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Author Guidelines

Preparing Manuscripts

In preparing manuscripts for publication in the European Journal of Adapted Physical Activity (EUJAPA) authors should follow the guidelines in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition, 2019). Copies of PMAPA can be obtained through the APA Order Department, P.O. Box 92984, Washington, DC 20090-2984 (www.apa.org/books) and are available in most libraries. Using the PMAPA as a guide, pay particular attention to manuscript content and organization and manuscript preparation. However, the editorial style should conform to the template and styles used in EUJAPA.

Ethics approval.
EUJAPA supports research that is in alignment with the Declaration of Helsinki principles. For studies involving humans, the participants' section must include a statement certifying that the study received ethical approval. Authors must include details of the approved ethics in the manuscript. Furthermore, the authors must confirm that the participants’ informed consent was obtained. For studies without a certification, a rationale for why it was exempt must be written in the manuscript.

All papers submitted to EUJAPA are screened for plagiarism. EUJAPA uses the iThenticate system to detect plagiarism.

Studies from the Paralympic Games. All studies that use data from the Paralympic Games require permission from the International Paralympic Committee Sport Science Working Group. This permission should be made prior to carrying out the research. The application can be found under Research at IPC Events and Games International Paralympic Committee website. Authors should provide proof of approval as an attachment when submitting the manuscript.

Keeping Documents Anonymous

EUJAPA employs a double-blind process in the review of submitted manuscripts (with the exception of papers submitted include authors who are either the Editor in Chief or Assistant Editor - see reviewing process for details). The manuscript text should contain no clues as to author identity, such as acknowledgments, institutional information, and mention of specific city. Thus information that might identify the author(s) should be omitted or highlighted in black. However, when using the template, authors will be required to provide the authors names, institutions and emails as it would appear in a publication. These names would be removed during the review process. If you revise or resubmit a manuscript, please include a response to the reviewers and do not insert in your response information that may lead to your identification.

Format of the Manuscripts

Authors must use the Microsoft Word template (2016 version | 2003 version see below to download the template) to prepare their manuscript. Using the template file will substantially shorten the time to complete copy-editing and publication of accepted manuscripts. In addition to using the template, authors must adhere to using the styles set within the template. Accepted file formats are:

• Microsoft Word: Manuscripts prepared in Microsoft Word must be converted into a single file before submission. When preparing manuscripts in Microsoft Word, the EUJAPA Microsoft Word template file (2016 version | 2003 version can be downloaded from the bottom of the page) must be used. Please insert your graphics (schemes, figures, etc.) in the main text after the paragraph of its first citation. Please conform to using the styles embedded into the template. For a tutorial on how to use the styles and the template, please watch the following video tutorial 1 and for the latest template video tutorial 2.

It is mandatory that all manuscripts include a brief perspective paragraph at the end of the discussion in which the findings are put into perspective in the relevant area of adapted physical activity and significance of the manuscript for the practice. This includes reference to possible previous articles in this and other journals and the potential impact of the present findings. This paragraph should not exceed 200 words. As a general rule, no more than 40 references should be cited in a full text original article (120 in review article). References are listed in accordance with PMAPA 7th Edition.

All submissions should show evidence of good scholarship, the design and conduct of the project, and the presentation and discussion of results, and the significance of the manuscript for the practice. All of the text must be in English language. Use of anthropomorphism is not accepted (see for more information). Indicate relevance by referring to theories, paradigms, or conceptual frameworks and by briefly reviewing the existing knowledge base. Use person-first, non-sexist language in your writing, according to PMAPA standards. Avoid using characteristic and attribute. Instead, use demographic data, diagnostic criteria met, behaviours, or indicators. For studies involving humans, the method section must include a statement regarding institutional approval of the protocol and obtaining informed consent. Avoid creating groups for statistical analysis that combine individuals representing different etiologies (e.g., people with and without Down syndrome), genders, or a wide range of age groups. PMAPA requires reporting both statistical significance and effect size, when appropriate. Carefully check the accuracy of citations and references. To enable blind reviews, verify that your manuscript does not indicate the author's identity.

There is also an increasing number of guides for authors to use to increase the transparency of the research, as suggested by the Equator network. Authors must choose the appropriate study type and report and follow the guidelines. Authors are asked to accompany the checklist with their submissions.

Prepare artwork professionally and images must be high quality. Freehand and typewritten lettering are not acceptable. Dot patterns do not reproduce well during the printing process and should not be used to create shading in figures. Figures should be submitted in SVG or gif/jpg where resolution should be 300 dpi.

Authors' responsibilities

• It is expected from the journal that all data in the paper are real and authentic. Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data, if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
• Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere and that the manuscript is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere.
• Authors must certify that their manuscripts are their original work.
• Authors must identify all financial sources used in the creation of their manuscript.
• Authors must report any errors they discover in their published paper to the Editors, during or after the review process.

Changes to authorship.

Changes to authorship can only happen before the manuscript has been accepted. A letter to the Editor has to be sent by the author team with (a) the reason for the change in the author list and (b) a written confirmation from ALL the authors confirming they agree with the change. In the case where authors are added or removed, all participating authors must provide a written confirmation.

Use of Styles to organise the manuscript

In the EUJAPA template, there are many styles that the authors are required to use. In the main text, authors may find the following commonly used styles:

• Headers: - Use EUJAPA_2.1_heading1, EUJAPA_2.1_heading2, EUJAPA_2.1_heading3, or EUJAPA_2.1_heading4 according to the structure of the paper. Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Perspectives are all level 1 headings.
• Main text: Use EUJAPA_3.1_text for all paragraphs in the text. Use EUJAPA_3.3_text_space_after when a spaced line is required (typically before a Table or Figure). Use EUJAPA_3.5_text_before_list and EUJAPA_3.6_text_after_list as appropriately.
• Quotes from interview data: use EUJAPA_3.9_blockquote_or_equation for quotes longer than 40 words in length as a new paragraph. Quote marks are not needed. Shorter quotes from participants should remain within the main paragraph text, and identified through speech marks - ", to open the quote and the same to end the quote.
• Tables: Use EUJAPA_4.1_table_caption for the table caption at the top of the table. Use EUJAPA_4.2_table_body for the main part of the table. Use EUJAPA_4.3_table_footer for any footnotes for the table. Make sure all abbreviations in the Table is explained in the footer.
• Figures: Use EUJAPA_5.1_figure_caption for the figure caption below the figure. Use EUJAPA_5.2_figure_footer for any footnotes for the table. This footer is above the caption.
• References: Use EUJAPA_7.1_References for all references.

Two videos; video tutorial 1 and for 2021 template video tutorial 2 are available to show how to use the EUJAPA template and styles

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

• Have you used the submission template for your manuscript?
• Have you used the correct styles for your manuscript sections? Watch the online video tutorial 1 and for 2021 template video tutorial 2 for assistance.
• Included all details from the template (to ensure the double blind process, the editorial team will remove the author details before sending out for review).
• Include tables and figures within the text, as they should appear in publication. However large tables can be included at the end of the manuscript.
• Include data regarding author affiliations, author contributions, funding, acknowledgements and declaration of any conflict of interests.
• Attached a checklist from the Equator Network where lines numbers are next to the checklist.

Reporting Statistics

P is never capitalized, it is always in lower case.

• Why actual p values? The traditional reporting of p values (indicating only that p < 0.05) simply indicated whether the results were "statistically significant" or not. But p values of 0.051 and 0.049 should be interpreted similarly despite the fact that the 0.051 is greater than 0.05 and is therefore not "significant" and that the 0.049 is less than 0.05 and thus is "significant." Reporting actual p values avoids this problem of interpretation.

• Do not use 0 before the decimal point for statistical values p, alpha, and beta because they cannot equal 1, in other words, write p<.001 instead of p<0.001
• Put a zero before the decimal point when a number is less than 1 but the statistic can exceed 1.
• Do not use a zero before a decimal when the statistic cannot be greater than 1 (proportion, correlation, level of statistical significance).

• The actual p value* should be expressed (p = .04) rather than expressing a statement of inequality (p < .05), unless p < .001.
• Report exact p-values to two or three decimal (e.g., p = .006 or p = .03).
• However, report p-values less than .001 as "p < .001".

• p values should NOT be listed as not significant (NS) since, for meta-analysis, the actual values are important and not providing exact p values is a form of incomplete reporting.

• p=.000 (as outputted by some statistical packages) is impossible and should be written as p < .001

• Do not repeat statistics in both the text and a table or figure.
• In tables and figures, report exact p values (e.g., p = .015), unless p is < .001 (instead write as "<.001").
• Put a space before and after a mathematical operator (e.g., minus, plus, greater than, less than). For a negative value, put a space only before the minus sign, not after it (e.g., –8.25).
• Use the symbol or abbreviation for statistics with a mathematical operator (e.g., M = 7.7).
• Use the term, not the symbol, for statistics in the text (e.g., the means were).
• Use italics for letters used as statistical symbols or algebraic variables (e.g., contained 587 t-test p values; R2 = .12).
• However, use standard (nonitalic) type for Greek letters. See Publication Manual Table 6.5 for specific examples.
• Do not define symbols or abbreviations that represent statistics (e.g., M, SD, F, t, df, p, N, n, OR) and abbreviations or symbols composed of Greek letters. See Table 6.5 from the APA Publication Manual 7th Edition.
• Define other abbreviations (e.g., AIC, ANOVA, BIC, CFA, CI, NFI, RMSEA, SEM). See Table 6.5 from the APA Publication Manual 7th Edition.

• A short guide from APA publication manual can be found from https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/numbers-statistics-guide.pdf

Responsible use of generative AI

According to the European Commission guidelines, EUJAPA requires, for research to be transparent, authors should "detail which generative AI tools have been used substantially in their research processes. Reference to the tool could include the name, version, date, etc. and how it was used and affected the research process. If relevant, researchers make the input (prompts) and output available, in line with open science principles." Read more from https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/document/download/2b6cf7e5-36ac-41cb-aab5-0d32050143dc_en?filename=ec_rtd_ai-guidelines.pdf

Data availability statement

EUJAPA encourage authors of articles to share their research data, include data availability or write a statement to confirm why it cannot be shared, and cite the data in the research.

Reference List

References only in the main text appear in the reference list.
References are listed in accordance with PMAPA 7th Edition individually at the end of the manuscript.
We recommend preparing the references with a bibliography software package, such as EndNote, RefWorks, ReferenceManager or Zotero to avoid typing mistakes and duplicated references.
Include the digital object identifier (DOI) for all references where available.
All doi numbers must start with https://doi.org/10.XX

Copyright Notice

All content in this journal is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of open access. Work published in EUJAPA are simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share and adapt the work with an attribution of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Authors who publish with the EUJAPA agree to the following terms:

• Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share and adapt the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
• Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
• Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

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