International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport

Aim
The International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport aims to present current original research into sports performance. In so doing, the journal contributes to our general knowledge of sports performance making findings available to a wide audience of academics and practitioners.

Scope
The International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport is published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Centre for Performance Analysis, Cardiff School of Sport at Cardiff Metropolitan University, and in association with the International Society of Performance Analysis in Sport (ISPAS), ISPAS-Asia and the Spanish Association of Sports Performance Analysis (SASPA). The emphasis is on the analysis of actual performance in sport and exercise. Studies using observational methods, biomechanical analysis, self-report emanating from actual sports performance, qualitative observation and measurements such as heart rate response during actual sports performance are all within the scope of the journal. Laboratory studies of key techniques within sports are also of interest where such techniques are clearly important and cannot be analysed in detail during actual competition. Such techniques include tennis serves and golf swings. There may be other contributions that do not analyse sports performance at all that are within the scope of the journal. For example, interview studies or meta-analyses may lead to theoretical contributions explaining the nature of sports performance, tactics used and factors influencing performance. The journal requires original research studies, so review articles are not considered. Contributors wishing to clarify whether papers they are writing are within the scope of the journal are welcome to contact the general editor.

The volume of papers submitted to the journal has increased from 501 in 2018, to 594 in 2019 and 847 in 2020. The number of papers published in 2018, 2019 and 2020 was 88, 84 and 91 respectively. As a consequence the quality of accepted papers has increased. The demand to have papers published in the journal makes it very competitive, and only papers with a genuine chance of being published can be reviewed. Authors should use the most recent issues of the journal to understand the required quality. Authors should ask themselves the following questions when preparing a paper.

(a) Does the paper report on a substantive research exercise? If the data could be gathered and analysed over a single weekend, the authors should consider submitting the work for poster presentation at a conference.
(b) Is the research sufficiently original? Does the paper make a contribution to our knowledge of something important about sports performance?

(c)Will the paper have impact? Are the findings generalizable beyond the sample used? Authors are discouraged from submitting research based on single squads that may be convenience samples. Authors are also discouraged from submitting papers on systems or processes that might only be relevant to their own programmes of research.
(d) Does the research warrant the number of authors listed on the paper? This has become a problem with a lot of recent submissions where the nature and volume of the work certainly does not warrant the number of authors included. In cases like this, the paper has not been sent for review and has been rejected by the editor.
(e) Is the analysis sufficiently rigorous? Authors should consider the reliability of methods used, the units of analysis used, the choice of independent and dependent variables and the assumptions of any statistical tests used. In saying this, there is nothing wrong with original descriptive research and authors should avoid complex predictive modelling designs where these are not appropriate.
(f) Does the paper fit within the scope of the journal? Sports performance analysis does involve a more expanded array of methods and types of study these days. However, there have been papers submitted to the journal that are clearly not performance analysis papers. Some of these papers are of a very high quality in all other respects, but they are simply not within the scope of the journal.

All research and review articles in this journal have undergone rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening and anonymized (double-anonymized) refereeing,

Authors can choose to publish gold open access in this journal.

Read the Instructions for Authors for information on how to submit your article.