Information for Authors

General Information

Journal of Clinical Exercise Physiology (JCEP; ISSN 2165-7629 [online]) is an official publication of the Clinical Exercise Physiology Association (CEPA), a member of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Affiliate Societies; and Exercise & Sport Science Australia (ESSA). JCEP is published electronically the end of each quarter (March, June, September, December). It contains articles of interest to the clinical exercise physiologist and other allied health care professionals interested in clinical exercise physiology. These include, but are not limited to exercise testing, disease management, risk assessment and prognosis, acute and chronic response to exercise, safety and efficacy, outcomes, and pathology and epidemiology of chronic diseases and behaviors.

The Editor-in-Chief of JCEP is:

  • Jonathan K. Ehrman, PhD ; Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan

All submitted manuscripts are initially reviewed by an editorial manager for compliance with style (described below). Acceptable manuscripts are then reviewed by a member of the editorial team to assess the appropriateness for JCEP. If considered appropriate, submissions undergo peer-review by at least two individuals. We reserve the right to decline to review or publish submissions that are deemed for any reason to be unsuitable, unlawful, or objectionable, including without limitation the subject matter of the submission, the timeliness or relevance of the submission, reasons related to intellectual property, or the existence of threatened or actual legal proceedings in which we are involved, among others.

Membership in the CEPA, ACSM or ESSA is not a requisite for publication inthe Journal, nor does it influence editorial decisions. The Journal is owned by the CEPA and is copyrighted for the protection of authors, the CEPA, the ACSM, and the ESSA.

Submission Types

JCEP accepts submission of original research (including meta-analyses) manuscripts only. These include:

  • Full length (≤3,500 words; ≤6 tables/figures)
  • Brief reports (≤1,500 words; ≤3 tables/figures)

The article types listed below are by invitation only. An individual interested in contributing one of these article types should contact the editorial team at cepa_jcep@acsm.org.

  • Contemporary topical review
  • Case study
  • Point/counterpoint
  • Expert commentary

Copyright Transfer and Dual Submissions

Authors must agree to the exclusive assignment of copyright from all authors at the time of initial manuscript submission. Manuscripts are considered for publication on the condition that they are contributed solely to JCEP and, therefore, have not been and will not be published elsewhere, in part or in whole. The only exceptions are abstracts presented at scientific meetings and posting to pre-print servers.

Pre-Print Posts

Posting of non-refereed, non-peer reviewed manuscripts, abstracts and data to a publicly available pre-print server (e.g., Researchgate, arXiv, bioRxiv, sportrxiv.org, etc.) will not be considered prior publication, provided the following conditions are met by the authors:
1) At the time of submission to JCEP the cover letter must disclose that a pre-print of the manuscript exists and information about how it can be accessed (e.g., URL link, DOI, accession number);
2) Any version of the manuscript submitted to JCEP either prior to or following the review process may not be posted as a pre-print;
3) The pre-print manuscript can never be indexed on any indexing mechanism (e.g., MEDLINE, PubMed, PubMed Central, etc.) and the pre-print must always exist as a non-typeset document.
4) If published in JCEP, the corresponding author is responsible for updating the pre-print with the DOI and web link to the JCEP published version of the manuscript.

Reproduction of Text, Tables, or Figures

JCEP is a copyrighted publication. It is official policy of the Journal that single copies of text/tables/figures can be used in presentations for educational purposes. Authors submitting manuscripts and publishing articles in JCEP should be aware of this policy and must accept the provisions described. Persons making such reproductions should include an appropriate bibliographical citation with the content. When available a person must use the version of a table or figure on the JCEP-CEPA.org website that has been prepared as a PowerPoint slide and/or pdf. This policy does NOT include the reproduction and use of such figures in printed form, especially in regard to inclusion in textbooks. Permission to reproduce any article in whole or in part for mass handout or printing (e.g., college class handout or course-pack, textbook, review article) mustbe obtained from CEPA at cepa_jcep@acsm.org.

Submission of Manuscripts

All manuscripts must be submitted through the JCEP online system at https://www.editorialmanager.com/jclinexphys/

Preparation of Manuscripts

Manuscripts must be submitted as a Word document. The manuscript must be formatted for 8.5 x 11 inch paper (22 x 28 cm) with 1 inch (2.54 cm) margins. The font should be 12-point Times New Roman. The document, including tables, should be double-spaced throughout. Beginning after the title page, each page of the Word document should include a header that is right justified and contains the last name of the first author and a page number. All manuscripts should be organized in the following order: title page, structured abstract (original research, meta-analysis and systematic review), text, acknowledgements, references, figure legends, tables, and figures. If accepted for publication, figures will need to meet specifications outlined below.

Excluding references, tables, and figures, manuscript length should be ≤ 3,500 words for full length original research, meta-analyses or systematic reviews, or contemporary topical reviews, and ≤ 1,500 words for a brief research or case study report. With the exception of bulleted lists (e.g., references), manuscripts should not include any special formatting. If reference management software is used (e.g., EndNote, RefWorks), please submit a file that is saved without the embedded code (e.g., plain text).

All manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter that:

  • Identifies the submission type (e.g., original research);
  • States that no part of the content has been published previously in a peer reviewed journal;
  • The location of pre-print publication (if any);
  • That all authors 1) had access to the study data (as applicable), 2) accept responsibility for the content of the manuscript, and 3) approve of the manuscript submission.

Publication of Previously Published Material

Authors who use previously published material (i.e., table or figure) must obtain prior written permission to reprint from the publisher holding the copyright and be able to provide a quality original for publication. The statement “used by permission” must appear in the caption of the figure or table with a complete reference. Permission to reprint, if required, must accompany the manuscript at the time of submission.

Order and Specifics of Manuscript Contents

1. Title page

  • Identify the article type- i.e., Original Research, Meta-Analysis, Systematic Review, Brief Research Report, Review, Case Study, Point/Counterpoint, or Expert Commentary.
  • Title of length ≤ 85 characters, including spaces.
  • Full names of each author, including highest academic degree and clinical exercise certification/registry if applicable.
  • Clearly identify the institutional affiliation, including city and state, for each author.
  • Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding : Relevant conflicts of interest and sources of funding, including financial, consultant, institutional and other relationships that might lead to bias or a conflict of interest must be declared for each author on the title page. If there is no conflict of interest, this should be explicitly stated as “No conflicts of interest.”
  • Identify the word count for text only along with total number of tables/figures.
  • Include the corresponding author’s name, mailing address, telephone, and email.

2. Structured abstract (full length and brief research only): Start on a separate page following the title page(s). Use the following headings: background, methods, results, and conclusion. Word count ≤250 words. Do not include citations. Define all abbreviations on first use.

3. Key words: Following the abstract and on the same page, provide 3 to 5 key words/terms that are not included in the title.

4. Text

  • Start on a new page after the key words.
  • Full length and brief research manuscripts should include the following headers: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions or Clinical Implications. Include sub headers as needed. Full length research reports should be ≤3,500 words and contain ≤6 tables/figures (combined). Brief research and case studies reports should be ≤1,500 words and ≤3 tables/figures (combined).
  • For review manuscripts use headers and sub headers as appropriate to assist the reader. The text should end with a Clinical Implications and/or Summary section.
  • Optimally, an article will contain < 6 abbreviations. Each abbreviation must be spelled out on first use in the text (outside of the abstract) and defined in parentheses.

6. Acknowledgements: Include as applicable. The authors should have documentation confirming that individuals approve being acknowledged in the manuscript. This is also the location to acknowledge study or project funding agencies.

7. References

  • Start on a separate page following the acknowledgements or after the text if no acknowledgements.
  • The reference list should be numbered and sorted in the order each is cited. All references should be cited within the text using the reference number within parentheses, not superscript.
  • Ensure following the references conform to the journal format, including listing all authors (i.e., do not use “et al.”). See below.
  • The majority of references should be current (≤10 years old), but historical or landmark papers are also acceptable.
  • Full length original research should have ≤50 references.
  • Brief research reports should have ≤25 references.
  • Review articles should have ≤75 references.

8. Figure legend

  • Start on separate page following the references.
  • A figure legend must be provided for each figure.
  • Figure legends should allow the reader to grasp the content of the figure independent of the text.
  • If abbreviations are used in the figure they should be defined within the legend regardless of whether they were defined in the text.

9. Tables

  • Each table should appear on a separate page after the figure legends of after the references if no figure legend.
  • Tables should be made directly in Word. Do not create tables in another application and copy to Word.
  • Readers should be able to grasp the content of each table independent of the text.
  • If abbreviations are used in the table they should be defined within the table regardless of whether they were defined in the text.

10. Figures

  • For the initial submission, figures may be included within the Word document after the tables or as a separate file(s).
  • For the final submission, figures developed using Excel or PowerPoint should be submitted in the original file format with multiple figures in the same file. Images must be submitted as a pdf, jpeg, or tiff file with at least 300 dpi resolution with a separate file for each figure.
  • Some articles may be selected by the JCEP editorial team to provide a central illustration. This may be a submitted table, figure, or infographic. If selected, the editorial team will work with the author team to create the central illustration. Therefore, submitting authors must be willing to work with JCEP on its development if selected.

Units of Measurement

Authors should use standard terms and units generally acceptable in exercise physiology and medicine. The majority of units should be International System of Units (SI) and expressed using scientific notation (e.g., mL•min-1).

Drug Names

Generic names should be used when possible and precede the trade name or abbreviation of a drug the first time it is used.

Format for References

The references must follow the format defined by the United States National Library of Medicine (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/formats/recommendedformats.html) and employed in Index Medicus. Select reference examples are shown below. Please refer to http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html for a more complete list of examples.

  • The reference list should be numbered and sorted in the order each is cited.
  • List all authors; do not use et al.
  • If a journal is not listed in MEDLINE (e.g., Index Medicus, PubMed, PubMed Central), then the journal name should be spelled out.

Select Reference Examples

1. Authored book: Cohen J. Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. 2nd ed. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 1988. 567 p.

2. Chapter in a book: Paffenbarger RS, Hyde RT, Wing AL. Physical activity and physical fitness as determinants of health and longevity. In: Bouchard C, Shephard RJ, Stephens T, Sutton JR, McPherson BD, editors. Exercise, fitness, and health. Champaign: Human Kinetics; 1990. p. 33–48.

3. Journal article: Vancampfort D, Rosenbaum S, Schuch F, Ward PB, Richards J, Mugisha J, Probst M, Stubbs B. Cardiorespiratory fitness in severe mental illness: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Med. 2017;47(2):343-52. doi: 10.1007/s40279-016-0574-1.

4. E-journal article: Vickers AJ. Time course of muscle soreness following different types of exercise. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders [Internet]. 2001 [cited 2001 May 31];2(5).
Available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2474/2/5.

5. Web site home page: American Heart Association Web site [Internet]. Dallas (TX): American Heart Association; [updated 2006 Aug 1; cited 2009 Jan 12]. Available from:
http://www.americanheart.org