1. Scope of SPSR

Sport Performance & Science Reports is a free-access, web-based platform created to facilitate the dissemination of ‘real world’ research in the field of sport performance. Its targeted audience is composed of sports scientists, supporting staff, coaches and athletes. In this regard,

• The goal of SPSR is to publish every single manuscript that is submitted, as long as it conforms to the present guidelines;
• SPSR publishes only articles with clear and “straight-to-the-point” practical applications, which should represent an important and key section of each manuscript;
• SPSR encourages the publication of case studies, small sample-size analyses and replication studies;
• Any type of study outcomes (e.g., effect, no effect, association, no association) are accepted for publication.

2. General guidelines

Style

• Manuscript should be written in English, in Times New Roman size 12 font, typed single spaced, in first-person plural using the active voice. Authors who speak English as an additional language should seek the assistance of a colleague experienced in writing for English-language journals.
• Writing should be concise and direct (the message being essentially directed to peers and field practitioners).
• Unnecessary jargon and abbreviations should be avoided and limited to the minimum.

Peer Review

• The pre-publication process is limited to a quick scan from one of the Editors in Chief, who ensure that the topic of the report fits with the scope of Science Performance and Science Reports and that the manuscript formats guidelines are met.
• Manuscript that do not fall within the scope of sports science and performance, and that do not respect the formatting guidelines will not be accepted.
• Once published, the paper is directly open for comments by readers.
• In responses to those comments, authors can upload as many revised versions of their manuscripts as they wish – all historical versions and associated comments will remain accessible, with a specific reference for each version (Authors, Manuscript Title, ASPS number, Date of edition) – so that they can be cited over time.
• Responses are compulsory for the manuscript to remain on the platform.

3. Article Types & Format

The platform accepts only original Brief report, Technical notes and Invited Expert Opinions (up to 1500 words each) in the following format: Headline, Aim of the paper, Methods, Results, Discussion (with Practical applications and Limitations), Figures and/or Tables, References, Accompanying dataset.

• A short title (mandatory) and authors’ twitter handles (if available)
• Headline: Limited to 80 words or fewer to reflect interest and potential applications of the manuscript.
• Aim of the paper: No formal introduction is needed. The purpose of the report, its context and its practical importance should be briefly presented.
• Design (if applicable). Study design should be selected from the choices listed here. 
• Methods (if applicable): The methods section should include a description of the individuals taking part in the study (including a statement that the study was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration), design and methodology used to gather information as well as clear description of the statistical analyses.
  • Athletes: Number of participant, age, sex and all relevant information allowing reader to have a sound understanding of the type of athlete should be given in this part of the text. The participants should also be described in term of playing standards: e.g. Olympics/Elite or Internationals, Professional/National level, sub-elite, recreational and in term of training profile (e.g. training hours/week, training modes, etc.).
  • Design: Experimental approach of the problem should be clearly stated (case report, case series, cohort study, parallel group trial, crossover trial, single blinded study, double blinded study, systematic review).
  • Methodology: Description of the methodology used should be presented with the concept of “replication of the study” kept in mind. References should be cited for established methods while sufficient explanation should be provided for new or unconventional methods.
  • Statistical analysis: The experimental design and statistical methods should be clearly identified. Sample variability should be reported with standard deviation and uncertainty (or precision) of estimates indicated using confidence intervals. We strongly encourage researchers to reports the clinical or practical significance in a performance setting by using magnitudes of effects. Articles reporting p-values will not be accepted. Also, qualitative presentation of the result is welcome with the use of magnitude based inferences. Authors are refered to the commentaries of Batterham A, Hopkins W. Making meaningful inferences about magnitudes. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2006;1:50–57 or Buchheit M. The Numbers Will Love You Back in Return—I Promise. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2016; 11: 551-54.
• Results (if applicable): A clear and fast forward visualisation of the results should be promoted. As such, results should be presented in table and/or figures. Only results which cannot be presented as table or figures can be describe in plain text.

• Discussion. Authors should emphasize new and important findings of the study and the practical applications and conclusions that follow from them. The relevance of the findings in the context of contemporary practice should be addressed.
• Practical applications: The practical application section is the most important part of SPSR manuscripts. Authors should summarize using bullet points how their findings could be useful for coaches and translate into practice
• Limitations: If any, authors should present in a bullet point format the limitation of the study to favour study replication and improvement of the methodology.

• References: Each citation in the text must be designated by either a superscripted numeral or displayed as (number), and full information must appear in the reference list. References must be limited to pertinent published works or papers that have been accepted for publication. An abstract properly labeled (Abstract) may be cited only when it is the sole source. The reference list is to be single-spaced, arranged in the order the works are first cited, and numbered serially, with only 1 reference per number. Entries in the reference list should follow the Vancouver Style, as follows:
  • Journal articles—Author AA, Author BB, Author CC, Author DD. Title of article. Abbreviated title of journal. Date of publication YYYY Mon DD;volume number(issue number):page numbers. Example:  Kiely J. Periodization paradigms in the 21st century: evidence-led or tradition-driven? Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2012 Sep;7(3):242-50.
  • Book references—Author AA. Title of book. # edition [if not first]. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year of publication. Pagination. Example: Ingham S. How to support a champion: the art of applying science to the elite athlete. United Kingdom: Simply Said; 2016. 287 p.
  • Chapter in an edited book Author AA, Author BB. Title of chapter. In: Editor AA, Editor BB, editors. Title of book. # edition. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year of publication. p. [page numbers of chapter]. Example: Guézennec CY. Recovery at altitude. In: Hausswirth C, Mujika I, editors. Recovery for performance in sport. Champaign: Human Kinetics; 2013. p. 231-237.
• Figures and Tables: Each figure and table should be embedded in the text and defined with a brief caption or title that defines all abbreviations used within it. Figures should be no larger than 11.5 cm x 16.5 cm which is the size of a print area on a single page. Figures should be clean and look professional. Color figures are supported and encouraged, especially if they are likely to facilitate the understanding of the reader in comparison to their black and white version. Figures will be submitted in .pdf.

4. Conflicts of Interest

Authors must identify potential conflicts of interest in the areas of financial, institutional, and/or personal relationships that might inappropriately influence their actions or statements.

5. Accompanying dataset

Our journals require authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction. Data should be anonymised before publication.

Authors may provide their data as dataset accompanying the manuscript. Authors should take care to maximize the accessibility and reusability of the data by selecting a file format from which data can be efficiently extracted (for example, spreadsheets or flat files with respective metadata should be provided rather than PDFs when providing tabulated data).

If data deposition or provision in supporting information is not ethical or legal (i.e., underlying data pose privacy or legal concerns e.g., where data might reveal the identity or location of participants), the following two methods may be acceptable alternatives, subject to case-by-case evaluation:

• Data made available to all interested researchers upon request. The Data Availability Statement must specify “Data available on request” and identify the group to which requests should be submitted.

• Data available from a third party. Third-party data are those not owned by the authors. Authors should share any data specific to their analysis that they can legally distribute. If an author does not own the data set, they must include in the Data Availability Statement all necessary contact information where an interested researcher would need to apply to gain access to the relevant data.

6. Submission

Authors must submit their reports by e-mail at SportPerfSci@gmail.com. The manuscript, the table(s) and the figure(s) will be submitted in separate files.

7. Open Access

The articles published on Science Performance and Science Reports are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.