American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD

Guidelines for Authors

About Submitting to JOPERD

The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance (JOPERD) is a peer-reviewed professional journal, with a 31% acceptance rate in 2011, intended to meet the needs of PERD educators and to serve as a forum for educational and ethical issues.

• Manuscripts submitted to JOPERD must not be submitted to other publications simultaneously.
• To ensure that topic and treatment are appropriate for JOPERD, authors should submit an email query (joperd@aahperd.org) before preparing the manuscript.
• Original data-based research is generally not published in JOPERD. Manuscripts with practical implications for educators at all levels are given priority.
• Manuscript acceptance is based on originality of material, significance to the PERD profession, validity, and adherence to the prescribed submission requirements stated below.

Manuscript Preparation

Prepare the manuscript in an electronic format, using an 8.5-by-11-inch page set-up with 1-inch margins. Double-space the entire manuscript, including references and quotations, and number the pages and lines throughout. Do not list author names, affiliations, or contact information in the manuscript; this information should be given in an accompanying letter. Do not use footnotes or endnotes, and do not submit the text with "track changes" intact. Save the manuscript in a native word-processing format (e.g., Microsoft Word).

Manuscript Submission

Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance receives all manuscript submissions electronically via its ScholarOne Manuscripts site located here. ScholarOne Manuscripts allows for rapid submission of original and revised manuscripts, and facilitates the review process and internal communication between authors, editors, and reviewers via a web-based platform. ScholarOne technical support can be accessed here. If you have any other requests, please contact Thomas Lawson, Editor, at tlawson@aahperd.org.

Manuscript Content

Tie manuscript length to the scope of the content, generally limiting articles to between 7 and 16 double-spaced pages. Simple, straightforward writing—concise, logical, and clear—is best. Focus the manuscript, use examples, capture readers' interest, and stimulate their thinking. Avoid educational jargon and passive voice, vary sentence structure, and keep paragraphs short. The JOPERD Editorial Board encourages authors to have colleagues review manuscripts before submission.

• Abstracts. Include an abstract of 250 words or less. The abstracts for accepted articles will appear on the JOPERD web site after the article has been published.
• References. Check all references; authors are responsible for accuracy. Printed references are preferred over web references. For reference style, follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.).
• Illustrations. Submit tables, charts, drawings, and graphs in one or more files separate from the text file.
• Photographs. JOPERD encourages authors to submit sharp, well-composed color photographs to illustrate their articles. Digital photos should be saved at 300 dpi/ppi (e.g., 900 × 1,500 pixels for a 3" × 5" photo). Submit photos in a native graphic format (e.g., JPEG, TIFF); do not paste photos into the text file. For each photo, include photographer credit, and a brief description.

The Review Process

The editor reviews all manuscripts for appropriateness of topic and conformance to JOPERD writing style. If the topic and style are deemed appropriate, manuscripts are sent to at least three reviewers with expertise in the topic area. Allow from 12 to 16 weeks for the review process.

Publication

Manuscripts are printed in the earliest appropriate and available issue following acceptance. Corresponding authors receive one complimentary copy of the issue in which their article appears.

• Copyright. All authors of accepted manuscripts must sign a copyright release form. Authors transfer all copyright ownership of manuscripts to the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.
• Reprinting. Upon request, authors receive permission to reprint their own articles. However, JOPERD prohibits the free posting of articles on web sites.

Penalty for Plagiarism

If it is determined that an article incorporates plagiarized material, the following actions will be taken: (1) the author will receive a formal reprimand from JOPERD and from his or her association; (2) a copy of the reprimand will be sent to the author's institution or place of employment; and (3) the author will be precluded from submitting articles to JOPERD for two years following the infraction.