Information for Authors

Important Change in the Journal's Review System

 

We would like to inform scientific authors who wish to submit an article for review about an important change in the journal’s peer review process:

From now on, CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) will be used to specify the involvement and contributions of each author to the work.

During the submission process, authors will be asked to provide their CRediT roles via a dedicated section. Corresponding authors are responsible for accurately assigning contributions to each listed author. The assigned CRediT roles will be automatically consolidated and published as part of the manuscript.

Authors' Guidelines

Dear author,

Welcome to Thieme! We are delighted that you want to publish in a Thieme journal.

Thieme is an international publisher of medical and science books, journals, electronic products and services, with a long-standing reputation for consistent quality and integrity. On publication, you will have benefited from peer review at the highest level and you will reach a broad professional audience.

To make submission of your article as efficient as possible, see the information below.
We look forward to receiving your manuscript!

Please note: We only accept manuscripts that have not yet been published or submitted elsewhere. If the content of your article has already been presented orally at a conference, please note this with details of the conference type, place, and date.

The corresponding author must ensure that all the other authors agree with the publication of the article in the version presented.

With acceptance of the manuscript, the publisher acquires rights of use for the duration of the legal protection term.

This following section does inform you about:

• Thieme’s Journal Policies
• Artificial Intelligence and Authorship
• General Information for Authors
• Special Authors' guidelines for International Journal of Sports Medicine
• Submission – online submission system

Thieme's Journal Policies

For the Thieme Group, the integrity of our content and publishing process is of the utmost importance. When preparing your manuscript for submission, please ensure that you have read and understood Thieme's  Journal Policies in all its parts. Our specific guidelines and policies for authors on research integrity and ethics are based on the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and, where appropriate, the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME) and other relevant industry agencies.

Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

Thieme aligns itself with the COPE Position Statement on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Authorship.

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools must not be listed as authors, as they do not fulfil all criteria for authorship. They cannot take responsibility for the integrity and the content of paper, and they cannot take on legal responsibility. Instead, GenAI use must be transparently documented in the Acknowledgements or Material and Methods sections (see Disclosure and Transparency paragraph).

General Information for Authors

In addition to the specific author guidelines for International Journal of Sports Medicine (see below), please note the following general author information.

Journal Authors Lounge

Our Author Lounge will provide you with all the useful information you’ll need- from finding a journal to publishing and promoting your article.

In the author's lounge, we have summarized all the information step by step on the following aspects:

1. Find a journal
2. Prepare your manuscript
3. Open Access
4. Submission
5. Peer Review
6. Publication
7. Promotion

Please follow the Link Author Lounge.

General author guidelines (pdf-file for download)

The formal requirements your manuscript must meet are explained in our general author guidelines for original contributions, review articles or scientific case reports. You can download our general author guidelines as a PDF document Please, follow the link ARL_Wiss_Publikation_engl.pdf

In this document, we have compiled the formal requirements for the following points:

• Figures: rights of use / copyright / personal rights
• Scientific vocabulary
• Code names / fake names / fictional personal data
• Bibliography (If you are working with citation management software (Endnote, Zotero, Mendeley), please use the output style "Thieme-English". It is available in the relevant software or can be downloaded here.)
• Open Access
• Legal aspects
• Ethical aspects
• Financial support
• Submitting your manuscript
• Peer review of your manuscript
• Author’s proofs and approval
• Electronic reprint for personal use
• Check List — Structure of your article

Special Authors' guidelines for International Journal of Sports Medicine

Page charge

The International Journal of Sports Medicine no longer applies page charges for published articles. We are looking forward to your submissions and hope this facilitates the process of publishing with us.

Aims and Scopes

The International Journal of Sports Medicine (IJSM) provides a forum for the publication of papers dealing with basic or applied information that will advance the field of sports medicine and exercise science and offer a better understanding of biomedicine. The following sections define the scope of the journal:

• Training & Testing
• Orthopedics & Biomechanics
• Clinical Sciences
• Nutrition
• Behavioral Sciences
• Physiology & Biochemistry
• Genetics & Molecular Biology.

The journal publishes original papers, reviews, and letters to the editor.

Manuscripts submitted to the journal must contain novel data on theoretical or experimental research or on practical applications in the field of sports medicine and exercise science.

• Purely descriptive studies that lack generalizability to the wider world of sports medicine will be assigned a low priority and may not be entered by a corresponding editor into the peer­review process.
• Intervention studies which lack a comparator group and/or are very inconsistent with the CONSORT guidelines (Home | consort-spirit.org) may also be assigned a low priority and not entered for peer review.
• Studies that employ data analysis approaches that are obviously inappropriate will also be assigned a low priority and not entered for peer­review, as will studies in which the clinical/practical significance of the findings has not been quantified and/or communicated.
• The paper must also be written in grammatically correct English, otherwise it may be refused for review.
• No substantial part of the submission should have been published elsewhere. If a part of the submission has been published or presented at a congress, symposium, national meeting proceeding or master’s or doctoral theses, the reference for that publication and/or presentation should be given in the manuscript acknowledgement section.

Preprint repositories

• IJSM encourages the submission of manuscripts that have been deposited in an initial draft version in preprint repositories (e.g. Research Square, arXiv, medRxiv etc.).
• Drafts of short conference abstracts, degree theses posted on the website of the degree­granting institution, and draft manuscripts deposited on authors’ or institutional websites are also welcome.

All other prior publication is forbidden.

During submission, authors should

1. note use of the preprint repository in the cover letter,
2. state what adjustments and/or updates the draft has undergone between deposition and submission and
3. cite the preprint, including the DOI, as a reference in the manuscript.

After submission to the journal, and until a final decision has been made, authors are discouraged from depositing versions of their manuscript as preprints. Upon publication authors should add a link from the preprint to the published article. Twelve months after publication, authors can update the preprint with the accepted manuscript.

Peer review

All submissions undergo a double­anonymized peer review according to international standards. Because of the double­anonymized peer review process, the manuscript must be anonymous in all parts, i.e. names, addresses and any information indicating the identity of the author must not be included in the manuscript.

During the online submission process, authors are encouraged to suggest names of two reviewers (incl. email addresses) but not from their own institution.

Authors are required to conduct their research ethically according to international standards and as required by the journal as described in:

1. Harriss DJ, Jones C, MacSween A. Ethical Standards in Sport and Exer­ cise Science Research: 2022 Update. Int J Sports Med 2022; 43: 1065­1070 https://www.thieme­connect.de/products/ejournals/ pdf/10.1055/a­1957­2356.pdf

Categories of articles accepted for review

Original articles

Theoretical or experimental (basic or applied) research or practical applications. Either original work or the replication of work that better establishes basic principles will be considered. Original articles should not exceed a total of 15 000 characters including spaces, excluding references.

Review articles

Review articles are welcome and the IJSM explicitly encourages submission of reviews. The main purpose of reviews is to provide a concise, accurate introduction to the subject matter and inform the reader critically of the latest developments in this area. Review articles should not exceed 30 000 characters including spaces, excluding references.

Letters to the editor

Letters to the editor are welcome and will be published if appropriate. Letters (maximum length 700 words) relating to material previously published in IJSM should be submitted within 6 months after publication of the material the letter is referring to. Such letters will be sent to the corresponding author for comment within six weeks. The original letter and any reply will be published concurrently. Letters to the editor are submitted at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijsm.

Submission of manuscripts – formal requirements

Manuscripts can be submitted exclusively via online submission at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/IJSM or via link at www.thieme. de/sportsmed.

Hard copy submission and electronic submission via email are not accepted.

See below under “Uploading files on submission” for further information on the online submission process.

Style

Manuscripts may be rejected without review on the basis of poor English or lack of conformity to stated standards of style.

Title

The title should be concise but informative about the results. (Note: Articles with shorter titles are frequented more often in online databases.)

First page

Names, addresses and institutions of the authors should not appear on the first page or elsewhere in the main document. These data are entered separately in the online submission system.

Abstract

The abstract should be informative. It should be self­explanatory without reference to the text of the manuscript. It should include essential significant results that support the conclusion of the work. Three to six key words not used in the title should also be provided (these can be entered during the online submission). Abbreviations should not be used in the abstract.

Introduction

Should be comprehensible to the general reader. Give a clear statement of the purpose of the paper and provide relevant con­ text to support the basis for the paper and the significance of the work. Do not exhaustively review the literature.

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.

Results

Should be presented precisely and should not contain material that is appropriate in the discussion. Units, quantities, and formulas should be expressed according to the Système Internationale (SI units): Bureau international des poids et mesures | UIA Yearbook Profile | Union of International Associations. All measurements should be given in metric units.

Discussion

Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and conclusions from the study.

Acknowledgements

Financial support should be stated.

References

References should be cited in the text by number and listed in order of their citation in the paper. Authors bear complete responsibility for the accuracy of the references.

Endnote Style

Endnote Syle prvided as Zip.File here Thieme-English.zip

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 observations” in parentheses. Personal communications should be listed in the text in parentheses. Published abstracts must not be used as references. Use of a large number of abstracts or non peer­reviewed articles in the reference section will be grounds for rejection of the submission without review.

Examples of references

Journal article

¹ Palmer GS, Dennis SC, Noakes TD et al. Assessment of the reproducibil­ ity of performance testing on an air­braked cycle ergometer. Int J Sports Med 1996; 17: 293–298

Complete book

¹ Dingle JT (ed). Lysosomes. New York: American Elsevier, 1972: 65

Chapter of a book

¹ Zancetti A, Baccelli G, Guazzi M et al. The effect of sleep on experimental hypertension. In: Onesti G, Kim KE, Moyer JH (eds). Hypertension: Mechanisms and Management. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1973: 133–140

Basic principle of quoting online sources:

<institution / author(s)><dot><title (where possible, release date)><dot><“On the internet:”><URL><semicolon><„status:“><date of online access><doi (if available)>

Figures

We cannot accept or store illustrations in which personal data of third parties are included. Please submit images in completely anonymous form, free of personal data only! Such data may not only be directly visible in the image (e.g., a patient name or a date of birth in an X­ray image); they can also be included in the metadata of the image, which is accessible with the appropriate software. They may also be obscured by a cropping feature (such as Powerpoint or Word), but can be made visible underneath.

If you have questions about data protection regulations, please contact us before submitting your manuscript.

• Figures, illustrations, or half­tones should be used when findings are best visually communicated.
• The use of photographs or equipment and experimental subjects should be avoided; good line drawings are more informative.
• Abbreviations used in the figure must be explained in the legend.
• Reference to the figure should be made in the text.
• Figures, illustrations or half­tones must be sharp and high­contrast.
• Uniform typographical setup (font style and size, line thickness) of all figures in a paper is highly desirable.
• Images should be provided as .tif or .jpg files in a resolution of 300 dpi.

Tables

Tables should be used to communicate information that is hard to present visually. 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 self­explanatory and bear a short title.
• Table legends should be typed on the same sheet as the table as a header.
• A footnote to the table should explain all abbreviations used in the table.
• Tables should be provided either as word or excel files.

Submission of manuscripts – uploading files on submission

For submission of all manuscripts, follow the instructions of the online submission system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/IJSM.

Please have the complete metadata for your manuscript ready before submission:

• Title,
• Full names referenced by Arabic superscripts with affiliation and addresses of all authors, as well as,
• The complete list of references, footnotes, figure legends, and tables.

Authors and Institutions

The author submitting the manuscript will be corresponding author.

Authorship Change

Any authorship changes must adhere to Thieme’s policy on authorship criteria and must be approved by all authors. If any authors are removed or added during revision, all authors will be notified via email and must approve or deny the change before the submission can proceed further. Any changes will be subject to a final approval by the Publisher.

Author Contributions

CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) should be used to describe each author's contribution to the paper. During the submission process, authors will be asked to provide their CRediT roles via a dedicated section in the submission form. The corresponding author is responsible for accurately assigning contributions to each listed author. The assigned CRediT roles will be automatically combined and published as part of the manuscript.

File Upload Instructions

Upload as many files as needed for your manuscript. If you have updated a file, please delete the previous version and upload the revised file.

If you are submitting a revision, please include only the latest set of files. All files will be combined into a single PDF document for the peer review process.

When uploading your manuscript, you are required to select the File designation:

• Main document: The main document should be in Word format. It must not include any figures or tables.
• Figures and tables: Each one should be uploaded separately. Images should be uploaded as .tif or .jpg files in a resolution of 300 dpi. Tables should be uploaded either as Word or Excel files. When uploading, a form appears requesting the following information:
  • File tags: Please enter the figure/table number e. g. Figure 1a, Table 1
  • Caption/legend: Please enter the figure/table number plus legend Figure legends should be brief, but must contain all the information to make the illustration comprehensible without taking recourse to the text.

Please do not upload PDFs! To designate the order in which your files appear, use the dropdowns in the “order” column.

Authors' correction, imprimatur, specimen copy

Publication of manuscripts immediately upon acceptance

IJSM offers its authors the option to have their manuscripts published immediately upon acceptance. If the publication preference Open Access is chosen, the manuscript gets published only after receipt of the article processing charge (APC).

This means that the unedited, unformatted version of the manuscript as it stands after peer review is published online, with a DOI. Authors wishing to make use of this service will be asked to upload a “clean” (i.e., without any highlighted track changes or comments) and not anonymized version of their manuscripts after every revision; this is a precondition for this service, as is the confirmation that the Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) will be signed upon receipt.

This service is offered for original articles and review articles.

Implications of “accepted manuscript” publication

Once the paper has been accepted, the last clean version of the manuscript, including all metadata entered during submission (title, abstract, author affiliations etc.), becomes the first version of the article to be published online. This means that no changes can be made to the submitted clean version as this version will be published as the “Accepted Manuscript”, should it be accepted. Changes by the authors will only be possible subsequently in the proofs from the typesetters for correction. This means in detail:

• For all authors, the affiliation information entered during submission will be published.
• If an author is already in the system, please use “Edit” to update the address information if necessary.
• To facilitate the entry of co­author information, please use the “Quick Fill” option if applicable.
• The order of authors entered during submission will be the order of authors on the “Accepted Manuscript”.
• All authors named under step “Authors & Institutions” agree to the publication and signing of the CTA.
• The conflict of interest and funding information will be published as entered at the step “Details & Comments”.
• Clinical trial information will be published as entered at the step “Details & Comments”.

Instructions and further information are available during the submission process and upon request to the Editorial Office.

Galley proofs and proof-reading

A PDF file of the galley proofs will be sent via e­mail to the corresponding author for proof reading. Proof reading is for typesetting errors only. At this stage the manuscript cannot be changed. The galley proofs should be returned to the appropriate address within 48 hours so the publication of the submission is not delayed.

Page charge

There are no page charges at the IJSM.

PDF for personal use

The corresponding author will receive a PDF of the published article free of charge for personal, non­commercial use only.