Focus and Scope
Pensar en Movimiento is a moderated journal that receives manuscripts on topics of all the sciences of human movement: physical education, sports psychology, sports biomechanics, sports nutrition, physiology of exercise, physical activity and health, motor development, motor learning, motor control and sports medicine. It emphasizes the publication of experimental studies but also accepts descriptive studies, meta-analyses, book reviews, etc. Contributions from both national and international authors are accepted. Every article submitted for publication must adjust to the policies for the respective section; thus, opinion articles are only appropriate for Current Issues in Movement; methodological articles are appropriate for Technical Notes, and so on. See “About: Policy on Sections” for greater detail.
Our journal is indexed in national and international indexes. Therefore, our readers may look for updated content from anywhere in the world. Similarly, authors from any country can submit their proposals.
Our authors come from different countries in Latin America, Spain, the United States, Turkey and elsewhere. Our readers may look for scientific information in the Spanish, English and Portuguese languages.
The Editorial Committee of Pensar en Movimiento: Revista de Ciencias del Ejercicio y la Salud® will accept papers in the understanding that these have not previously been published in any other journal. Papers submitted must follow the format suggested in the norms for authors.
Our journal is included in the LOCKSS archiving system of the University of Costa Rica and its associates.
Section Policies
Editorial
Editors
- Luis Fernando Aragón V.
 Open Submissions |
 Indexed |
Peer Reviewed |
Invited Articles
Articles by invitation are requested by the Editor in Chief of the Journal. These are summaries of the current state of knowledge in concrete topics, written by noted Spanish-speaking scientists of exercise or, in some cases, English-speaking scientists that agree to have their articles published both in English and in Spanish. The main objective is to disseminate first-quality information, especially written for an audience that prefers to read in Spanish. For instances of articles by invitation, see here.
These articles will be evaluated by the reviewers using the following form:
1. The topic is appropriate for the scope of the journal.
2. The manuscript makes a valuable contribution to the current knowledge in its area.
3. It has not been previously published in another journal.
4. Results are presented objectively.
5. Conclusions are well supported.
6. The manuscript has good order, coherence and writing.
7. It follows the guidelines for authors.
8. At least 50% of the references are 5 years old or less.
Evaluation Form For Invited Articles
Editors
- Luis Fernando Aragón V.
| Open Submissions |
Indexed |
Peer Reviewed |
Experimental Research and Metaanalysis
These are original research papers and metaanalyses which meet the following criteria: abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion and references. These manuscripts will be rated by our reviewers using one of the following forms:
General evaluation Form (Whit recommendation)
Editors
- Luis Fernando Aragón V.
- Pedro Carazo Vargas
| Open Submissions |
Indexed |
Peer Reviewed |
Clinical Section and Case Studies in Sports Performance
The paper must have been authorized by the respective ethical committee, or else have the retrospective consent of the athlete whose case is being reported, in writing, in accordance with the requirements of the most recent version of the Helsinki Declaration. These manuscripts will be rated by our reviewers using one of the following forms:
General evaluation Form (Whit recommendation)
Editors
- Alvaro Barrenechea Coto
- Juan Sarmiento
| Open Submissions |
Indexed |
Peer Reviewed |
Descriptive, Correlational and Qualitative studies
This section includes original manuscripts meeting the general guidelines for authors. They must include the following subtitles: abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion and references. As stated in the title, papers can be of a descriptive, correlational, or qualitative nature. These manuscripts will be rated by our reviewers using one of the following forms:
General evaluation Form (Whit recommendation))
Editors
- Judith Jiménez Díaz
- Elizabeth Carpio Rivera
Open Submissions Indexed Peer Reviewed
Systematic Reviews
The mission of this section is to publish analysis, synthesis, and critiques of current scientific evidence on specific, relevant, and first quality topics on the Sciences of Human Movement and Health. Articles in this section have a suggested limit of 7000 words; accepting texts exceeding this limit is at the Editor’s discretion.
The methodology must be rigorous. Important aspects must be verified including having a comprehensive review of sources of information, ensuring that those sources are applicable and relevant for the systematic review, and clearly defining the criteria for inclusion and exclusion of studies and for searching. The manuscript must make a critical contribution and have sufficient current sources (last 5 years).
For a good example of a systematic review, please go to the following link: https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/pem/article/view/37766.
Finally, we suggest that the author carefully review whether the manuscript is a systematic review or an essay.
These articles will be assessed by the reviewers with the following form:
Detailed Form for systematic Review
Editors
- Melissa Varela Briceño
| Open Submissions |
Indexed |
Peer Reviewed |
Essays and bibliographic reviews
This section publishes essays with wide and well-founded reflections about specific topics or hypotheses related to Human Movement and Health Sciences.
Manuscripts submitted to this section have a 7000-word limit and should include at least the following elements: introduction, main body, and conclusion. In addition, the author(s) must make sure that the article follows a clear train of thought, allowing the readers to understand the manuscript’s main topic or hypothesis. In addition, the Journal publishes bibliographic reviews that, based on theoretical frameworks, analyze and synthesize results, ideas, theses, and contributions related to Health and Human Movement Sciences, reported in scientific articles, academic papers, and books, among others.
General evaluation Form (Whit recommendation)
Editors
- Luis Fernando Aragón V.
| Open Submissions |
Indexed |
Peer Reviewed |
Science and Football
Articles in this section have association football (soccer) as their main subject, but they may include consolidated offspring sports such as beach soccer and indoor soccer or futsal. Studies may be experimental or descriptive, literature reviews and expert analyses on training, strategy or tactics. There may also be specialized discussions on sports management or tutorials (teaching recommendations for the improvement of skills or tactics). All papers submitted to this section must include a strong scientific background. When the author’s experience or academic production are the basis of a paper, it must be clearly stated in the body of the article that such material is original, to distinguish it from the work of other authors. These manuscripts will be rated by our reviewers using one of the following forms:
General evaluation Form (Whit recommendation)
Editors
- Alejandro Salicetti Fonseca
| Open Submissions |
Indexed |
Peer Reviewed |
Technical Note
Manuscripts in this section will clearly explain a relevantproblem in need of solution, together with the methods used and the proposed solution. These are very specific problems which would not warrant a full-length article, but are documented with the same rigor.
Methods should be clearly described, as well as the target population and the specific recommendations made according to the results.
An abstract should be included, with the same characteristics as those used in the experimental research section. There should be a list of key references with no less than three and no more than ten papers cited. The maximum length of the manuscript should be four pages. These manuscripts will be rated by our reviewers using one of the following forms:
General evaluation Form (Whit recommendation)
Editors
- Andrea Solera Herrera
| Open Submissions |
Indexed |
Peer Reviewed |
Costa Rica without Borders
In this section we publish the Spanish translation of abstracts for articles published by Costa Rican researchers in other international journals, with the appropriate reference to the original work and a brief explanation about where the study was performed. The manuscripts from this section won't include title abstract and keywords in portuguese or spanish. The original papers have been published in languages other than Spanish and the journals are peer-reviewed.
These abstracts belong to studies meeting the general criteria for our journal, i.e., the emphasis is on experimental studies but we will also accept descriptive studies, metaanalyses, and literature reviews, among others.
Editors
- Luis Fernando Aragón V.
| Open Submissions |
Indexed |
Peer Reviewed |
Guidelines and Consensus Statements
The main goal of this section is to present the position of various professional organizations related to human movement science and health regarding current topics, such as competition for pre-pubertal children or the mandatory nature of physical education classes in school systems.
As is the case for the other sections of this journal, manuscripts must be original and unpublished. These manuscripts will be rated by our reviewers using one of the following forms:
General evaluation Form (Whit recommendation)
Editors
- Luis Fernando Aragón V.
| Open Submissions |
Indexed |
Peer Reviewed |
News in Motion
This is an opinion section. Therefore, manuscripts will not be peer-reviewed, although they will be subject to editorial review.
Contents must be well grounded; authors must avoid insulting or denigrating members of the exercise science professions.
| Open Submissions |
Indexed |
Peer Reviewed |
Databases, novel methods and other complementary files
This new section was created as a follow-up to our 2019 editorial “Radical changes of open science”. Our goal is to publish databases, novel methods and other complementary files, linked to those manuscripts that were accepted for publication in the same issue. We recommend databases to be submitted in *.csv or *.xlsx format, in order to be easily accessible to other scientists. Databases should be curated and annotated, to be readily understood by our readers. The files should include complete information about the authors and all metadata, they should cite the associated article in a footnote; they will be published under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Creative Commons License and will have their own DOI. Even though they are not peer-reviewed, they will be ready for citation.
The publication of research data follows open science policies. These practices are implemented by the best journals, which ensure that these data have the protections necessary to avoid ethical and authorship conflicts, in order to offer greater transparency and clarity in the processes of scientific publishing. You are invited to become acquainted with our initiative in this editorial: https://doi.org/10.15517/pensarmov.v21i1.53446
Editors
- Luis Fernando Aragón Vargas
- Melissa Varela Briceño
| Abrir envíos |
Indizado |
Evaluado por pares |
Preprint Publishing Policy
Following open access trends (see editorial entitled Los Cambios Radicales de la Ciencia Abierta – [Radical Changes of Open Science]), Pensar en Movimiento offers the possibility of submitting articles that have been deposited in a repository in the preprint mode. These articles will be peer reviewed and evaluated for publication in this Journal.
Scielo has its own preprint repository (https://preprints.scielo.org/index.php/scielo), where authors can deposit their articles.
Publication languages
Pensar en Movimiento publishes in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. Each manuscript is processed and peer-reviewed in the language used in the original submission. If accepted, it is published in the original language, but because of our commitment with Spanish-speaking readers, everything we publish in other languages is also published in Spanish. The translation is based on the published version of the original manuscript. Each version is published with its own DOI and has distinct indexing, to offer greater visibility. See flowchart here
If any author wishes to have his or her manuscript, originally submitted in Spanish or Portuguese, to be published in English as well, Pensar en Movimiento offers the translation service, but the authors must pay for the cost.
For more information on this topic, please read MULTILINGUAL PUBLICATION AS A LEGITIMATE TOOL TO INCREASE ACCESS TO SCIENCE
Peer Review Process
Editorial review
We have an international Editorial Board and Scientific Committee, as well as a group of international reviewers, all of them with members outside the School of Physical Education and Sports, University of Costa Rica. Our chosen reviewers have no relationship with the author or with the institution the author belongs to. These experts will receive an evaluation form where they may include their assessment of the manuscript.
When an article is received, the editor checks the plagiarism percentage on Turnitin software, then it will be evaluated if the manuscript could continue the editorial process and send it to the associated editor in charge. The editor in charge receives the article, this person decides if the paper’s topic is congruent with the journal, this editor check if the manuscript fulfill the minimum requirements for the peer review process; this must be completed in less than two weeks. You can check the flowchart here.
Then, the process continues with:
Peer review
After review by the section editor, this editor decides to send it to external reviewers, so that a minimum two (2) reviewers are assigned. At least one of the reviewers must be working outside Costa Rica. The reviewers shall have a three-week term to return the article with one of the following gradings:
- -Accept submission
- -Revisions required (few corrections are necessary, but it may not be published in its present form. The editor will follow up with the authors for those corrections needed)
- -Resubmit for review (important corrections are necessary. The editor will send the manuscript out for a new round of review)
- -Decline submission (rejected)
Reviewers are selected because of their experience, professionalism and expertise in specific topics. They have research experience in the area and are credible regarding ethical handling of information. It must be pointed out that, once a reviewer receives a manuscript for evaluation, she or he may decide that there are reasons to refrain from doing the review, such as family ties, conflicts of interest, or previous knowledge of the paper. In that case, the conflict will be communicated to the associate editor. The review process could last from 6 to 8 months since its reception to its approval. The editor in charge will be responsible to decide if the article will be published or not, in case of disagreement between the editor and reviewers, the editor in chief will make the decision.
Effective August 1st 2015, Pensar en Movimiento offers two different options for peer review:
Open peer review
Under this modality, the reviewers will know the identity of the authors and vice-versa. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the name of each reviewer will be included in the final publication. There are several advantages of this type of peer review: a reduction in the bias of reviewers; the authors receive more constructive and respectful critique; the process is more transparent; reviewers are publicly acknowledged for their work. At the same time, public responsibility for the acceptance of a manuscript is shared openly by all: the authors, the editor, and the reviewers. For more information (in Spanish) you may read http://www.revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/pem/article/view/19942.
If selected, open peer review must be explicitly accepted by the authors upon manuscript submission, in the Letter of Originality and Copyright Transfer. The editor in charge will offer this option to all potential reviewers and will be responsible for including a recognition on the first page of the manuscript. The editor in charge will be responsible to decide if the article will be published or not, in case of disagreement between the editor and reviewers, the editor in chief will make the decision.
Double blind (anonymous) peer review
Reviewers will be blinded as to the identity of the authors of the manuscript, and vice-versa. This is the traditional double blind process, used to improve the objectivity of evaluations.
Once a decisión is communicated, the autor(s) will have two weeks to return the corrected manuscript (if applicable). From that point, the Associate Editor will have five weeks to make a final decision and communicate the acceptance or final rejection for publication. In cases of disagreement between the Associate Editor and the reviewers, the Editor-in-Chief will make a final decision. All authors, reviewers and editors will be able to check on the progress of manuscripts; they will also receive automatic notifications about deadlines. When all parties work within the stated schedule, it takes about three to four months for a paper to complete the review process and move to the publication steps. That is, of course, in case it is accepted for publication. The editor in charge will be responsible to decide if the article will be published or not, in case of disagreement between the editor and reviewers, the editor in chief will make the decision.
Acceptance criteria for this journal are:
1. The topic is appropriate for the journal.
2. The manuscript makes a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge.
3. Useful information is provided to help solve a relevant problema.
4. The paper has not been previously published in another journal.
5. The manuscript represents original work (even when it is a metaanalysis or literature review).
6. The manuscript conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki developed by the World Medical Association: ethical principles regarding human experimentation (see english document)
With the exception of narrative and systematic reviews, metaanalyses, or essays and opinion papers, the manuscript must explicitly include, in the methods section, the following sentence: "Signed informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to data collection and after the study protocol was reviewed by [NAME OF THE INSTITUTIONAL ETHICS COMMITTEE] and approved on [DATE] according to document [DOCUMENT NUMBER]". In the case of animal studies, the sentence should read: "This study followed current standards regarding the protection of animal research participants from the institution where the study was conducted."
7. Study design and methods are sound and according to the problem under consideration.
8. Results are presented with impartiality.
9. Conclusions are wellgrounded.
10. The manuscript shows order, coherence and good writing.
11. The manuscript format complies with all norms explained in the instructions for authors.
Publication Frequency
As of 2012, Pensar en Movimiento is published twice a year. However, individual papers will be published as soon as they are ready, being included in the table of contents for the current volume in the form of continuous publication. The first issue opens on January 1st, closes on june 30th; the second issue opens on July 1st, closes on december 31th.
Open Access Policy
Pensar en Movimiento is an open access journal, which allows users the possibility to have full and free access to the e-content. This means users can read, download, store, print, search, index, use as data for software and link full texts of this Journal. It also allows users to distribute the article’s pre-print, post-print, and official versions published by Pensar en Movimiento, without asking for permission from the editor or the author, provided it is not for commercial use and provided it is shared giving the source and authorship of the work (based on Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License).
Background
This journal was created in 2001 under the name Revista de Ciencias del Ejercicio y la Salud (Journal of Exercise and Health Sciences), led by Dr. Walter Salazar and with the collaboration of a team comprised of faculty members José Moncada-Jiménez, Randall Gutiérrez-Vargas, Gerardo Araya-Vargas, Cinthya Campos-Salazar, Jessenia Hernández-Elizondo, and Andrea Solera-Herrera. It was a joint effort by the School of Physical Education and Sports, University of Costa Rica, and the School of Sport Sciences, National University. The goal was to disseminate scientific findings related to exercise and health, resulting from research projects undertaken by graduate programs from both universities. The journal has evolved achieving an international exposure, while maintaining its original purpose. Back in 2008, the name was changed to Pensar en Movimiento: Revista de Ciencias del Ejercicio y la Salud.
No-cost publication details
Review, publication, and translation costs
The process of submission, review, and publication is FREE OF CHARGE for authors; in other words, none of the costs for the editorial process of the manuscript are transferred to the authors. Those expenses are covered by the University of Costa Rica. There is only a translation fee in case the author should choose to have the complete manuscript from Spanish to English. This translation is OPTIONAL and VOLUNTARY, and the cost will be charged to the author. However, translation is recommended because it increases the visibility of the document.
This journal does not charge for subscriptions, for reading individual articles, or for publication (APC, article processing charges). Publicity may not be inserted in the website or individual articles.
Regarding the printed version of the Journal, it is available ONLY to fulfill the legal requirement of deposit by the University of Costa Rica, plus two copies to be mailed to the authors upon publication. Numbers close on June 30th and December 31st every year.
Corrections after publication
Pensar en Movimiento will allow authors to request changes for their documents which are already published in our website, regarding changes in spelling or grammar. For minor changes (less than 5 spelling or grammar changes) the file version will be replaced; if there are major changes (either more than 5 or changes that affect the content of the manuscript), an erratum (corrigendum) will be published under the section "Databases, methodologies and other complementary articles".
Plagiarism policy
PENSAR EN MOVIMIENTO requires all parts involved in the manuscript publication process, regardless of their role as editorial team, reviewers, and authors, to follow international ethics standards. In addition, we use Duplichecker and Google to detect plagiarism. In the case that one or more members of the editorial team for the journal is an author or coauthor of a manuscript, its internal handling is independent from him/her until it is accepted or rejected.
Pensar en Movimiento relies on the international norms from the Committee on Publication Ethics-COPE).
We have obtained permission from COPE to distribute information on the plagiarism detection process. For more information, please visit
http://publicationethics.org/files/Full%20set%20of%20flowcharts_0.pdf
Participant responsibilities include:
Editors must adopt the highest standards and peer review methods for all articles to be reviewed by specialized and suitable reviewers. Editors must clearly define which sections are not to be reviewed by peers, make sure that reviewers contribute to the detection of plagiarism and ethical potential anomalies, and ensure the Journal has clear publication standards. Finally, they should advise both authors and reviewers on all the publication processes, with the goal of promoting appropriate research and publication behavior.
Authors must conduct their research in an ethical and responsible manner. They should present their results clearly, honestly, and transparently so that their findings can be confirmed or replicated by the scientific community. Authors must not send the manuscript simultaneously to other journals for evaluation. In addition, authors must source the studies on which they based their research and give credit to the entities that financed it, as well as declare if there is any conflict of interest. Finally, authors should take responsibility for the published research.
Reviewers must communicate to the editors any possible scientific fraud or plagiarism in the manuscripts they evaluate. They should provide objective feedback and a recommendation for each manuscript within the allotted time. They should also provide a sound rationale for rejecting an article or else provide recommendations for a stronger publication.
Digital Preservation Policy
Pensar en Movimiento is included in the LOCKSS system of Universidad de Costa Rica and associated institutions.
The editorial process follows OJS procedures; therefore, all documents are stored in this system.
Backups are created on the Google Drive platform and on the Journal’s computer and updated every month.
Journal History
Originally published under the name "Revista de Ciencias del Ejercicio y la Salud"