General Policy

Journal of Sport and Exercise Studies is an open-access journal. To support editorial management, peer review administration, copyediting, production, online hosting, long-term preservation, and publication services, the journal applies an Article Processing Charge for accepted manuscripts.

No fee is charged at the time of initial submission. The Article Processing Charge is requested only after a manuscript has been accepted for publication and before final publication.

Article Processing Charge

The APC is charged per accepted manuscript. Payment of the APC does not influence editorial decision-making. All manuscripts are evaluated according to academic merit, relevance to the journal scope, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, and contribution to the field.

Manuscripts that are rejected, withdrawn before acceptance, or returned without external review are not subject to an APC.

Chargeable and Exempt Article Types

Please note that Review Articles and Systematic Reviews are different from Book Reviews/Review Essay. Review Articles and Systematic Reviews are treated as scholarly research articles and are subject to the standard APC if accepted.

Payment Timing

Authors are not required to pay any fee when submitting a manuscript. The APC becomes payable only after the manuscript has been formally accepted for publication.

After acceptance, the corresponding author will receive payment instructions from the Editorial Office. Final publication may proceed after the APC has been completed, unless a waiver or exemption has been approved by the journal.

Waiver Policy

The journal may consider APC waiver requests in limited circumstances. Waiver requests should normally be submitted before or during the manuscript submission process and must not be made after editorial acceptance unless exceptional circumstances apply.

Waiver requests may be considered for authors who demonstrate genuine financial need, authors from low-resource research environments, or submissions invited by the Editorial Office for specific academic purposes.

Waiver decisions are made independently of editorial decisions. Requesting a waiver does not affect peer review, editorial evaluation, or the likelihood of acceptance.

Free Article Types

The following article types are published free of charge:

• Book Review / Review Essay: Scholarly reviews of books, edited volumes, reports, or major publications relevant to sport and exercise studies.
• Commentaries / Editorial Comments: Short scholarly comments, editorial notes, or invited comments on topics relevant to the journal’s academic scope.

The Editorial Office reserves the right to determine whether a submission qualifies as a Book Review, Commentary, or Editorial Comment for APC exemption purposes.

Payment Responsibility

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the APC is paid after acceptance unless a waiver or exemption has been granted. The APC may be paid by the author, the author’s institution, research funder, department, project, or another authorized party.

Any additional bank transfer fees, currency conversion fees, payment provider charges, or intermediary bank charges are the responsibility of the payer.

Refund Policy

Because the APC covers editorial administration, production, publication processing, online hosting, and related services after acceptance, paid APCs are generally non-refundable once production or publication processing has begun.

Refund requests may be considered only in exceptional cases, such as duplicate payment, payment made in error, or cancellation before production work has started. Refund decisions are made by the Editorial Office on a case-by-case basis.

Editorial Independence

APC payment, waiver status, institutional affiliation, nationality, funding source, or ability to pay has no influence on editorial decisions. Manuscripts are evaluated according to scholarly quality, relevance, originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, and contribution to sport and exercise studies.

APC Summary

Standard APC: USD 300

Charged when: After acceptance and before publication

No submission fee: Authors do not pay at initial submission

Free article types: Book Reviews/Review Essay and Commentaries / Editorial Comments

Rejected manuscripts: No APC is charged