GENERAL INFORMATION, RULES FOR REVIEW AND ACCEPTANCE OF MANUSCRIPTS, INSTRUCTION FOR AUTHORS

 

 

 

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Polish Journal of Sports Medicine (Polish J Sport Med) is a peer-reviewed medical journal publishing original scientific papers based on authorial research, as well as review and opinion articles and case studies involving the broadly conceived interdisciplinary specialty of sports medicine. The Advisory Board includes specialists from many countries around the world, representing various medical specialties, a guarantee of the high scientific quality of the papers published.

Polish J Sport Med is published monthly, and is also available in electronic form at www.medsport.pl. Polish J Sport Med is indexed in Index Copernicus (www.cisi.org/cisi), and also in Sport Discus and Sports Documentation Monthly Bulletin. Papers are published in either Polish or English, with abstracts and key words in both languages.

The editors of Polish J Sport Med endorse the principles embodied in the Helsinki Declaration and expect that all research involving humans has been performed in accordance with these principles. For animal experimentation reported in the journal, it is expected that investigators will have observed the Interdisciplinary Principles and Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research, Testing, and Education issued by the New York Academy of Sciences' Adhoc Committee on Animal Research. All human and animal studies must have been approved by the chief investigator's institutional review board. Authors are requested to include a copy of the relevant documentation with the submitted manuscript.

 

 

 

REVIEW PROCESS

A manuscript will be accepted only if in the judgement of the referees and editors it falls within Polish J Sport Med's thematic scope and makes an original contribution to progress in research or clinical practice, or possesses educational (training) value. The signature of the first author on the cover page constitutes
a statement that:

•           the manuscript is original work,

•           the research results have not been previously published or submitted for publication,

•           all the authors listed on the title page of the manuscript have agreed to its being submitted to Polish J Sport Med.

Received manuscripts are first examined by the Polish J Sport Med editors. Manuscripts clearly not suitable for publication are rejected and returned to the first author without further review. Incomplete work or manuscripts not prepared in the required style (see below) will be sent back to the authors without scientific review, but may be resubmitted as soon as they have been corrected. The first author will notified (by fax or e-mail) when the manuscript is registered at the Editorial Office, and the registration number will be indicated. The registered manuscripts are sent to two qualified reviewers for scientific evaluation. The evaluation process should not take longer than two months, but the editors cannot promise
a specific deadline for the editorial decision.
A manuscript will be accepted unconditionally if the reviewers concur that it is suitable for publication in its present form; if the reviewers are divided in their opinions or feel that the manuscript should be accepted subject to specific corrections, the responsible editor will make the decision either to send the manuscript to another reviewer to resolve the difference of opinion or return it to the authors for revision. The ultimate decision to accept, accept subject to correction, or reject
a manuscript lies within the prerogative of the of the Editor-in-Chief and is not subject to appeal. The editors are not obligated to justify their decision.

 

 

 

Conflict of interests

Polish J Sport Med expects that authors of articles will not have any financial interest in
a company (or its competitor) that makes
a product discussed in the article, or in
a competitive company. Authors of research articles should disclose at the time of submission any financial arrangement they may have with a company whose product is discussed in the submitted manuscript. Such information will be held in confidence while the paper is under review and will not influence the editorial decision, but if the article is accepted for publication, the editors will usually discuss with the authors whether and how such information is to be communicated to the reader.

Journal policy requires that reviewers, associate editors, editors, and senior editors reveal in a letter to the Editor-in-Chief any relationships that they have that could be construed as causing a conflict of interest with regard to the author of a manuscript under review. The letter should include a statement of any financial relationships with commercial companies involved with a medical product under study. Manuscripts will not be sent to reviewers from the same institution as the authors.

 

 

 

Permissions

Materials taken from other sources must be accompanied by a written statement from both the first author and the publisher of the original publication in which the materials appeared, giving permission for reproduction in Polish
J Sport Med.   Permission should be obtained in writing from at least one author of papers still in press, and from the primary sources of unpublished data and personal communications.

 

 

 

Patient confidentiality

Changing the biographical details of patients in order to disguise their identity amounts to tampering with data and should be discouraged. However, the authors of clinical papers are obliged to protect their patients' right to privacy. Only clinically or scientifically important data are permitted for publishing. Therefore, if the text or illustrations of an article make it possible to determine or infer the identify of a patient, the authors must supply the written consent of the patient or guardian to publish his/her data, including photographs and radiological images, prior to publication. Details of the race, ethnicity, religion, or cultural background of a study subject should be mentioned only when it is believed to have an impact on the course of the disease and/or treatment discussed in the study.

 

Copyright transfer

Upon acceptance, the authors transfer copyright to MEDSPORTPRESS Publishers. Once an article is accepted for publication in Polish J Sport Med, the information it contains cannot be released to the media until the issue in which the article appears has been released for circulation.

Upon acceptance for publication, all submitted materials become the permanent property of MEDSPORTPRESS, the publisher of Polish
J Sport Med, and may not be published elsewhere without written permission from the management of MEDSPORTPRESS.

 

 

 

Disclaimer

Every effort is made by the Publisher and Editorial Board to see that no inaccurate or misleading data, opinions, or statements appear in Polish J Sport Med. However, the contents of the articles and advertisements are ultimately the responsibility of the contributor, sponsor or advertiser concerned. Accordingly, the Publisher and the Editorial Board accept no liability whatsoever for the consequences of any such inaccurate of misleading data, opinion or statement. Every effort is made to ensure that drug doses and other quantities are presented accurately. Nevertheless, readers are advised that any methods and techniques

involving drug usage and other treatments described in Polish J Sport Med should only be followed in conjunction with the drug or equipment manufacturer's own published literature in the reader's own country.

 

 

 

Categories of articles

Manuscripts submitted for publication should be clearly identified as belonging to one of the following categories:

•           original articles: articles reporting the previously unpublished results of completed scientific experiments conducted by the authors, confirming or refuting a clearly defined research hypothesis. It is anticipated that the majority of the articles published in a given issue will belong to this category;

•           review articles: articles presenting the current state of knowledge on a given issue, with emphasis on current controversies, theoretical and practical approaches to the problem, etc., including a well chosen bibliography; review articles are generally commissioned by the editors, but in the case of a particularly interesting and well written manuscript the editors may accept
a submission

•           case studies: articles describing in detail the diagnosis and/or treatment of 1-3 patients, emphasizing unusual or difficult features of therapy in the case(s) described, within the thematic scope of Polish J Sport Med,

•           short reports: brief descriptions of selected clinical solutions to particular problems, or new discoveries that are not yet confirmed experimentally,

•           opinion articles: descriptions of important issues, controversies, and opinions in the area of sports medicine, broadly conceived; educational (training) texts commissioned by the editors;

•           discussion forum: the author's justified opinions on a given subject or recommendations for clinical practice; legal and professional matters, physician-coach and physician – athlete, etc.

•           historical articles: presentation of important figures, movements, and advances in the field of sports medicine, especially in Poland;

•           reports, review, announcements;

•           letters to the Editor, especially comments on recent Polish J Sport Med articles and issues of importance to readers.

 

 

 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

The following instructions are in general compliance with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (N Eng J Med 1997;336: 309-15; www.acponline.org/journals/resource/unifreqr.htm).

 

 

 

Preparing the manuscript for submission

The manuscript should be printed on white paper, preferably A4 (210x297 mm); preferably on a laser printer; a typescript is acceptable if the ink is of uniform high quality. The text should be written in a 12-point font with one-and-a-half spacing and margins of 2.5 cm (1 inch) on all four sides. The editors reserve the right to edit the article for formatting.

 

 

 

Title page

The manuscript should have a title page containing the following information:

•           the full name of each author (without academic titles)

•           the organizational affiliation of each author (workplace) with the name and title of his/her immediate supervisor

•           The nature and extent of each co-author’s contribution to the preparation of the manuscript should be specified according to the following categories:

A.         study design;

B.         data collection;

C.         statistical analysis;

D.         data interpretation;

E.          manuscript preparation;

F.          literature search

G.        funds collection.

•           the full title of the article in both Polish and English

•           in the case of titles containing more than 10 words, a running title

•           3-6 key words selected in accordance with the MeSH system as used in the Index Medicus (MEDLINE)

•           the first author's full name, address, telephone and/or fax number, and e-mail address if available, for purposes of correspondence during the preparation of the manuscript for print,

•           the sources of any material or financial support, in the form of grants, subventions, major donations, etc., if any.

 

 

 

Summaries

Regardless of the language in which the work is submitted, the article will be accompanied by summaries in Polish and English. If the manuscript is submitted with a summary only in the original language, it is a precondition for publication that the missing summary be supplied. At the request of the first author the editors may arrange for a qualified translator at the expense of the first author (at competitive page rates). The summaries should have similar structure and content in both languages.

The summary should be in structured form, not exceeding 230 words, and should consist of four paragraphs of 1-3 sentences each, labeled:

Background (Introduction): the purpose of the article or research, the primary thesis.

Material and Methods: a brief description of the research; in the case of a review or opinion article, a characterization of the literature; for a case study, a brief description of the patient; the main parameters measured, etc.

Results: the most significant results achieved.

Conclusions: the most important 1-2 conclusions derived by the authors from the results presented in the article.

The preceding structure does not apply in detail to review or opinion articles.

 

Structure of the text

The text of the article should be divided into six sections labeled: Background (Introduction), Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, References. Before References, if appropriate, the authors may insert Acknowledgements; an Appendix may be attached at the end, if needed. Each section should be clearly designated by a title in boldface.

When circumstances require, depending on the contents and nature of the article, a different structure may be used, provided, however, that the structure of the article is clear, transparent and self-consistent. The editors reserve the right to return a manuscript to its authors for correction of structure.

Background (Introduction) should give the scientific and/or clinical rationale for researching the given topic, the primary issues and controversies, an explanation of the aim of the study and the primary thesis.

Material and methods should contain essential information regarding how the experiment or research was conducted, including the essential characteristics of the experimental and control groups (age, gender), inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the randomization and masking (blinding) method used. The protocol of data acquisition, procedures, investigated parameters, methods of measurements and apparatus should be described in sufficient detail to allow other scientists to reproduce the results. In the case of published methods, the names with appropriate references should be given. References and a brief description should be provided for methods that have been published but are not well known, whereas new or substantially modified methods should be described in detail. The rationale for using such new or unknown methods should be discussed, along with a balanced evaluation of these methods, not omitting their limitations. Drugs and other chemicals should be precisely identified, including the generic name, dosage, and route of administration.

The statistical methods should be described in detail to enable verification of the reported results.

Information regarding the patients' informed consent should be included in the text of the article (see above: Patient confidentiality). Study subjects should be identified only by arbitrarily assigned initials or numbers. Any information contained in photographs, images, or other illustrations that could serve to reveal the person's identity should be thoroughly camouflaged or concealed. The faces of persons appearing in photographs should be masked or covered with a black band, unless for compelling reasons this is impossible.

Results concisely and reasonably summarize the findings in the form of text, tables and figures arranged in a logical and internally self-consistent manner. The number of tables and figures should be limited to those absolutely needed to confirm or refute the thesis. Data given in graphs and tables should not be automatically repeated in the text. The number of observations should be clearly indicated, as well as exclusions or losses to observation. Any complications that may occur in treatment or examination should be reported.

Discussion should deal only with new and/or important aspects of the results obtained, without repeating in detail data or other material previously presented in Background or Results. The Discussion should focus on the theoretical implications and/or practical consequences of the findings, including suggestions for further research. The Discussion should compare the results of the present study to those obtained by other investigators mentioned in the text.

Conclusions must be linked with the goals of the study. New hypotheses with recommendations for further research should be advanced only when fully warranted and explicitly justified. Include recommendations when appropriate. Unqualified statements and conclusions not supported by the data obtained should be avoided.

Acknowledgements list all those who have contributed to the research but do not meet the criteria for authorship, such as assistants, technicians, or department heads who provided only general support. Financial and other material support should be disclosed and acknowledged.

References, chosen for their importance and accessibility, are numbered consecutively in the order of their occurrence in the text. References first cited in tables or figure legends must be numbered in such a way as to maintain numerical sequence with the references cited in the text. The style of references, which will be strictly observed, is that of Index Medicus. When an article has six or fewer authors, all should be listed; when there are seven or more, only the first three are listed, then „et al.”

The following sample references are taken from the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (N Eng J Med 1997;336:309-15; www.acponline.org/journals/resource/unifreqr.htm).

Standard journal article

Lahita R, Kluger J, Drayer DE, Koffler D, Reidenberg MM. Antibodies to nuclear antigens in patients treated with procainamide or acetylpro-cainamide. N Engl J Med 1979;301:1382-5.

Article with published erratum

Koffler D, Reidenberg MM. Antibodies to nuclear antigens in patients treated with procainamide or acetylprocainamide [published erratum appears in N EngI J Med 1979;302:322-5]. N EngI J Med 1979;301:1382-5.

Article in electronic form

Drayer DE, Koffler D. Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 1995 Jan-Mar [cited 1996 Jun 5];1(1):[24 screens]. Available from: URL:http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/eid.htm

Article, no author given

Cancer in South Africa [editorial]. S Afr Med J 1994;84:15.

Book, personal author(s)

Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.

Book, editor(s) as author

Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors. Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996.

Book, organization as author and publisher

Institute of Medicine (US). Looking at the future of the Medicaid program. Washington: The Institute; 1992.

 

Chapter in a book

Phillips SJ, Whisnant JR. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995. p. 465-78.

Conference proceedings

Kimura J, Shibasaki H, editors. Recent advances in clinical neurophysiology. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of EMG and Clinical Neurophysiology; 1995 Oct 15-19; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1996.

Conference paper

Bengtsson S, Solheim BG. Enforcement of data protection, privacy and security in medical informatics. In: Lun KG, Oegoulet P, Piemme TE, Rienhoff 0, editors. MEDINFO 92. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Medical Informatics; 1992 Sep 6-10; Geneva, Switzerland.

Abstracts or reviews should generally not be cited as references, nor should „unpublished observations” or „personal communications”. If such material is necessary, it should be incorporated and acknowledged in the text at the appropriate place.

Tables are numbered consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text, with
a brief title. A short or abbreviated heading should be used for each

column. The arrangement of the table should be as simple as possible, without adding unnecessary horizontal or vertical subdivisions. Explanations, including the clarification of non-standard abbreviations, should be provided in footnotes under the table, and not in the table itself. The footnotes should be numbered independently for each table. Each table should be printed (not photographed) on a separate sheet of paper. Care should be taken that every table included with the manuscript is in fact mentioned in the text.

The statistical measures of variations should be identified, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean. If the data appearing in a table comes from another published or unpublished source, permission to reprint should be obtained and the appropriate reference provided.

Figures should be professionally done; freehand or typewritten lettering is unacceptable. Polish J Sport Med accepts sharp, glossy black-and-white photos, usually 127 x 173 mm (5x7 in) but no larger than 203x254 mm (8x10 in). Original drawings, x-ray films, and other original unprocessed materials will not be accepted. Letters, numbers, and symbols should be clear and even throughout and of sufficient size as to remain legible when reduced for printing. Titles and detailed explanations should be given in the legends, not on the illustrations themselves. Each figure should have a label pasted on its back giving the number of the figure and the author's name, and indicating the top and bottom of the figure. The editors cannot accept photographs or illustrations with visible writing, scratching or marring caused by staples or paperclips, or cardboard mounting.

Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they are first cited in the text. Care should be taken that each figure is in fact mentioned in the text. If
a figure has been previously published, the original source must be acknowledged and written permission should be obtained from the copyright holder to reproduce the material, except for documents in the public domain.

Photographs may be color or black & white glossy prints, with numbers and descriptions on the back, giving the title of the manuscript, the authors, the number of the photograph and its legend. Polish J Sport Med prints black-and-white photographs as standard practice; color photographs may be printed if the author is willing to participate in bearing the additional costs entailed.

Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. The symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background. If photographs of people are used, either the identity should be masked or written permission should be obtained to use the photograph.

Legends for illustrations should be printed on a separate page, doubled-spaced with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, each element should be clearly identified and explained in the legend. The internal scale and staining method used in photographs should be specified.

Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, or liter) or their decimal multiples. Temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be given in millimeters of mercury.

All hematological and clinical chemistry measurements should be reported in the metric system in a manner consistent with the International System of Units (Sl). Alternative or non-Sl units should be added in parentheses.