Ethics Principles

According to the approach of the Research Institute of Physical Education and Sports Sciences to produce and publish correct and original scientific information, as well as to the international guidelines compiled such as the International Committee on Ethics in Publications (COPE), the Journal of Sports Psychology Studies is obliged to adhere to the principles of professional ethics values. For information about these principles, read the principles of the ethics committee in publishing (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices). Obviously, this journal deals with plagiarism or other unethical behavior in an appropriate manner and based on the principles of dealing with scientific violations of the ethics committee in publishing (https://publicationethics.org/misconduct). In this regard, the following are ethical standards for the custodians of the journal (including the editor-in-chief, advisors and reviewers) as well as the audience of the journal (including the corresponding author and co-authors, advisors or colleagues whose titles are mentioned in the acknowledgment, readers and other researchers) is valid.

• Editors’ Responsibilities

Publication Decisions: Editors are accountable for everything published in the journals and strive to meet the needs of readers and authors. Editors’ decisions to accept or reject an article for publication are based on the peer-review result and editorial boards’ reviews and articles’ importance.

The following points are considered in this charter:

1. A) Journal’s responsibilities

• The Journal of Sports Psychology Studies assures that the final decision on the submitted manuscripts is adopted on professional review only and is not affected by commercial or personal interests.
• This journal ensures that the manuscripts submitted in the review process are evaluated confidentially and anonymously by a panel of reviewers selected by the editor and editorial board.
• Manuscripts are accepted, revised or rejected based on reviewers’ decision and the editorial board as well as the editor’s final decision.
• This journal always evaluates and supervises the adherence to ethics in the publication of scientific manuscripts by the editor, members of the editorial board, reviewers, authors and readers.
• This journal reviews the submitted manuscripts to ensure compliance with ethical principles and to prevent plagiarism and scientific violations, by means of similarity checker application (Moshabehatyab).
• The Journal of Sports Psychology Studies assures that whenever necessary, it publishes necessary revisions and explanations regarding the published manuscripts.

1. b) Editor’s responsibilities

• The editor believes in the authors’ intellectual independence and respects it.
• The editor's view of all the submitted manuscripts to the journal is unbiased as the evaluation of the manuscripts is based on the qualifications of the manuscripts and without regard to the race, religion, nationality, gender, position, or organizational affiliation of the author(s).
• The editor reviews all submitted manuscripts within a reasonable time.
• The final responsibility of rejecting or accepting a manuscript rests with the editor. This decision is made based on the peer-review result and editorial boards’ reviews. A manuscript may be rejected due to lack of appropriateness, with editor’s opinion, without going through the review process. The reasons for rejection may be the fact that the research subject is not in scope of the journal, it is far from current issues, it has no necessary depth of content, or other cases.
• The editor holds the right to reject similar manuscripts if they are not in accordance with ethical principles.
• The editor has full right to select reviewers for each manuscript. In this case, the editor may consult with the editorial board or even the authors of the manuscripts themselves.

1. C) Author’s responsibilities

• The author’s most basic ethical responsibility is to provide a correct and complete report of the research done and try not to commit plagiarism in any way, including quoting the same text or the results of other researchers’ research, etc.
• The author is committed to provide the necessary evidence on the submitted manuscript, including spreadsheet files including manuscript data, tables or supplementary figures, design or used tools (if any), as well as samples of used research materials for the journals.
• Author(s) are obliged to acknowledge all sources of data used in the research and correctly cite all the sources used either directly or indirectly.
• If the manuscript involves chemicals, procedures, or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author should clearly identify these in the manuscript. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her submitted manuscript, the author should immediately notify the editor.
• Author(s) are advised to avoid fragmenting the results of a study (and submitting related parts to different journals).
• If the manuscript has already been rejected (in the Journal of Sports Psychology Studies or other publications) or withdrawn from the publication process, the author should notify the editor of the possible reasons for rejection or withdrawal.
• The corresponding author and co-authors whose affiliations are mentioned in the manuscript should have at least sufficient scientific contribution in the manuscript. Other colleagues should be mentioned in the acknowledgments section. The names of eligible deceased colleagues can be mentioned in the authors section. The corresponding author should send a copy of the manuscript submitted to the journal to other co-authors and obtain their consent to mention them as a co-author.
• The corresponding author should report potential conflicts of interest and financial sponsors of the research.
• If there is an intervention to conduct research on subjects, whether human or animal, and there is a possibility of the slightest complication or discomfort for the subject, it is necessary to obtain the ethics code from a valid committee(s) or center.

1. Reviewers' responsibilities

• Since the peer-reviewing process is one of the fundamental steps of accepting a manuscript, the selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.
• As the reviewers respects the author’s intellectual independence, should evaluate the quality of the article impartially.
• Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the papers.
• Any manuscripts received for review should be treated as confidential documents. They should not be disclosed to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
• Reviewers should attach necessary explanations about their practical opinions. The failure to provide sufficient explanations by the reviewer or the authors' answers to the reviewer's comments are not valid and should be avoided even if possible.
• Reviewers should consider authors' negligence in citing similar researches.
• The delay in reviewing the manuscript seems to be normal, however, the reviewers should notify the editor of the possible delay and set a new time for reviewing.
• Reviewers are not allowed to use the unpublished information, discussions and interpretations of the manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Sports Psychology Studies in their research with no permission from the author(s) of the manuscript.
• Reviewers should notify the editor of cases where it is believed that the research report received may in some way be directly exploited.

Copyright

The Journal of Sports Psychology Studies is published under the license (CC-By 4.0) and people can use its contents only if they cite the original article published in this journal. By submitting a manuscript to this journal, all intellectual property rights except the copyright of the manuscript belong to the authors, provided that the main reference of the articles (Journal of Sports Psychology Studies) is mentioned and cited in republishing and using the content of the articles.

Principles of transparency

http://publicationethics.org/files/u7140/Principles_of_Transparency_and_Best_Practice_in_Scholarly_Publishing.pdf

Peer-review process

The Journal of Sports Psychology Studies is a printed and electronic quarterly that evaluates the articles with a double blind peer-review review. The process and policies on the review of manuscripts are described on the journal's website.

Editorial board

The Journal of Sports Psychology Studies has a very leading editorial board in sports psychology studies, whose members are well-known experts in the subject of the journal. The names and full information of editorial board are on the journal's website https://spj.ssrc.ac.ir/journal/editorial.board

Publication fees

The Journal of Sports Psychology Studies receives 300,000 Tomans (three hundred thousand Tomans) from the authors for reviewing and publishing of the manuscript after acceptance.

Open Access

The Journal of Sports Psychology Studies is an open access journal and the full text of the published articles is available to all.