Submissions

Author Guidelines

Instructions for Authors

Manuscripts should be prepared in British English, Danish, Norwegian or Swedish according to the guidelines of Publication Manual of the American Publication Association, 7th Edition (APA guidelines). You can find guidance on APA formatting and style here.

A typical paper for this journal should be no more than 8000 words, inclusive of the abstract, highlights, main text, references, tables, figure captions, and endnotes. At their discretion, the editors and reviewers can permit longer papers or ask for papers to be shorter. This will depend on the type of paper submitted (e.g., conceptual papers, scientific reviews with many references, and qualitative papers with a large material might be longer, just as empirical papers with smaller datasets may be shorter).

SJSEP has a specific section for papers that are based on a master thesis. Any paper addressed at the master thesis section is in competition for a yearly award. If you submit for the master thesis section, this should be stated in the cover letter to the editor (see specific information about the Master Thesis Award below).

The Author Should Submit the Following Documents:

1) Cover letter

2) Title page including authors’ name and affiliations and corresponding author information (name, e-mail, affiliation, address)

3) Main manuscript without author information

4) Figures, if any, in separate files

5) Tables, if any, in separate files

The cover letter should include the following information: (a) the title of the manuscript, (b) the date of submission, (c) the full names of all the authors and their institutional or corporate affiliations, (d) a statement why the manuscript is well suited to the Scandinavian Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, (e) if any, suggestions for and contact info of possible reviewers of the manuscript, (f) if any, notifications of possible reviewers that the author would not recommend (include reason why). In addition to this essential information, the cover letter should include clear statements pertaining to potential fragmented publication, authorship, and other ethical considerations, and (g) state what type of paper that is submitted (original research paper, review paper, practice paper, conceptual paper, a paper based on a master thesis). If the paper aims for the Master Thesis Award, please state it.

Any original research paper should include, but is not limited to; Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion (including practical implications and study limitation) and Conclusions.

General Instructions When Preparing the Manuscript:

All manuscripts should be submitted as a MS Word document (.doc or .docx) following APA guidelines and prepared with

• An abstract (100-200 words)
• Times New Roman, size 12.
• Double line spacing (except for tables).
• Page numbers, with title page as no. 1.
• Line numbers, starting with 1 on each page.

Abstract

You are required to provide a concise and factual abstract between 100-200 words. The abstract should briefly state the purpose of your research, principal results, and major conclusions.

• Abstracts must be able to stand alone as abstracts are often presented separately from the article.
• Avoid references. If any are essential to include, ensure that you cite the author(s) and year(s).
• Avoid non-standard or uncommon abbreviations. If any are essential to include, ensure they are defined within your abstract at first mention.
• Include 3-5 keywords following the Abstract

Highlights

You are required to provide article highlights at submission.

Highlights are a short collection of bullet points that should capture the novel results of your research as well as any new methods used during your study. Highlights will help increase the discoverability of your article via search engines and support DIFO’s dissemination of articles published in SJSEP. Highlights should consist of 3 to 5 bullet points, each a maximum of 85 characters, including spaces.

Privacy Statement and Funding

The names and addresses entered on this journal's website will be used solely for the journal's stated purposes and will not be made available for other purposes or to other parties.

Manuscripts are expected to report any funding received for their research and address any ethical concerns considered during the study.

Artificial Intelligence

Authors who use artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in their work must indicate how they were used in the cover letter and the work itself. These technologies cannot be listed as authors.

Masters thesis award

We are pleased to announce that SJSEP introduces a Master Student Award for the best article based on a master thesis. Each year master students across Scandinavia conduct important investigations that are relevant to the Scandinavian sport and exercise psychology community, but at these projects are rarely disseminated. SJSEP would like bridge this gap.

We call for excellent master students to write their thesis in the form of a scientific paper and submit it for this special section. Each year, we will select and award two master thesis submissions. The award winners will have their articles published and receive a certificate. This initiative will provide an opportunity for young researchers to get a feel for the peer-review process and make SJSEP an outlet for some of the excellent studies done by master students each year.

The award winners will have their articles published and receive a certificate, however all submitted articles are considered by the editor/associate editor and can be sent for review.

Purpose

The Master Student Award is for master students with ambitions of publishing their thesis in SJSEP.

Who can apply?

The award is open to all master students who completed their master thesis within less than 1.5 years before the call.

When?

The award is announced once a year in an open competition with an article submission deadline announced at the homepage

Guidelines

• the master student is the principal investigator of the study.
• The study is original work not published previously.
• the master student is the first author of the article.
• the master student is the corresponding author.
• the supervisor(s) may be co-author(s) and thus support and facilitate the process from master thesis to submitted original research article.
• the author team adhere to the author guidelines for submissions for SJSEP.
• Should be in English, Danish, Norwegian or Swedish

Criteria

SJSEP Master Student Award is awarded the best article based on an evaluation of how well the article lives up to the following criteria:

• the research is conducted within the Scandinavian context or has significant relevance to the Scandinavian sport and exercise psychology community.
• the approach or idea is innovative
• The research design is scientifically solid (although we recognize that master projects will often have smaller samples and suffer other barriers compared to larger research projects)
• The article makes a clear and important contribution to the field of sport and exercise psychology

These criteria may be weighted differently based on the strengths of each individual contribution.

The final decision

Two representatives from the SJSEP editorial board and two representatives for DIFO judge the final articles and based on the above-mentioned criteria award the best article.