Submissions

Author Guidelines

Articles whose subject matters are consistent with the mission and objectives of the journal are accepted for publication.

Authors guarantee that articles submitted for publication are original and have not been simultaneously submitted for publication in another journal, collective work, and so on.

An article must be written in the English language. Authors affiliated with Polish centres are also required to send the titles, abstracts and keywords in the Polish language.

Articles must be accompanied by copies of all authorisations to reproduce published material and reports of sensitive personal data about identifiable individuals. Authors are responsible for paying any fees associated with applying for these entitlements.

The journal Health Promotion & Physical Activity does not charge a publication fee.

Before you start

1. Familiarise yourself with:

• the Code of ethics of the Editor, particularly the rules concerning authors: the principle of originality of the work, proper identification of authorship, research integrity, reliability in quoting sources, ethical supervision, data storage and sharing, counteracting a conflict of interest, correcting errors and communication with the editors;
• the journal’s Publishing policy, particularly with regard to: the authorship of texts and copyright, research data, anti-plagiarism policy, confidentiality policy, conflict of interest and reviewing procedures.

2. Prepare the authorship statement. If an article has been written by co-authors, the statement should be developed and signed by all co-authors and then scanned and loaded onto the system (see: Forms).

Ethics in human or animal research

Research involving humans or animals should be conducted in accordance with the principles set out in the Declaration of Helsinki, and the authors should confirm that the relevant ethics committee has accepted the research procedures used in carrying out the research project described in the article. Such information should be included in the manuscript. The editorial board has the right to request a scan of such a document.

Patients and others involved in a research project have the right to privacy. Information identifying specific persons must not be published unless it is necessary and the research participants or their legal guardians give written informed consent to the publication of their identity data. The editorial board has the right to request a scan of such a document.

Preparation of the text

General notes

• The text should be prepared in an electronic version (doc, docx format).
• The cover page should include all the elements indicated in the template (title page template).
• The following font should be used in the main text: Times New Roman, 12 point, 1.5 line spacing, standard margins.
• The text of the work should be checked for spelling and grammar. Authors should make sure that all acronyms/abbreviations are defined on first use.
• Lines should be numbered (the ‘Line numbers’ function is enabled in the ‘Page layout’ tab in MS Word).

Breakdown of the text

• Original articles should be divided into the following sections: Introduction, Material and methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions (14 point bold). If necessary, second (12 point bold) and third (10 point bold italic) level subheadings can also be introduced.
• Review articles can be divided differently. A three-level structure of subheadings is allowed.

Volume of the text

• The total volume of the work, excluding tables, figures, abstracts and references, should not exceed 15 pages.
• The number of references should not exceed 30 for original and case studies, and 50 for review papers.

Abstract

An abstract of an original article should contain no more than 250 words in the following order: Purpose, Material and methods, Results, and Conclusions. An abstract of a case study or review article should be unstructured and contain up to 150 words.

Keywords

Keywords should immediately follow the abstract (maximum five keywords/phrases, separated by commas). The keywords are used for indexing purposes. Terms used in the title of the work should be avoided.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements and additional information can be included at the end of the article, before the references. The persons mentioned in the acknowledgements must consent to the disclosure of their names. It is up to the authors to obtain consent.

References to literature in the text and bibliography

• AMA Citation Style is the applicable style for literature citations and bibliographic descriptions (see AMA Citation Style Guide).
• References should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the text (not in alphabetical order). The next citation of a previously cited source receives the same number. Numerical references are given in superscript according to the formula: Text text,³⁴ text text.^{35, 36, 37}
• The list of sources cited is called ‘References’. Bibliographic descriptions should be given in the order of their citation in the text. The terms ‘in print’, ‘in preparation’ and ‘oral information’ should not be used.
• Authors must indicate (cite) all publications that have been used during the creation of the article. References cannot include publications that are not cited in the text and vice versa — the text should not refer to any publications that are not included in the references (see anti-plagiarism policy).

Tables

• Tables should be numbered with Arabic numerals followed by a short title. The number and title should be placed above the table. Abbreviations used in the table should be explained below the table. Tables should not repeat information contained in the text.
• If the table content comes from a different source, the author should indicate this source under the table.
• Each table should be prepared in a separate file, entitled ‘Table’ and the number consistent with the numbering in the article (for example, Table 1). The files with tables should be loaded onto the publication system when submitting the manuscript (section ‘Tables’).

Figures

• Figures (including charts and photos) should be numbered with Arabic numerals followed by a short title. The number and title should be placed under the figure. The author must obtain the consent of the relevant publisher to use graphic materials taken from another source and indicate this source under the figure.
• Figures should be prepared in separate files, entitled ‘Figure 1’, ‘Figure 2’ and so on, in graphic format (jpg, png), a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, and uploaded to the publication system when submitting the manuscript (section ‘Figures’).

Additional files (optional)

Authors can optionally send additional files to the editorial office, such as those containing raw source data.

Abbreviations and symbols

It is recommended using only standard abbreviations. An abbreviation should be explained on its first use in the text.

Manuscript submission

Submit your article via: https://journals.anstar.edu.pl/index.php/hppa/submissions

Manuscript correction and revision

We kindly ask the Authors to acquaint with the reviewing procedure and publication process.

1. After completion of the peer-review process, the corresponding author is informed about the opinions and comments of the reviewers and about any suggestions and comments of the editorial office related to the preparation of the article for publication.
2. Within the time limit set by the managing editor, the authors should make the suggested changes and corrections. All changes should be made with the text changes tracking function enabled (available in the Review tab in MS Word) or marked in red (the text that needs to be deleted should be marked in red) and crossed out (Tools), for example: text.
3. The authors prepare a response to the review in which they indicate which corrections have been made and which have not. If the authors have not followed the recommendations of the reviewer and the editor, a satisfactory explanation is required.