Human Movement Author Guidelines

1. The Human Movement quarterly (hereafter referred to as HM) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Wroclaw University of Health and Sport Sciences, Poland.

2. The Editorial Office of HM (hereafter referred to as the Editor) accepts scientific papers, not published anywhere before, concerning human movement within the scope of sports medicine, physical effort physiology, biomechanics, motor activity, psychology. A scientific paper, in accordance with the regulations of the Statement of the Minister of Science and Higher Education of June 2, 2015 on the criteria and procedure of scientific journals assessment, is a paper presenting results of original research of empirical, theoretical, technical, or analytical character, and communicating the present state of the art, the research methods, the course of the research process, its results and conclusions, along with the indication of the quoted literature (bibliography). Scientific papers also include studies of monographic, polemical, or review character, as well as glosses or juridical comments. The Editor also accepts letters the Editor, scientific conferences reports, and book reviews.

3. Only papers written in English are accepted.

4. By submitting a paper, the author agrees to accept the Editor’s procedures of qualifying papers for publication and the ‘Instructions on submitting and preparing articles’ (Appendix 1 to these Author Guidelines).

5. The paper is subject to a two-step qualification procedure: (1) formal internal assessment, performed by the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial team (verification of the article compliance with the journal’s profile and technical requirements); (2) external review – performed by two independent reviewers, appointed by the Editor-in-Chief. In addition, empirical papers in which statistical methods were applied undergo verification by a statistical editor.

6. The Author can suggest reviewers, but the Editor reserves the right to the final selection.

7. Reviewers are senior academic staff members or academics at least with the scientific degree of a doctor, competent within the merits of the paper. Reviewers are independent: not affiliated in the same research unit as the author of the publication.

8. The review procedures are consistent with the regulations and recommendations of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

9. Papers are accepted for publication after being reviewed favourably by two independent reviewers. If the reviews are contradictory, the third reviewer is appointed, whose opinion becomes decisive.

10. Reviews are drawn up in writing, in a review sheet, which obliges the reviewer to formulate an unequivocal conclusion about accepting the paper for publication or rejecting it.

11. The author and the reviewer remain anonymous to each other (double blind review process). Otherwise, the reviewer is obliged to declare no conflict of interest; what is referred to as conflict of interest is a direct personal relationship between the reviewer and the author (kinship, legal relationship, conflict); professional dependence relationship; direct research cooperation within the two years prior to the paper reviewing.

12. Names of the reviewers are not revealed. Once a year, the Editor provides a general list of the cooperating reviewers.

13. The author is informed about the review results and the reviewers’ comments, so that they can correct the paper in accordance with the provided directions.

14. The Editor reserves the right to introduce corrections in the paper. An article that does not follow the guidelines can be returned to the author for adjustments.

15. The Editor reserves the right to reject a paper which is not consistent with the journal profile; does not meet the requirements imposed on scientific papers; has received two negative scientific reviews; does not follow the ‘Instructions on submitting and preparing articles’ (Appendix 1 to these Author Guidelines); has not been corrected in accordance with the directions of the Editor or the reviewers; bears attributes of plagiarism.

16. The final decision on accepting a paper for publication or rejecting it is always taken by the Editor-in-Chief.

17. The author is obliged to sign the licence, consequently giving their consent to publicize the paper in print, on magnetic or digital carriers, and on the Internet. If the article is an output of cooperation with other authors, the main author is obliged to provide licences signed by all co-authors and to inform them about the conditions included in the journal guidelines.

18. The author is obliged to provide a statement concerning the ethical procedures effective in scientific research, and to reveal the input of particular authors in the creation of the paper (giving their affiliations and contribution, i.e. information about the authorship of the concept, assumptions, methods, protocol etc. employed in the preparation of the article); the main responsibility rests with the author submitting the paper.

19. Manuscripts containing information related to human use should clearly state that the research has complied with all relevant national regulations and institutional policies and has been approved by the authors' institutional review board or equivalent committee. Copies of the guidelines and policy statements must be available for review by the Managing Editor if necessary. The editors reserve the right to seek additional information or guidance from reviewers on any cases in which concerns arise. All investigation with human subjects must have been conducted by following the tenets of the Helsinki Declaration, what is more authors must identify the committee or review board approving the experiments, and provide a statement indicating approval of the research.

20. Manuscripts containing information related to animals use should clearly state that the research has complied with all relevant national regulations and institutional policies and has been approved by the authors' institutional review board or equivalent committee. Copies of the guidelines and policy statements must be available for review by the Managing Editor if necessary. The editors reserve the right to seek additional information or guidance from reviewers on any cases in which concerns arise. The research using animal subjects should be conducted according to the Principles of Laboratory Animal Care and similar documents (e.g. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/olaw.htm). For manuscripts reporting experiments on live vertebrates or higher invertebrates, authors must identify the committee approving the experiments, and must confirm that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant regulations.

21. Author is responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any material used in their manuscripts that is protected by copyright.

22. A person who performed statistical calculations only, prepared solely the bibliographic list, or merely organized or funded the research cannot be referred to as author.

23. The Editor will not accept a paper which employs ghostwriting or guest authorship, and will disclose all such practices, especially symptoms of scientific dishonesty (breaking or compromising the ethical principles effective in scientific research) and plagiarism.

24. The author accepts that a submitted manuscript may be screened for plagiarism against previously published works. Manuscripts that are found to have been plagiarized will incur plagiarism sanctions: immediate rejection of the submitted manuscript or published article, prohibition of any new submissions.

25. The authors are obliged to to provide the sources of financing the paper, as well as any input of research and development institutions, associations, or other entities (financial disclosure).

26. The papers published in HM are, as a whole (together with the correspondence data), made accessible in the Internet version of the journal and in the bases in which it is indexed.

27. The author receives neither royalty for the published paper nor a journal copy; they are provided solely with a PDF file with the published article.

28. The author is obliged to protect the personal data of the research participants. If the information included in the paper allows, in any way, to identify the study subjects, the author has to obtain their written consent for the publication of the research outcomes, including photographs, before submitting the paper for printing.

29. The author accepts the responsibility to introduce the corrections resulting from the review and send the paper back within 1 week.

30. The author is obliged to cooperate with the publishing editor and the linguistic and statistical proofreaders in order to clarify any ambiguities and correct deficiencies. Lack of the author’s response to the editorial remarks within a week shall denote their consent for introducing the suggested changes.

31. In the case of a significant delay in the appointed deadline for introducing corrections by the author, the Editor reserves the right to reschedule the paper to the subsequent HM volume.

32. The author should list all the people or institutions that contributed to the preparation of the paper, served as consultants, or provided financial or technical support.

33. The original (the reference) version of HM is the electronic edition.

34. The Editor shall disclose all cases of scientific dishonesty, including notifying appropriate entities (institutions employing the authors, scientific associations, associations of scientific editors, etc.). The Editor is obliged to document any symptoms of scientific dishonesty, especially of breaking or compromising the ethical principles effective in scientific research.

Article Sharing

1. The Editorial Board does not allow authors to include pre-prints, i.e. articles before peer-review, on private websites or in institutional repositories.

2. The author may, with the permission of the Editorial Board, include the post-print version of their article on private websites and in institutional repositories (the peer-reviewed version, including the changes implemented during the review process and approved by the Editorial Board), provided that they specify the source information (journal title, year, doi, journal website address) and indicate in the content of the article that this is a version prior to publication, and provided that the copyright and publication rights of the article are preserved. After the publication of the article in the journal, the author is responsible for updating the archived post-print with a reference to the journal (including doi) and a link to the published article on the relevant journal website.

3. The author may individually include the published version of the article (the final PDF file), i.e. the official version issued in the journal, on private websites and in institutional repositories.

Clinical trials
Human movement is published in accordance with ICMJE policies and recommendations. The ICMJE requires - and recommends that all medical journal editors require - registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for article publication.
The ICMJE defines a clinical trial as any research project that prospectively assigns people or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, to study the relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome. Health-related interventions are those used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome; examples include drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, educational programs, dietary interventions, quality improvement interventions, and process-of-care changes. Health outcomes are any biomedical or health-related measures obtained in patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic measures and adverse events.

The ICMJE accepts publicly accessible registration in any registry that is a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) that includes the minimum acceptable 24-item trial registration data set or in ClinicalTrials.gov, which is a data provider to the WHO ICTRP.

In accordance with the ICMJE recommendations, the Editors of Human Movement require authors to provide all necessary information regarding the registered study when submitting the article for publication: name of the register, Main ID, Public Title, Date of Registration. The data provided by the author are verified by the editors.

More information on this can be found here https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html

Source: ICMJE, Clinical Trials, https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html

Appendix 1 to the Human Movement Author Guidelines

INSTRUCTIONS ON SUBMITTING AND PREPARING ARTICLES

The Editor accepts solely papers submitted via the electronic Editorial System. The paper registration proceeds according to the System guidelines. The management of the editorial stages and contacting the author take place via the Editorial System exclusively. The author’s e-mail address in used to confirm the reception of the paper by the Editor and to provide information about the editorial process stages.

The articles are published in English. Manuscripts sent in other languages will not be accepted. English text verification before submission is strongly suggested for non-native English authors.

The papers have to be anonymous for the reviewers; therefore, all information identifying the authors of the article within the text, references, footnotes, and bibliography should be removed.

Together with the abstract, figures, and tables, an empirical article should not exceed 20 A4 pages (1800 characters including spaces per page), and a review article – 30 pages.

The paper should be prepared in the Microsoft Word text editor and respect the following standards:
– font: Times New Roman, 12 points;
– line spacing: 1,5;
– text alignment: justified;
– title alignment: centred.

Paper composition:
a) the title page (separate) should include: the article full tittle, abbreviated title (up to 60 characters including spaces), the first name and surname of the author/authors, ORCID (Open Research and Contributor ID), the affiliation of the author/authors (university name, city, country), the main author’s correspondence address (department/chair name, institution address, e-mail address, telephone number), and the e-mail addresses of all authors;
b) the article text should include:
– the article full tittle;
– abstract (up to 250 words), divided into the following sections (in experimental papers): Purpose, Methods, Results, Conclusions;
– 3–6 key words in English (selected as MeSH descriptors; the key words must not duplicate the paper title);
– the main text.

The main text of an experimental paper should include the following sections:

INTRODUCTION
Here, the author presents the article subject, as well as describes its aim, its hypotheses, and the existing research (literature review).
MATERIAL AND METHODS
This section is to clearly describe the research material (if human subjects participate in the experiment, their number, age, sex, and other characteristic features should be provided), conditions, time, methods, and the equipment used (including the producer’s name and address). The measurement procedures need to be provided in sufficient detail in order to allow for their reproducibility. If a method is being used for the first time, the author should describe it in special detail, presenting its validity and reliability (reproducibility). If the existing methods are modified, the changes must be discussed and justified. All experiments employing human or animal subjects must obtain approval of an appropriate research ethics committee or the National Ethics Committee on Animal Experiments on implementing the methods suggested by the author in the experiment (a copy of the approval document must be attached to the paper). Statistical methods should be described in a way allowing to assess their correctness. In the case of a review article, methods of searching for and selecting the material should also be provided.
The protection of privacy is a legal right that must not be breached without individual informed consent. In cases where the identification of personal information is necessary for scientific reasons, authors should obtain full documentation of informed consent, including written permission from the patient prior to inclusion in the study.
Informed consent: Informed consent has been obtained from all individuals included in this study.
Ethical approval: The research related to human use has been complied with all the relevant national regulations, institutional policies and in accordance the tenets of the Helsinki Declaration, and has been approved by the authors' institutional review board or equivalent committee.
Ethical approval: The research related to animals use has been complied with all the relevant national regulations and institutional policies for the care and use of animals.
If the manuscript does not contain any study that requires human or animal ethical approval, the following statement should be included in the Methods section:
Ethical approval: The conducted research is not related to either human or animals use.

RESULTS
Results, closely tied with the data included in the tables and figures, should be presented logically and consistently.

DISCUSSION
In this section, the author should discuss the obtained results and refer them to the outcomes described in literature (other than those mentioned in the introduction), emphasising new and significant aspects of their paper.

CONCLUSION
It is important to bear in mind the original aim of the paper and the formulated hypotheses. Vague statements and those unsupported by the research results should be avoided. Putting forward new hypotheses must be clearly emphasized.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Here, the author enumerates the people and institutions that contributed to the preparation of the paper, served as consultants, or provided financial or technical support.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors of the article are obliged to report an actual or potential conflict of interest that prevents the pursuit of the scientific truth. A conflict of interest arises when at least one of the authors is – either directly or through immediate family – associated with any organization or entity: financially (e.g. by royalties, scientific grants, membership, employment, consultations, ownership rights or other equity and expert testimonies or license agreements on patents) or non-financially (e.g. by affinity, legal ties, professional dependence, membership, knowledge or beliefs regarding the subject or materials covered by the article). If a conflict of interest is suspected, the author is obliged to report this in the cover letter sent to the Editor, indicate it in a footnote to the publication (e.g. by specifying the sources of the financial support and other financial and personal ties with the article), and attach a relevant statement.
Statement
The authors hereby declare the following conflict of interest: .........................
Signatures of all the authors
If there are no conflicts of interest, the following statement should be included before the References (or at the end of the Acknowledgments section):
Conflict of interest: Authors state no conflict of interest.
Disclosure statement: No author has any financial interest or received any financial benefit from this research.

REFERENCES
The bibliographic items should be ordered and numbered in the sequence they are referred to in the text, not alphabetically. In the text, each reference should be indicated with its number, enclosed in square brackets, e.g. Bouchard et al. [23]. Bibliography (only items that are not more than 10 years old and included in research databases, such as SPORTDiscus, MEDLINE) should not exceed 30 references (2 book publications are permitted), with the exception of review articles. Quoting unpublished sources is not recommended.
Review articles should maintain logical continuity. The particular section titles must reflect the issues discussed in the sections.

Citing journal articles
Bibliographic citations of journal articles should include: the author’s (or authors’) surname, first name initial, article title, abbreviated journal title, year, volume or number, page number, doi, for example:
Tchórzewski D, Jaworski J, Bujas P. Influence of long-lasting balancing on unstable surface on changes in balance. Hum Mov. 2010;11(2):144–152; doi: 10.2478/v10038-010-0022-2.
If there are six or less authors, all the names should be mentioned; if there are seven or more, give the first six and then use the abbreviation “et al.”
If the title of the article is in a language other than English, the author should translate the title into English, and then in square brackets indicate the original language; the journal title should be left in its native name, for example:
Jaskólska A, Bogucka M, Świstak R, Jaskólski A. Mechanisms, symptoms and after-effects of delayed muscle soreness (DOMS) [in Polish]. Med Sport. 2002;4:189–201.
The author’s research should only take into consideration articles published in English.

Citing books
Bibliographic citations of books should include: the author (or authors’) or editor’s (or editors’) surname, first name initial, book title translated into English, publisher, place and year of publication, for example:
Osiński W. Anthropomotoric [in Polish]. Poznań: AWF; 2001.
Heinemann K. (ed.). Sport clubs in various European countries. Schorndorf: Karl Hofmann; 1999.
Bibliographic citations of an article within a book should include: the author’s (or authors’) surname, first name initial, article title, book author (or authors’) or editor’s (or editors’) surname, first name initial, book title, publisher, place and year of publication, page number, for example:
McKirnan MD, Froelicher VF. General principles of exercise testing. In: Skinner JS (ed.), Exercise testing and exercise prescription for special cases. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger; 1993; 3–28.

Citing conference materials
Citing conference materials (found only in international research databases such as SPORTDiscus) should include: the author’s (or authors’) surname, first name initial, article title, conference author’s (or authors’) or editor’s (or editor’s) surname, first name initial, conference title, publisher, place and year of publication, page number, for example:
Rodriguez FA, Moreno D, Keskinen KL, Validity of a two-distance simplified testing method for determining critical swimming velocity. In: Chatard JC (ed.), Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming IX, Proceedings of the IXth World Symposium on Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming. St. Etienne: Université de St. Etienne; 2003; 385–390.

Citing articles in electronic format
Citing articles in electronic format should include: author’s (or authors’) surname, first name initial, article title, abbreviated journal title, year of publication, journal volume and number, website address where it is available, doi number, for example:
Donsmark M, Langfort J, Ploug T, Holm C, Enevold­sen LH, Stallknech B et al. Hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) expression and regulation by epinephrine and exercise in skeletal muscle. Eur J Sport Sci. 2002 ;2(6). Available from: URL: http://www.humankinetics.com/ejss/bissues.cfm/; doi: 10.1080/17461391.2002.10142575 [18.05.2015].

Instructions concerning tables, figures, and photographs:
– they should be provided with numbers and captions;
– they should be placed within the text;
– in addition, figures and photographs must be attached as separate xls, stg, pdf, cdr, eps, tif or jpg files (minimum resolution of 300 dpi);
– the same results should not be repeated in tables and figures;
– the illustrative material should be prepared in black and white or in grayscale (the journal is printed in black and white);
– symbols, e.g. arrows or stars, as well as abbreviations used in tables or figures should be clearly explained in a legend so that they are legible and comprehensible irrespective of the paper text.

All the quotations included in the paper must be accompanied by bibliographic information, including numbers of the source pages.

If a figure or table has been developed on the basis of some other figure or table, the source should be provided. In the case of reprinting a table or figure from another publication, obtaining the publisher’s permission is necessary.

Prior to printing, the author will receive their paper for acceptance in a PDF file format. The author is obliged to immediately inform the Editor accepting the paper for print. At this stage, only minor corrections will be accepted.



PUBLICATION CHARGE

Please note that there is an obligatory charge – EUR 250 – for each manuscript submitted on or after January 1, 2024 via our editorial system and accepted for publication in Human Movement. Payment is intended to cover the cost associated with publication partially. For authors from Poland the charge is 1200 PLN.

The authors of ordered articles, section editors cooperating with the journal editorial office, and employees of the Wroclaw University of Health and Sport Sciences are exempt from the fee. If the manuscript has been written jointly by the employees of the Wroclaw University of Health and Sport Sciences and authors from other institutions, the exemption from the payment applies only when the first, the last, or the corresponding author is the employee of the Wroclaw University of Health and Sport Sciences.

We shall send an invoice for payment after articles are accepted for publication.

Payments can be made directly to the following bank accounts:

Payment in EUR:
22 1240 3464 1978 0010 6321 0188
SWIFT: PKOPPLPW
Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego im. Polskich Olimpijczyków we Wrocławiu
al. Ignacego Jana Paderewskiego 35
51-612 Wrocław
Bank Pekao S.A. o/Wrocław
- title: Publication fee, author's name, article number

Payment in PLN:
PL 77 1240 3464 1111 0010 6320 9674
SWIFT: PKOPPLPW
Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego im. Polskich Olimpijczyków we Wrocławiu
al. Ignacego Jana Paderewskiego 35
51-612 Wrocław
Bank Pekao S.A. o/Wrocław
- title: Publication fee, author's name, article number

The corresponding author is responsible for all documentation necessary for proper processing of the bank transfer. The author should send us proper postal and e-mail addresses and all necessary data for the invoice, including the editorial number of publication. We shall send an invoice for payment after articles are accepted for publication. In the title of the transfer operation, the reference number of the manuscript, which is automatically given during the submission process, should be written. During a bank transfer, please indicate author’s name in addition to the article number (e.g. John Smith, HUMMOV-00551-2021-22).

Bank transfer charges should be covered by the payer (the sender). Please scan the remittance receipt and add it via our editorial system in the "PAYMENT / Add Payment confirmation" in your account. The payment will be approved upon receipt of the transfer confirmation from the Publisher's bank.

The fee applies only to the cost of preparing/developing the article for publication in the journal. The fee does not affect the date of the article publication.
Please be informed that if the author decides not to publish the work, which was already accepted and paid, the fee paid will not be returned for reasons beyond the Publisher’s control.