About the Journal

Communications in Kinesiology (CiK; ISSN 2767-0732) is is a mission-driven Open Access (OA) journal from the Society of Transparency, Openness, and Replication in Kinesiology (STORK) that shares not only the research it publishes, but also the value created by the Kinesiology community during the peer-review process. CiK has many sections representing all of Kinesiology, and a highlighted focus article type of “Methodological Tutorials". The acceptance criteria for CiK is based on scientific, methodological, and ethical rigor. Editors and reviewers are instructed not to predict a submission’s impact to the field, nor employ any topic bias in accepting articles. Instead, they will check for rigorously and transparently conducted, statistically sound, adequately powered, and fairly analyzed research worthy of inclusion in the scholarly record. This is a focus on more objective acceptance criteria and the bar is set high.

Our journal welcomes investigations with null results and is designed to reduce publication bias and the "file-drawer problem". We aim to highlight the most reproducible and methodologically rigorous research in Kinesiology; as such, novelty, anticipated impact, and surprise of research results will never be criteria for publication.

Journal Sections

  • Biomechanics
  • Coaching and Sports Pedagogy
  • Exercise and Sports Psychology
  • Meta-Science
  • Physical Activity, Health, and Disease
  • Physiology and Nutrition
  • Sensorimotor Control
  • Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation

Article Types

CiK accepts the following manuscript types: 

  • Original Research (experimental or observational)
    • These should present original findings. Null/negative findings, reanalyses of previous studies with new results, and  replication studies.
    • Preregistration and data/methods sharing are highly encouraged and will influence editorial decisions to publish.
    • Research can be quantitative or qualitative in nature
  • Methodological Tutorials
    • Tutorials should provide hands-on, practical guidance for researchers. Any topic that could enhance research or clinical practice or methods might be suitable for a tutorial.
    • CiK highly encourages tutorials that help researchers learn statistical tools, improve statistical practice, better data management, and enhance reliability and reproducibility of their work. Statistics tutorials should cover established statistical techniques and not introduce novel techniques.
  • Opinions
    • These should present a new and thoughtfully-considered viewpoint or opinion on a current problem, concept, innovation, or practice related to Kinesiology. It is highly encouraged, but not required,  to approach the editors with ideas prior to submission.
  • Case Studies
    • A detailed, anecdotal report that serves as a analysis of a person, groups, events, decisions, periods, policies, institutions, or other systems.
  • Reviews
    • We accept narrative, systematic, and scoping reviews. 
  • Registered Reports (RiSE).
    • Authors can submit their Registered Report either directly to Communications in Kinesiology or via the Peer Community in Registered Reports (PCI RR). PCI RR performs peer review of Stage 1 and Stage 2 preprints and then offers authors the opportunity to publish their approved manuscript without further peer review in a range of journals (including Communications in Kinesiology). 
  •  Protocols
    • Describes planned research studies. Since this format is intended to foster the pre-registration of studies, a manuscript will not be considered if data collection is complete.
    • If the study is ongoing, this should be reported in the manuscript. The decision to consider the protocol for publication will rest with the editor and be based on the level of advancement of the data collection.
    • The formal ethical approval of the study should be reported.

Journal Values

Open Access

CiK values open access and the ability to share research widely and freely. All published work at CiK will be free and publicly available to all. STORK aims to reduce barriers to peer-reviewed research. Authors may deposit all versions of their work in an institutional repository or any other repository of the author's choice. Additionally, authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.

At this time, STORK does not charge any article processing charges (APC = $0). We hope to continue this policy for as long as financially feasible. You can help keep the journal functioning by donating (one-time or ongoing) to STORK. The society is grateful for your contributions.

Mentoring

CiK values mentoring and growth. Early career researchers are invited to apply to be associate editors where they will work with senior scientists on the editorial board.

Transparency

CiK also facilitates the ability for peers and the public to ask questions about and comment on the research published in the journal. Authors are actively encouraged to post their work on SportRxiv where they can receive feedback prior to the formal peer review process. In addition,editors at CiK will be asked to write a short (approx. 250 words) review summary, anonymous or signed, of each published article as a supplementary material. Anyone reading the article will be able to see an expert opinion and analysis of the research, and see how possible limitations were addressed in the review process.

In addition, all submitting authors are highly encouraged to have open data and code for any empirical work submitted to CiK. All articles, when published, will include a "Data Accessibility Statement" declaring where the data and code are available and, if not, why the data and code cannot be shared. We believe this is a necessary step in ensuring research is reproducible, and this increases the value of every published article by facilitating meta-analysis. If the data and code cannot be provided then authors must provide a justification for why they are unable to do so in their submitted cover letter.

Rigor

CiK values the importance of having rigorous, reproducible, and replicable results. We believe preregistration is an essential part of this process and encourage empirical work submitted at this journal to utilize preregistration. If a study could not be preregistered, then the authors must justify this decision in the cover letter to the editors. At CiK, we also encourage the submission of direct and conceptual replication studies.

Indexing and Archiving

STORK is now a Crossref member and CiK issues DOIs directly through Crossref. We also invest in long-term archiving of all submissions through the CLOCKSS archival system and the PKP preservation network. In the next year we will also have our content permenantly preserved through the Portico system. Lastly, indexing is completed via CrossRef and will be searchable on Google Scholar. We will be on PubMed/Europe PMC once we have completed the necessary requirements. Should you require us to provide additional indexing information, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate. Please remember we are a society, non-profit, owned and operated journal. We aim to do much more and need your support to make this possible.

As a journal for STORK, Communications in Kinesiology values transparency and openness. Each year, starting in 2021, metadata about the journal will be reported on the society’s website. This metadata will include journal acceptance rates, the total number of submissions, mean and median peer-review duration, acceptance rates by gender, acceptance rates by academic rank, and acceptance rates by location.

Peer Community In (PCI)

In addition to supporting preprints (e.g., SportRxiv), CiK is a PCI-friendly journal. Peer Community In is a non-profit organization of researchers that offers peer review and recommendation of preprints for free. Upon submission of a preprint recommended by Peer Community In, we provide the authors with one of the following responses within approximately 5 days:

  1. Acceptance with minor modifications, with no further peer review.
  2. Needs further peer review before decision.
  3. Not interested.