Serb J Sports Sci: An International Journal of Sports Sciences!

Authors

Bogdanis Gregory, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Science, University of Athens

Abstract

Athens, 20 December, 2010

Dear friends and colleagues,

One of the greatest aspirations of an editorial team of a journal is to see it become international. This does not only mean to publish research work submitted from many other countries, but also to have peer scientists from all over the world reading its articles. The web-based form of this journal together with the increasing quality of the papers published, resulted in some astounding figures in terms of readership: from 1st March 2010 until 1st December 2010 the site had 17.124 visitors and 56.700 page views! This represents an almost 4-fold increase in readers compared with last year and an almost 11-fold increase compared with 2007. Most notably, these readers came from 22 sub-continent regions and 139 countries including the United States (2.680 visitors), United Kingdom (1.983 visitors), Australia (820 visitors), Canada (517 visitors), Germany (347 visitors), Greece (605 visitors) and many others. It should be noted that the daily download rate of papers from SJSS in 2010 averaged 65 and this represents a large increase compared with the last year’s figure that was close to 20. Therefore, there is ample evidence that our journal is spreading among the sports science world; this adds not only to our pride but also to the prestige of the journal, making it more attractive to authors.

Part of this success is definitely due to the increase in the quality of the published papers and we should thank our Editorial Board and expert reviewers for this. It may be disappointing for some authors, but the increase in the rejection rate from 22% last year to 58% in 2010 reflects the rigorous review process and contributes to the quality of the publication.

Although the published papers came from 16 different countries, I am certain that we will witness an increase in submissions from many more countries in 2011. This is not merely a wish but an “educated guess”, considering that our readership this year came from 139 different countries. The submitting authors will have the pleasure to use the new system of manuscript submission, upload and tracking that our technical team developed and set up this year. I am pleased to inform the authors who may wish to submit their work to SJSS that the average duration of a successful submission (from submission to acceptance) is 4.0±2.7 months, while the average time until publication is 7.4±3.7 months. We are working to make these time periods even shorter and more consistent, so that authors will know as soon as possible the decision of the Editor about their manuscripts.

As the number of scientists in different sports science disciplines is increasing, it is expected that more authors will submit their work to sports science journals. As an editorial team, we will strive to make SJSS to be among the first journals that the authors choose for their publications in sports sciences. Taking into account that the trend nowadays is to use exercise to promote health, we should attract papers with a health-related approach. This can be kick-started by a special issue devoted to health-related fitness and/or by invited reviews on such topics. I know that these are not just dreams – they can soon become reality. I am counting on the immense enthusiasm, persistence, creativity but, most of all, hard work of the entire editorial team, who started with a vision and only four years later are proud of a truly international journal.

Have a Happy and productive New Year!

Gregory C. Bogdanis, PhD
Co-Chief Editor, SJSS

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Serb J Sports Sci: An International Journal of Sports Sciences!

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