Publication ethics are central to the credibility of academic research. Journal of Sport and Exercise Studies expects authors, editors, reviewers, and editorial staff to act with honesty, transparency, fairness, accountability, and respect for the integrity of the scholarly record.

The journal follows internationally recognized principles of ethical scholarly publishing. Manuscripts are evaluated according to academic merit, relevance to the journal scope, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, originality, and contribution to sport and exercise studies.

Core Ethical Principles

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality, ethical compliance, and scholarly integrity of their submitted work. By submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors confirm that:

• The manuscript is original and has not been published previously;
• The manuscript is not under review by another journal or publication outlet;
• All sources, data, materials, and prior works are properly cited;
• All listed authors meet appropriate authorship criteria and have approved the submitted version;
• All required ethical approvals, informed consent procedures, and participant protections have been followed where applicable;
• All funding sources and conflicts of interest have been disclosed;
• The manuscript does not contain fabricated, falsified, plagiarized, or manipulated content.

Authorship and Contributor Responsibility

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made a substantial scholarly contribution to the conception, design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, writing, or revision of the manuscript. All authors should approve the final version and agree to be accountable for their contribution to the work.

The journal does not accept inappropriate authorship practices, including:

• Gift authorship: listing individuals who did not make a meaningful contribution;
• Guest authorship: adding names to increase perceived authority or prestige;
• Ghost authorship: omitting individuals who made substantial contributions;
• Unauthorized authorship changes: adding, removing, or reordering authors without proper agreement.

Any request to change authorship after submission must be explained clearly and approved by all affected authors. Authorship changes after acceptance may require additional editorial review.

Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical standards. This includes research involving athletes, students, coaches, teachers, patients, minors, older adults, community participants, vulnerable groups, identifiable images, personal data, physiological measurements, exercise interventions, surveys, interviews, observations, or experimental procedures.

Authors should state in the manuscript:

• Whether ethical approval was obtained from an institutional review board, ethics committee, or equivalent body;
• The name of the approving body and approval number, where available;
• Whether informed consent was obtained from participants;
• How privacy, confidentiality, and data protection were maintained;
• What safeguards were used for minors, students, athletes, patients, or vulnerable groups.

If formal ethical approval was not required, authors should explain the reason clearly in the manuscript.

Special Considerations in Sport and Exercise Research

Because sport and exercise research may involve physical activity, training intervention, performance testing, wearable technology, physiological measurement, health-related data, injury risk, minors, students, athletes, or team-based settings, authors must pay particular attention to participant safety and consent.

Authors should ensure that:

• Exercise interventions and performance tests are appropriate for the participants involved;
• Potential physical, psychological, social, or privacy risks are minimized;
• Participants are informed of the purpose, procedures, risks, and voluntary nature of participation;
• Data collected through wearable devices, video recordings, sensors, fitness platforms, or digital systems are handled securely;
• Research involving minors or students includes appropriate parental, guardian, institutional, or participant consent where required;
• Coercion is avoided, especially in coach-athlete, teacher-student, or institution-participant relationships.

Plagiarism, Duplicate Publication, and Text Recycling

The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, redundant publication, or inappropriate text recycling. Authors must properly acknowledge all sources and must not present the work, words, ideas, data, images, or findings of others as their own.

Unacceptable practices include:

• Copying text, data, images, tables, figures, or ideas without proper attribution;
• Submitting substantially similar work to more than one journal;
• Republishing previously published work without transparency and permission where required;
• Reusing large portions of one’s own prior work without proper citation;
• Dividing one study into multiple publications without sufficient justification or transparency.

The Editorial Office may conduct similarity checks and may request clarification when concerns arise.

Data Integrity, Image Integrity, and Research Records

Authors must report data, methods, images, results, and analyses honestly and accurately. Data fabrication, data falsification, selective reporting, inappropriate statistical manipulation, image manipulation, and misleading presentation of findings are unacceptable.

Authors should be prepared to provide supporting data, protocols, analysis files, ethics documents, or original image files when reasonably requested by the editor for verification purposes.

Adjustments to images, figures, or visual materials must not misrepresent the original data or evidence. Any modification should be applied consistently and described where necessary.

Data Availability and Transparency

Authors are encouraged to include a data availability statement. The statement should explain whether the data supporting the findings are available, where they can be accessed, and under what conditions.

Where data cannot be shared because of privacy, consent, legal, institutional, commercial, or ethical restrictions, authors should state this clearly. Data involving human participants should only be shared when this is consistent with consent, confidentiality, and applicable ethical requirements.

Conflicts of Interest and Funding Disclosure

Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose conflicts of interest that could influence, or appear to influence, the research, review process, editorial decision, or interpretation of findings. Conflicts may be financial, professional, institutional, personal, commercial, or academic.

Authors must disclose:

• Funding sources and grant numbers where applicable;
• Commercial relationships or sponsorships;
• Employment, consultancy, advisory, or institutional relationships that may affect the work;
• Any personal or professional interest that may be perceived as influencing the research.

If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should include the statement: “The authors declare no conflict of interest.”

Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts are handled fairly, confidentially, and according to the journal’s editorial policies. Editorial decisions should be based on scholarly merit, journal scope, reviewer reports, ethical compliance, and editorial judgment.

Editors should:

• Protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts;
• Select reviewers with appropriate expertise and independence;
• Avoid handling manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest;
• Make decisions without discrimination or improper influence;
• Respond appropriately to ethical concerns, complaints, corrections, and appeals;
• Protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers are expected to provide fair, constructive, confidential, and timely assessments. Reviewers should evaluate manuscripts according to academic quality, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal scope.

Reviewers must:

• Keep manuscripts and review materials confidential;
• Disclose conflicts of interest before accepting review assignments;
• Provide objective, respectful, and evidence-based comments;
• Report suspected ethical problems to the editor confidentially;
• Not use unpublished manuscript content for personal or professional advantage;
• Not contact authors directly about manuscripts under review.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

Authors who use artificial intelligence tools or automated tools for writing, editing, translation, coding, image generation, data analysis, or other manuscript-related tasks should disclose such use when the tool has materially contributed to the submitted work.

AI tools must not be listed as authors. Authorship requires responsibility, accountability, final approval of the manuscript, and the ability to respond to questions about the work.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, legality, and ethical compliance of all content submitted to the journal, including content generated or modified with the assistance of AI tools.

Third-Party Materials, Copyright, and Permissions

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all third-party materials included in their manuscripts are used lawfully. This includes images, figures, tables, photographs, screenshots, maps, diagrams, survey instruments, scales, datasets, and substantial excerpts from previously published works.

Where permission is required, authors must obtain permission before publication and include appropriate acknowledgement, source notes, or permission statements.

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

The journal is committed to correcting the scholarly record when errors or ethical problems are identified. Depending on the nature and severity of the issue, the journal may publish a correction, issue an expression of concern, retract an article, or take other appropriate editorial action.

Corrections may be issued for honest errors that do not invalidate the main findings. Retractions may be considered when there is evidence of serious error, unreliable findings, plagiarism, duplicate publication, unethical research, data fabrication, data falsification, or other serious breaches of publication ethics.

Handling Ethical Concerns

Ethical concerns may be raised by authors, readers, reviewers, editors, institutions, or other parties. The Editorial Office will review concerns carefully and may request information from authors, reviewers, editors, institutions, or relevant parties where appropriate.

When concerns arise, the journal may:

• Request clarification or documentation from authors;
• Consult editors, reviewers, or external experts;
• Ask authors to provide original data, ethics approval, consent documentation, or permission records;
• Delay publication while concerns are being assessed;
• Issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction where necessary;
• Decline, withdraw, or remove a manuscript from consideration where serious concerns are confirmed.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors may submit a complaint or appeal if they believe that an editorial decision, review process, ethical assessment, or publication action involved a procedural error, misunderstanding, or unfair treatment. Appeals must provide clear reasons and supporting information.

Appeals are considered by the Editorial Office or appropriate editorial leadership. Submission of an appeal does not guarantee reversal of an editorial decision.

Ethics Summary

Authors are responsible for originality, accuracy, ethical approval, consent, authorship, data integrity, and disclosure.

Editors are responsible for fair, confidential, independent, and academically grounded editorial decisions.

Reviewers are responsible for confidential, objective, timely, and constructive peer review.

The journal is committed to protecting the integrity of the scholarly record through responsible editorial practice.