Journal of Physical Fitness and Sports Medicine

Aims and Scope

The Journal of Physical Fitness and Sports Medicine (JPFSM) is an Open Access journal that publishes peer-reviewed articles on modern physical fitness and sports medicine. The journal publishes Regular Articles, Short Communications, Case Reports, Study Profiles, Reviews, Short Reviews, Letters to the Editor, and Proceedings.

JPFSM’s scope includes physical fitness, sports medicine, exercise physiology and metabolism, muscle biology, biomechanics, bone homeostasis, training sciences, aging and stress responses, health sciences, circadian biology, rehabilitation, and other interdisciplinary sciences.

As the official peer-reviewed journal of the Japanese Society of Physical Fitness and Sports Medicine, JPFSM serves an ever-growing role in the support of the physical fitness and sports medicine community, especially in Asia. The journal employs rigorous peer review of manuscripts to ensure the highest scientific, publishing and ethical standards for our broad audience of researchers, clinicians, policy makers and others physical fitness professionals.

Manuscript Types

The journal welcomes 8 manuscript types, all of which are subject to peer review.

Regular Articles: Original research undertaken by the author(s) which is novel and significant. Regular Articles should be 6,500 words or less.

Short Communications: Original research undertaken by the author(s), which is more preliminary or has more limited outcomes, than that for Regular Articles. They must be of general or special interest. Short Communications may also contain interesting, potentially significant observations, or negative results that are of narrow scope. Short Communications should be 2,400 words or less.

Case Reports: Brief reports of rare examples or medical cases without precedent, but not hypothesis testing. These articles should be 2,400 words or less.

Study Profiles: Study Profiles describe the details of the design, rationale, methods and analyses, baseline data (if applicable), and outcomes to date (if applicable) of clinical trials or cohort studies. Study Profiles provide more information than the trial registry or the methods section of a Regular Article and aim to aid in the prevention of unnecessary duplication of research and increase transparency. Therefore, preference is given to studies with an extended follow-up or implementation periods. Study Profiles should be 6,500 words or less, and must conform to the relevant reporting guidelines listed in the EQUATOR NETWORK (https://www.equator-network.org/), such as the SPIRIT Statement (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials) (http://www.spirit-statement.org/).

Reviews: Reviews present novel or unique overviews of recent or important developments in the field. Reviews must be insightful and must address the question(s) of interest using appropriate and fully presented evidence; exhaustive general summaries will not be published. Reviews are usually commissioned by the Editors, however the journal welcomes proposals of 400-800 words,which should be emailed to the Editorial Office. Reviews should be 6,500 words or less.

Short Reviews: Short articles that are overviews of recent research from an author’s own laboratory, which should be 2,400 words or less. Short reviews are also commissioned by the Editors, however the journal welcomes proposals of 400-800 words, which should be emailed to the Editorial Office.

Letters to the Editor: Constructive comments and questions on regular articles, reviews, and other articles published in the journal. An opportunity will be provided for rebuttal to the authors in question. Responses from the authors, together with the names of authors and names of those submitting questions or comments, will be published. Instead of using the Editorial Manager online submission system, Letters to the Editor should be emailed to the Editorial Office as an attached PDF. (hj-tairyoku@turuin.co.jp)

Proceedings: Short summaries of in-progress or completed primary studies that have been presented at the General Sessions of the Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Physical Fitness and Sports Medicine (JSPFSM), but have not yet been published in a journal. Proceedings articles (up to 1,800 characters) are published in Issue 6 of the journal each year.

Journal & Ethics Policies

JPFSM upholds the highest standards in scholarly publishing.

Before submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors must ensure that they have read and complied with the journal’s policies. The journal reserves the right to reject without review, or retract, any manuscript that the Editor-in-Chief believes may not comply with these policies.

The responsibilities of the journal’s authors, editors, reviewers and publisher regarding research and publication ethics are described in full below.

Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript has not been previously published (in part or in whole, in any language), is not in press, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Authors must inform the editors if any related manuscripts are under consideration, in press or published elsewhere. The availability of a manuscript on a publicly accessible preprint server does not constitute prior publication (see ‘Preprints’).

If authors choose to submit their manuscript elsewhere before a final decision has been made on its suitability for publication in JPFSM, they should first withdraw it from the journal.

Submission

JPFSM welcomes manuscript submissions from authors based anywhere in the world.

Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors: have approved it, warrant it is factual, have agreed to its submission, and have the right to publish it.

Originality

Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript is original work. The journal may use Similarity Check plagiarism software (provided by Crossref and powered by iThenticate) to screen manuscripts for unoriginal content. By submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors agree to this screening. Any manuscript with an unacceptable level of unoriginal material may be rejected or retracted at the Editors’ discretion.

Preprints

To support the wide dissemination of research, the journal encourages authors to post their research manuscripts on community-recognized preprint servers, either before or alongside submission to the journal. This policy applies only to the original version of a manuscript that describes primary research. Any version of a manuscript that has been revised in response to reviewers’ comments, accepted for publication or published in the journal should not be posted on a preprint server. Instead, forward links to the published manuscript may be posted on the preprint server. When submitting a manuscript which is also posted on a preprint server, authors must disclose preprint posting information (registered server and DOI).

Authors should retain copyright in their work when posting to a preprint server.

Secondary Publication

A manuscript can be approved for secondary publication if it meets the conditions of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations, and the Editor-in-Chief acknowledges its necessity as a secondary publication. If secondary publication of a manuscript is desired, please submit to the Editorial Office a summary of the manuscript content and a reason for the necessity of secondary publication. A manuscript submitted for secondary publication will be reviewed in the same manner as other manuscripts not previously published.

Scooping

When assessing the novelty of a manuscript submitted to the journal, the editors will not be influenced by other manuscripts that are posted on community-recognized preprint servers after the date of submission to JPFSM (or after the date of posting on a preprint server, if the manuscript is submitted to the journal within 4 months).

Authorship

Submission to the journal implies that all authors have seen and approved the author list. Changes to the author list after manuscript submission – such as the insertion or removal of author names, or a rearrangement of author order – must be approved by all authors and the editor.

The contributions of all authors must be described at submission based on the International Committee of Medical Journal of Editors (ICMJE) recommendations as follows:

• 1) Substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.
• 2) Drafting the work or critically revising it for important intellectual content.
• 3) Final approval of the version to be published.
• 4) Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Each manuscript must contain a ‘Contributions’ section before the References section as described in the ‘Manuscript Preparation’ section below.

Authors cannot be added or deleted from the paper after peer review, nor order of authors changed, without valid reasons and the approval of the Editor-in-Chief.

Image integrity

Authors may digitally manipulate or process images, but only if the adjustments are kept to a minimum, are applied to the entire image, meet community standards, and are clearly described in the manuscript. All images in a manuscript must accurately reflect the original data on which they are based. Authors must not move, remove, add or enhance individual parts of an image. The editors reserve the right to request original, unprocessed images from the authors. Failure to provide requested images may result in a manuscript being rejected or retracted.

Reproducing copyrighted material

If a manuscript includes material that is not under the authors’ own copyright, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) to reproduce it.

If a manuscript includes previously published material, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright owners and the publisher of the original work to reproduce it. The authors must cite the original work in their manuscript.

Copies of all reproduction permissions must be included with the manuscript when it is first submitted.

Availability of data and materials

Authors must disclose the source of publicly available data and materials, such as public repositories or commercial manufacturers, by including accession numbers or company details in their manuscript, as appropriate.

Authors may make their own data and materials available by linking from their manuscript to J-STAGE Data (see below) or other relevant community-recognized public databases or digital repositories. All data sets must be made available in full to the editors and reviewers during the peer review process if requested. Authors commit to preserving their data sets for at least five years from the date of publication in the journal.

The journal encourages authors to grant reasonable requests from colleagues to share any data, materials and experimental protocols described in their manuscript.

J-STAGE Data

JPFSM recommends that the data underlying the manuscript be made available on J-STAGE Data, a data repository operated by the Japan Science and Technology Agency. Authors who opt to make data available on J-STAGE Data should contact the Editorial Office for further instructions. If authors wish to publish data from J-STAGE Data, they must submit the data and its metadata to the editorial board for peer review. The copyright of the data published by J-STAGE Data is held by JSPFSM. Data is made available under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International).

Animal/human experimentation

Authors of manuscripts describing work involving humans and/or human tissues must demonstrate that the work has been performed in accordance with the ethical standards formulated in the Helsinki Declaration of 1964, it revisions, and/or the latest version of the Ethical Guideline for Medical and Biological Research Involving Human Subjects.

Experiments describing work with the human genome should be conducted according to the Japanese Government's “Ethical Guidelines for Human Genome/ Gene Analysis Research”.

Furthermore, work in relevant manuscripts must have received approval from the appropriate Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) prior to being undertaken. The 'Materials and Methods' section must include the relevant ethics statements and specify: the study was carried out in accordance with the appropriate guidelines, and the name of the approving institutional review board or equivalent committee(s) with the approval number.

Manuscripts describing animal experiments must be conducted in accordance with the experimental animal guidelines of the institution as well as the appropriate government guidelines, such as those published by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The ‘Materials and Methods’ section of relevant manuscripts must include required ethics statements and specify: the study was conducted according to the appropriate guidelines, the full name of the institutional Animal Care and Use Committee or equivalent ethics committee that approved the work, and the associated permit number(s).

Clinical trial registration

The journal adheres to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) policy on Clinical Trials Registration, which recommends that all clinical trials are registered in a public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. Manuscripts describing clinical trials must include the registration number of the trial and the name of the trial registry.

Reporting guidelines

The journal requires authors to follow the EQUATOR Network's Reporting Guidelines for health research. Study types include, but are not limited to, randomized trials, observational studies, systematic reviews, case reports, qualitative research, diagnostic and prognostic studies, economic evaluations, animal pre-clinical studies and study protocols.

Author competing interests and conflicts of interest

In the interests of transparency, the journal requires all authors to declare any competing or conflicts of interest in relation to their submitted manuscript. A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived or potential circumstances that could influence an author’s ability to conduct or report research impartially. Potential conflicts include (but are not limited to) competing commercial or financial interests, commercial affiliations, consulting roles, or ownership of stock or equity.

Authors should list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgements section of their manuscript.

When submitting a manuscript, authors must declare a conflict of interests (COI) in accordance with the JSPFSM guidelines. In the event the guidelines are partially applicable, the relevant portion(s) should be described in the “Declaration of Conflict of Interest by Self-report.” (Form 1) and uploaded upon first submission of the manuscript.

Authors should declare any conflicts of interest after the Conflict of Interest section as described in the ‘Manuscript Preparation’ section below.

Confidentiality

The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. By submitting their manuscript to the journal, the authors warrant that they will keep all correspondence about their manuscript (from the Editorial Office, editors and reviewers) strictly confidential.

Self-archiving (Green Open Access) policy

Self-archiving, also known as Green Open Access, enables authors to deposit a copy of their manuscript in an online repository. JPFSM encourages authors of original research manuscripts to upload their article to an institutional or public repository immediately after publication in the journal.

Long-term digital archiving

J-STAGE preserves its full digital library, including JPFSM, with Portico in a dark archive (see https://www.portico.org/publishers/jstage/). In the event that the material becomes unavailable at J-STAGE, it will be released and made available by Portico.

Advertising Policy

The journal does not accept advertising on its article pages, the journal’s website, or elsewhere.

Peer Review Process

Editorial and peer review process

The journal uses single-blind peer review. When a manuscript is submitted to the journal, it is screened by the Editorial Office for the basic technical requirements. It is then assigned to the Editor-in-Chief, who performs an initial screening. Manuscripts that do not fit the technical requirements, journal’s scope or are not deemed suitable for publication are rejected without review. Proceedings summaries are screened for suitability, but not sent to peer reviewers. The remaining manuscripts are assigned to an Editor who assigns two reviewers to assess each manuscript. Reviewers are selected based on their expertise, reputation and previous experience as peer reviewers. The deadline for submission of the reviewers’ reports varies by article type.

Upon receipt of the two reviewers’ reports, the Editor makes the first decision on the manuscript. If the decision is to request revision of the manuscript, authors have 2 months to resubmit their revised manuscript. Revised manuscripts submitted after this deadline may be treated as new submissions. The Editor may send revised manuscripts to peer reviewers for their feedback or may use his or her own judgement to assess how closely the authors have followed the Editor’s and the reviewers’ comments on the original manuscript.

The Editor then makes a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief on the manuscript’s suitability for publication. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for making the final decision.

The members of the Editorial Board act in advisory roles, providing feedback as reviewers and making suggestions to improve the journal. In cases where the Editor-in-Chief is an author on a manuscript submitted to the journal, a member of the Editorial Board is responsible for making the final decision on the manuscript’s suitability for publication in the journal. Any member of the journal’s Editorial Board, including the Editor-in-Chief who is an author on a submitted manuscript is excluded from the peer review process.

Reviewer selection, timing and suggestions

Reviewers are selected without regard to geography and need not belong to the journal’s Editorial Board. Reviewers are selected based on their expertise in the field, reputation, recommendation by others, and/or previous experience as peer reviewers for the journal.

Reviewers are invited within 2 weeks of an article being submitted. Reviewers are asked to submit their first review within 2 weeks of accepting the invitation to review. Reviewers who anticipate any delays should inform the Editorial Office as soon as possible.

When submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors may suggest reviewers that they would like included in or excluded from the peer review process. The Editor may consider these suggestions but is under no obligation to follow them. The selection, invitation and assignment of peer reviewers is at the Editor’s sole discretion.

Reviewer reports

It is the journal’s policy to transmit reviewers’ comments to the authors in their original form. However, the journal reserves the right to edit reviewers’ comments, without consulting the reviewers, if they contain offensive language, confidential information or recommendations for publication.

Acceptance criteria

If a manuscript satisfies the journal’s requirements and represents a significant contribution to the published literature, the Editor may recommend acceptance for publication in the journal.

Articles in JPFSM must be:

• within the subject area of the journal’s scope
• novel and original
• descriptions of technically rigorous research
• of high interest to the journal’s audience
• important additions to the field.

If a manuscript does not meet the journal’s requirements for acceptance or revision, the Editor may recommend rejection.

Editorial independence

As the journal owner, the JSPFSM has granted the journal’s Editorial Board complete and sole responsibility for all editorial decisions. The JSPFSM will not become involved in editorial decisions, except in cases of a fundamental breakdown of process.

Editorial decisions are based only on a manuscript’s scientific merit and are kept completely separate from the journal’s other interests. The authors’ ability to pay any publication charges has no bearing on whether a manuscript is accepted for publication in the journal.

Appeals

Authors who believe that an editorial decision has been made in error may lodge an appeal with the Editorial Office. Appeals are only considered if the authors provide detailed evidence of a misunderstanding or mistake by a reviewer or editor. Appeals are considered carefully by the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision is final. The guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) are followed where and when relevant.

Editor confidentiality in peer review

The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. Editors will not:
• disclose a reviewer’s identity unless the reviewer makes a reasonable request for such disclosure
• discuss the manuscript or its contents with anyone not directly involved with the manuscript or its peer review
• use any data or information from the manuscript in their own work or publications
• use information obtained from the peer review process to provide an advantage to themselves or anyone else, or to disadvantage any individual or organization.

Conflicts of interest in peer review

A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived or potential circumstances that could influence an editor’s or reviewer’s ability to act impartially when assessing a manuscript. Such circumstances might include having a personal or professional relationship with an author, working on the same topic or in direct competition with an author, having a financial stake in the work or its publication, or having seen previous versions of the manuscript.

Members of the journal’s Editorial Board undertake to avoid or declare any conflicts of interest when handling manuscripts, but it is not always possible to identify potential bias. An editor who declares a conflict of interest is unassigned from the manuscript in question and is replaced by a new editor. Reviewers are asked to declare any conflicts of interest to the Editor, who will determine the best course of action.

Errata and retractions

The journal recognizes the importance of maintaining the integrity of published literature.

A published article that contains an error may be corrected through the publication of an Erratum. Errata describe errors that significantly affect the scientific integrity of a publication, the reputation of the authors, or the journal itself. Authors who wish to correct a published article should contact the editor who handled their manuscript or the Editorial Office with full details of the error(s) and their requested changes. In cases where co-authors disagree over a correction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers for advice. If a Correction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.

A published article that contains invalid or unreliable results or conclusions, has been published elsewhere, or has infringed codes of conduct (covering research or publication ethics) may be retracted. Individuals who believe that a published article should be retracted are encouraged to contact the journal’s Editorial Office with full details of their concerns. The Editor-in-Chief will investigate further and contact the authors of the published article for their response. In cases where co-authors disagree over a retraction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers for advice. If a Retraction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.

The decision to publish Errata or Retractions is made at the sole discretion of the Editor-in- Chief.

Responding to potential ethical breaches

The journal will respond to allegations of ethical breaches by following its own policies and, where possible, the guidelines of COPE.

Reviewer Confidentiality

As part of their responsibilities, reviewers agree to maintain the confidentiality of unpublished manuscripts at all times. By accepting the invitation to review a manuscript, reviewers agree not to:
• disclose their role in reviewing the manuscript
• reveal their identity to any of the authors of the manuscript
• discuss the manuscript or its contents with anyone not directly involved in the review process
• involve anyone else in the review (for example, a post-doc or PhD student) without first requesting permission from the Editor
• use any data or information from the manuscript in their own work or publications
• use information obtained from the peer review process to provide an advantage to themselves or anyone else, or to disadvantage any individual or organization.

Copyright, Open Access and Fees

JPFSM is fully Open Access and uses a Creative Commons (CC) license to publish articles, which allows users to use, reuse and build upon the material published in the journal without charge or the need to ask prior permission from the publisher or author, within the stated conditions of the license. More details on the CC license used are below.

Copyright and licensing

Authors are required to assign all copyrights in the work to the JSPFSM, who then publish the work under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International). This license allows users to share unmodified articles, non- commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given.

Some funding bodies require articles funded by them to be published under a specific Creative Commons license. Before submitting your work to the journal, check with the relevant funding bodies to ensure that you comply with any mandates.

Page and color charges

There are many costs associated with publishing scholarly journals, such as those of managing peer review, copy editing, typesetting and online hosting. To cover these costs in the absence of journal subscriptions, authors (or their representatives) are asked to pay page charges. There is no submission fee.

Page charges are listed in the table below (in Japanese yen, not including tax). The corresponding Author will be invoiced after publication. Invited Reviews and Short Reviews have no page charges.

Color charges are only charged if authors choose to have color figures in the print version. The Editorial Office liaises with authors as required after acceptance, and charges are listed below.

	Page Charge (yen/page)	Color figures (yen/page)
Regular Article	5,000	20,000
Short Communication	5,000	20,000
Case Report	5,000	20,000
Study Profile	5,000	20,000
Review (submitted)	5,000	20,000
Short Review (submitted)	5,000	20,000
Letters to the Editor	0	0
Correction	10,000	20,000

Waiver policy

Waivers for page charges are provided automatically when the corresponding author is from a “Group A” Research4Life country. In cases of demonstrated financial hardship, the journal will consider a pre-submission application for a waiver from any corresponding author to [hj-tairyoku@turuin.co.jp]. Applications cannot be made after the peer review process has begun.

The ability of an author to pay the APC does not influence editorial decisions. To avoid any possibility of undue influence, Editors involved with the decision-making process for articles are not involved in any deliberations on waivers.

Manuscript Submission

All manuscripts except Letters to the Editor and Proceedings articles must be submitted via the journal’s online submission system, Editorial Manager: http://www.editorialmanager.com/jpfsm/. The original or revised manuscript text may be uploaded as a PDF or Microsoft Word file, but a Word file is required for the final manuscript text. Figures may be submitted separately in several other formats.

Letters to the Editor must be submitted via hj-tairyoku@turuin.co.jp as an attached file.

Proceedings articles must be submitted through the Annual Meeting website by the submission deadline. Proceedings submission guidelines will be available at the Annual Meeting website.

If you encounter any problems with your submission, please contact the Editorial Office at the details provided in the Contact section below.

Manuscript Preparation

Required Submission Form

A completed ‘Required Submission Form’ must be uploaded with the manuscript as a cover letter.

Style

Manuscripts should be prepared in Microsoft Word or other appropriate software, with margins of at least 3 cm. Authors should use Times New Roman 12pt font double-spaced on A4 size paper, single sided and line-numbered throughout.

English standards

Only manuscripts that are written in clear and concise English will be considered for peer review. If English is not the authors' first language, the Editorial Board recommends the manuscript receives professional editing service before submitting their manuscript to the Journal. English editing and revision will be conducted on manuscripts whose English grammar, spelling, etc. is judged to be inadequate by the Editorial Board.

Title Page, Abstract, keywords and other

The title page (page 1) should start with the type of manuscript (Regular Article, Short Communication, Review, etc.), the title, name(s) of the author(s), affiliation(s), mailing address(es), number of tables and figures, a brief running title (70 characters or less). The corresponding author's e-mail address should be included in the title page. An asterisk (*) should be added to the right of the corresponding author’s name.

The Abstract (page 2) should clearly express the basic content of the paper in a single paragraph and should include the problem addressed, experimental approach, main results and findings, and conclusions. Abstracts must not exceed 250 words for all article types. Avoid using specific abbreviations. If it is essential to refer to a previous publication, omit the article title (e.g. Maekawa, S., Endo, S., and Sakai, H. (2015). Sci. Journal., 14: 10–15).

Three to six descriptive keywords should be included after the Abstract, listed in decreasing order of importance. The keywords must be less than 80 characters and independent of each other.

Upon acceptance of an article by the Journal, the abstract will be published on the homepage of the Japanese Society of Physical Fitness and Sports Medicine.

If a manuscript is written by authors resident in Japan Page 3 should contain the following information in Japanese: article title, author(s) names, affiliation(s), and abstract.

Title

The title should describe the content of the article briefly but clearly and is important for search purposes by third-party services. Do not use the same main title with numbered minor titles, even for a series of papers by the same authors. Do not use abbreviations in the title, except those used generally in related fields.

Affiliations

For the Title Page, provide full names and addresses of institutions (including laboratory, department, institute and/or university, city, state and country).

When there are two or more authors and they belong to more than one affiliation, the connection between each author and his or her affiliation should be indicated by italicized superscript 1, 2, 3… placed after each author’s name and before each affiliation. Examples can be seen in recent issues of the journal.

Running Title

The running title should not exceed 50 characters, including spaces.

Abbreviations

Each abbreviation should be defined in parentheses together with its non-abbreviated term when it first appears in the text (except in the Title and Abstract). Common abbreviations that may be used without any explanation include the list below.

AMP, ADP, ATP, cAMP, cDNA, CoA, DNA, RNA, mRNA, LD50, FAD, FMN, GMP, P450.

Units and nomenclature

The following units should be used: length (m, cm, mm, μm, nm), mass (kg, g, mg, μg, ng, pg, mol, mmol, μmol, nmol), volume (l, ml, μl), time (s, min, h, d), temperature (ºC, K), radiation (Bq, Ci, dpm, Gy, rad), and concentration (M, mM, mol/l, mmol/l, mg/ml, μg/ml, ng/ml, pg/ml, %, %(v/v), %(w/v), ppm, ppb).

Otherwise, SI or SI-derived units should be used. More information on SI units is available at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website.

The nomenclature used for chemical compounds shall be in accordance with the relevant IUPAC rules.

Main text

Each Original Article should comprise the following main text sections in this order: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion. The Results and Discussion may also be combined as Results and Discussion), Acknowledgments, References. (The Contributions and Conflicts of Interest sections should follow the main text).

Case Reports should be organized as follows: Abstract, Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, References. (The Contributions and Conflicts of Interest sections should follow the References section).

The organization of other article types is up to author preference.

Acknowledgments

This section should be brief. Authors should list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgements section.

References

References should be restricted to only those that are essential, and extensive review of the literature should be avoided. References cited in the text should be numbered (in italic) in order of appearance and listed at the end of the text. Indication of doi (digital object identifier) is encouraged.

• For references with only one author:
  Steinberg SF. 1999. The molecular basis for distinct β-adrenergic receptor subtype actions in
  cardiomyocytes. Circ Res 85: 1101-1111. doi: 10.1161/01.RES.85.11.1101.
• Two authors:
  Bajotto G and Shimomura Y. 2006. Determinants of disuse-induced skeletal muscle atrophy:
  Exercise and nutrition countermeasures to prevent protein loss. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol 52: 233-247. doi: 10.3177/jnsv.52.233.
• Up to twenty authors:
  Author A, Author B, Author C, Author D, Author E, Author F, Author G, Author H, Author
  I, Author J, Author K, Author L, Author M, Author N, Author O, Author P, Author Q, Author R, Author S and Author T. 2008. Effects of the β2-agonist clenbuterol on β1- and β2-adrenoceptor mRNA expressions of rat skeletal and left ventricle muscles. J Pharmacol Sci 107: 393-400. doi: 10.1254/jphs.08097FP.
• More than twenty authors; list the first twenty followed by et al.:
  Author A, Author B, Author C, Author D, Author E, Author F, Author G, Author H, Author I, Author J, Author K, Author L, Author M, Author N, Author O, Author P, Author Q, Author R, Author S and Author T. et al. 2012. Some aspects of heat stress on the plasticity of skeletal muscle cells. J Phys Fitness Sports Med 1: 197-204. doi: 10.7600/jpfsm.1.197.
• Citation from a book:
  Shimomura Y, Murakami T, Nakai N and Nagasaki M. 2001. Exercise and metabolism in
  muscle cells: Molecular aspects of energy metabolism during exercise and adaptation to exercise training. In: Exercise, Nutrition, and Environmental Stress (Nose H, Gisolfi CV, Imaizumi K, eds.), 1: 89-116, Cooper Publishing Group, LLC., MI, USA.
• Citation from a paper in Japanese:
  Nagashima M. 2011. Effects of endurance exercise on oxidative stress and antioxidant
  vitamin levels in trained cyclist. Tairyoku Kagaku (Jpn J Phys Fitness Sports Med) 60: 279-286 (in Japanese). doi: 10.7600/jspfsm.60.279.

If more than two references with the same year and author(s) are cited, use lowercase letters after the year (Tanaka et al. 2015a, 2015b). Lowercase letters should be inserted in same-year references in the reference list

Tables

Number tables consecutively using Arabic numerals (Table 1, Table 2, etc.). A title should be given at the top of each table. Explanatory material and footnotes should be typed below the table and should be designated with superscript letters, such as a) or b). Units of measurement should be included with numerical values at the top of columns. Avoid detailed explanations of the experimental conditions used to obtain the data shown in tables (which should be included in other sections as relevant).

Figures

Figures should be of high enough resolution for direct reproduction for printing. Note that ‘figures’ includes line drawings and photographs, as well as charts. Magnifications of photographs should be indicated in the legends and/or by scales included in the photographs. Illustrations must be self-explanatory and they should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals (i.e., Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.). Each figure should have a short title. Figure legends should be typed together in a separate sheet(s). Figure legends should include sufficient experimental details to make the figures intelligible; however, duplicating the descriptions provided in other sections should be avoided.

Drawings prepared with the aid of software packages are acceptable as long as they are high- quality print-out ready. Drawings prepared for oral presentation are seldom suitable for use in printed documents. All figures should be marked with the first author’s name and number in the lower right corner of each sheet.

The appropriate location of each table or table embedded in the text should be indicated in red ink in the margin of the manuscript. Duplication of data in tables and figures should be avoided. The cost of color reproduction of figures will be charged to the author(s).

Contributions

A Contributions section must be included that concisely describes each author’s contributions;
use initials to indicate author identity. It is expected that all authors will have reviewed, discussed, and agreed to their individual contributions ahead of time. Contributions statements will be published in the final article, and they should accurately reflect contributions to the work.

If authors do not meet the ICMJE recommendations for authorship (see the ‘Authorship’ section), they should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section.

The following are some example statements.
• Example 1: AA, BB and CC conceptualized the study design and protocol, and determined the study institutions. DD collected and assembled the data. EE carried out the analysis and interpretation of data. AA drafted the manuscript. All authors have critically reviewed, revised and approved the manuscript.
• Example 2: Experiment conception and design: AA and BB. Experiment implementation: CC. Data analysis: DD and EE. Paper composition: AA. Analyzing and writing advisory: BB and CC. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
• Example 3: Conceived and designed the study: AA. Performed the study: BB, CC, DD. Analyzed the data: FF and EE. Interpreted the data: AA and BB. Wrote the paper: AA. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
• Example 4: AA analyzed and interpreted the patient data regarding hematological disease and transplants. BB performed the histological examination of the kidney, and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

A Conflicts of Interest statement must be included in each manuscript. Background guidance is supplied in the ‘Author competing interests and conflicts of interest’ section above. See also the JSPFSM guidelines.

Each statement must include the following elements, as relevant:

1. Name(s) of the company of authors (including the position and the department)
2. All financial support from the business that the authors work for (if the submitted research is financially supported by a business)
3. Description of funder’s role in the study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, writing of the paper, and/or decision to submit for publication
4. Labor supply from the business
5. Any other conflicts of interest.

Example statements are as follows:
• Example 1. The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: AA, BB, CC, DD, and EE are employees of XXX Corporation, who supported the present study, in part. However, the sponsor had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. The authors declare no competing interests.
• Example 2. AA, BB, CC, and DD are employees of YYY Corporation. EE has not received any payments for a given study from YYY Corporation. The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to the Journal of Physical Fitness and Sports Medicine’s policies.
• Example 3. In the event the there are no conflicts of interest within the policies stated within this document (or as referred to elsewhere), this should be declared by writing “Conflicts of Interest: The author(s) declare that there are no conflicts of interest”.

Accepted Manuscripts

After a manuscript has been accepted, authors will require to submit the final manuscript files to Editorial Manager. Manuscripts that are accepted for publication are copyedited and typeset by the journal’s production team before publication. The journal is published 6 times per year in print and online. All communication regarding accepted manuscripts is with the corresponding author.

Proofs

Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author, who should check and return them within 7 days. Only essential corrections to typesetting errors or omissions are accepted; excessive changes are not permitted at the proofing stage.

Reprints

Order forms for reprints are sent with the proofs to the corresponding author and should be returned with the proofs.

Contact

To contact the Editorial Office or the Editor-in-Chief, please write to:

Editorial Office

1-1 Doai Oyodogawa, Tsuruoka, Yamagata 997-0854, Japan
E-mail: hj-tairyoku@turuin.co.jp

For other matters, write to:

Business Office

4F, 5-3-13 Otsuka, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-0012,
Japan E-mail: jspfsm@asas-mail.jp

Updated: 28 October 2020
Updated: 1 October 2021
Updated: 22 July 2022
Updated: 26 January 2024