are confirmed and published version may or may not be deleted from the public domain.

On rare occasions, published articles may be retracted. The journal believes that the aim of retraction is not to punish authors but to revise the literature and to alert the reader to such publications which may contain serious errors or erroneous data, and whose conclusions are unreliable. Please note that articles will be retracted by publishing a retraction, but may or may not be deleted from the public domain.

Editorial & Peer Review Process

All manuscripts are anonymously reviewed by the editors, members of the editorial board, advisory board or qualified reviewers. When a manuscript is submitted to the journal, it is given a number and assigned to two reviewers. The reviewers operate under strict guidelines and are expected complete their reviews quickly. Within 2 to 4 weeks after submission, the corresponding author will be notified of the editor’s decision to accept without change, recommended for modification, further review, or reject. When modifications are requested, the corresponding author must either submit the modified version or withdraw the manuscript. Manuscripts that have been rejected, or withdrawn after being returned for modification, may be resubmitted if the major criticisms have been addressed. The cover letter must state that the manuscript is a resubmit, and the former manuscript number should be provided in the appropriate field on the submission form.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

For the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement of the journal, please follow the link: Click here

Conflict of Interest Policy

Conflicts of interest (COI) in publishing can be defined as conditions in which an individual holds conflicting or competing interests that could bias editorial decisions. COI exists when there is a divergence between an individual’s private interests (competing interests) and his or her responsibilities to scientific and publishing activities such that a reasonable observer might wonder if the individual’s behavior or judgment was motivated by considerations of his or her competing interests. COI in journal publishing affects everyone with a stake in research integrity including journals, research/academic institutions, funding agencies, the popular media, and the public. Journals are interested in COI as it relates to a specific manuscript. Some manuscripts may be chosen for inclusion in continuing education activities offered by the appropriate organization.

Author- The journal requires authors to provide a statement at the end of their manuscripts to disclose any potential or existing conflict of interest relevant to the work. The corresponding author must ensure that all authors are aware of the requirement to disclose any conflict of interest.

Reviewer- When asked to evaluate a manuscript, reviewers must disclose any association that poses a conflict of interest in connection with the manuscript. Reviewers are asked to recuse themselves from handling a paper if the conflict makes them unable to, or lead to the perception that they may be unable to, form an impartial scientific judgment. A reviewer who has a potential conflict but believes that it does not preclude his or her from making a proper judgment must disclose the conflict to the editorial office. Such conflict is taken into account when the editors make decisions.

Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism is not acceptable in the journal, and includes, but is not limited to, copying or reusing text, ideas, images or data from other sources without clear attribution, and goes against the principle of academic publishing. The journal uses iThenticate to screen submitted content for originality before publication. iThenticate checks submissions against millions of published research papers, and billions of web content. Any issues detected by the software will be addressed by a follow-up investigation in line with COPE guidelines and if plagiarism is detected the manuscript may be rejected, corrected or retracted, as appropriate.

Research Ethics Policy

Human Subject Research

Ethical Approval- For any study involving human subjects or samples, authors should provide an Ethical Approval statement in the Declarations part of their manuscripts to state that the study is approved by an institutional ethics committee and complies with the Declaration of Helsinki. The researchers must have conducted the study according to the approved protocol and acceptable research standards.

Consent to Participate- For any study involving human subjects, written informed consent to participate should be obtained from the participants. Authors should provide a statement to attest that they have received and archived the written consent, and such consent can be available if requested.

Consent to Publication- For manuscripts involving privacy issues, e.g., showing the individual details in images or videos, authors must obtain the consent to publication from the participants. Authors should provide a statement to attest that they have received and archived the written consent, and such consent can be available if requested.

Clinical Trials Registration

The journal follow the clinical trial guidelines defined by ICMJE. The journal requires registration of all clinical trials.

Animal Research

Any research involving animals should be approved by an animal care and use committee and conducted according to the approved protocol and acceptable research standards for animal experimentation. Authors should provide an ethical statement at the end of their manuscripts to state that the study was approved by certain animal care and use committee.

Open Access Policy

The journal provides immediate free access to the full text of articles in PDF format. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Repository Policy

APC waiving off Policy

To attract high quality submissions and relieve the financial burden for researchers, there is no article processing charge (No APC), since the APC for the journal is wholly financed by BioMed Research Publishers. Authors or their institutions don't need to pay any fees during the submission and publication.

Manuscript Withdrawal Policy

If the author authors/conference organizers/or a third party requests a withdrawal of manuscript, within a week period (w.e.f. the date of our acknowledgement email of the receipt of a manuscript at our end). The author is allowed to withdraw the manuscript without paying any withdrawal penalty.
However, If the authors/conference organizers/or a third party withdraw manuscripts any time after final manuscript has already been submitted to Journals for processing, the request will not entertained without a withdrawal penalty, which is basically to cover cost incurred and also to check such practices.
If the author still wants to withdraw manuscript, the author needs to submit a written letter to Journals stating the reasons for manuscript withdrawal along with (INR 2500/USD 100) as Manuscript Withdrawal Charges.

Advertising Policy

International Journal of Sport, Exercise and Health Research do not accept advertising for its website.