Information For Authors

Peer Review Process

Theory and Practice of Physical Culture uses double-blind peer-review. This means that the identity of the reviewer is unknown to the author and vice versa. After the moderation stage, each manuscript is sent for peer-review to at least two anonymous experts.

1. Expertise of the article. Within 5 working days from receipt of the manuscript its initial assessment for compliance with the topic and requirements of the Journal is performed. If any discrepancies with the requirements are found, the author(s) will be notified and given the reasons for the rejection. Articles rejected at this stage are not reviewed.

2. External and internal review. External review: if the manuscript is considered relevant to the topic of the Journal and its requirements, it is sent for review to two external reviewers. Internal review is performed by the editor-in-chief, deputy editor-in-chief and science editor.
2.1. The decision on assignment of an external reviewer is made by the editor-in-chief or deputy editor-in-chief.
2.2. External review is performed by recognized experts of the relevant field.  Reviewers report the scientific, financial or any other relationship with the authors and editors of the journal. Review of the articles is performed on a voluntary and gratuitous basis.
2.3. The manuscript is sent to external reviewers without mentioning authors and their organizations (blind review).
2.4. Reviewers are informed that manuscripts sent to them are the property of authors and are classified as confidential information. Reviewers must refrain from illegal use (including copying) of the materials sent to them for review.
2.5. Within 21 days from receipt of the manuscript reviewers should render a reasoned opinion on the possibility of its publication in the present form, and present any claims about the manuscript in writing.

The review highlights the consistency of the article content with the topic stated in the title, the consistency of the article with the modern achievements of science and theoretical knowledge, evaluating language, style, arrangement of the material, clarity and informativeness of tables, charts, figures and completeness and correctness of literature citations, and advantages and disadvantages of the article.  The review also indicates any amendments that should be made by the author.

Reviewer's conclusion:

• the article can be published and does not require revision
• the article can be published after minor revision by authors
• the article cannot be published owing to poor quality, inconsistency with the requirements of article design or topic of the journal, ethical violations, signs of falsification of results or other reasons.

2.6. In the case of the reviewers approving publication of the manuscript in the journal, the author(s) will be notified via e-mail that the manuscript is being prepared for publication.
2.7. If the review indicates that corrections to the manuscript are need, the manuscript is returned to the author(s) for revision with the reviews attached and a request to take into account the reviewers’ comments when preparing a revised version of the manuscript. Author(s) must provide responses to all the reviewers’ questions, comments and suggestions. In the case of a disagreement with a reviewer's opinion, the author(s) should clearly justify their point of view. The author(s) responses to reviews must be submitted to the editor within 4 weeks from receipt of the reviews. In the case of absence of a response from the author(s) to a review after this time, the manuscript is considered to have been withdrawn by the author(s). Manuscripts revised by author(s) and the responses to a review are sent to reviewers for evaluation.
2.8. The text of a negative review is sent to the author(s) via e-mail for information.

3. Evaluation by the editorial board is performed for articles which are being prepared for publication in the next issue of the journal. Editorial Board meetings are held once every 2 months. The editorial board approves the list of articles to be published in the current issue of the Journal. The editorial board has the right to reject externally peer-reviewed articles or to send an article for additional external review. The decision of the editorial board is registered in the record of the meeting.

4. Final decision on the possibility of manuscript publication is made by the editor-in-chief or deputy editor-in-chief. All manuscripts that receive the approval of the editor-in-chief or deputy editor-in-chief, are sent for scientific and literary preparation, make-up and publication. The editors reserve the right to edit (including reduction) submitted articles and their titles.

5. Before online publication the made-up article is sent to corresponding author in *.pdf format by email to proof read for misprints in the text, tables, and figures. Within 48 hours sending the author this e-mail, the author must send a response to the Journal editor. The absence of the author's response is regarded as agreement with the submitted version of the article.

6. Reviews are kept in the editorial office for five years.

7. The editors send the author(s) of submitted manuscripts copies of reviews or a reasoned rejection, and also assure to send copies of reviews to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation upon receiving a relevant request.

8. Manuscripts will be rejected if:

• they are not designed in accordance with the requirements of the Journal, and if authors refuse to revise the manuscript;
• the authors do not follow the reviewer’s and editor’s constructive instructions or do not meet them with counterarguments.

Rejected articles can be re-submitted to the editor after they have been revised by the author(s). They are treated as a new submission according to the standard procedure.

The Journal is published every month (twelve times a year).

Also, the journal makes full-text archives on the Russian Science Electronic Library (http://elibrary.ru/) platform.

Issue and Article Purchase

Publication in “Theory and Practice of Physical Culture" is free of charge for all the authors.

The journal doesn't have any Arcticle processing charges.

The journal doesn't have any Article submission charges.

Indexing

The Theory and Practice of Physical Culture Journal is included into the “List of leading scientific journals under review, where principal data of applicants for scientific degree has to be published”, as decreed by State Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles and revised in 2015.

Publishing ethics and standards

The Ethics Policy of theTheory and Practice of Physical Culture Journal is based on recommendations from international committees:

• The International Committee of MEDICAL JOURNAL EDITORS (ICMJE)
• The WORLD ASSOCIATION OF MEDICAL EDITORS (WAME)
• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
• The office of Research Integrity (ORI)
• Council of Science Editors (CSE)
• European Association of Science Editors (EASE)

Reporting standards

The Theory and Practice of Physical CultureJournal editorial team asks authors of reports of original research to present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.  Reviews (including systematic reviews) should also be accurate and objective.

Authors should use inclusive language that acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Articles should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, should contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of race, sex, culture or any other characteristic, and should use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, for instance by using “he or she” and “his or her” or the gender neutral pronouns “they, their”, and by making use of job titles that are free of stereotyping (e.g. “chairperson” instead of “chairman” and “flight attendant” instead of “stewardess”).

Authors should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature.

Data access and retention

The editors reserve the right to request the authors to provide the original (raw) data related to a paper submitted for editorial review.  Authors should be prepared to provide the editors access to such data (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable period of time after publication.

Plagiarism

The Theory and Practice of Physical Culture Journal does not publish plagiarism, including works containing plagiarism of text, plagiarism of ideas and plagiarism of data.  Manuscript authors must submit completely original work. Reference to the results of work of other authors should be accompanied by citations of the corresponding primary sources, which are to be included in the list of references. The citation of text previously published elsewhere should be reported as direct speech with the quoted text being enclosed in quotation marks and written in italics, accompanied by an obligatory citation of the source. The inclusion of large fragments of borrowed text in the manuscript is unacceptable.

Manuscripts submitted to the Theory and Practice of Physical CultureJournal are checked for plagiarism through the . If unauthorized borrowings are identified, or if the originality of the text is low (< 85%), the manuscript will be rejected from publication.

Identification of plagiarism of ideas and plagiarism of data is carried out as part of the scientific review, as well as after the publication of a manuscript - upon the fact that readers submit relevant statements. If unauthorized borrowing of data (results of scientific work) or ideas is established, the manuscript (article) will be withdrawn and retracted from publication, even if it has already been published.

Multiplicity, redundancy and simultaneous submission of publications

The Theory and Practice of Physical CultureJournal considers only original content, i.e. articles that have not been previously published, including in a language other than English. Articles based on content previously made public only on a preprint server, institutional repository, or in a thesis will be considered.  If authors have used their own previously published work, or work that is currently under review, as the basis for a submitted manuscript, they must cite the previous articles and indicate how their submitted manuscript differs from their previous work. Reuse of the authors’ own words outside the Methods should be attributed or quoted in the text. Reuse of the authors’ own figures or substantial amounts of wording may require permission from the copyright holder and the authors are responsible for obtaining this.

Authors should not publish many manuscripts, mainly devoted to the same study, in more than one journal as original works.  Redundant publication, the inappropriate division of study outcomes into more than one article (also known as salami slicing), may result in rejection or a request to merge submitted manuscripts, and the correction of published articles.  Submitting the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal will be regarded as a violation of publication ethics. Theory and Practice of Physical Culture Journal will reject from publication any manuscripts that are found to be under consideration or previously published in other publications.

The Theory and Practice of Physical Culture will consider extended versions of articles published at conferences provided this is declared in the cover letter, the previous version is clearly cited and discussed, there is significant new content, and any necessary permissions are obtained. Duplicate publication of the same, or a very similar, article may result in the retraction of the later article and the authors may incur sanctions.

Authors, when submitting a manuscript for a “secondary” publication, must notify the editors and substantiate in detail its appropriateness. In the case of a "secondary" publication, the settlement of issues related to copyright of the publication is decided individually on a case by case basis.

The general rules for a manuscript as a "secondary" publication are:

• Citation of a full bibliographic reference to the “primary” publication
• Preservation of the original bibliography (reference list) of the "primary" work

More information on the acceptable forms of secondary (repeat) publications can be found on ICMJE web pages.

Citation Manipulation

Authors whose submitted manuscripts are found to include citations whose primary purpose is to increase the number of citations to a given author’s work, or to articles published in a particular journal.  Similarly, editors and reviewers must not ask authors to include references merely to increase citations to their own or an associate’s work, to the journal, or to another journal they are associated with.

Source recognition

The contribution of others to the study should always be recognized. Authors should refer to publications that were important in carrying out the scientific work covered in the manuscript. Data obtained unofficially (for example, during a conversation, correspondence or in a process of discussion with third parties) should not be used or presented without the explicit written permission of the source. Information obtained from confidential sources (for example, the provider of a research grant) should not be mentioned in the manuscript without the express written permission of the manuscript authors who are directly related to the relevant confidential sources.

Authorship of publications

The Journal and Publisher assume that all authors agree with the content of the submitted manuscript and that all have given explicit consent to submission.  The Journal and Publisher also assume that consent for submission has been obtained from the responsible authorities at the institute or organization where the work has been carried out.

Authors of publications can be only those people who have made a significant contribution to the formation of the work plan, the development, execution or interpretation of the results of the presented research, as well as to the process of writing the manuscript (including those who conducted scientific and stylistic editing and design in accordance with the requirements of the Journal).

1  First author. The first author in the list of co-authors should be the head of the manuscript authors who took the greatest part in the process of preparing the text and is familiar with the whole process of conducting the scientific work. The leader of the team of authors should become the "author for correspondence", to communicate with the editorial staff and readers (after the publication of the article).

2  Co-authors may be those who made a significant contribution to the preparation of the manuscript text and the study. In those cases where the study participants made a significant contribution in a certain direction in the research project, they should be indicated as persons who made a significant contribution to this study. The authors must make sure that all participants who have made a significant contribution to the study are presented as co-authors. Persons who did not participate in the study should not be listed as co-authors.  All Co-authors should approve the final version of a manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication.

Research subjects and associated risks

The journal publishes only the results of studies conducted in compliance with biomedical ethics and in accordance with GCP (Good Clinical Practice) standards.

Manuscripts should reflect all risks (obvious and potential) to which the subjects of study (people or animals) were exposed: exposure to chemicals (including drugs), procedures or equipment, and other situations that could be harmful to health or be dangerous to the life of the subjects of study.

If living people or animals are the research subjects in the experimental study, the authors should reflect in their manuscript that all stages of the study were carried out in accordance with the law and regulatory documents. Authors should also provide information that the study protocol was reviewed by an ethics committee with an obligatory indication of the name of the committee (or organization by which the committee was created), the date and reference number of the minutes of the meeting at which the study was approved. The editors have the right to require from the team the author certified copies of the relevant protocols.

All clinical trials should be conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of Good Clinical Practice and comply with the requirements of Federal Law No. 61 “On the Circulation of Medicines” (2010), as well as other applicable laws of the Russian Federation.

Disclosure of conflicts of interest

All authors are obliged to disclose (declare in the appropriate section of the manuscript) financial or other obvious or potential conflicts of interest that may be perceived as having an impact on the results or conclusions presented in the work.

Examples of potential conflicts of interest to be disclosed:

• receiving financial reward for participating in a study or writing a manuscript
• any connection with organizations that have a direct interest in the subject of the study or review (for example: work under contract, consultation, stock ownership, receiving fees or royalties, providing expert opinion)
• patent application or registration of a patent for research results (copyright, etc.)
• obtaining financial support for any of the stages of the study or manuscript writing (including grants and other financial support)
• close personal connections
• beliefs or activism, for example, political or religious, relevant to the work
• competitors or someone whose work is critiqued.

Explicit and potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed as early as possible.

Information about conflicts of interest received from the authors of manuscripts is not provided to reviewers and is available only to the editorial board when deciding on the publication of the manuscript. Information about conflicts of interest is published as part of the full article.

Significant errors in published works

If the author finds significant errors or inaccuracies in the publication, the author must promptly inform the editorial office of the journal or the publisher in order to retract the publication or to correct errors. If the editorial board or the publisher receives substantiated information from a third party that the publication contains significant errors, the author is obliged to retract the work or correct the errors as soon as possible, or to refute the statement of errors by presenting the necessary evidence to the editorial office.  When errors are identified in published articles, the publisher will consider what action is required and may consult the editors and the authors’ institution(s).  Errors by the authors may be corrected by a published corrigendum, and errors by the publisher by a published erratum.

If there are errors that significantly affect the conclusions or there is evidence of misconduct, this may require retraction or an expression of concern following the COPE Retraction Guidelines. All authors will be asked to agree to the content of the appropriate notice.

If the Theory and Practice of Physical Culture Journal becomes aware of breaches of our publication ethics policies the following sanctions may be applied:

• Rejection of the manuscript and any other manuscripts submitted by the author(s).
• Not allowing submission for 1–3 years.
• Prohibition from acting as an editor or reviewer.

Theory and Practice of Physical Culture Journal may apply additional sanctions for severe ethical violations.

Corrections, Retractions, and Editorial expressions of concern Policies

Theory and Practice of Physical Culture Journal is committed to uphold the integrity of the literature and publishes Errata (Corrections), Expressions of Concerns or Retraction Notices dependent on the situation and in accordance with the COPE Retraction Guidelines. In all cases, these notices are linked to the original article.

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the authors obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

If the editor or the publisher learn from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, it is the obligation of the author to promptly retract or correct the paper or provide evidence to the editor of the correctness of the original paper.

When errors are identified in published articles, the publisher will consider what action is required and may consult the editors and the authors’ institution(s). 

Errors by the authors may be corrected by a corrigendum, and errors by the publisher — by an erratum (see more).

If there are errors that significantly affect the conclusions or there is evidence of misconduct, this may require retraction or an expression of concern following the COPE Retraction Guidelines. All authors will be asked to agree to the content of the appropriate notice.

According to the rules of the Council on Ethics of Scientific Publications of Association of Science Editors and Publishers, the grounds for article retraction are:

• detection of plagiarism in the article;
• detection of falsifications (for example, manipulation of experimental data);
• detection of serious errors that cast doubt on scientific value of the article;
• incorrect list of authors;
• duplication of the article in several journals;
• republishing the article without the author’s consent;
• concealment of conflict of interest and other violations of publication ethics;
• the fact that the article hasn’t been peer reviewed.

After the decision to retract the article is made, the editor-in-chief informs its authors, indicating the reason and date of retraction. The article remains on the journal’s site as part of the corresponding journal issue, but is marked “retracted” with the retraction date (the mark is placed on top of the text of the article and in the table of contents); in addition, a message about retraction is placed in the news section of the site, and the chief editor sends information about the article retraction to all online libraries and databases in which the journal is indexed.

Information on COPE Retraction Guidelines can be found here: Retraction Guidelines

Requirements for publications

Articles submitted to the editorial office are professionally reviewed, edited by highly qualified experts, and translated into English. The editorial office takes on the responsibility of scientific editing and proofreading of the articles. Conditions for submitting scientific materials. The journal publishes scientific reviews, full-text articles, and short messages. Articles are accepted in Russian and English. The set of submitted documents must include: the text of the article with completed drawings and tables; forms of information about the authors (for each author); it is allowed to specify several places of work for the author; a file with a photo of the first author in the original format (preferably JPEG) with maximum resolution; it is allowed to present both a color photo and a black-and-white version; information about the results of checking the article text for plagiarism; the license agreement for the journal "Theory and Practice of Physical Culture";
consent to the processing of personal data in a free form (signed by all authors of the article, in pdf or jpeg format). All documents are submitted electronically to the email address fizkult@teoriya.ru.

Requirements for the design of scientific articles

The volume of a full-text and review article, including an abstract, illustrations, tables, and a list of references, should not exceed 7.5 pages of typewritten text. The volume of a short message is up to 2 pages, with a 14 pt font and a 1.5 line spacing. The original layout of the article is created in the Microsoft Word editor (version 2003 or later), with regular margins (top: 2 cm, bottom: 2 cm, right: 1.5 cm, left: 3 cm). The paragraph indentation is 1.5 cm, and the text is aligned to the width of the page. The entire text (excluding figure captions and table text) is printed in Times New Roman font, 14 pt, with a half-spacing. The title of the article, the authors' names, and the section titles are displayed in bold. Figures and tables are placed directly in the text, and the captions, text, and table titles are written in Times New Roman 12-point font with single spacing. In tables, it is important to keep the column headers as concise as possible, avoid providing values that can be easily derived from the existing data (such as differences or percentages), avoid abbreviating words, and avoid duplicating data that is already present in the text. It is recommended to format tables to take up the entire width of the page. Tables that take up the entire page are not accepted. Graphs, drawings, and diagrams should be created using any vector graphics software (CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD), and the Arial font should be used. It is also allowed to create graphs (but not diagrams or drawings) using Word and Excel. The article can include high-quality photographs and drawings that illustrate the experiment. The illustrations should be included in the manuscript file and also provided as separate graphic files (tiff, jpg) with a resolution of at least 2000 pixels on one side. The quality of the images must ensure that they can be printed without additional processing. It is not allowed to use drawings and tables that require a landscape page orientation. Pay special attention to the quality of the drawings. The drawings must be clear, and the labels must be easy to read. If you want to convert formulas to raster format, please pay special attention to their quality after conversion. The list of references should be arranged alphabetically in accordance with the rules of bibliographic description according to GOST R 7.05–2008 "Bibliographic Reference. General Requirements and Rules for Compilation." The list of references should also be presented in English in accordance with the Russian version. References in the text should be given in square brackets in accordance with the numbers in the list of references. Footnotes should be given as superscripts. The author is responsible for the accuracy of the information in the list of references. The manuscript must include the date of writing, the names of all authors, a postal address, a telephone number, and, as a minimum, the e-mail of one of the authors. The article must be accompanied by a high-quality portrait photo of the first author, which is attached as a separate vertically oriented graphic file (tiff, jpg) with a resolution of at least 1280 by 960 pixels (a 1.5-megapixel digital camera is sufficient for this purpose). Articles are accepted exclusively by e-mail. The article file name must contain the first author's surname and the date of writing (for example, Ivanov02.05.2006.doc), all additional files (with drawings, schemes, etc.) must also contain the author's surname and the date (for example, Ivanov02.05.2006Photo.tif, Ivanov02.05.2006Ris1.jpg or Ivanov02.05.2006Shema2.cdr). Upon receipt of the article by the editorial office, a notification is sent to the email address from which the article was sent, informing the author of the acceptance or rejection of the article, depending on whether it meets the above requirements. Please pay attention to reading your email. Due to the overloaded editorial portfolio, some of the materials will be published as brief abstracts in the "From the Editorial Portfolio" section. Remember, the shorter the length of your article, the more likely it is to be published soon. The editorial board reserves the right to make decisions regarding the nature of the publication, its section and title, as well as to reduce the length of the article, including significant reductions, in consultation with the authors. Requirements for the authors' photographs that will be published in the magazine: The photo format can be any (JPG, TIFF, PNG). The color can be any, but the photo will end up in black and white. The photo should be clear when it is enlarged to 100%! The photo file size should not be very small (less than 100 KB) — in most cases, this indicates poor quality. The resolution should be 300 dpi. The geometric dimensions should be at least 400 by 500 dots (pixels) if it is a portrait. If the photo is full-length, it should be larger. Do not enlarge the photo to the desired size at the expense of its quality! It is preferable for the author of the photo to be on a solid-colored background.