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Instructions for Authors
1 Scope
The International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport is published on behalf of the Centre for Performance Analysis, School of Sport, PE and Recreation, UWIC, and in association with the International Society of Performance Analysis. The emphasis is on the analysis of performance in sport and exercise. Topics covered also include technologies such as design of analysis systems, sports equipment, research into training, and modelling and predicting performance; papers evaluating (rather than simply presenting) new methods or procedures will also be considered.
2 Submission
Authors must submit an original article in electronic form, (preferably by e-mail) in Microsoft Word 97, 98 or 2000, to the General Editor (see the editorial board list). Papers submitted to the Journal will be refereed blind by acknowledged experts in the subject; at least two such referees will be involved in this process. In the event of conflicting reviews, the Editor will normally seek a further independent review. The General Editor has the final decision on publication. No word limits are specified for papers, but discursive treatments of the subject matter are discouraged. Submissions in two or more parts will not be accepted unless the General Editor has agreed this in advance. As well as normal length communications of original research, shorter communications are also considered subject to the same refereeing process. Review papers will normally be by invitation of the General Editor; authors wishing to submit a review paper are advised to consult the General Editor before doing so. Book reviews are by invitation only. The Journal does not normally publish letters to the editor.
3 Originality
All material submitted for publication in the Journal must be accompanied by a statement by the lead author, with the authority of all of the authors, making it clear that: the material submitted is original and unpublished, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; the material will not be submitted for publication elsewhere while it is under consideration for publication in the International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport; if accepted for publication in the eIJPAS, the material will not be submitted elsewhere for publication, either in part or in whole, without the written consent of the General Editor. Material submitted will not enter the refereeing process until such an undertaking has been received.
4 Effective Communication
Papers should be written and arranged in a style that is succinct and easy to follow. An informative title, a concise abstract and a well-written introduction will help to achieve this. The writing should conform to the recommendations of any of the excellent texts on good style in scientific writing (e. g. M. O'Connor, 1991, Writing Successfully in Science. London: Chapman & Hall). Authors should avoid some of the more common pitfalls, such as excessive use of the passive voice and past tense and unnecessary use of fabricated abbreviations within the text. Figures and tables should be used to add to the clarity of the paper, not to pad it out. At all times, please try to think about your readers, who will not all be specialists in your discipline.
5 Article
a General
The article must be in English; UK English spellings and words should be used in preference to other versions of English. It must be in Times New Roman size 12 font throughout, fully justified, with a 3 cm margin on both sides, with pages numbered consecutively, with no line numbering and no 'headers and footers' (other than page numbers), and without footnotes unless these are absolutely necessary. Arrange the article under headings (such as Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions) and subheadings. Generally the Journal style and format conform to the CBE Manual for Authors, Editors and Publishers (Council of Biology Editors, 1994, Scientific Style and Format. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press); authors are advised to consult that publication in case of difficulty. The Editors cannot consider for publication papers that are seriously deficient in presentation or that depart substantially from these 'Notes and Guidelines'. (See previous issues of eIJPAS).
b Blind refereeing
Papers will be reviewed by a process of blind refereeing.
c Title page
Include the following information on the first page of the article: the full title; a running title of no more than 75 characters and spaces; and up to six keywords for indexing purposes.
d The abstract
The abstract must not exceed 200 words and it must summarize the paper, giving a clear indication of the conclusions it contains. It should be inserted in the article after the Authors' addresses, indented by 1 cm. from both sides of the normal text (i.e. 4 cm. margin in total), in bold and in italics. The abstract must not contain figures or tables.
e Tables and illustrations
Illustrations, plates, tables and any other artwork should be included in the electronic submission if possible. If this is not possible then they must accompany the article in electronic form either as email attachments or on disk. In this case, authors may wish to express a preference for the location of tables and figures by including comments such as ****Table 1 near here**** or ****Figure 2 near here**** separated by at least one line space from the main text. Tables, referred to as 'Table 1', 'Table 2', and so on, must be numbered in the order in which they occur in the text. Tables must be clearly and simply laid out with clear row and column legends, units where appropriate, no vertical lines and horizontal lines only between the table title and column headings, between the column headings and the main body of the table, and after the main body of the table. Photographs and line drawings, referred to as 'Figure 1', 'Figure 2', and so on, must be numbered in the order in which they occur in the text.
f Symbols, units and abbreviations
Symbols, units and abbreviations in papers must conform to the Système International d'Unités (SI Units). Authors are advised to consult the National Physical Laboratory publication (R.J. Bell (ed. ), 1993, SI: The International System of Units. London: HMSO). For all abbreviations other than units, write the word or words to be abbreviated in full on the first mention followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. If at all possible, group these definitions together near the beginning of the article. As indicated earlier, avoid use of non-standard abbreviations, especially fabricated ones, within the text; words are much easier to read and follow than abbreviations. When numeric values are given, a space must appear between the number and unit, as in 95.6 W and 25.0 N (exceptions are angles in degrees, e.g. 23.5o, and percentages, e.g. 15%). Separate compound units by a dot (N.m) and not by a space (N m); a compound unit formed from others by division should be indicated, for example, as ml. min-1 not as ml/min. Angular velocities should be expressed in rad.s-1. Some exceptions to the use of the SI are allowed, for example for heart rate (beats. min-1) and blood or gas pressure (mmHg). Other units and abbreviations should conform to Bell (1993) or Council of Biology Editors (1994).
Scalar variables or constants that are represented by a single letter should appear in italics (e. g. v, k, x). Where the abbreviation is of more than one letter (excluding suffices or superficies), it should be set in Roman typeface, as should abbreviations of mathematical functions (thus a = dv / dt).. Vectors should be indicated in bold and italics (e. g. F, v). For further and more detailed examples, authors should consult Council of Biology Editors (1994). Equations and formulae should, wherever possible, be presented on one line: for example:
use v = (dP/dt)/a
rather than v = dP
dt
a
Statistical definitions and symbols should conform to ISO3534(1977) summarized briefly in Council of Biology Editors (1994).
g References
The Journal uses one of several variations of the Harvard system. The following examples should make clear the most important points. References in the text are cited as follows: Smith (1985) ... or (Brown and Green, 1996) ... or, if there are more than two authors, as Jones et al. (1993) ... or (Jones et al. , 1993). Citations of different publications by the same author(s) are differentiated as Green (1993a) ... (Brown et al. , 1995b); the a, b, c, etc. , are normally in order of citation in the text. Multiple citations are listed in ascending chronological order. Within a year, they are organized in alphabetical sequence of the first author. Examples: Smith (1995), Brown and Green (1996), Jones et al. (1996); or (Smith, 1995; Brown and Green, 1996; Jones et al., 1996). The following should make clear how multiple publications by the same authors are treated in such lists: Smith (1991, 1995), Brown and Green (1992, 1993), Jones et al. (1993, 1996a,b); or (Smith, 1991, 1995; Brown and Green, 1992, 1993; Jones et al., 1993, 1996a,b). A list of all cited references should be collected at the end of the paper in alphabetical order by, in the first instant, the first author's surname. Where the name of the first author appears more than once, the order is determined by: first, the number of co-authors (zero, one, or more than one); secondly, for one co-author, the first co-author's surname then the year; for two or more co-authors, year then order as dictated by the use of 1990a,b,c (for example) in the citations. The following is an example of how references would be ordered in the reference list: Brown (1980), Brown (1990), Brown and Jones (1977), Brown and Smith (1973), Brown and Smith (1975), Brown, Smith and Jones (1990a), Brown, Jones, Smith, Jones and Brown (1990b), Brown, Jones and Smith (1990c). Note that the last three examples would all have been cited as Brown et al. in the text, with the a, b and c relating to the order of citation. The names and initials of all authors should be given in the list of references. The style should follow the examples below:
Books
Zatsiorsky, V.M. (1995). Science and Practice of Strength Training. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Journals (Papers or Abstracts)
Elliott, B., Marshall, R. and Noffal, G. (1996). The role of upper limb segment rotations in the development of racket head speed in the squash forehand. Journal of Sports Sciences, 14, 159?165.
Chapters in Books
Stephenson, D.G., Lamb, G.D., Stephenson, G.M.M. and Fryer, M.W. (1996). Mechanisms of excitation/contraction coupling relevant to skeletal muscle fatigue. In Fatigue: Neural and Muscular Mechanisms (edited by S.C. Gandavia, R.M. Enoka, A.J. McManus, D.G. Stuart and C.K. Thomas), pp. 45-56. New York: Plenum Press.
Chapters in Published Books of Conference Proceedings or Abstracts
Howe, B.L. and Bell, G.J. (1986). Mood states and motivation of triathletes. In Sports Science: Proceedings of the VII Commonwealth and International Conference on Sport, Physical Education, Dance, Recreation and Health (edited by J. Watkins, T. Reilly and L. Burwitz), pp. 273-278. London: E & FN Spon.
The issue number of a journal should be included only to avoid confusion, as when for example the pagination starts from 1 in each issue rather than being continuous across a volume; in such cases use 16(4), etc. Authors should seek to minimize references to unpublished material, including collections of conference abstracts that are not generally available through libraries or electronic databases. When it is absolutely necessary to reference unpublished material, this must be done within the citation in the body of the paper, for example (Bartlett and Bremble, unpublished data); the material must not be included in the list of references. Secondary references should be avoided if at all possible; if not, the reference should be listed as, for example: Full reference (cited in Zatsiorsky, V. M. , 1995, Science and Practice of Strength Training. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics).
6 Proofs
Proofs will, if necessary, be sent (electronically) to the corresponding author for correction. The difficulty and expense involved in making amendments at proof stage make it essential for authors to prepare their article carefully; any alterations to the original text are strongly discouraged. Our aim is rapid publication; this will be helped if authors provide good copy, follow the above instructions, and return their proofs as quickly as possible.
7 Copyright
Submission of a paper to the International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport is taken to imply that it represents original, unpublished work, not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Authors will be asked to transfer the copyright for their paper to the Publisher, using the form provided, if and when the paper is accepted for publication. The copyright covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the paper, including reprints, photographic reproduction, microfilm or any reproduction of a similar nature, and translations. Authors must obtain permission to publish copyrighted illustrations before submission; any acknowledgements should be included in the figure captions.
| Page last updated on 23 November 2005 | |