PUBLISHING POLICY
Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity (Balt J Health Phys Act), an official journal published quarterly by Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport (in Polish Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego i Sportu im. Jędrzeja Śniadeckiego w Gdańsku), is a peer-reviewed on-line journal featuring scientific articles based on original research as well as review articles.
The journal is international in nature and is not limited to any geographic region as for topics (remaining in the scope of the journal) or authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, citizenship, or political ideology. Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity ensures the publication process which is free from any bias.l in nature and is not limited to any geographic region as for topics or authors.
We would like our authors to be bias-free as well; therefore, papers that are offensive or violate the law or third-parties’ rights will not be published. Non-stigmatizing and non-discriminatory language should be used when describing different groups by race, ethnicity, age, disease, disability, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
Manuscripts are considered if they are submitted only to Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity and, therefore, they should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere, either in part or in whole, in any language, without the consent of Balt J Health Phys Act. However, deposition of a preprint on the author’s personal website, in an institutional repository, or in a preprint archive shall not be viewed as prior or duplicate publication.
EDITORIAL BOARD
The Editorial Board includes specialists from many countries, representing various related specialties, guaranteeing a high scholarly level of the published articles.
See more: https://www.balticsportscience.com/journal/editorialboard.html.
SCOPE OF INTEREST
The scope of our interest includes, among others:
- Biomedical sciences in sport and physical activity
- Sports training
- Physical education
- Humanities, social and behavioural sciences
- Public health
- Sports medicine
- Movement therapy
- Sport and recreation
Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity is indexed in many databases.
See more: https://www.balticsportscience.com/journal/aimsandscope.html.
CATEGORIES OF ARTICLES
Manuscripts submitted for possible publication should be identified as being intended for publication in one of the following categories:
- Original articles: reports of previously unpublished results from scientific experiments or research conducted by the authors in order to confirm or refute a clearly identified hypothesis. A vast majority of articles published in a given issue will belong to this category.
- Review articles: reports on the current state of knowledge in a given area or a field of study, especially current controversies, theoretical and practical approaches to the issues, unresolved problems, etc., with carefully selected references to the literature. Such articles are typically commissioned by the editors of Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity, though an unsolicited review article may be accepted if it is exceptionally interesting and carefully prepared.
- Short communications: short papers that present original and significant material for rapid dissemination. For example, a short communication may focus on a particular aspect of a problem or a new finding that is expected to have a significant impact.
COPYRIGHT TRANSFER
Upon acceptance of a manuscript for publication, the authors transfer copyright to Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport. Once the article is accepted for publication in Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity, the information it contains cannot be revealed in the public media until the publication date of the issue in which the article appears. Upon acceptance, all published manuscripts become permanent property of Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport, the Publisher of Balt J Health Phys Act, and may not be published elsewhere without the Publisher’s written permission.
OPEN ACCESS
All articles are available free of charge, in consistence with the Open Access policy, according to Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license allows users to download and share the article for non-commercial purposes, so long as the article is reproduced in full without changes, and the original authorship is acknowledged. For more information go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/.
COST
The entire process of submitting an article is free of charge; the authors are not charged any fee at ANY stage of the process. Likewise, publication of the article at the journal’s website https://www.balticsportscience.com/ is not subjected to any charges.
SUBMISSION
All papers must be submitted through the editorial system – Digital Commons tool.
See more: https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/digital-commons.
Both the submission process and the publication are free of charge.
Submission of the paper means that:
- the submitted manuscript is the author’s work
- the research results have not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere
- all the authors named on the title page have consented to the submission of this work for publication in Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity
Re-publication of a paper in another language is acceptable, provided that there is full and prominent disclosure of its original source at the time of submission. At the time of submission, authors should disclose details of related papers, even if in a different language, and similar papers in press.
Received manuscripts are examined when it comes to technical and formal requirements by the Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity editors. Manuscripts considered unsuitable for publication in Balt J Health Phys Act are returned to the author with no further proceedings. Manuscripts that are incomplete or not prepared in accordance with the Guidelines for Authors (e.g., non-anonymized) will be returned; however, they may be resubmitted when revised (via Revise Submission).
Afterwards, the submission is pre-evaluated by the subject editor. The editors will only process those papers which are acknowledged to be thematically appropriate and making an original contribution to progress in science and/or educational or training practice, or to have an educational (training) value.
The journal reserves the right to decline further processing of the manuscript without explaining the reason, even if it meets all the formal requirements.
Manuscripts are considered for publication on condition that they are submitted solely to this journal and, therefore, have not been and will not be published elsewhere, in part or in whole. The Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity must receive in writing the exclusive assignment of the Copyright Agreement along with the manuscript submission.
REVIEW PROCESS
The review process takes place in the following way:
If the subject editor decides to do so as a result of pre-evaluation, the registered manuscript is sent to two qualified reviewers for scientific evaluation. The reviewers are specialists in the field covered by the article.
A double-blind review process is our standard, i.e., neither the reviewer knows the name(s) of the author(s) nor the author(s) are informed who is going to review their article.
The reviewers are chosen by subject editors of the journal. During the submission process, authors may suggest preferred and non-preferred reviewers, although there is no obligation on editors to follow those suggestions. The selected reviewer should not be related to the author, come from the same research center or be involved in the same research project as the author. Authors will not be informed about editors’ decisions in this regard. Names of all reviewers, without revealing the reviewers of specific manuscripts, are published alphabetically once a year in the fourth, final issue of the number for the given year.
The review is submitted to the editorial office online.
If the review result does not allow the editor to decide on publication, or if the quality of the review performance is not satisfactory, he/she may appoint another reviewer.
The ultimate decision to accept for publication, accept subject to correction, or reject a manuscript is the prerogative of the editors and cannot be appealed. The editors are not obliged to justify their decision.
The evaluation process should not take longer than 3-4 months on average, but the editors cannot guarantee an editorial decision within any established deadline. Authors can check the status of their manuscript (awaiting reviewer selection, awaiting reviewer scores, etc.) online in their author’s account. Additionally, authors are notified by e-mail about every decision made by the Editorial Office regarding their manuscript.
See Balt J Health Phys Act Review Form.
DATA ANALYSIS
All sources and methods used to obtain and analyze data, including any electronic pre-processing, should be fully disclosed; detailed explanations should be provided for any exclusions. Methods of analysis must be explained in detail, and referenced, if they are not in common use.
The Discussion section of the paper should mention any issues of bias which have been considered, and explain how they have been dealt with in the design and interpretation of the study.
PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism ranges from the unreferenced use of others’ published and unpublished ideas, including research grant applications, to submission under “new” authorship of a complete paper, sometimes in a different language.
To avoid any doubts in this matter, all sources should be disclosed, and if large amounts of other people’s written or illustrative material is to be used, permission must be sought.
DUPLICATE OR REDUNDANT PUBLICATION
Duplicate or redundant publication, or “self-plagiarism”, occurs when a work, or substantial parts of a work, is published more than once by the author(s) of the work without appropriate cross-referencing or justification for the overlap. This can occur in the same or a different language. It is seen as academic misbehavior.
We do not support substantial overlap between publications, unless 1) it is felt that editorially this will strengthen the academic discourse; and 2) we have clear approval from the original publication; and 3) the original source is disclosed.
At the time of submission, authors should disclose details of related papers, even if in a different language, and similar papers in press.
AUTHORSHIP
Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider (at their discretion) the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been submitted, and the author must flag any such request to the Editor. All authors must agree with any such addition, removal or rearrangement. Authors take collective responsibility for the work. Each individual author is accountable for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Authors declare their approval before publication.
Every author of a contribution must be credited as such. It is equally important that a person not be named as an author when he or she is not. A ghost author is someone who is omitted from an authorship list despite qualifying for authorship. A guest or gift author is someone who is listed as an author despite not qualifying for authorship.
“Ghostwriting” and “guest authorship” as manifestations of scholarly unreliability are unacceptable.
Authors are required to specify the contribution of individual authors to the creation of the research in the following fields (if applicable): Study Design, Data Collection, Statistical Analysis, Data Interpretation, Manuscript Preparation, Literature Search, Funding Acquisition.
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
The corresponding author’s specific responsibilities include:
- ensuring that all appropriate co-authors are included on the paper and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication
- manuscript correction and proofreading; handling the revisions and re-submission of revised manuscripts up to the acceptance of the manuscripts
- agreeing to and signing the Copyright Agreement on behalf of relevant co-authors and/or arranging for any third-party copyright owners’ signatures
- acting on behalf of all co-authors in responding to queries from all sources post publication, including questions relating to publishing ethics, reuse of content, or the availability of data, materials, resources etc.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the concept, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study, as well as literature reference research or manuscript elaboration.
Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the paper (e.g., language editing, etc.), they should be recognized in the acknowledgements section.
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE
Authors are obliged to disclose the funding of the research, the contribution of scientific and research institutions, associations or other establishments. Any kind of financial support (funding, grants, sponsorship) received must be acknowledged.
ETHICS COMMITTEE OR INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD STATEMENT
All research studies on humans (individuals, samples or data) must be performed in accordance with the principles stated in the Declaration of Helsinki. Prior to starting the study, ethical approval must be obtained for all protocols from the local Institutional Review Board (IRB) or other appropriate ethics committee to confirm that the study meets national and international guidelines for research on humans. A statement to confirm this must be included within the manuscript, which must provide details of the name of the ethics committee and reference/permit numbers where available.
For non-interventional studies (e.g., surveys), where ethical approval is not required (e.g. because of national laws) or where a study has been granted an exemption by an ethics committee, this should be stated within the manuscript with a full explanation. Where a study has been granted exemption, the name of the ethics committee which provided this should also be included. However, if the researcher is in doubt, they should always seek advice from the relevant department before conducting the study.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Authors must state all possible conflicts of interest, including financial, consultant, institutional, and other relationships that might lead to bias or a conflict of interest. If there is no conflict of interest, this should also be explicitly stated as none declared. All sources of funding should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgment section.
INFORMED CONSENT STATEMENT
Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that the informed consent from all human subjects involved in the research study has been obtained. However, in circumstances when it is not possible, an appropriately constituted research ethics committee should decide if it is ethically acceptable.
It is the author's responsibility to ensure that a subject’s privacy is carefully protected and to verify that any experimental investigation involving humans reported in the manuscript was performed with informed consent.
Images of persons should be anonymized or, if not, written consent to publish the image should be obtained.
IMAGE INTEGRITY
It is not acceptable to enhance, obscure, move, remove, or introduce a specific feature within an image. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original. Manipulating images for improved clarity is accepted, but manipulation for other purposes could be seen as scientific ethical abuse and will be dealt with accordingly.
DATA AND SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
The journal supports transparency and openness around data, code, and other materials associated with research. We expect authors to maintain accurate records of supporting evidence necessary to allow others to understand, verify, and replicate new findings, and to supply or provide access to this supporting evidence, on reasonable request. Where appropriate and where allowed by their employer, funding body or others who might have an interest, we encourage authors to: 1) deposit evidence in a suitable repository or storage location, for sharing and further use by others; and 2) describe where the evidence may be found in a Data Availability Statement which authors should include in their publication.
JOURNAL’S ACTIONS REGARDING ETHICS
Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity pays great attention to ethical issues and strives to follow the guidelines set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We agree that publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal is an essential building block in the development of a coherent and respected network of knowledge. It is a direct reflection of the quality of work of the author and the institutions that support them. Peer-reviewed articles support and embody the scientific method. It is, therefore, important to agree upon standards of the expected ethical behavior.
To minimize the risk of non-ethical behavior, the following rules are implemented:
- the journal uses an advanced editorial system
- authors declare an existing / non-existing conflict of interest which ensures transparency and reliability
- “ghostwriting” and “guest authorship” as manifestations of scholarly unreliability are unacceptable
- a double-blind peer-review system is used
- reviewers cannot be affiliated in the same institutions as the authors and /or have joint publications over the last 4 years
- plagiarism, understood to be an intentional act of quoting or copying parts of another author’s work without attribution, is unacceptable; if found, it results in rejecting or retracting (if published) the article
- duplicate publications by the same author are acceptable only provided that they, although based on the same research results, vary and bring a new point of view; otherwise, it is treated as self-plagiarism, which is, same as plagiarism, unacceptable
- in special cases, the journal allows re-publication of the non-English material originally published elsewhere translated into English; however, the consent of the original publisher and the corresponding annotation are required
- authors may submit results already presented at meetings as abstracts or posters; however, the editor must decide whether such pre-publication of data would somehow compromise the publication of the article; full disclosure has to be made at the time of submission
- trivial contribution would not be sufficient to confer the status of author. Lesser contributions to the work can be recognized by clearly crediting such a person as a “contributor,” rather than an “author”. An author submitting an article is required to identify all co-authors and any other contributors (and to obtain consent from them for the publication of the article)
- in case of a complaint made against our author, the general rule is that the journal editor should contact the author about whom the complaint has been made, and the author should be given an opportunity to respond/comment. The editor may decide on the basis of the author’s response (e.g., if the author is responsive, articulates a clear and convincing position – and may draw inferences from the opposite as well); in extreme situations, after a thorough analysis, the journal can decide to withdraw the paper
- if the Editor Board’s members or editors submit as authors, they are subject to the same procedure as other authors
More detailed information on ethics is available at https://www.balticsportscience.com/journal/publication_ethics.html.
DISCLAIMER
Every effort is made by the Publisher and the Editorial Board to see that no inaccurate or misleading data, opinions or statements appear in Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity. Nevertheless, the substantive content of the articles and advertisements remain the sole responsibility of the author, sponsor, or advertiser concerned. Accordingly, neither the Publisher nor the Editorial Board accept any liability whatsoever for the consequences of any such inaccurate or misleading data, opinion, or statement.
CONTINUITY
In case the journal is no longer published a digital backup and preservation of access to the journal content will be provided at the Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport website as well as via CLOCKSS.
