This journal uses ScholarOne Manuscripts (previously Manuscript Central) to peer review manuscript submissions. Please read the guide for ScholarOne authors before making a submission. Complete guidelines for preparing and submitting your manuscript to this journal are provided below.

Sports Technology: Instructions for Authors

The instructions below are specifically directed at authors that wish to submit a manuscript to Sports Technology.  For general information, please visit the Author Services section of our website.

Sports Technology considers all manuscripts on the strict condition that they have been submitted only to Sports Technology, that they have not been published already, nor are they under consideration for publication or in press elsewhere. Authors who fail to adhere to this condition will be charged with all costs which Sports Technology incurs and their papers will not be published.

Contributions to Sports Technology must report original research and will be subjected to review by referees at the discretion of the Editorial Office.

Manuscript preparation

1.     General guidelines

Please see section 2 of this document for instructions relating the specific type of manuscript you are submitting. 

• Papers are accepted only in English.
•  Authors should include a word count with their manuscript.
• Manuscripts should be compiled in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text; acknowledgments; appendixes (as appropriate); references; table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figure caption(s) (as a list).
• Abstracts of up 200 words are required for all papers submitted (except book reviews).
• Each paper should have up to six keywords.
• Section headings should be concise and numbered sequentially, using a decimal system for subsections.
• All the authors of a paper should include their full names, affiliations, postal addresses, telephone and fax numbers and email addresses on the cover page of the manuscript. One author should be identified as the Corresponding Author.
• For all manuscripts non-discriminatory language is mandatory. Sexist or racist terms should not be used.
• Authors must adhere to SI units. Units are not italicised.
• When using a word which is or is asserted to be a proprietary term or trade mark, authors must use the symbol ® or TM.
• For all manuscripts (with the exception of book/ software/ website reviews, and news items) a short text for the Tables of Contents of the issue (up to 450 characters/ 40 words) should be included. The text for the Table of Contents should (ideally with the help of a colour graphic) arouse curiosity. Repetition or a paraphrase of the title and presentation of experimental details should be avoided. 
• Special Issues targeted at either a special topic or special event are published in addition to regular issues. Suggestions for such special issues are welcome.
• Suggestions for cover artwork (at least 300 dpi) are encouraged. Where possible they should be of relevant to the article submitted for publication. 
• Include the name(s) of any sponsors(s) of the research contained in the paper, along with grant number(s). 

Although Reviews and Experts' Opinions are generally written upon invitation of the editor, they can also be the result of an author's own initiative. However, the editor should be informed in advance about such an intended contribution. Simply submitting an unsolicited manuscript is not recommended for these types of contributions.

a.     Reviews are peer-reviewed and give a general overview of a particular field, providing the reader with an appreciation of the importance of the work, a summary of recent developments, and a starting point in the specialist literature. Manuscripts should be between 35000 and 70000 characters in length, divided into appropriate sections, and contain 15-20 display items. The Review starts with a lead-in (800-1000 characters, no references). This text should not be a mere summary but rather should arouse the readers' interest.

b.     Rapid Communications are unsolicited, peer-reviewed short reports of outstanding novel findings which also have important and general implications for specialists working in other fields. The first paragraph should summarize the reasons for undertaking the work and the main conclusions which can be drawn. The final paragraph should summarize the major conclusions of the paper. An experimental section appropriate to the length of the manuscript should be included before the reference section. Manuscripts should be no longer than ca. 14000 characters; formulas and a limited number of figures may also be added. A short text justifying why a Rapid Communication should appear in Sports Technology should be submitted on a separate sheet. The essential findings presented in a Rapid Communication or significant parts of them may not already have appeared in print or in electronic online systems (for example, in reviews, proceedings, or preprints).

c.     Research Articles are unsolicited, peer-reviewed original contributions that report original research in the field of sports technology. Articles must either be of current general interest or of great significance to a more specialized readership. Manuscripts may contain up to 45000 characters and a maximum of 12 display items. They should be divided into sections in the following order: introduction, results, discussion, conclusions, experimental, references. A short abstract and a maximum of five keywords should be given at the top of the manuscript.

d.     Technical Research & Development Articles are unsolicited, peer-reviewed original contributions that report development, design and innovations related to sports technology, e.g. sports equipment and methods for analyses. Articles must either be of current general interest or of great significance to a more specialized readership. Manuscripts may contain up to 45000 characters and a maximum of 12 display items. They should be divided into sections in the following order: introduction, results, discussion, conclusions, experimental, references. A short abstract and a maximum of five keywords should be given at the top of the manuscript.

e.     The Expert's Opinion is generally written by a leading sports person on invitation and deals with current trends in sports technology, personal views of equipment technology, and benefits of sports technology for a specific sports discipline. Manuscripts may contain up to 8000 characters and four display items. A passport-type photo and a short summary of the career to-date of the author(s) should be included.

f.      News and Events items on emerging technologies, patents, products, events, conferences, and societies are encouraged. Manuscripts should be no more than 3000 characters in length and may be accompanied by a display item (preferably in colour).

g.     Book/Software/Website Reviews are usually written on invitation, but suggestions are always welcome. Publishers should send relevant brochures directly to the Book Review Editor. An informative book review should be up to 5000 characters in length and provide answers to the following questions: Has the area of research covered in the book been the focus of recent research efforts, or does the book provide a fresh look at an already established area? Does the book have other merits, or is it unnecessary? Are the different aspects of the book's topic appropriately weighted? What benefits does the book offer to different types of readers? Similar aspects hold for reviews of software or websites.

3.     Style guidelines

• Description of the Journal's article style
• Description of the Journal's reference style
• Guide to using mathematical symbols and equations

4. Figures

§ It is in the author's interest to provide the highest quality figure format possible. Please be sure that all imported scanned material is scanned at the appropriate resolution: 1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour.

§ Figures must be saved separate to text. Please do not embed figures in the paper file.

§ Files should be saved as one of the following formats: TIFF (tagged image file format), PostScript or EPS (encapsulated PostScript), and should contain all the necessary font information and the source file of the application (e.g. CorelDraw/Mac, CorelDraw/PC).

§ All figures must be numbered in the order in which they appear in the paper (e.g. figure 1, figure 2). In multi-part figures, each part should be labelled (e.g. figure 1(a), figure 1(b)).

§ Figure captions must be saved separately, as part of the file containing the complete text of the paper, and numbered correspondingly.

§ The filename for a graphic should be descriptive of the graphic, e.g. Figure1, Figure2a.

5. Colour

There are a limited number of colour pages within the annual page allowance. Authors should restrict their use of colour to situations where it is necessary on scientific, and not merely cosmetic, grounds. Authors of accepted papers who propose publishing figures in colour in the print version should consult with the editors to agree on an appropriate number of colour pages. If the colour page budget is exceeded, authors will be given the option to provide a financial contribution to additional colour reproduction costs. Figures that appear in black-and-white in the print edition of the Journal will appear in colour in the online edition, assuming colour originals are supplied.

6. Reproduction of copyright material

As an author, you are required to secure permission if you want to reproduce any figure, table, or extract from the text of another source. This applies to direct reproduction as well as ‘derivative reproduction' (where you have created a new figure or table which derives substantially from a copyrighted source). Authors are themselves responsible for the payment of any permission fees required by the copyright owner. Copies of permission letters should be sent with the manuscript upon submission to the Editor(s).

§ Copyright permission letter template

7. Supplementary online material

Authors are welcome to submit animations, movie files, sound files or any additional information for online publication free of charge. 

§ Information about supplementary online material

Manuscript submission

All submissions should be made online at the Sports Technology ScholarOne Manuscripts site. New users should first create an account. Once logged on to the site, submissions should be made via the Author Centre. Online user guides and access to a helpdesk are available on this website.

Manuscripts may be submitted in any standard format, including Word, PostScript and PDF. These files will be automatically converted into a PDF file for the review process. LaTeX files should be converted to PDF prior to submission and uploaded along with the source files because ScholarOne Manuscripts is not able to convert LaTeX files into PDFs directly. This journal does not accept Microsoft Word 2007 documents. Please use Word's "Save As" option to save your document as an older (.doc) file type.

Submitted manuscripts are subject to peer review at the discretion of the Editorial Office. In order to maintain anonymity during any refereeing process, authors are requested to refrain from, or keep to a minimum, self-referencing.

There are no page charges in Sports Technology.

Click here for Information regarding anonymous peer review

Copyright and authors' rights

It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or license the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to Taylor & Francis. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and of course the Journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors retain many rights under the Taylor & Francis rights policies, which can be found at http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/preparation/copyright.asp. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.

Exceptions are made for certain Governments' employees whose policies require that copyright cannot be transferred to other parties. We ask that a signed statement to this effect is submitted when returning proofs for accepted papers.

Reprints

Corresponding authors will receive free online access to their article through our website (www.informaworld.com) and a complimentary copy of the issue containing their article. Reprints of articles published in this journal can be purchased through Rightslink® when proofs are received. If you have any queries, please contact our reprints department at reprints@tandf.co.uk  

Visit our Author Services website for further resources and guides to the complete publication process and beyond.