ARTÍCULO EDITORIAL / EDITORIAL ARTICLE
TWENTY YEARS OF THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MEDICINE
AND SCIENCE OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SPORT
VEINTE AÑOS DE LA REVISTA INTERNACIONAL DE
MEDICINA Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA Y EL DEPORTE
Martínez de Haro, V.; Cid
Yagüe, L. and San Miguel Bruck, F.J.
(Management Team) vicente.martinez@uam.es; lourdes.cid@uam.es; fjsanmiguel@hotmail.es
Spanish-English translator: Laura Arranz
Bannon, lauban3@hotmail.com
November 2020 marked the 20th anniversary of our
Journal. Twenty years that are reflected in this, issue 80. There are four
issues published per year, always appearing punctually online.
The Management Team of the International Journal of
Medicine and Science of Physical Activity and Sport, through these lines, want
to recall all those incidents which occurred during this time, our decisions, intentions
and our careers, as well as our thoughts.
In 2000, we decided to launch this International
Journal of Medicine and Science of Physical Activity and Sport in the field of
the Virtual Community of Sports Science. It was a bold decision at a time when
it was said that publishing in electronic journals had no value and no future.
This step was taken thanks to the facilities provided
by RedIRIS (https://www.rediris.es/rediris/index.html.es)
for the creation of content in Spanish by Spanish-speaking researchers, with
which we had been collaborating since 1996 when we created the first mailing
lists. RedIRIS has provided us with tools and a safe, stable and permanently
maintained platform. For 20 years we have
always had permanent help and never a major problem. In particular, this
permanent help and collaboration has been organised by Mr. Jesús Sanz de las
Heras, to whom this Journal pays tribute, as well as
to his organisation, on this twentieth anniversary, as a token of
gratitude.
In 1996 we created the
RedIRIS EDUFIS mailing list, aimed at connecting physical activity
professionals and students.
Between 1998 and 2002 the
editor of this journal was proposed for the management of the professional
journal in print, the Spanish Journal of Physical Education and Sports (REEFD:
Revista Española de Educación Física y Deportes), published by the General
Council of Teachers and Graduates in Physical Education.
In 1999 we created the
second RedIRIS mailing list MEDEPOR for students and doctors connected with
sports, which was related to the previous one. Both lists remain active today.
In 2000 we went one step
further because RedIRIS provided us with the necessary tools to create the
Virtual Community of Sports Science, which was the framework where the Journal
appeared.
We must remember it is said
that in 2006, 50% of the Spanish population used the internet.
In the beginning, the
Journal published articles that had been reviewed by students of the doctorate
in Physical Activity and Sports in the UAM (Autonomous University of Madrid)
supervised by the professor, anonymously, using and learning the double-blind
review method. We knew
about the importance of choosing the reviewers carefully and this aspect has
been one of the priorities taken into account during all these years. They had
to be professionally trained but with a broad, tolerant and independent vision.
Anyone with the slightest hint of unethical behaviour has not been invited and
anyone involved in an incident at some point or who did not collaborate on an
ongoing basis with no reason has been excluded.
In the beginning, the most complicated part was
receiving articles, as any journal which is starting.
The first Management Team was formed by Dr. Vicente
Martínez de Haro as the editor and Dr. Francisco Javier San Miguel Bruck as the
associate editor. The editorial board was formed by the doctors, Mr. José
Antonio Casajús, Mr. Vicente Ferrer López, Mr. Manuel Guillén del Castillo, Mr.
Ignacio Martínez González-Moro, Mr. Francisco Miguel Tobal, Mr. José Antonio
Ruiz Caballero (Died: February 2020), Mr. Fernando Santonja Medina, Ms.
Lourdes Sarmiento Ramos and Mr. Juan Carlos Segovia Martínez.
The first Advisory Board, which was initially and
wrongly named Editorial Board, included Dr. Luis Gómez Pellico, Dr. Roberto
Hernández Corvo (Died: 2015), Dr. Julio Cesar Legido Arce, Dr. Antonio Sicilia
Sicilia (Died: March 2020) and Dr. Manuel Vitoria Ortiz.
The most relevant facts about the journal are the
following five:
- First published in the year 2000
- Included in the JCR (Journal Citation
Reports)
- The FECYT Seals of Quality
- The DOI (Digital Object Identifier) was
included by the UAM (Autonomous University of Madrid)
- The enthusiastic participation of almost
150 contributors
We would also like to take the opportunity to pay
tribute to those who have passed away, in recognition of their work during all
the years they collaborated with us, they are the doctors: Mr. Cipriano Romero
Cerezo (2011), Mr. Roberto Hernández Corvo (2015), Mr. J. Gualberto Cremades
(2016), Mr. José Antonio Ruiz Caballero (2020) and Mr. Antonio Sicilia Sicilia
(2020).
Today we can see on the covers of each issue, the
names of all the contributors (one hundred and sixty different people) who have
participated at some point. The names of those who are still active are in the Directory
on the main cover and in the last issue.
Title
The first decision made was the title. We were
certain it had to be an international journal, so it seemed essential that this
aspect appeared in the title.
Secondly, we searched for a title that would not be
a copy of any other journal in the same field at that time.
The use of the word “medicine” was decided because
most of the articles were related to this field, in addition to being one of
the editor's fields, and it was also a way to draw attention to publish with
us. Due to the title, it was classified as a journal of health only. It has
been very difficult to get it classified and evaluated in the field of social
science, specifically in education. It is a multidisciplinary journal in the field
of Sport Science, as the guidelines specify. However, we have never been
evaluated, for instance, in the field of psychology. Although we publish many
articles related to it.
From the beginning, the decision was made not to
change the title to be identified by the same name and have continuity.
Finally, we are easily recognised by the title,
despite the fact that a few years ago another Journal was created with a very
similar title that could lead to confusion, so it was reported and it had to
change its title. This has been one of the few incidents we have come across
over the years.
Next, we requested the corresponding ISSN for the
electronic version.
In 2009, we had to rectify the mistake of
incorrectly naming the Scientific Advisory Board, Editorial Board. So we
decided to change the name and, consequently, what was previously named
Technical Editors was renamed Editorial Board and Technical Editors to avoid
the confusions that all this could create.
In the beginning, the articles that were published
were almost entirely reviewed by doctoral students who at that time were
studying at the Autonomous University of Madrid. At that time we received few
articles, so all those that were accepted were automatically published with no
delay. Currently, we have an excess of articles and therefore there is a
publishing delay of approximately two years. Some top-tier journals have
created second-tier versions to provide themselves with feedback.
Design and Management
The current design is a functional design derived
from the early years.
In the year 2000, the design was based on
programming with HTML codes. Nowadays, a wide variety of programmes can be
used, but their management and control present difficulties. The page was
designed considering functionality to facilitate quick access and easy
navigation.
Some changes have been introduced since its
creation, such as incorporating the logo and classifying the articles into
different areas on the homepage in 2011, incorporating on the cover of each
issue the percentages to calculate and show the inbreeding coefficient in 2012,
and changing the design of the homepage in 2013. In 2013, we decided to stop
publishing the international events calendar for professionals specialised in
sport science, due to the considerable amount of time that had to be devoted to
maintaining it, which made it impossible to accomplish, even though we were
aware that we were leaving out a great added value.
Many people contribute altruistically with the
Journal. Currently, we have 158 contributors.
Not being a "professional" journal where
everyone should get paid for their work, a much more personalised management is
required. We have two possibilities to use the Open Journal Systems (OJS)
software, one provided by the FECYT thanks to the seal of quality, and the
other one provided by the UAM, but we are not able to use its entire
functionality, since we cannot treat all processes automatically, in
particular, the contributors who are making great efforts, offering their knowledge
and hard work. Sometimes the managers and reviewers of the organisations do not
understand this aspect. In addition, it must be taken into account that
contributing to a Journal is not academically recognised.
It is an open-access journal, with an OA-APC
license, although a fee is charged to the authors who want to publish. The
publication fee was set as a requirement for publication as a filtering
mechanism for the reception of articles. Since 2010, when we obtained the first
impact factor, we have received a flood of articles that practically paralysed
the journal's management so we decided to charge a fee as a filter. First, we
considered charging a fee for the article review, but the authors of rejected
articles were not going to accept it easily. Even though those articles are the
most detrimental since they are time-consuming, they get two or three reviews
for free, and despite all that, the journal does not benefit from their
publication. In addition, unfortunately, the rejection rate has increased
enormously for two reasons: the authors send numerous articles to find out if
they can be publishable and, in many cases, the articles do not conform to an
acceptable level. It is evident that the level of rigorousness required from
the articles in order to be published has increased with time, and many
articles are now rejected. Finally, only accepted articles are those that are
charged the publication fee. It should be noted that the fee is adapted to the
per capita income of each country. Contributors who sign an accepted article
are exempted from their proportional part of the fee as a small compensation
for their contribution.
A relevant fact for the journal was the inclusion
of the DOI in its issues and articles.
Regarding management, it has been a wise decision
to put everything into the hands of the management team and that each
contributor has his or her specific area of work with immediate alternatives
available if any unforeseen circumstance occurs.
One aspect to take into account regarding management
is that some Spanish public administrations request certificates of articles
that are published and, that therefore, would not need the issuance of that
certificate. This involves a lot of work and we consider that it could easily
be avoided by checking the publication as it is published in an open-access
journal.
Contributors and reviewers
All contributors have been chosen for their
professional relevance in the indicated field. The incorporation of all the
people who are part of the different teams in the Journal has been gradual
throughout all these years, and we must say that the contribution of each of
them has been fundamental and that all of them have been relevant to the
improvement of all the aspects of the journal reaching the level in which we
are at the moment.
For the election of the contributors, one of the
criteria taken into account is that all Spanish-speaking countries are
represented among the different commissions and reviewers, to increase
internationalisation. We are still in need of representation from El Salvador,
Equatorial Guinea, Nicaragua, Panama and Paraguay. A curious fact is that we
have a large representation of non-Spanish-speaking countries: Portugal, the
USA, Australia, France, Belgium, Brazil, the UK, China and Greece. We are proud
to have representation from so many different countries, and we hope to
increase collaboration with more Spanish-speaking professionals from all
countries in the world.
We also aim to increase the number of female
contributors, who are a clear minority, specifically 45 out of a total of 158
contributors, representing only 28.48%.
Among the important facts regarding the
contributions, it is worth noting the incorporation of Dr. Lourdes Cid as
associate editor replacing Dr. Javier San Miguel, who had to leave office due
to personal and professional issues, although he continued with his permanent
relationship and commitment as part of the Advisory Board.
The official representative of the School of
Physical Education of the Spanish Army also deserves special recognition.
Located in the city of Toledo (Spain) it is the oldest in the country. Its
100th anniversary was celebrated in 2019, and for this reason, we invited them
that year. Its current representative is Mr. Juan Ramón Godoy López. Special
recognition is also granted to the Artillery Academy of the Spanish Army,
located in Segovia (Spain), as it is the oldest active military academy in the
world, and is represented by Mr. Benjamin Muñoz Herrera. Both Centres have
been, and are very important in the field of physical exercise.
The reviewers have fulfilled their role very
satisfactorily, even proposing different review methods. The Management Team
allow freedom of choice of the type of format used as long as the
recommendations and reviews meet the required criteria. We have only had to
exclude those who committed but did not meet deadlines, thus causing serious
delays. Fortunately, these delays could be made up due to our rule of
publishing in order according to the date of the reception of the article and
not of the reception of the review. To reduce the inordinate amount of time
spent on the review, it was decided that the third reviews should be carried
out by the Editorial Board, taking into account the criteria provided by the two
reviewers and, in some cases, carrying out a third anonymous review by one of
the members of the Editorial Board.
We have had 145 reviewers, 32 of them with more
than 20 reviews, standing out Dr. Carlos Tejero with 34, Dr. Juan José Ramos
with 33 and Dr. Manuel Delgado and Dr. Francisco Miguel with 31 reviews.
On the web, we can see the statistics of the
reviews after the information for contributors.
One of the
problems is not being able to have different editors in each area. As the work
is done altruistically, the specialisation in different areas delayed and made
it even more difficult to review the article.
Guidelines
One of the most problematic aspects is receiving
articles that do not comply with our specific author guidelines, since, as each
Journal has its own rules, the authors often send their articles following
guidelines from other Journals and this causes discomfort to the Editorial
Board.
The most positive aspect of the Journal is that
articles are published strictly in the order they are received.
One of the guidelines developed over time, which we
did not have from the beginning, was that an article could not be sent to
different Journals at the same time, because if an article was withdrawn in the middle of a review process or even at the end of
it, it caused great inconvenience to the organisation of the review process and
we considered that it was not fair, neither for the Journal nor the reviewers.
Ethical standards have been essential as we will
mention later on.
The publication of the articles in Spanish is our
hallmark, although they can be published, once accepted, in other languages
too. One of the key aspects is that they have to be sent in Spanish, we have to
remind this rule very often, since many authors want to send us the original
article in English and, for the moment, we have not considered that option,
since the Journal would need reviewers who mastered the language and at this
moment, this is unfeasible.
Regarding citation, no specifications have been
established. The only requirement is that all citations have the same format.
It is expected that, regardless of the guidelines followed, it is easy to
precisely locate the cited source. Therefore, the author is free to choose any
guidelines, although the APA, Vancouver and UNE guidelines are recommended. No
further specifications are defined.
Language and translation
The Journal reviews articles in Spanish, once
accepted they have to be translated into English and recently, it also offers
the possibility to publish them in any languages that the authors decide, so we
have articles to publish also in Portuguese.
We have already explained that it was essential
that mainly Spanish-speaking people published in the Journal to express their
thoughts correctly, although the articles were also necessarily translated into
English for dissemination. For this reason, only originals in Spanish are received
and reviewed. This decision was reconsidered at a certain point since originals
in English were received mainly from non-Spanish speakers, who were neither
English speakers and wanted to publish in our journal. Even the reviewers were
asked if they could and wanted to review in English, but finally, we maintained
our initial decision. We decided that there were already many journals that
published in English which could receive those articles. If the authors want to
publish in our journal, they must send the document in Spanish, and if it is
accepted in Spanish, besides being published in Spanish and English, the
authors are also allowed to publish it in their native language as a third
language, as long as we have a reviewer who confirms that this version is the
same as the Spanish one.
Once the language in which the articles should be
received and reviewed was decided, the dilemma about whether it had to be
translated into English or not arose. It was clear that if we pursued
international expansion we had to publish in English. We considered that the
journal should do it, but we did not have the financial nor human capacity.
Even the variety of English we would accept was discussed, if we were going to
define it and if accuracy in writing would be guaranteed. We decided that the
authors would choose the translators and that they should appear in the English
version as translators. That way it becomes clear that the original is the
Spanish version and the translation is the responsibility of the translators.
We thought that at least we could facilitate the
translation. We checked the prices of translation services and considered it
was not feasible to do it in this way, so internally, we decided to use a list
RedIRIS had for calls and offers to invite each potential applicant to submit their
application and we received more than 2500, setting out the translators their
conditions. They agreed to translate the articles accepted by our journal at a
fixed price, including taxes, regardless of their length, the translators
negotiated the terms and payments directly with the authors and could issue
invoices. We selected five translators and nowadays we can say that thanks to
these translations some small businesses have been able to establish
themselves, the translations are published publicly. Of course, it is not
compulsory for the authors to choose one of these translators and, except for
the agreement between the journal and the translators, the Journal is not an
intermediary between them.
Authors
Currently, more than 1500 authors have published in
our Journal and most of them work in Spanish centres. We receive more than 100
articles per year for their review, approximately 62% are rejected, 40% by the
editors and the other 22% by the reviewers. Only 1% have been accepted without
any modifications by both evaluators.
Most of the articles need 1 to 3 months to be
reviewed (40%), 35% need 4 to 6 months and the rest need over 7 months.
According to Web Science, the five most cited
articles are:
Calabuig,
F.; Burillo, P.; Crespo, J.; Mundina, J.J. & Gallardo, L. (2010).
Satisfacción, calidad y valor percibido en espectadores de atletismo. Revista
Internacional de Medicina y Ciencias de la Actividad Física y el Deporte vol.
10 (40) pp. 577-593. Http://cdeporte.rediris.es/revista/revista40/artsatisfaccion182.htm, with over 48 citations.
Abarca - Sos, A.;
Zaragoza Casterad, J.; Generelo Lanaspa, E. & Julián Clemente, J.A. (2010).
Comportamientos sedentarios y patrones de actividad física en adolescentes.
Revista Internacional de Medicina y Ciencias de la Actividad Física y el
Deporte vol. 10 (39) pp. 410-427. Http://cdeporte.rediris.es/revista/revista39/artcomportamientos170.htm, with over 38 citations.
Arruza, J. A.;
Arribas, S. ; Gil De Montes, L. ; Irazusta, S. ; Romero, S. & Cecchini, J.A. (2008). Repercusiones de la duración de la
Actividad Físico-deportiva sobre el bienestar psicológico. Revista
Internacional de Medicina y Ciencias de la Actividad Física y el Deporte vol. 8
(30) pp. 171-183 Http://cdeporte.rediris.es/revista/revista30/artrepercusiones83.htm, with over 33 citations.
Devís-Devís, J.,
Valenciano Valcárcel, J., Villamón, M. & Pérez-Samaniego, V. (2010).
Disciplinas y temas de estudio en las ciencias de la actividad física y el deporte.
Revista Internacional de Medicina y Ciencias de la Actividad Física y el
Deporte vol. 10 (37) pp. 150-166. Http://cdeporte.rediris.es/revista/revista37/artdisciplinas147.htm, with over 31 citations.
Beltrán-Carrillo, V.J.; Devís-Devís, J. & Peiró-Velert,
C. (2012). Actividad física y sedentarismo en adolescentes de la Comunidad
Valenciana. Revista Internacional de Medicina y Ciencias de la Actividad Física
y el Deporte vol. 12 (45) pp. 122-137. Http://cdeporte.rediris.es/revista/revista45/artactividad266.htm, with over 28 citations.
The chart
represents the articles received, rejected and published:
There are 27 authors who have published
more than 5 articles, standing out among them Mr. Jose Antonio Moreno Murcia,
with 11 articles published, followed by Mr. Javier Fernández Río and Mr. José
Antonio Martínez García, both with 10 articles published.
Ethics
Regarding the ethical standards applied to authors, we
follow the best practice guidelines by the Committee on Publication Ethics
(COPE) (http://publicationethics.org/)
and the recommendations for the Conduct, reporting, editing and publication of
scholarly work in medical journals (ICMJE) (http://www.icmje.org/)
When an ethical issue is found, a committee formed
by three members of the editorial team gathers the data, requests further
explanations, and offers the authors the possibility to defend themselves, and
they study the case applying the codes of conduct. Over the past years, 2% of
the articles received have been penalised for ethical misconduct.
The withdrawal of the article penalised two groups
of authors. They were also banned for three years from publishing in our
journal for trying to publish an article identical to another one that was
already published in a different journal (duplicate or similar publication).
Another group of authors were banned for one year
from publishing in our journal on account of “redundant publication”.
Two groups of authors were banned for one year from
publishing in our journal on account of “redundant publication due to
splitting”.
A group of authors were warned about
self-plagiarising literal sentences in the article taken from communication at
a congress and a thesis.
The withdrawal of the article penalised two groups
of authors and they were banned for one year from publishing in our journal for
submitting the article simultaneously to several journals.
And finally, a group of authors were warned and
their article rejected for suspicious similarity with another article on the
same topic.
A relatively frequent matter is to try to include
an author once the article is accepted. When reminding them that, if it is
true, the article must immediately be withdrawn and evaluated by an Ethics
Committee, they have given up on the idea.
Evaluation of the journal and evolution of the
different indexes
A study carried out by Devís et al. in 2004 (Devís-Devís, J, Antolín Jimeno, L, Villamón
Herrera, M, Moreno Doña, A, & Valenciano Valcarcel, J, 2004) presented
two indexes: the 2004 GGN Index
(general normalisation grade) of Spanish Journals of Physical Activity and
Sport, in which we scored 0.84 (out of 1), and the 2004 GFN Index (fundamental
normalisation grade) of Spanish Journals of Physical Activity and Sport, in
which we scored 0.97, establishing ourselves at the head of all the journals
analysed in the field.
In 2007 we submitted the Journal to the first round
for evaluation of scientific journals that was convened by the Spanish
Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), and reached the second stage.
James Testa, editor (now Vice President Emeritus) of the company Thomson
Reuters, owner of the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) which publishes
the famous Journal Citation Report (JCR), was invited to this evaluation and
said that there were journals that were being evaluated that had not made the
cut but would be selected by their company. Among those journals was ours, as
we discovered three months later. We did not expect it, we had not even tried,
since we knew that access to the JCR was gained only in two ways: By request
and payment for the journal to be evaluated, which was discarded due to lack of
funding, or by express invitation, which we didn't even dream of.
Until 2008, the journal was evaluated depending on
the visits and downloads received and the monthly visits. Specifically that
year we had, on average, approximately 9,000 monthly visits and 10,000,000
monthly Kb downloaded. We suppose that such high figures were the indicator to
be invited by the JCR.
On October 24, 2007, we received a brief email from
Ms. Katherine Junkins, Selective Coverage Supervisor of the Editorial Development
Department, informing us of the following:
“Thomson Scientific (TS) is interested in indexing Revista Internacional de
Medicina y Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte (Revista) in the Web
of Science, Science Citation Index Expanded, and Focus On: Sports Science &
Medicine”.
Additionally, she gave us some guidelines. From
that moment on, with no further communication, we knew that during 2008 and
2009 they would be evaluating the citations. In effect, in the 2010 JCR, our
first index appeared (0.380), which became the most important landmark of our
journal.
The following chart shows our evolution in the JCR
so far:
We attribute this decrease in the impact factor to
the editor's bad decision, contrary to the collaborators' opinions, to increase
the number of articles per issue from 7 articles in 2009, to 10 articles per
issue in 2010 and 12 articles per issue in 2011 since, as it is known, the
number of articles published during the two evaluated years constitute the
denominator of the index, which decreases if the citations do not increase (the
numerator). When we reach 2 points, we plan to increase the number of articles
per issue slightly, since we will be able to face a small drop in the index
and, this way the waiting list will be reduced.
However, the first index we had was the SJR index
(SCImago Journal & Country Rank) in 2009 with the following evolution:
We were also in the IN-RECS index (Impact factor -
Spanish Social Sciences Journals) created by a group from the University of
Granada and which, unfortunately, due to lack of funding, had to suspend its
activity in 2011. So this great initiative for Spanish journals came to an end.
The H index, which
associates the number of articles with the citations received, has also
improved.
We have already said that in the first round for
evaluation of scientific journals that was convened by the FECYT, we were
excluded, but from the second round in 2011 and successively in 2013 and 2016
we rated "Excellent". This was accredited by the respective seals.
We have never used strategies to force improvement
in impact factors, such as compelling to cite only articles from the last five
years, publishing invited articles by authors with high impact factors, trying
to include in accepted articles highly cited authors or others.
One of the most relevant facts to take into account
is that the authors who publish in our journal are not cited in many of the
national journals in this area, a fact that seems strange to us since, on many
occasions these authors also publish in those journals. Therefore, we advise
authors to check this aspect, since it would be beneficial for everyone,
instead of mostly citing foreign journals as is currently the case.
CONCLUSIONS
The most important conclusion is that we believe it
is a relevant shared merit having reached 20 years of age altruistically and we
highlight our continuous desire to improve.
We wish to reach professionalisation, since this
would solve many of the current problems, although others would undoubtedly
appear. We would be able to have different editors in each area and reviewers
of the complete English versions, not just the abstracts.
The international representation of all
Spanish-speaking countries and the balance between the number of women and men
are still pending.
Editing and publishing a scientific journal is a
fascinating task that hopefully in the future will be adequately appreciated in
our teaching profession.
REFERENCES
Devís-Devís, J., Antolín Jimeno,
L., Villamón Herrera, M., Moreno Doña, A., & Valenciano Valcarcel, J.
(2004). Las revistas científico-técnicas españolas de ciencias de la actividad
física y el deporte: adecuación a las normas ISO y grado de normalización. Ciência da Informação, 33(1), 38-47.