Submissions

Author Guidelines

Accepted manuscripts that are not in the correct format specified in these guidelines will be returned to the author(s) for correction, and will delay publication.

AUTHORSHIP

Named authors must consent to publication. The given name(s) and family name(s) of each author must be inserted, and check that all names are spelled correctly. Authorship should be based on substantial contribution to: (i) conception, design, analysis and interpretation of data; (ii) drafting or critical revision for important intellectual content; and (iii) approval of the version to be published. These conditions must all be met (uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals; refer to www.icmje.org). 

Qualification, affiliation and contact details of ALL authors must be provided in the manuscript and in the online submission process. The highest qualification of each author should be provided. Authors are allowed a maximum of two qualifications providing each qualification represents a different field or speciality.  Each author's ORCID ID must be provided during the online submission process. Affiliations need to be provided in ascending order on the manuscript and must include, Unit (where applicable), Department/School, University or Organisation, City and Country

e.g. John Smith, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences,University of Pretoria, South Africa

Corresponding author. Clearly indicate which author will be handling the correspondence at all stages of reviewing, editing, and publication, also post-publication. Provide a correct email address for the corresponding author. The contact details for all authors are to be kept up to date by the corresponding author. Where changes occur, the corresponding author should notify the Editor-in-Chief.

The corresponding author must provide not more than five keywords. These keywords should not appear in the title of the manuscript. The keywords should be inserted immediately after the Abstract.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Authors must declare all sources of support for the research and any association with a product or subject that may constitute conflict of interest. If no funding was received for the research, kindly state that no funding was received from any funding agencies in the public, commercial or non-profit sectors.

RESEARCH ETHICS COMMITTEE APPROVAL

Provide evidence of Research Ethics Committee approval of the research where relevant.

PROTECTION OF PATIENT'S RIGHTS TO PRIVACY

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives informed written consent for publication. The patient should be shown the manuscript to be published. Refer to www.icmje.org.

ETHNIC CLASSIFICATION

References to ethnic classification must indicate the rationale for this. For details, see: Ncayiyana, D. (2007). Racial profiling in medical research: What are we measuring? South African Medical Journal, 97(12), 1225.

MANUSCRIPTS

Shorter items are more likely to be accepted for publication, owing to space constraints and reader preferences.

All submissions should have a short Abstract, followed by the keywords as indicated above. At the end of each article the contribution of each author and collaborator needs to be stated.

Original articles not exceeding 3000 words (excluding references), with up to 6 tables or illustrations, are usually observations or research of relevance to sports medicine and exercise science. References should be limited to 20. Please provide a structured abstract not exceeding 250 words, with the following recommended headings: Background, Objectives, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion(s).

Short reports, Commentaries or Case Studies, should be 1500 words or less (excluding abstract and references), with one table or illustration and no more than six references. Please provide an accompanying abstract not exceeding 150 words.

Qualitative articles not exceeding 5000 words (excluding references), with an unstructured abstract not exceeding 250 words. References should be limited to 20. Please ensure single quotation marks, except where ‘a quotation is “within” a quotation’. Long quotations should be indented without quotation marks. Recommended headings: Background, Objectives, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion(s) .Additional guidelines for qualitative reporting can be found here.

Editorials, Opinions, etc. should be about 1000 words and are welcome, but unless invited, will be subjected to the SAJSM peer review process.

Systematic reviews are accepted for submission after discussions with the editor. The decision on its suitability for publication is made after the reviewers’ reports are considered.

The review should be prepared according to the principles of PRISMA including the PRISMA checklist/statement and flowchart. If the review is registered, please provide the number in the methods section. The review should have a structured abstract of  250-450 words, word count of 4500 words and up to 80 references.  

Narrative Review articles are rarely accepted unless invited.

Letters to the Editor, for publication, should be about 400 words with only one illustration or table, and must include a correspondence address.

Obituaries should be about 400 words and may be accompanied by a photograph.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Refer to articles in recent issues for the presentation of headings and subheadings. If in doubt, refer to 'uniform requirements' - www.icmje.org. Manuscripts must be provided in UK English.

Acknowledgements should be included at the end of the manuscript before the References. They should not be inserted on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who assisted during the research, such as providing language help, writing assistance, etc.

Abbreviations should be spelt out when first used and thereafter used consistently, e.g. 'intravenous (IV)' or 'Department of Health (DoH)'. Abbreviations should be used sparingly and with discretion. 

Scientific measurements must be The units of measurement shall be the Système International d'Unités (SI) except: heart rate (bpm), blood pressure (mmHg), haemoglobin (g/dl) and body mass index (kg/m²) . Other variables should be expressed in the SI format: Speed (m^.s^-1), acceleration (m^.s^-2). Authors must locate the raised dot midway between lines to avoid confusion with periods; for example, mL·min^-1·kg^-1. 

The basic and derived units most commonly used in reporting research in this journal include the following: mass—gram (g) or kilogram (kg); force—newton (N); distance—meter (m), kilometer (km); temperature—degree Celsius (°C); energy, heat, work—joule (J) or kilojoule (kJ); power—watt (W); torque—newton-meter (N·m); frequency—hertz (Hz); pressure—pascal (Pa); time—second (s), minute (min), hour (h). Litres is denoted with a lowercase 'l' e.g. 'ml' for millilitres. Units should be preceded by a space (except for %), e.g. '40 kg' and '20 cm' but '50%'.  The same applies to ± and º, i.e. '35±6' and '19ºC'. 

Statistical methods must be described with sufficient detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results. All data should be presented with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (standard deviations or confidence intervals). Correlation coefficients should also be displayed with confidence intervals. Avoid sole reliance on statistical hypothesis testing, such as the use of p-values, which fails to convey important quantitative information. Precise p-values must be shown as indirect indications (such as p>0.05 or p=NS) are unacceptable and difficult for other researchers undertaking meta-analyses. P values larger than 0.01 should be reported to two decimal places, and those between 0.01 and 0.001 to three decimal places; p values smaller than 0.001 should be reported as p<0.001. 

Numbers should be written as grouped per thousand-units, i.e. 4 000, 22 160...     Numbers should not be expressed to more decimal places than necessary.  As a general rule percentages above 10% should not have decimal places.

Numbers at the start of sentence should be spelt out.

Spell out numbers one to nine and use numerals for 10 above. 

Quotes should be placed in single quotation marks: i.e. The respondent stated: '...' Round brackets (parentheses) should be used, as opposed to square brackets, which are reserved for denoting concentrations or insertions in direct quotes.

Appendices. If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.

General formatting. The manuscript must be in Microsoft Word or RTF document format. Text must be single-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, and contain no unnecessary formatting (such as text in boxes, with the exception of Tables).

Author contribution. The role of each author should be explained at the end of the manuscript. This can be done using the guidelines for authorship:  "Authorship should be based on substantial contribution to: (i) conception, design, analysis and interpretation of data; (ii) drafting or critical revision for important intellectual content; and (iii) approval of the version to be published".

ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES

If tables or illustrations submitted have been published elsewhere, the author(s) should provide consent to republication obtained from the copyright holder.

Tables may be embedded in the manuscript or provided as 'supplementary files'. They must be numbered in Arabic numerals (1,2,3...) and referred to consecutively in the text (e.g. 'Table 1'). Tables should be constructed carefully and simply for intelligible data representation. Unnecessarily complicated tables are strongly discouraged. Tables must be cell-based (i.e. not constructed with text boxes or tabs), and accompanied by a concise title and column headings. Footnotes must be indicated with consecutive use of the following symbols: *, #, & + $.

Figures must be numbered in Arabic numerals and referred to in the text e.g. '(Fig. 1)'. Figure legends: Fig. 1. 'Title...' All illustrations/figures/graphs must be of high resolution/quality: 300 dpi or more is preferable but images must not be resized to increase resolution. Unformatted and uncompressed images must be attached as 'supplementary files' upon submission (not embedded in the accompanying manuscript). TIFF and PNG formats are preferable; JPEG and PDF formats are accepted, but authors must be wary of image compression. Illustrations and graphs prepared in Microsoft Powerpoint or Excel must be accompanied by the original workbook. Copyrighted figures must be accompanied by a letter of consent from the publishers. 

The legends should have sufficient detail to describe the contents of the table/figure independently from the text. 

VIDEOS

Videos (less than 4 minutes) may be submitted as a supplement to a paper.

They should be submitted as MP4 video files (.mp4, .m4v, .mp4v extensions) or the .mov filetype.

The content and focus of the video must relate directly to the study that has been submitted, and should focus either on the methodology of the study or the data. Adverts of any type will not be accepted. 

The language should be English. Subtitles in another language are acceptable. 

If the video shows any identifiable patients/athletes and/or identifiable personal details, authors need to demonstrate that consent has been obtained. 

Video abstracts are embedded within the research article online and also published separately on the South African Journal of Sports Medicine's   YouTube channel. They are published under the same copyright terms as the associated article.

REFERENCES

Authors must verify references from the original sources. Only complete, correctly formatted reference lists will be accepted .Reference lists must be generated manually and not with the use of reference manager software. Citations should be inserted in the text as superscript numbers between square brackets, e.g. These regulations are endorsed by the World Health Organization,^[2]and others.^[3,4-6]All references should be listed at the end of the article in numerical order of appearance in the Vancouver style(not alphabetical order). Approved abbreviations of journal titles must be used; see the List of Journals in Index Medicus. Names and initials of all authors should be given; if there are more than six authors, the first three names should be given followed by et al. First and last page, volume and issue numbers should be given. Wherever possible, references must be accompanied by a digital object identifier (DOI) link and PubMed ID (PMID)/PubMed Central ID (PMCID).Authors are encouraged to use the DOI lookup service offered by CrossRef.

Journal references: Price NC, Jacobs NN, Roberts DA, et al. Importance of asking about glaucoma. Stat Med 1998;289(1):350-355. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1000/hgjr.182] [PMID: 2764753]

Book references: Jeffcoate N. Principles of Gynaecology. 4th ed. London: Butterworth, 1975:96-101. Chapter/section in a book: Weinstein L, Swartz MN. Pathogenic Properties of Invading Microorganisms. In: Sodeman WA jun, Sodeman WA, eds. Pathologic Physiology: Mechanisms of Disease. Philadelphia: WB Saunders, 1974:457-472.

Internet references: World Health Organization. The World Health Report 2002 - Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2002. http://www.who.int/whr/2002 (accessed 16 January 2010).

Other references (e.g. reports) should follow the same format: Author(s). Title. Publisher place: publisher name, year; pages. Cited manuscripts that have been accepted but not yet published can be included as references followed by '(in press)'. Unpublished observations and personal communications in the text must not appear in the reference list. The full name of the source person must be provided for personal communications e.g. '...(Prof. Michael Jones, personal communication)'.

PROOFS 

A PDF proof of an article may be sent to the corresponding author before publication to resolve remaining queries. At that stage, only typographical changes are permitted; the corresponding author is required, having conferred with his/her co-authors, to reply within 2 working days in order for the article to be published in the issue for which it has been scheduled.

CHANGES OF ADDRESS

Please notify the Editorial Department of any contact detail changes, including email, to facilitate communication.

CHARGES

R5 500 per paper for SASMA members (first or senior author)

R7 000 per paper for non-SASMA members. 

Payment is made after the paper has been accepted for publication, before the copyediting stage.