The Journal of Sport Management Knowledge, published by the University of Tabriz, is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, scientific integrity, editorial independence, transparency, and quality throughout the submission, peer-review, and publication processes. The journal adheres to the principles and guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and follows internationally recognized standards for scholarly publishing, including those of DOAJ, OJS, and other major indexing databases.
Editorial decisions are based exclusively on the scientific merit, originality, methodological rigor, significance, and relevance of submitted manuscripts to the journal's aims and scope. Editorial evaluations are conducted independently and are free from discrimination based on gender, nationality, ethnicity, religion, institutional affiliation, political beliefs, or any other non-scientific considerations.
All submissions undergo an initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's basic requirements are evaluated through a double-blind peer-review process by at least two independent expert reviewers. The identities of both authors and reviewers remain confidential throughout the review process.
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are responsible for ensuring the scientific quality of the journal, maintaining an impartial and timely peer-review process, selecting qualified reviewers, protecting the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, managing conflicts of interest, and upholding the highest standards of publication ethics. When scientific errors or ethical concerns are identified, the journal will take appropriate actions, including publishing corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions, in accordance with COPE guidelines.
By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that the work is original, has not been published previously, and is not under consideration by another journal. All listed authors must have made substantial scientific contributions to the research and accept responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of the work.
Authors are required to disclose all sources of financial support, funding, and any actual or potential conflicts of interest. Studies involving human participants or animals must comply with applicable ethical standards and must have received approval from the appropriate ethics committee. Research involving human participants should conform to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Reviewers are expected to evaluate manuscripts objectively, fairly, confidentially, and within the agreed review period. Information obtained through peer review must not be used for personal or professional advantage. Reviewers should disclose any conflict of interest and decline the review if such conflicts may affect their impartiality.
The Journal of Sport Management Knowledge has zero tolerance for research misconduct, including plagiarism, self-plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, image manipulation, duplicate publication, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, and any other unethical publishing practices. Allegations of misconduct will be investigated and handled in accordance with the recommendations and flowcharts of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
All submitted manuscripts are screened for textual similarity using recognized plagiarism-detection software before peer review and again prior to publication. Manuscripts found to contain plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct will be rejected or, if already published, corrected or retracted in accordance with international publication ethics standards.
The journal follows a Diamond Open Access publishing model, providing immediate and free access to all published content. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. Authors retain copyright of their work, while readers are free to read, download, copy, distribute, archive, and share published articles for non-commercial purposes with appropriate attribution to the original source.
The Journal of Sport Management Knowledge does not charge authors any fees for manuscript submission, peer review, acceptance, or publication. All editorial and publication costs are supported by the University of Tabriz.
The journal is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of authors, reviewers, editors, and readers. Personal information, including names, affiliations, email addresses, and other submitted data, is used solely for editorial and publishing purposes and will not be shared with third parties without legal authorization or the individual's consent.