The Journal of Sport and Health Science: Commemorating a decade of publishing milestones and impact.

The year 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of the Journal of Sport and Health Science (JSHS), which was launched in May 2012. The journal's initial vision was to provide a peer-reviewed, high-value, top-quality, reputable journal that would uphold the same high publication standards as other leading scientific journals dedicated to promoting excellence in the field. In just 10 years, JSHS, operating on a genuine open-access and free-of-charge platform, has grown to become one of the most highly ranked journals in the field. In 2021, JSHS witnessed a major improvement in the journal's Impact Factor, with a score of 13.077, placing it second among 87 journals in the Sport Sciences category; and in CiteScore, with a score of 10.8, ranking it fifth among 284 journals in the Orthopedics and Sports Medicine category (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

Trends in JSHS’s Impact Factor and CiteScore.

In marking the journal's 10th anniversary, we reflect, with pride and gratitude, on reaching many of our editorial and publishing milestones. We also wish to give special thanks to those individuals who deserve credit for our success. Finally, we are dedicated to continuing our mission and are committed to increasing JSHS’s impact throughout the next decade.

Published by Elsevier and sponsored by the Shanghai University of Sport (SUS), JSHS started its publishing journey with the formation of a highly regarded international editorial board, whose goal was to develop a publication that targeted readers internationally who specialized in the areas of sport and health science research and practice. Under the stewardship of our founding Editors-in-Chief—Dr. Jiancheng Zhang and Dr. Walter Herzog—a strong editorial board was assembled. This stewardship continued through the efforts of Co-Editors-in-Chief Dr. Walter Herzog and Dr. Peijie Chen, who succeeded Dr. Jiancheng Zhang in 2015. The addition of Deputy Editors-in-Chief Dr. Yu Liu, Dr. Lijuan Mao, Dr. Barbara Ainsworth, and Prof. Jian Wu has further strengthened this stewardship. JSHS’s current editorial board members were recruited from 13 countries and regions representing a diverse group of experts in the areas of sports medicine, sports biomechanics, sports coaching, physical education, physical activity, and traditional Chinese exercise.

Many editorial board members have contributed tirelessly during their tenure to the healthy growth and day-to-day operations of the journal by (a) identifying topic areas that are of importance to the community that JSHS serves, (b) organizing and editing special theme issues around timely topics, (c) submitting original scholarly articles, (d) helping solicit high-quality research papers from international leading experts, and (e) prescreening manuscripts for peer review. In fact, many of the special issues that appeared in JSHS’s initial years were primarily attributable to the contributions made by editorial board members.

In its first year of existence, we received 106 submissions; in 2018 we exceeded 1,000 submissions, and in 2020, this number doubled to more than 2,000 submissions of scientific contributions to JSHS. The number of countries and regions from which submissions were received has also increased. For example, between 2020 and 2021, 123 countries and regions across all 6 continents were represented, with the top countries being China, United States, Australia, United Kingdom, and Spain. The number of countries and regions for the peer reviewers also increased, reaching 67 countries, with the top countries being the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany. JSHS has truly been an international journal, with 80% of its published articles and 90% of its peer reviews coming from authors and reviewers outside of China.

In 2014, in just its second year of publication, JSHS was included into the Science Citation Index (SCI) and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) categories. Currently, the journal is indexed in SCI, SSCI, Medline, Scopus, Embase, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, Directory of Open Access Journals, ProQuest, EBSCO, CSCD, Hinari, Dimensions, and Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers. All published research articles are directly deposited into PubMed Central.

Over the past 10 years, the journal has sought high-value research studies or papers that advance scientific knowledge and have a positive impact on public health and sport and exercise medicine. Since its inception, JSHS has published a series of special issues that cover a wide variety of important, innovative, and timely topics in the field. The themes of these special issues included obesity and exercise, sports medicine,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 physical activity and public health,9, 10, 11, 12, 13 exercise and cognitive function,, healthy aging,16, 17, 18, 19, 20 traditional Chinese physical activity,21, 22, 23, 24 exergaming and e-health in physical education and health promotion,25, 26, 27, 28 school-based physical activity,, sport performance,, sport biomechanics and motor behavior,33, 34, 35, 36 physical activity in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, and, more recently, the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

The scholarly impact of papers published in JSHS can also be seen in the increased frequency of citations. The number of articles published in JSHS that have been selected by the Web of Science (http://webofscience.com) as Essential Science Indicators Highly Cited Papers (i.e., among the top 1% of articles cited most frequently in the field of sports science) is continuously increasing. For example, in May 2022, 9 articles published in JSHS between 2019 and 2022 were selected as Essential Science Indicators Highly Cited Papers.

The great success of JSHS is closely tied to the diligent effort, tireless support, and generous contributions made by our editors, editorial board members, editorial staff, and, importantly, our dedicated, unsung heroes—the reviewers who have supported the journal through the years and who we count on for their professional expertise and invaluable input to help guide our editorial decisions. Reviewers are essential in helping us select and publish high-quality, high-impact research that makes a difference in community health, sport performance, and clinical practice. We offer our sincere appreciation to our cadre of dedicated reviewers whose expertise and knowledge we rely on. We are also grateful to our readers worldwide, who read JSHS and disseminate its content through social media and other means. Their effort helps the articles JSHS publishes reach a much wider audience.

In the past decade, the rise of JSHS from its days of infancy to becoming one of the top journals in sport, exercise, physical activity, and health science suggests that we have fulfilled our vision. As we reflect on the past and move forward into a second decade of publishing, we will strive to further improve the quality of the scientific information and research we provide. Through the principles of a rigorous peer-review process and the promotion of open-access, which is the future of scientific publishing, we will continue to provide original, innovative, and timely scientific discoveries that cover the full breadth of sport, exercise, physical activity, and health science.

It has been an honor and privilege to serve JSHS and you, and we hope that you will continue to support JSHS in the decades to come.

Respectfully,

Peijie Chen and Walter Herzog

Editors-in-Chief, JSHS