Official Publication of the National Academy of Kinesiology and the American Kinesiology Association
Indexed in: Scopus, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, EBSCO A-to-Z, Google Scholar
Print ISSN: 2163-0453
Online ISSN: 2161-6035
2023 CiteScore: 2.2
Kinesiology Review (KR) is the official journal of the National Academy of Kinesiology and the American Kinesiology Association. KR provides a forum for discussion and analysis of kinesiology research and its applications. Although many journals publish reviews on select topics, KR stands alone in its focus on scholarly reviews from all subdisciplines of kinesiology. This rigorously peer-reviewed journal serves the interests of those in all areas of study related to kinesiology—sport and exercise psychology, motor behavior, exercise physiology, biomechanics, sports medicine, sport history, sport philosophy, sport sociology, physical education pedagogy, and sport management.
The insightful review articles in KR address important issues and emerging research in all areas of kinesiology. KR also publishes theoretical papers, critical analyses of significant issues and scientific methods, and position papers pertinent to kinesiology.
Articles featured in KR have touched on recovering from spinal cord injuries, the role of physical activity in successful aging, diversity in kinesiology, and the history of organized youth sport in the United States. Future articles will continue to explore new research in kinesiology and other topics of importance to the field. KR’s broad coverage makes it a perfect source of information for faculty, researchers, and professionals who want to stay up to date on emerging research across the subdisciplines, as well as students who are starting their exploration of this fascinating field of study.
Issue 1 of each volume of KR, the February issue, is a collection of invited papers based on the scholarly presentations at the previous year’s annual meeting of the National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK). The NAK appoints one or more guest editors to coordinate the single-anonymous peer-review process for submitted papers. Guest Editors manage the peer review process for these NAK issues, but the Editor has editorial oversight and makes final decisions, in consultation with the Editorial Board, on acceptance or rejection of all manuscripts. The NAK holds the copyright to these papers.
Issue 4 of each volume, the November issue, features invited papers based on presentations at the American Kinesiology Association’s (AKA) annual Leadership Workshop. The AKA designates one or more guest editors to coordinate the single-anonymous peer-review process for the submitted papers. Guest Editors manage the peer review process for these AKA Leadership Workshop issues, but the Editor has editorial oversight and makes final decisions, in consultation with the Editorial Board, on acceptance or rejection of all manuscripts. The AKA holds the copyright to these papers.
Special issues may be published. These special issues undergo a double-anonymous peer-review process. If Guest Editor(s) are coordinating a special issue, the Guest Editor(s) manage the peer review process for the issue, but the Editor has editorial oversight and makes final decisions, in consultation with the Editorial Board, on acceptance or rejection of all manuscripts.
Regular articles not intended for special issues undergo a double-anonymous peer-review process.
The mission of Kinesiology Review is to advance the field of kinesiology by publishing evaluative, insightful, and integrative scholarly reviews of kinesiology research, both basic and applied. Kinesiology Review encourages the submission of critical reviews, analysis of significant issues, position papers, and synthesis articles pertinent to kinesiology. Integrative research reviews that develop connections between areas of research are particularly valued. Both meta-analytic and narrative review formats are acceptable. Proposals for thematic issues are encouraged and should be submitted to the journal’s editor for consideration. Papers reporting empirical findings from a specific study are not appropriate for the journal.
Kinesiology Review is published quarterly (February, May, August, November), with one issue each year reserved for original papers based on scholarly presentations of the annual meeting of the National Academy of Kinesiology and another for original papers based on presentations from the American Kinesiology Association’s annual leadership workshop.
Editors are the stewards of journals. Most Editors provide direction for the journal and build a strong management team. They must consider and balance the interests of many constituents, including readers, authors, staff, publishers, and editorial board members. Editors have a responsibility to ensure an efficient, fair, and timely review process of manuscripts submitted for publication and to establish and maintain high standards of technical and professional quality.
An Editor's decision to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based on the paper’s importance, originality, and clarity, and the study’s relevance to the remit of the journal. Consideration should be given without regard to race, religion, ethnic origin, gender, seniority, citizenship, professional association, institutional affiliation, or political philosophy of the author(s).
All original studies should be peer reviewed before publication, taking into full account possible bias due to related or conflicting interests. This requires that the Editor seek advice from Associate Editors, the Editorial Board, or others who are experts in a specific area and will send manuscripts submitted for publication to reviewers chosen for their expertise and good judgment to referee the quality and reliability of manuscripts. Manuscripts may be rejected without review if considered inappropriate for the journal.
Editors must treat all submitted papers as confidential. The Editor and editorial staff shall disclose no information about a manuscript under consideration to anyone other than those from whom professional advice regarding the publication of the manuscript is sought. The Editors or editorial staff shall not release the names of reviewers.
Editors should consider manuscripts submitted for publication with all reasonable speed. Authors should be periodically informed of the status of the review process. In cases where reasonable speed cannot be accomplished because of unforeseen circumstances, the Editor has an obligation to withdraw himself/herself from the process in a timely manner to avoid unduly affecting the author’s pursuit of publication.
Where misconduct is suspected, the Editor must write to the authors first before contacting the head of the institution concerned.
Editors should ensure that the author submission guidelines for the journal specify that manuscripts must not be submitted to another journal at the same time. Guidelines should also outline the review process, including matters of confidentiality and time.
Conflicts of interest arise when Editors have interests that are not fully apparent and that may influence their judgments on what is published.
Editors should avoid situations of real or perceived conflicts of interest, including, but not limited to, handling papers from present and former students, from colleagues with whom the Editor has recently collaborated, and from those in the same institution.
Editors should disclose relevant conflicts of interest (of their own or those of the teams, editorial boards, managers, or publishers) to their readers, authors, and reviewers.
Human Kinetics believes that ethical publishing contributes to a stronger research community. Reviewers are encouraged to adhere to ethical guidelines throughout the peer review process, as outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The COPE framework covers three categories of responsibility: confidentiality, objectivity, and diligence. Visit the COPE guidelines on their website for see their full ethical guidelines for reviewers. Editors and peer reviewers for KR will follow the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.
Peer reviewers, who play an important role in ensuring the integrity of this scholarly journal, are external experts chosen by Editors to provide written opinions, with the aim of improving the works submitted for publication.
Suggestions from authors as to who might act as a reviewer are often useful, but there should be no obligation for Editors to use those suggested.
Editors and expert reviewers must maintain the duty of confidentiality in the assessment of a manuscript, and this extends to reviewers’ colleagues who give opinions on specific sections. There will be clear communication between the Editors and the reviewers to facilitate consistent, fair, and timely review. Editors will require that reviewers provide speedy, accurate, courteous, unbiased, and justifiable reports.
The submitted manuscript should not be retained or copied.
If reviewers suspect misconduct, they should write in confidence to the Editor.
The general principle confirming misconduct is the intention to cause others to regard as true that which is not true. The examination of misconduct must, therefore, focus not only on the particular act or omission, but also on the intention of the researcher or author.
Editors should be alert to possible cases of plagiarism, duplication of previous published work, falsified data, misappropriation of intellectual property, duplicate submission of manuscripts, inappropriate attribution, or incorrect co-author listing.
In cases of other misconduct, such as redundant publication, deception over authorship, or failure to declare conflict of interest, Editors may judge what is necessary in regard to involving authors’ employers. Authors should be given the opportunity to respond to any charge of minor misconduct.
The following sanctions are ranked in approximate increasing order of severity:
David K. Wiggins
George Mason University, USA
Jane E. Clark (Founding Editor: 2011–2014)
Maureen R. Weiss (2014–2018)
R. Scott Kretchmar
Pennsylvania State University, USA
Russell R. Pate
University of South Carolina, USA
David H. Perrin
University of Utah, USA
Janice S. Todd
University of Texas at Austin, USA
Barbara E. Ainsworth, Arizona State University, USA
David I. Anderson, San Francisco State University, USA
Ketra L. Armstrong, University of Michigan, USA
Lawrence R. Brawley, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, USA
Jane E. Clark, University of Maryland, USA
Jennifer L. Etnier, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA
Kari Fasting, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway
Diane L. Gill, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA
Louis Harrison, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Samuel R. Hodge, The Ohio State University, USA
Nicole R. Keith, Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis, USA
Duane Knudson, Texas State University, USA
Penny McCullagh, California State University, East Bay, USA
Neville Owen, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia
Debra J. Rose, California State University, Fullerton, USA
Alan L. Smith, Utah State University, USA
Melinda A. Solmon, Louisiana State University, USA
Cesar R. Torres, SUNY Brockport, USA
Richard van Emmerik, University of Massachusetts, USA
Maureen R. Weiss, University of Minnesota, USA
Ronald F. Zernicke, University of Michigan, USA
Human Kinetics Staff
Julia Glahn, Senior Journals Managing Editor
Christina Johnson, Editorial Assistant
Prior to submission, please carefully read and follow the submission guidelines detailed below. Authors must submit their manuscripts through the journal’s ScholarOne online submission system. To submit, click the button below:
The Journals Division at Human Kinetics adheres to the criteria for authorship as outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors*:
Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to:
a. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
b. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
c. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
d. 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.
Conditions a, b, c, and d must all be met. Individuals who do not meet the above criteria may be listed in the acknowledgments section of the manuscript. *http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html
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 as they are unable to meet all the conditions above, particularly agreeing to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
Human Kinetics is pleased to allow our authors the option of having their articles published Open Access. In order for an article to be published Open Access, authors must complete and return the Request for Open Access form and provide payment for this option. To learn more and request Open Access, click here.
All Human Kinetics journals require that authors follow our manuscript guidelines in regards to use of copyrighted material, human and animal rights, and conflicts of interest as specified in the following link: https://journals.humankinetics.com/page/author/authors
Kinesiology Review (KR) only accepts review papers of kinesiology research, basic and applied. Critical reviews, analysis of significant issues, position papers, and synthesis articles pertinent to kinesiology are also appropriate for the journal. Integrative research reviews that develop connections between areas of research are particularly valued. Both meta-analytic and narrative review formats are acceptable. Papers reporting empirical findings are not appropriate for this journal. KR will consider manuscripts longer than 10,000 words (~40 pages of text); however, the authors will be asked to justify the need for the manuscript’s length.
In preparing manuscripts for publication in KR, authors must closely follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed., 2020). Writing should be concise and direct. Avoid unnecessary jargon and abbreviations, but use an acronym or abbreviation if the spelled-out version of a term is cumbersome. Avoid abbreviations in the title. Formats of numbers and measurement units, and all other style matters, including capitalization, punctuation, references, and citations, must follow the Publication Manual of the APA.
Upon submission, authors must upload a separate cover letter that lists (1) the title of the manuscript, (2) the date of submission, and (3) the full names of all the authors, their institutional or corporate affiliations, and their e-mail addresses. In addition to this essential information, the cover letter should be composed as described on pp. 382–383 of the Publication Manual of the APA, including clear statements pertaining to potential fragmented publication, authorship, and other ethical considerations.
The manuscript must be submitted as a Microsoft Word document. The manuscript should contain no clues as to author identity, such as acknowledgments, institutional information, and mention of a specific city. Thus, information that might identify the author(s) should be omitted or highlighted in black. The first page of the manuscript should include only the title of the manuscript and date of submission. All articles must include an abstract of 100−150 words and three to six keywords chosen from terms not used in the manuscript title.
If figures are included, each figure must be numbered in consecutive numerical order. A figure should have a caption that is brief and self-explanatory, and that defines all nonstandard abbreviations used in the figure. Captions must be listed separately, on a page by themselves; however, each figure must be clearly identified (numbered), preferably as part of its filename. Artwork should be professional in appearance and have clean, crisp lines. Hand drawing and hand lettering are not acceptable. Line art should be saved at a resolution of 600 dots per inch (dpi). Photographic images can be submitted if they are saved in JPEG or TIFF format at a resolution of 300 dpi. See additional figure guidelines here.
When tabular material is necessary, it should not duplicate the text. Tables must be formatted using Microsoft Word’s table-building functions. (Using spaces or tabs in your table creates problems when the table is typeset and may result in errors). Tables should be single-spaced on separate pages and include brief titles. Explanatory notes are to be presented in footnotes, below the table. The size and complexity of a table should be determined with consideration for its legibility and ability to fit the printed page.
Please review the APA checklist for manuscript submission before submitting your manuscript.
Kinesiology Review is a peer-reviewed journal. At least two reviewers are solicited for each manuscript. Manuscripts are evaluated via double-anonymous review. There are no page charges to authors. Manuscripts should not be submitted to another journal at the same time.
Authors of accepted papers must obtain and provide the editor all necessary permissions for reproduced figures, pictures, or other copyrighted work prior to publication.
Authors also will need to complete and sign a copyright agreement, transferring copyright to Human Kinetics, Inc. This copyright form can be viewed by visiting ScholarOne and selecting "Instructions & Forms" in the upper right corner. You do not need an account to access this information.
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