The Sport Psychologist

Designed for educational and clinical psychologists, The Sport Psychologist (TSP) focuses on applied research and its application in providing psychological services to coaches and athletes. TSP publishes four issue per year (March, June, September, and December).

Mission

TSP is a scholarly refereed journal designed as a forum to stimulate thought and disseminate knowledge that focuses on the application and practice of sport psychology. A special emphasis of the journal is on the delivery of psychological services to practitioners such as athletes and coaches. TSP is international in scope and is receptive to diverse methodologies. TSP is published for sport psychology specialists who engage in research, teaching, and/or intervention in a variety of contexts including academic, public, and private settings. The journal is also intended for practitioners such as coaches who have training and interest in sport psychology.

The journal is divided into the following sections:

Applied Research. This section includes research reports that focus directly upon application and practice in sport psychology. Case studies, field studies, and reports of evaluation research that examine the effectiveness of psychological interventions in sport are highly appropriate. Articles about methodological and measurement issues are welcomed, including those that examine and/or utilize qualitative and other emerging research methods. Also appropriate are articles that link psychological theory and research to application in sport psychology.

Professional Practice. This section includes articles that discuss current and relevant professional issues in sport psychology and that report unique sport psychology interventions in different contexts. Articles that describe approaches and methods of teaching psychological skills are also appropriate, as are articles that report experiential learning, introspective observations, and clinical observations.

Profiles. This section includes interviews with coaches, athletes, and sport psychologists. It also contains editorials that address issues in the field, as well as feature stories on sport psychology in various countries.

Bulletin Board. This section includes international news in sport psychology from various countries, professional organizations, and university or private programs. Announcements of upcoming events, reports from past conferences, and the identification of resources available for sport psychology specialists are also included.

Book and Resource Reviews. This section includes reviews of books and other resources (e.g., videotapes, audio tapes, computer software) that are of interest to researchers, practitioners, and instructors in sport psychology.

Editor

Sheldon Hanton, PhD
Professor of Sport Psychology
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research)
Cardiff Metropolitan University
Llandaff Campus
Western Avenue
Cardiff Metropolitan
CF5 2YB
United Kingdom
E-mail: shanton@cardiffmet.ac.uk

Editors Emeriti

Daniel Gould (Founding Co-Editor: 1987–1991)
Glyn C. Roberts (Founding Co-Editor: 1987–1991)
Robin S. Vealey (1992–1995)
Graham Jones (1995–1996)
Peter Crocker (1997–2000)
Vikki Krane (2000–2004)
Ian Maynard (2005–2012)

Professional Practice Editor

Brendan Cropley
University of South Wales, UK

Associate Editors

Eva V. Monsma
University of South Carolina, USA

Ross Roberts
Bangor University, UK

Dave Smith
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

Editorial Assistant

Rebecca Hembrough
England Golf, UK

Bulletin Board Editor

Alan McKay
Loughborough University, UK

Book & Resource Review Editor

Lenny Wiersma
California State University, Fullerton, USA

Editorial Board

Duarte Araújo, University of Lisbon, Portugal

Rosie Arthur, Queen Margaret's University, UK

Jamie Barker, Staffordshire University, UK

Mark Bruner, Nipissing University, Canada

Joanne Butt, Liverpool John Moores University, UK

Krista Chandler, University of Windsor, Canada

Graig M. Chow, University of California, Berkeley, USA

Jean Côté, Queen’s University, Canada

Robert Eklund, Florida State University, USA

Lynne Evans, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK

Mark Eys, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

Scott Fleming, Bishop Grosseteste University, UK

Daniel Gould, Michigan State University, USA

Chris Harwood, Nottingham Trent University, UK

Laura Healy, Nottingham Trent University, UK

Denise M. Hill, Swansea University, UK

Ken Hodge, Otago University, New Zealand

Emma Kavanagh, Bournemouth University, UK

Masato Kawabata, Rikkyo University, Japan

Goran Kentta, Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences

Elsa Kristiansen, University College of Southeast Norway

Hayley McEwan, University of the West of Scotland, UK

Colin McLaren, Cape Breton University, Canada

Zella Moore, Touro University, USA

Sandra Moritz, University of North Dakota, USA

Artur Poczwardowski, University of Denver, USA

Alessandro Quartiroli, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, USA

James Rumbold,  University of Derby, UK

Robert Schinke, Laurentian University, Canada

Andrew C. Sparkes, Leeds Beckett University, UK

David Tod, Lancaster University, UK

Ross Wadey, St. Mary's University, UK

Robert S. Weinberg, Miami University, USA

Tim Woodman, Bangor University, UK

Prior to submission, please carefully read and follow the submission guidelines detailed below. Authors must submit their manuscripts through the journal’s ScholarOne online submission system. To submit, click the button below:

Authorship Guidelines

The Journals Division at Human Kinetics adheres to the criteria for authorship as outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors:

Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Conditions a, b, c, and d must all be met. Individuals who do not meet the above criteria may be listed in the acknowledgments section of the manuscript.

Authors who use artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in their work must indicate how they were used in the cover letter and the work itself. These technologies cannot be listed as authors as they are unable to meet all the conditions above, particularly agreeing to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Generative AI Policy

As stated in the Authorship Guidelines, authors who use artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in their work must indicate how they were used in the cover letter and the work itself. These technologies cannot be listed as authors as they are unable to meet all the conditions above, particularly agreeing to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Please note that editorial discretion will determine whether generative AI use in a submission is inappropriate or excessive.

Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies for peer review is prohibited. Please see our Editor and Reviewer Resource Center for additional details.

Free Access and Open Access

Human Kinetics is pleased to allow our authors the option of having their articles published Free or Open Access. In order for an article to be published Free or Open Access, authors must complete the Free Access or Open Access Form and provide payment for this option. To learn more and request Free and Open Access, please see our Open Access resource page.

Fee for Free Access

• Copyright assigned to Human Kinetics $2,000

Fees for Open Access

• Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license $2,250
• Creative Commons CC-BY-NC license $2,450
• Creative Commons CC-BY license $2,950

Manuscript Guidelines

All Human Kinetics journals require that authors follow our manuscript guidelines in regards to use of copyrighted material, human and animal rights, and conflicts of interest as specified on our author resource page.

When preparing manuscripts for submission in The Sport Psychologist, authors should follow the guidelines in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition). Manuscripts must be submitted in English. All manuscripts must be preceded by an abstract of no more than 150 words. If footnotes are used, they should be as few as possible and should not exceed six lines each. Figures should be saved as TIFF or JPEG files. Format tables using the Table Layout function in Word rather than aligning columns in text with tabs and spaces or using text boxes.Reference citations in the text must be accurate concerning dates of publication and spelling of author names, and they must cross-check with those in the reference list. Manuscripts will be summarily rejected if they do not follow the APA guidelines. Please activate continuous line numbering throughout the manuscript.

Manuscripts submitted will be judged primarily on their substantive content, but writing style, structure, and length are very important considerations. Poor presentation is sufficient reason for the rejection of a manuscript. When first received, manuscripts will be evaluated by the editor in terms of their contribution-to-length ratio. Thus, manuscripts should be written as simply and concisely as possible. However, we recognize that in rare circumstances, papers intended to make very extensive contributions may require additional space. Prior to submitting a manuscript, authors should consider the contribution-to-length ratio and ask themselves, “Is the paper long enough to cover the subject while concise enough to maintain the reader’s interest?” (This paragraph is based on the Information for Contributors of the Academy of Management Review.)

Manuscripts must not be submitted to another journal while they are under review by The Sport Psychologist nor should they have been previously published. Manuscripts are read by two reviewers, with the review process taking 8–12 weeks. Manuscripts will be evaluated in terms of topical relevance, theoretical and methodological adequacy, and clarity of explanation and analysis. Authors should be prepared to provide the data and/or research instrument(s) on which the manuscript is based for examination if requested by the editor. Comments from reviewers concerning manuscripts along with the editorial decision are made available to authors. When you submit, please make it clear in your cover letter if you wish to have your manuscript reviewed under Applied Research or Professional Practice. Please note that an anonymous review process is used to evaluate manuscripts. As such, any clues to the author’s identity should be eliminated from the manuscript. The first page of the manuscript must not include author names or affiliations, but it should include the title of the paper and the date of submission.

Authors are advised to check carefully the typing of the final copy and to retain a copy of the manuscript to guard against loss. There are no page charges to contributors.

Brief reports are limited to 7 pages. Importantly, both Applied Research and Professional Practice manuscripts should not exceed 25 pages, but for multistudy or in-depth qualitative material of extended scale and scope, pages may run to a maximum of 35 on the initial submission. The additional page allowance for longer manuscripts is at the editor’s discretion. Manuscripts will be judged according to their applied focus, contributions to knowledge, presentation of information, appropriateness of the discussion, interpretation of ideas, and clarity of writing. In addition, Applied Research articles will be judged on their methodology/design and data analysis. Authors are expected to have their raw data and descriptive statistics available throughout the editorial review process and are responsible for providing elaboration upon request.

Questions about the journal or manuscript submission should be directed to the journal's Editor, Sheldon Hanton, at shanton@cardiffmet.ac.uk.

Figure Checklist

Human Kinetics requires that articles meet the current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, as stipulated by the European Accessibility Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act Title II regulations. We have provided guidance below to assist authors in ensuring the figures in their articles are accessible to all readers.

• In a separate document, include alternative text (alt text) for every figure in your article. Alt text should describe the figure using 250 characters or less and be the equivalent of a quick glance at an image.
  • Complicated figures or figures that are mostly text may have alternative text that is longer than 250 characters in order to appropriately describe the image.
• Use contrast tests and grayscale visibility tests to ensure the figure is understandable in grayscale (see Color Resources).
  • Shading should vary by at least 20%.
• Figures should have adequate contrast ratios of at least 4.5:1.
• Photographs should be saved at a minimum of 300 dots per inch (dpi). Graphs, charts, and diagrams must be a minimum of 600 dpi.
  • Do not artificially change the resolution of an image as this will result in a low-quality image that does not reproduce well.

Further information can be found on the Figure Guidelines resource page.

Submitting a Manuscript 

Authors should submit their manuscript through ScholarOne, the online submission system for The Sport Psychologist (see submission button at the top of this page). ScholarOne manages the electronic transfer of manuscripts throughout the article review process while providing step-by-step instructions and a user-friendly design. Please access the site and follow the directions for authors submitting manuscripts.

Authors of manuscripts accepted for publication must transfer copyright to Human Kinetics, Inc. Please visit ScholarOne to view the copyright form located under the "Instructions & Forms" link in the upper-right corner. You do not need an account to access this information. Any problems that may be encountered can be resolved easily by selecting "Help" in the upper-right corner of any ScholarOne screen. 

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