Peer Review Process

The submitted manuscripts should have innovation, originality and knowledge-boosting enough to make them worthy of publication. Manuscripts that lack innovation in research method, approach, problem and topic and or only have internal use are not reviewed.

Key points

• Manuscript submission is possible only through the website of the Journal of Sport Psychology Studies. 
• The manuscript should be prepared and processed according to the “Guide for the Journal Authors”.
• When submitting the manuscript files in the journal website, make sure that two main files (the manuscript without mentioning the details of the author(s) and the specification file (the full text of the manuscript with the detailed description of the author(s) on the first page) must be submitted.
• Manuscripts in full or partial form should not be under review or previously published in any other journals (domestic or foreign journals). Submitting the manuscript to other journals at the same time or submitting it before the final decision is determined results in the rejection of the manuscript.
• The Authors' Commitment and Conflict of Interest forms should be completed and submitted by the corresponding author.
• If the research has used the research budget of specific ministry, center, university, research institute, it should be precisely mentioned along with the registration number of the project at the end of the manuscript. Furthermore, the written permission of that ministry, university, research institute, etc. regarding the publication of the manuscript should be submitted as an attached file when submitting the manuscript.
• If the manuscript is extracted from a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation, the names of authors (student, supervisors and or advisors) and their order, as well as the corresponding author for necessary correspondence and follow-up, should be mentioned.
• The review research is accepted only from experienced researchers who are proficient in the research subject and have published several relevant studies.
• The corresponding author is responsible for the scientific and legal validity of the manuscript content and for the opinions presented, and publishing the manuscript does not mean confirming all its contents.
• The manuscripts are reviewed by at least two reviewers selected by the editor-in-chief and the editorial board, and the corresponding author is notified as soon as possible of the acceptance, rejection or the need to make revisions requested by the reviewers.
• If the manuscript is fully congruent with the aforementioned criteria and is fully accepted by reviewers, it would be subject to the waiting list of publications.

Initial Review (one to two weeks)

1. By taking the above-mentioned points, and after registering and uploading the manuscript by the corresponding author in the system, in the first step, the manuscript is reviewed by the Executive Director in terms of compliance with the guide for writing manuscript and the manuscript format (at most within a week). (To expedite the reviewing process, it is necessary for authors to fully comply with the items mentioned in the submission instruction).
2. If the writing style guidelines of scientific journals are followed, the manuscript is sent for similarity checking (Moshabehatyab).
3. In case of high percentage of similarity and plagiarism, the manuscript is sent back to the author.
4. If there is no similarity or a low percentage of plagiarism, the manuscript is referred to the editor for review and decision.
5. In case of acceptance based on compliance with items 2 and 4, in the second step the manuscript is checked in terms of:

Content Quality:

* In line with the aims, perspective and scope of the journal

* Use of national and international up-to-date and reliable sources

* Originality and innovation

It is evaluated first by the editor. This step usually lasts a week. If the manuscript does not follow the mentioned criteria, it is sent back to the author. If the above conditions are met after being accepted in the initial review, the manuscript is sent to at least two expert reviewers, depending on the research subject, without the authors' specifications.

Peer review of the manuscript (two to four months)

The peer-review process in this journal is a double blind peer review and based on the guidelines of the International Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) and the charter and standards of research ethics approved by the Vice President of Research and Technology of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran. All submitted manuscripts are reviewed by two or three peer reviewers. After receiving the comments of the reviewers, the corresponding author should highlight the revisions in the reviewed manuscript file and prepare an accompanying letter in response to each of the reviewers’ comments and send it to the journal. Obviously, otherwise, the manuscript is not reviewed and is excluded from the reviewing process.

Note 1: An email is sent to the reviewers every week to remind them, and if the manuscript is not reviewed after one month, the manuscript is withdrawn from the reviewer and given to a new reviewer.

Note 2.: After notifying the corresponding author, the author has two months for the initial revision and two days for the final revision and approval.

The final decision of the editorial board (one month)

Then the editor together with the editorial board reviews the manuscript based on the specialized report of the reviewers and their explanations and the revisions made by the author.

1. It is published by including minor revisions suggested by the editorial board or reviewers (Acceptance).
2. To be accepted by including the major revisions: The journal publishes the manuscript if the proposed revisions are made in the manuscript. Thus, the author re-uploads the revised manuscript and the quality of the manuscript is re-checked. (Conditional acceptance)
3. Rejection of the manuscript: The journal does not publish the manuscript due to poor content and quality because it concludes that the manuscript, even after major revisions made by the author(s), is not met the standards required for publication.

Acceptance criteria for manuscripts for being reviewed (reasons for being rejected without review):

• Nationality of the field of study
• The originality of the manuscript
• Subject correspondence of the submitted manuscripts with the scope of the journal
• Innovation in submitted manuscripts
• Using correct and novel research methods
• Applying scientific methods in writing the manuscript
• The general format of writing the manuscript should comply with the journal format of writing

Publishing stage

• After the approval of the manuscript by the editorial board, the manuscript passes the final acceptance stage. Now the authors are required to pay the acceptance fee (3,000,000 Rials).
• In case the article is accepted, the electronic file of the acceptance letter signed by the editor will be sent to the email of the corresponding author.
• After paying fee and uploading the definitive document in the website, the paper is uploaded in the journal website (the section of “Papers in press”). Here, only the title of the paper, the names of the author(s), and the paper abstract can be seen online.
• The paper is submitted to the editors of the journal for scientific and literary editing.
• Papers are edited gradually and based on the order of acceptance. If there are frequent errors in typesetting, calligraphy, etc., the editor returns the paper to the authors for correction. The editor reads the article line by line, evaluates the phrases in terms of the cohesion, eloquence, lack of redundancy, consistency with other articles, the needs of the audience, the correctness of the referencing method, originality and scientific validity.
• An edited version of the article is sent to the authors for review, and they are asked to provide any comments.
• After the author(s) has approved the edited version, the article is sent back to the journal's page designer for page layout. After page layout, it is published in the new issue of the journal; Unless an article has been published by the author in the current issue. Hence, the article is considered for the next issue, and except in special cases at the discretion of the editor, an effort will be made not to publish an article from the same author in one issue. If the author is a member of the editorial board of the journal, the publication of the article is subject to observing the restrictions on the publication of articles by the members of the editorial board under the criteria in the regulations for the evaluation of articles notified by the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology.

Note:

1. The responsibility of each article scientifically, the order of authors’ names and follow-up is the responsibility of the corresponding author. The corresponding author should download the author's letter of commitment to submit the article from the website and send it to the journal after being signed by all the authors.
2. The number and order of authors of the article is accepted as specified in the original version when submitting to the journal, and the request to remove or change the order of the authors' names can only be considered before the final decision and with the written request of all the authors and the reason declaration.
3. It is possible for author(s) to track the status of the submitted article online through the website.
4. The articles are only received through the website and the journal has no obligation to review the articles that are sent to the email of the editorial board.