Instructions for Authors

Before you submit

• Check the fit. The sport, exercise or physical-activity question must be the study’s own contribution, not its setting.
• Choose the article type that matches what you have done, from the types the journal accepts.
• Register an interventional trial if the study is one — before the first participant consents, not afterwards.
• Prepare applicable ethics approval or exemption and informed consent or an authorized waiver, with the responsible ethics body and reference details.
• Agree the author list with every author before submitting.
• Prepare a data-availability statement. Every empirical research manuscript needs one.

Does your research belong here

Manuscript structure

• Title. Descriptive rather than declarative, and it should name the population and the design.
• Keywords. Terms a reader in the field would search for, not the title repeated.
• Methods must let another group repeat the study.
• Discussion states the limitations, including what the design cannot show.

Reporting your study

Follow the standard for the design, and submit its checklist with the manuscript.

Interventional clinical trials must be registered in an accepted public trial registry at or before the first participant provides consent for enrollment. The registry name, registration number, and registration date must be reported in the manuscript.

Every empirical research manuscript must include a data-availability statement.

Sports and exercise reporting

These are the things a reader in this field needs in order to know what a result means. Each applies to the designs it belongs to, not to every manuscript.

References, figures and files

• References. Cite the first three authors and then et al. Include the DOI for every reference that has one. Cite the version of record rather than a preprint where both exist.
• Figures. Submit as separate files, not embedded in the text. Vector format for plots and line art; raster images at a resolution that stays legible at print size. Each figure needs a caption that can be read on its own.
• Tables. Submit as editable text, not as images, with a caption and defined units. A table must be readable without the main text.
• Identifiable images. Any photograph, video or scan from which a person could be recognized requires written consent to publish, which is stated in the manuscript.
• Supplementary files. Protocols, checklists, datasets and code. Name each one in the manuscript where it is relevant.
• Permissions. Reused figures, tables or extended quotations need written permission from the rights holder, cited in the caption.

Declarations

Each of these appears in the manuscript, not only in the submission form.

• Ethics approval — committee name and reference number, or the exemption and its basis.
• Consent — to participate, and to publish where material is identifiable.
• Funding — every source, and the role of each funder in the study.
• Competing interests — financial and non-financial, for every author.
• Data availability — where the data are, or why they cannot be shared.
• Author contributions — what each author did.
• Use of AI — the tool and what it was used for, if any was used in writing, analysis or figure preparation. Authors remain responsible for everything in the manuscript.

Submission checklist

• Article type chosen, and the manuscript structured for it
• Abstract in the required form for that type
• Reporting checklist for the design completed and attached
• Trial registration identifier in the manuscript, if applicable
• Applicable ethics approval/exemption and consent/authorized waiver stated
• Participants or materials and the research context reported as appropriate to the study
• Figures as separate files; tables as editable text
• References with DOIs, first three authors then et al.
• All seven declarations present
• Written consent held for any identifiable material
• One submission route chosen — authors must use only one submission route for the same manuscript.

After submission

1. Editorial screening. All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal’s scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review.
2. Peer review. Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.
3. Decision. Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal.
4. Revision. Respond to each reviewer point in a separate letter and mark the changes in the manuscript.
5. Acceptance and production. Copyediting, typesetting and proof. An article processing charge falls due at this point and not before.
6. Publication. The article is published open access under CC BY 4.0, registered with Crossref, and added to the current issue.

Submit a manuscript · Article processing charges · Editorial policies

Across the journal

Submission routes

1. Primary route. ManuscriptZone
2. Alternative route. Simple manuscript submission form
3. Assisted route. [email protected]

Authors must use only one submission route for the same manuscript.

Preparation limits

Use a title of no more than 30 words and a running title of no more than 60 characters. Abstracts are limited to 250 words, including citations. Where an Introduction or Discussion section is used, the publisher guidance limits these to 500 and 1,500 words respectively, including citations. Supply three to six keywords for JSEM.

These are preparation requirements, not grounds for excluding a scientific discipline or study design. The structure table above identifies the appropriate abstract and main-text organization for each contribution.

Double-blind files

For double-blind review, remove author names, affiliations, acknowledgments, funding details, institution names, and other identifying information from the reviewer manuscript. Provide identifying information separately in the title-page file or submission form.

File specifications

The submission form accepts DOC, DOCX, PDF and ZIP files. Supply editable manuscript and table files; package separate figures and supplementary material in a ZIP when needed. Keep plots and line art in vector form where possible and preserve the original image resolution. After reduction, figure lettering and symbols should be at least 2 mm high. Give every figure and table a title or legend, units and explanations of abbreviations.

Reference examples

• Journal article. Padilha FGF. Comparative Exercise Physiology: A Worldwide Goal. Journal of Sports and Exercise Medicine. 2018;1(1):3. doi:10.14302/issn.2694-2283.jsem-18-1942.
• Book. World Health Organization. WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020.
• Web page. Open Access Pub. Digital preservation. Publisher preservation policy. Accessed September 12, 2026.
• Dataset. Hongn A, Bosch F, Prado L, et al. Wearable Device Dataset from Induced Stress and Structured Exercise Sessions [dataset]. PhysioNet; 2025. Version 1.0.0. doi:10.13026/zzf8-xv61.
• Preprint. Lee AA, Hegde N, Deliu N, et al. A Personalized Exercise Assistant using Reinforcement Learning (PEARL): Results from a four-arm Randomized-controlled Trial [preprint]. arXiv; 2025. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2508.10060.
• Trial registry. ClinicalTrials.gov. GET FIT Prostate: A Randomized Controlled Exercise Trial. Identifier NCT03741335. Registry record. Accessed September 12, 2026.

Journal pages