Peer Review policy


All manuscripts sent for publication in this Journal must be in English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, German. All manuscripts must be provided with an abstract and key words in English language. They will be evaluated according to the following criteria: interest to the general field of Sports Humanities as applied to sport and physical activity; significance of contribution, originality and innovation; international relevance; coverage of appropriate existing scientific literature; adequacy of methodology, analysis and interpretation; clear and concise writing style and errorfree writing; organization. All papers in this journal will undergo rigorous peer review, based on initial editorial screening of two reviewers from the scientific board who are matched to the manuscript in accordance with their expertise, and review by two anonymous external referees.

Peer-review process

The manuscripts submitted to the IJSHU and regardless of the category (Article, Case study or Monograph) undergo a peer-review process or a blind, peer-review process.

First, the Editorial Board preselects the manuscripts. During this process it is decided if the submitted papers comply with the thematic and formal requirements of the publication guidelines of the Journal.

Papers that do not meet these requirements will not undergo the next phase of the peer-review process.

The reviewers have an Evaluation protocol for the process of evaluation which is publicly accessible, that must be filled out to complete the procedure. Reviewers are asked to handle in their evaluations within 30 days from confirming their availability. The manuscripts are evaluated anonymously, that is the author is not informed about who is reviewing the paper.

Taking into account the reviewers’ evaluations, the Editorial Board decides if the paper is rejected or accepted for publication. They also decide about the changes and modifications considered appropriate.

Note: the papers are also reviewed by external reviewers who could not be from the Editorial Board.

Conflict of interests

A conflict of interest may arise when an author, a referee or a member of the Editorial Board as reviewer have personal or economic relations which may unduly influence  their behaviour  in  terms  of  judgments,  pressure  or  assessments. The Editors, the Scientific Committee and the Editorial Board members of IJSHU are responsible for managing potential conflicts of interest by adopting a double-blind review process.