Editorial Policies of the Journal

 

Who we are: Founded in 1924 as “Der Sportarzt” (The Sports Physician), the journal is one of the oldest journals in the field of sports medicine in Europe. After the 2nd world war it was refounded in 1951. Readers are physicians, physiologists and sports scientists as well as physiotherapists, coaches, sports managers and athletes. For the scientific community, the journal provides open online access to its scientific content and an online communication platform.

What we do: The German Journal of Sports Medicine focuses on the implications for prevention, diagnosis, therapy, rehabilitation and physical training, as well as general sports medicine and research in sports science, physiology and biomechanics.

Our Statement: The German Journal of Sports Medicine addresses the translational science and clinical practice of sports medicine and its related fields, investigating the impact of physical activity, exercise, training and sport, and physical inactivity in healthy individuals and patients of all ages. It addresses the implications for prevention, diagnosis, therapy, rehabilitation, and physical training, as well as for overall sports medicine and research in sports science, physiology, and biomechanics.

 

Scope and Coverage

The Deutsche Zeitschrift für Sportmedizin - German Journal of Sports Medicine is dedicated to the biomedical science and clinical practice of Sports Medicine and its border fields which investigate the influence of exercise, physical training and sports as well as lack of exercise to healthy and sick people of all age-groups, related to prevention, diagnosis, therapy, rehabilitation and physical training.

Manuscripts which deal with actual scientific and medical findings, new hypotheses, actual controversies and problems in real life will be published. Possible topics are physiology and pathophysiology of exercise, medical and biological findings, the medical therapy of exercise-related medical problems, epidemiology of sedentary lifestyle and related disorders, therapy of sports injuries, medical training and rehabilitation medicine, as well as special social, cultural, psychological and special science-related aspects of the entire scientific field.

The journal is a printed journal with 7-11 issues per year, with electronic versions of all articles online (PDF and html) and full text retrieval.

Quality of Content: Principles of Good Scientific Practice in Sports Medicine

The German Journal of Sports Medicine principles are in good accordance with statements of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and the standards as “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals “ published and updated by December 2021 (https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf).

The incomplete and inadequate reporting of research makes it difficult to assess the strengths and weaknesses of studies published in the medical literature. Therefore, we too are guided by the recommendations of the STROBE initiative. STROBE stands for an international, collaborative initiative of epidemiologists, methodologists, statisticians, researchers, and journal editors involved in the conduct and dissemination of observational studies with the common goal of improving the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology (https://www.strobe-statement.org/). The STROBE initiative should be viewed as an ongoing process during which recommendations may be revised based on comments, criticisms, and new evidence.

Recommendations for reporting studies endorsed by leading medical journals can improve the quality of reporting. We are guided by the STROBE checklists used in observational research for cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies (https://www.strobe-statement.org/checklists/). The Journal is also endorsing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR network) where all reporting guidelines for main study types are summarized (https://www.equator-network.org/).

The Journal admits to the general principles of scientific and medical practice which are in particular: to work lege artis, to protocol, to work out experiments, to document and save the data in a structured way, to doubt consequently and self-critically data and to protect strictly trueness with regard to the manuscripts of partners, competitors and previous scientists.

This includes that the manuscript will be written in a way that it is verifiable, that the relevant preliminary work of other authors is taken into consideration and acknowledged and that all authors share responsibility of the complete manuscript. The authors assure that, on request, they will provide their original data to the editors or the reviewers.

The Journal strongly disagrees with all forms of scientific misconduct as are neglect of intellectual property, plagiarism or the demand to be co-author without the agreement of the other real authors, sabotage of other colleagues` research as well as the support and toleration of active and passive incorrect behaviour. An academic position never justifies an independent authorship.

Ethical Principles

The ethical principles of the medical profession and of other professions working for athletes, patients and people and the ethical principles of research, medical practice and sport, especially the general rules for research in sports, will be accepted.

The German Journal of Sports Medicine is following the scientific guidelines for safeguarding good research practice of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation, https://www.dfg.de/en/). The guidelines can be found here: https://www.dfg.de/download/pdf/foerderung/rechtliche_rahmenbedingungen/gute_wissenschaftliche_praxis/kodex_gwp_en.pdf

The Journal supports the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and is listed as a journal that follows the CMJE's Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

In all studies involving humans or animals, the involvement of the responsible ethics committee and other competent authorities is mandatory. Every manuscript should include a statement about the outcome of the ethics evaluation and decisons of other competent authorities including reference number.

 

Equity, diversity, and inclusion

The Journal is committed to the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion in research and publications. Such priciples should be observed in study design, data collection and interpretation and constraints on generalizability should be expressed when relevant.  

 

Registration of clinical studies in a WHO-accredited registry

The World Medical Association writes in the Declaration of Helsinki, in which ethical principles on medical research involving human subjects were written down as a globally accepted guideline for clinical research:

"Every research project involving human subjects shall be registered in a publicly accessible database before the first subject is recruited. "

A prerequiste for clinical studies is the registration in a registry that supports the WHO handled International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP).

The German Clinical Trials Registry (Deutsches Register Klinischer Studien, DRKS) is the WHO-recognised primary registry for Germany. It is responsible for the registration of all patient-oriented clinical trials conducted in Germany.

The authors must provide a statement of disclosure of conflict of interest, e.g. regarding financial relationship or payment but also other conflicts of interests in connection with publication in the German Journal of Sports Medicine according to ICMJE recommendations.

In the submission system “Editorial Manager”, the corresponding author signs before submission a digital form for himself and all corresponding authors, that these principles are accepted.

Editors, editorial staff and reviewers are mandated to disclose possible conflicts of interest in handling submissions. In case of uncertainty, other editors, reviewers and staff should be involved.

Ethical principles in includes particularly the principles for a doping-free sport according to the current respective versions the World-Anti-Doping-Code and other regulations and guidelines of the World-Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the German Olympic Association for Sports (DOSB) and national laws. All authors assure that they will take care of these principles and accept them. This does not exclude scientific discussions of such guidelines and rules.

Conflict of Interest

The authors must provide a statement of disclosure of conflict of interest, e.g. regarding financial relationship or payment but also other conflicts of interests in connection with publication in the German Journal of Sports Medicine according to ICMJE recommendations.

In the submission system “Editorial Manager”, the corresponding author signs before submission a digital form for himself and all corresponding authors, that these principles are accepted.

Editors, editorial staff and reviewers are mandated to disclose possible conflicts of interest in handling submissions. In case of uncertainty, other editors, reviewers and staff should be involved.

 

Anti Doping

Ethical principles in includes particularly the principles for a doping-free sport according to the current respective versions the World-Anti-Doping-Code and other regulations and guidelines of the World-Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the German Olympic Association for Sports (DOSB) and national laws. All authors assure that they will take care of these principles and accept them. This does not exclude scientific discussions of such guidelines and rules.

 

Rights and Respectives for Human and Animals

 

Participation by individuals capable of giving informed consent as subjects in medical research must be voluntary. Although it may be appropriate to consult family members or community leaders, no individual capable of giving informed consent may be enrolled in a research study unless he or she freely agrees.

In medical research involving human subjects capable of giving informed consent, each potential subject must be adequately informed about the aims, methods, sources of funding, any possible conflicts of interest, institutional affiliations of the researcher, the anticipated benefits and potential risks of the study and the discomfort it may entail, post-study provisions and any other relevant aspects of the study. The potential subject must be informed about the right to refuse to participate in the study or to withdraw consent to participate at any time without reprisal. Special attention should be given to the specific information needs of individual potential subjects as well as to the methods used to deliver the information.

After ensuring that the potential subject has understood the information, the physician or another appropriately qualified individual must then seek the potential subject’s freely-given informed consent, preferably in writing. If the consent cannot be expressed in writing, the non-written consent must be formally documented and witnessed. All medical research subjects should be given the option of being informed about the general outcome and results of the study. Similarly, the ethical principles for the treatment of experimental animals must also be observed as established in the relevant laws.

Quality of Editorial Work – Editorial Process

The Editorial process ensures that manuscripts for the German Journal of Sports Medicine are of highest quality, deal with latest and important findings of scientific interest and that they are relevant for practical work according to the objectives of the journal, e.g. scientific based and comprehensible medicine and science.

Peer Review

All manuscripts of the German Journal of Sports Medicine will be peer reviewed. This process of peer review is subject to certain principles and rules.

The journal demonstrates all necessary features that contribute to the objectivity, credibility, and quality of its contents. The journal demonstrates the evidence that authors have disclosed financial conflicts of interest.

Principles – peer review

Peer review ensures the quality of the journal. Manuscripts are evaluated regarding the relevance to the objectives of the journal, scientific creditability and editorial aspects like completeness, style and comprehensibility. The peer review serves to support the authors by giving advices for changes, shortening or inclusion of non-observed aspects. The process of peer review requires the principle of fairness and scientific care.

The peer review is strictly confidential. The reviewer must keep all documents and information to the manuscript strictly confidential and is not allowed to share them with other persons.

 

The reviewer's decision must be objective and the editors must be informed immediately about any conflicts of interest. This is especially valid for manuscripts of personal friends, close colleagues or competitors if there are personal differences. In such cases the final decision about the reviewer lies within the Editors. With submission of a manuscript, authors may provide names of possible reviewers from whom they may assume a possible personal conflict of interest. The Editors are certainly not bound to these suggestions.

 

Process of Peer Review

1             Correspondence is electronically for all manuscripts. Printed manuscripts will not be returned to the authors.

2             After receiving a manuscript, it will be reviewed by the Editor-in Chief or a member of the Editorial Board. A manuscript can be rejected at this stage of the review process, if it does not fulfil formal criteria or if two members of the Editorial Board conclude that it does not have sufficient merit to warrant publication.

3             The manuscript will then be sent to two other members of the Scientific Board of the Journal or to other scientific experts. The names of reviewers are blinded to the authors. The peer review includes a confidential judgement and an open part with general and especial indications and should be finished within 4 weeks.

4             The names of the reviewers will be blinded to the authors

5             The open part of peer review will be submitted to the authors together with the final decision of the Editorial Board concerning acceptance, revision with conditions or rejection of the manuscript.

6             If revision of a manuscript is requested, the authors must respond accordingly to the reviews, and have to indicate clearly any changes that have been made in the manuscript or explain differences of opinion.

7             The peer review process will be continued until a final decision about acceptance or rejection is made by the Editors.

8             The peer review process is managed and documented online via Editorial Manager.

9             Reviews and correspondence concerning the manuscripts will be kept on file for 10 years together with the manuscripts.

Management of Comments and Opinions, Errata and Retractions

In addressing corrections, retractions, and concerns, the German Journal of Sports Medicine follows the ICMJE's Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf) and the COPE Guidelines for the Withdrawal of Articles (https://publicationethics.org/files/retraction-guidelines.pdf). Regarding supplements, the German Journal of Sports Medicine also follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) on "G. Supplements, Theme Issues, and Special Series”.

The journal welcomes critical colleagues and encourages all readers for letters to the editor. Letters to the editor will be sent to the responsible author and printed with answer into one of the coming issues. The Facebook-Account of the journal counts nearly 3000 follower and is also a medium to share comments and opinions to all articles of the journal.

If there are any scientific or other errors in a scientific article, the author will be informed and an erratum will be published in a coming issue. The erratum will be added to the PDF of the article.

Reasonable doubts about an article´s content lead to serious consultations with the author and with all Editors and the possible retraction of the manuscript by the author or the Editorial Office. The retraction will be declared in a coming issue, the online version will be updated.

 

Submission of Manuscripts in the German Journal of Sports Medicine

Language

The language of the Journal is American English. All manuscripts are published with summaries in German and English and keywords in both languages. All English articles include an Extended Abstract in German language of one page, published with same information and DOI of the original article.

All submissions for international authors should be submitted via Editorial Manager, a system for online manuscript submission and peer review (http://dzsm.edmgr.com).

Special Issues

For special issues of the Journal, guest-editors may be invited by the Editorial Board,
who will revise these papers and may organize peer review in accordance with the
Editorial Board.

Style of Manuscripts

The manuscripts should be concise, sentences should be short. Manuscripts that are accepted for publication will be editorially revised for use of language.

The use of photographs should maintain the personal rights of the subjects and should be done only when necessary. Concerning the photographs of patients or athletes, even if they are persons of contemporary life, the authors must submit a personal written consent from the person in question. This is particularly valid for photographs of patients or experimental subjects.

Additional Guidelines for Authors

Lots of information regarding the journal can be obtained from the homepage of the DZSM: http://www.germanjournalsportsmedicine.com/authors. Guidelines for authors in English and previous issues and article in both html and PDF document can be downloaded for free. 

 

Open-access Policy

This journals policy is publish online as open-access-Journal to provide free dissemination as widely as possible according to the aims of the “Budapest Open Access Initiative” http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read  

There is no fee for submission and handling of submissions.

 

Licensing information

The Licensing policy is CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

The author is guaranteed his genuine copyright. Authors and readers may share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material.

Users have to give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. The permission is strictly for noncommercial use,  use of the material for commercial purposes are only permitted with written permission from the editorial office. When material is used further, remixed, transformed, users must distribute the contributions under the same license as the original.

Publisher and Production Quality

Since February 2015, the publisher of the journal is Dynamic Media Sales Verlag, Nordmoortrift 20, 27474 Cuxhaven, Germany. Ms Nicola Lutz is the responsible publisher. They guarantee the quality of layout, printing, graphics and illustrations. The layout is provided by grape.media.design, Schleissheimerstraße 6, 80333 Munich, Germany. The journal is printed on acid-free paper by Creo Druck Bamberg, Gutenbergstraße 1, 96050 Bamberg, Germany.

The Publications Committee handles all publication rights and has a contract with the current publisher, which acts as de facto publisher on behalf of the German Association of Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. The Publication Committee is a Registered Non-Profit Association for Promotion of Sports Medicine (Verein zur Förderung der Sportmedizin Hannover e.V.). The members of the Publications Committee are 16 regional members of the German Society for Sports Medicine and Prevention (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sportmedizin und Prävention -DGSP) who elect a Board of Directors to serve as the Publications and oversee editorial operations. The Association's General Assembly elects the Editor-in-Chief every two years and approves the budget. The association's board of directors appoints other editors and board members on the recommendation of the editor-in-chief and other DGSP committees; the board controls the budget and financial relations with the publisher. The Editor-in-Chief acts independently in accordance with the Editorial Policies of the Journal proposed and adopted by the Editorial Board (Editor-in-Chief, Editors) of the Journal and approved by the Publications Committee. The Publisher ensures that proven recommendations are followed, for example, in guidance to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals by ICMJE and in guidance to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (joint statement by COPE, DOAJ, WAME, and OASPA). The German Journal of Sports Medicine (GJSM) is also guided by the recommendations of PIE-J: The Presentation & Identification of E-Journals (NISO RP-16-2013).

See here the publishing policies, especially
- Peer Review Process
Management of Comments and Opinions, Errata and Retractions
- Ethical Principles
- Data Sharing Policy
- Submissions in the German Journal of Sports Medicine
- SUBMISSIONS & GUIDELINES

Executive Board:
Univ. Prof. em. Dr. med. Klaus-Michael Braumann
Chairman of Board
Abt. Sport- und Bewegungsmedizin
Fakultät für Psychologie und Bewegungswissenschaft
University of Hamburg
Robert-Koch-Str. 40
20249 Hamburg, GERMANY
Phone:    +49  40 428 38 6339
Fax:    +49  40 428 38 2646
Opens window for sending emailbraumann@uni-hamburg.de

Univ. Prof. Dr. med. Wilhelm Bloch
Vice Chairman
Abteilung Molekulare und Zelluläre Sportmedizin
Institut für Kreislaufforschung und Sportmedizin
Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln
Am Sportpark Müngersdorf 6
50933 Köln, GERMANY
Phone:    +49  221 49 82 53 80
Fax:    +49  40 428 38 2646
Opens window for sending emailw.bloch@dshs.koeln.de

Univ. Prof. em. Dr. med. Dieter Böning
Assessor
Schütte-Lanz-Straße 93B
12209 Berlin, GERMANY
Phone:    +49  30 715 03 76
Fax:    +49  30 844 51 653
Opens window for sending emaildieter.boening@charite.de

Dr. med. Hans-Jürgen Schnell
Treasurer
Auf der hohen Fuhr 2
53809 Ruppichteroth, GERMANY
Phone:    +49  22 9190 786 22
Fax:    +49  22 9139 36
Opens window for sending emailschnell-ruppichteroth@t-online.de

Board of Directors

1.             Board of Directors is elected by members.

2.             Board of Directors serves as publication committee

3.             Board of Directors elects Editor-in-Chief

4.             Editor-in-Chief nominates other editors which are confirmed by the board of Directors

5.             Editor-in-Chief and editorial board appoint scientific board members

6.             Editor-in-Chief and editorial board can appoint junior editors out of the scientific board

 

Audience

The German Journal of Sports Medicine is directed to translational science and clinical practice of Sports Medicine and its adjacent fields, which investigate the influence of physical activity, exercise, training and sports, as well as a lack of exercise affecting healthy people and patients of all age-groups. It addresses implications for prevention, diagnosis, therapy, rehabilitation and physical training as well as the entire Sports Medicine and research in Sports Science, physiology and biomechanics.

The journal is the leading and most widely read German journal in the field of Sports Medicine. Readers are physicians, physiologists and sports scientists as well as physiotherapists, coaches, sport managers, and athletes. The journal offers to the scientific community online open access to its scientific content and online communication platform.

 

Listing in Databases

Each scientific article is uniquely identified by a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). XML-structured data are available of bibliographic data, abstracts and text. The journal is listed in:

-       Research Alert

-       Focus On: Sports Science & Medicine

-       SciVerse Scopus

-       CrossRef

-       EBSCO SPORTDiscus

-       Google Scholar

-       Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS)

-       DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)

 

Types of Manuscripts

Systematic Reviews and Metaanalyses- important facts in the field of experimental and practical sports medicine. Reviews should provide latest scientific data or relevant information for medical or training practice to the readership from a general point of view. Therefore all relevant literature shall be quoted. The manuscript should not exceed 7 printed pages. Opinions, which are discussed, must be clearly defined as such to the readers.

Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses should be guided by the PRISMA statement (2). PRISMA is a minimum evidence-based set of elements for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses. PRISMA focuses primarily on reporting reviews that assess the impact of interventions, but can also be used as a basis for reporting systematic reviews with objectives other than assessing interventions (e.g., assessing etiology, prevalence, diagnosis, or prognosis). The PRISMA Checklist and flowchart is described here: http://www.prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/Checklist http://www.prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/FlowDiagram.

Authors wishing to submit a clinical trial should follow the CONSORT guidelines. CONSORT provides authors with a standard for reporting study results that facilitates complete and transparent reporting and supports critical evaluation and interpretation of results. The CONSORT statement consists of a 25-item checklist and flowchart. The checklist items focus on reporting how the study was designed, analyzed, and interpreted; the flowchart shows the path of all participants through the study. Here you will find the CONSORT checklist and flowchart:http://www.consort-statement.org/consort-statement/checklist; http://www.consort-statement.org/consort-statement/flow-diagram. The checklist items focus on reporting how the study was designed, analyzed, and interpreted, and the flowchart shows the path of all participants through the study.

Clinical Reviews should not exceed more than four printed pages, with a delimited and completed topic of sports medicine of general and practical relevance. The total length of the manuscript is about 2400 words including 15-20 selected references and two figures or two tables. These reviews should concisely focus on the scientific basis related to the diagnosis and therapy of clinical problems of sports medicine, orthopedics and exercise physiology and they will be published also in German as „Standards der Sportmedizin”. The Journal asks for specific, delineated, and self-contained topics in sports medicine of general and practical importance. Preferred are scoping reviews (Reviews of reviews). Please also read the "Guidelines for Authors - Clinical Reviews" and follow the "Specific Notes" listed there in order to be able to work in best practice.

Clinical Cases and Short Reports should not exceed more than three printed pages. They should present a certain case and discuss it with the relevant medical literature. As a rule, they contain about 10 essential references, which will help the readers to inform themselves about the theme. It is important that authors follow the CARE Case Report Guidelines. The CARE guidelines for case reports help authors reduce risk of bias, increase transparency, and provide early signals of what works, for which patients, and under which circumstances. The CARE guidelines (for Case Reports) were developed by an international group of experts to support an increase in the accuracy, transparency, and usefulness of case reports. View and download the CARE checklist here https://www.care-statement.org/checklist.

Letters to the Editor are of particular interest. They should focus a point of view and express critically to published papers or to general problems of Sports Medicine. They may not offend one’s personality. In individual cases, the Editorial Board reserves the right not to publish or to shorten letters to the Editor. If Letters to the Editors refer to published articles, authors of the article have the opportunity to respond within three weeks. Then, the reply will be published together with the Letter to Editor.

Guidelines for Sports Medicine can be submitted only by authorized committees of the German Society of Sports Medicine. Additionally, the Editorial Board may ask certain authors or working groups to write articles for special themes which may serve as guidelines.

Reports from literature may be submitted independently and are requested by the Editorial Board. Essential and important manuscripts for the medical or sports medical progress should be reviewed, in general they should not exceed more than 1/2 printed page.

 

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