Sports medicine and biomechanics – synergies and nuances

Sports Medicine and Sports Biomechanics emerged as two viable branches of research interest in the late 1960s/early 1970s due to the growing interest in the scientific understanding of performance characteristics related to human motion. Today, there are somewhere in the region of 19 and 12 research journals that publish research findings in these respective areas. In this editorial, we reflect on the key role of the Journal of Sports Sciences in the dissemination of new sports medicine and sports biomechanics knowledge and provide guidelines to prospective authors who wish to submit their manuscripts to the Sports Medicine and Biomechanics section of the journal. Sports biomechanics research was central to the Journal of Sports Sciences at its inception in 1983 and has remained so over the intervening years. Sports biomechanics has been described as '‘having two aims that, at times, seem incompatible: the reduction of injury risk and the improvement of sports performance’ (Bartlett & Bussey, 2012, p.xix). The growing number of sports and exercise medicine research submissions to the journal in 2013 prompted Professor Alan Nevill, then Editor-in-Chief, to propose a separate Sports Medicine section. Consequently, Sports Medicine became the latest addition as one of twelve separate sections comprising the journal’s editorial structure that remained in place until 2017.

Professor Mark Williams, in his editorial as the recently appointed Editor-in-Chief, reflected on the rapid growth and international reputation of the journal and the resultant huge increase in the number of submissions received by the journal (Williams, 2017). To better manage the workload of the editors, whilst providing tiered levels of quality control within each section and across the journal, a decision was made to restructure the Editorial Board. The synergies between Sports Medicine and Sports Biomechanics led to the combining of these two sections to form the current Sports Medicine and Biomechanics section. Other more recent developments to assist the editorial teams and to secure more robust research outcomes include the recommendation that submissions of experimental studies include a formal a priori sample size estimation and rationale (Abt et al., 2020), and the formation in 2020 of the journal’s Statistics and Research Design Advisory Group, led by Professor Grant Abt.

The reach and reputation of the Journal of Sports Sciences is further evidenced by the 80 applications that were received in 2017 from researchers across the world for the Sports Medicine and Biomechanics Associate Editor positions. The section now has a core structure of an executive editor (Eric Wallace, Ulster University), four associate editors (Tim Exell, University of Portsmouth; Natalie Vanicek, University of Hull; Mark Robinson, Liverpool John Moores University – who in 2020 replaced Silvia Fantozzi, University of Bologna; and Massimiliano Ditroilo, University College Dublin, who was appointed in late 2020). Our editorial team is supported by the diverse expertise of our Sports Medicine and Biomechanics Advisory Board, who collectively provide a diversity of expertise. In 2017, our Advisory Board was refreshed with the addition of 12 new members giving a total of 30 advisors. A further streamlining revision in 2021, aimed also at increasing the diversity of our editorial teams (as outlined in the Journal’s editorial ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: Policy Statement’, Abt et al., 2021a), resulted in an Advisory Board of 18 members with a welcome increase from 2% to 33% in female representation. We are deeply indebted to the invaluable contributions of our Advisory Board which, along with the countless critically reflective reviews by our voluntary reviewers, make a huge contribution to the continued publication of high-quality research in Sports Medicine and Biomechanics.

A recurring theme in the recent editorials has been the challenge imposed by the huge volume of submissions associated with the ongoing growth and reach of the Journal of Sports Sciences. The journal is ranked 13th out of 85 journals under Sports Science based on the total number of citations. Journal article downloads have increased by over 50% over the past 2 years and, in 2020, they surpassed one million for the first time. Alongside downloads through traditional databases, Twitter downloads almost doubled to 18,500 in 2020 and @JSportsSci now has over 45,000 followers. Of direct relevance to the Sports Medicine and Biomechanics section, the number of submissions has risen steadily over the last decade and now stands at over 500 per annum, . Citations, across a wide range of performance, sports medicine and technology papers, account for 20% of the top 100 cited journal papers for the period between 2017 and 2021. Inevitably, many submissions do not make it through to an external review for a range of reasons – including relevance to the scope of the section; lack of originality, rigour, and/or impact; being of limited interest to the journal’s wider readership; and the avoidance of over-saturation of specific topics or manuscript types, for example, systematic reviews.

Authors wishing to submit their research manuscripts to the Sports Medicine and Biomechanics section should first consult the Instruction for Authors on the Journal of Sports Sciences’ website. We would strongly encourage authors to consider the submission option of Registered Reports, which is designed to promote research transparency and help combat issues of publication bias, along with questionable practices such as p-hacking. For a full consideration of the issues, and how Registered Reports attempt to address them, we encourage you to read the recent Journal of Sports Sciences ‘Registered Reports’ editorial by Abt et al. (2021b). The aims and focus of the manuscript’s research must be clearly associated with one, or both, of the following two research areas: sport and exercise medicine and sport and exercise biomechanics. We specifically welcome studies with perceived high impact related to injury and rehabilitation; clinical studies in sport and exercise medicine; sport biomechanics; musculoskeletal and neuromuscular biomechanics; biomechanics modelling; sports technology; biomechanics of strength and conditioning; and sport-relevant gait and posture. In all cases, the research must have a robust study design and be underpinned with substantive human data. Studies of sex comparison of performance and, even more importantly, injury risk conducted only on the basis of one factor – sex, provide limited information. These studies should include detailed information on training status and motor skills of participants to make the comparison more meaningful. For example, a well-designed study looking at sex differences in injury risk during a particular task should go beyond the usual “sex, age, height and body mass” of participants and ensure a similar level of normalised muscle strength, training background and specific skills between the categories being compared. This would help understand whether the differences are truly down to sex or are instead the result of a different level of physiological/ neuromuscular/ biomechanical characteristics (Nimphius, 2019).

Furthermore, all research findings must be of interest to the wider readership of the interdisciplinary Journal of Sports Sciences, bearing in mind the journal is aimed at sports scientists across a range of sports and exercise disciplines, as well as sport and exercise practitioners working in high-performance sports, the health and fitness industry and other related areas of employment. Whilst recognising the value of novel investigative methodologies and research using innovative technologies, studies that utilise experimental research designs are particularly welcome, again noting the recommendations of sample size estimation and rationale (Abt et al., 2020). Case studies, narrative reviews, specific sports medicine surgical procedures and survey research findings that may be better suited to the many other excellent sports medicine and biomechanics journals are generally not accepted.

In conclusion, the growing demands of elite sport performance, coupled with the ever-increasing participation levels in a wide range of sport and exercise activities, has led to the need for a better understanding of biomechanical mechanisms and sports medicine solutions related to sports performance, injury prevention, and rehabilitation. The Journal of Sports Sciences, through its Sports Medicine and Biomechanics section, offers an excellent opportunity for researchers in these areas to disseminate their findings to a wide and relevant audience. We look forward to receiving scientific and innovative manuscripts that aim to advance knowledge in these fields.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).