Where to Publish on Physical Education, Sport Science and Exercise: SCIE, SSCI, Scopus and EI Options

Sport science has one of the widest cost spreads in this series. A sports medicine author can publish in an SSCI Q1 journal with an impact factor above 10 for nothing, or pay 4,390 US dollars for a title ranked below it. Knowing which route you are on matters more than any ranking.

The tables follow those three routes, split by index inside each.

How to read a quartile before you read the list

The Scopus quartile comes from Scimago, inside a Scopus subject category. The JCR quartile comes from Clarivate, inside a Web of Science category, using the impact factor. Sport science straddles SCIE and SSCI: physiology and medicine sit in SCIE, while pedagogy, management and sociology of sport sit in SSCI. Check which your rule names.

An ESCI journal shows an impact factor and a quartile that look exactly like an SCIE one, so an ESCI Q1 will not satisfy a rule asking for SCIE. Where the tier is not recorded, the tables say so. Settling this first is part of Journal Submission Preparation.

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

Not sure whether the journal you picked is still indexed? Run it through the Predatory Journal Checker at ai.researchramp.com, or send us the title on WhatsApp or WeChat for a same-day check. Two minutes to spare instead? Try the Smart Quiz.

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Five EI Compendex titles in the source data for this post were transport journals rather than sport, so they are left out here; only Sports Engineering, in Route 2, is relevant.

Indexed conference routes in sport science

Sport science's big congresses publish abstracts, not indexed papers. One series in the data publishes full indexed proceedings.

From conference to journal: how much new content sport science expects

Most sport science findings are first presented at a congress. How far the journal version must go depends on what the congress published.

1. Abstract only. The usual case at the large sport science and sports medicine congresses. An abstract is not a prior publication, so the full article is unconstrained. Cite the presentation in the cover letter.
2. Full indexed paper. icSPORTS and similar series publish complete papers. Then the journal version needs substantial new material, usually a third to a half.
3. What counts as new here. More participants, a second season or cohort, an added performance or injury outcome, a longer follow-up, or a validation of the method on a different population.
4. What does not count. A longer introduction, extra references, or the same data reanalysed with a different test.
5. Keep the numbers consistent. If the journal version reports different values for the same participants, explain why. Reviewers compare.

Planning the extension properly is part of Manuscript Preparation Support.

What gets accepted in this field, and what gets rejected

Which sport science journals accept secondary data or publicly available datasets?

All of them, and secondary data is increasingly common in this field: national physical activity surveys, match and tracking data, injury surveillance registers and open performance databases. Editors require the source, version, access date and every sample filter.

Match and tracking data from commercial providers usually cannot be shared, so say so in the data statement and give the provider and licence terms.

Do I need ethics approval for a sport science paper using open data?

Usually not for anonymised public datasets, though your institution decides. Approval is required once identifiable people are involved, and in sport that includes publicly broadcast elite athletes whose performance data you link to health or injury information.

Minors in school physical education need parental consent and school permission as well as committee approval.

Which sport science journals require a data availability statement?

Most publishers in these tables now require one, including BMJ, Springer Nature, Elsevier, Wiley, SAGE and Taylor and Francis, even when the data cannot be shared. State where the data are, or why they cannot be released, and offer the code or protocol.

Can I publish a sport science paper without collecting primary data?

Yes. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses with a registered protocol are a large share of this field, and Sports Medicine publishes little else. Secondary analysis of public datasets, match data studies and conceptual papers in sport philosophy and pedagogy are also published regularly.

What is the CAS partition, and how is it different from the JCR quartile?

The CAS partition, published yearly by the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, sorts journals into Zones 1 to 4, with Zone 1 holding only the top five percent of a subject. The JCR quartile splits a list into four equal quarters. So a JCR Q1 sport journal can sit in CAS Zone 2 or 3.

Which sport science journals are CAS Zone 1?

The CAS partition is not part of the data behind this page, so no zones are listed here rather than guessed. Check the current year's table through your university library.

As a working expectation, the highest impact titles, the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Sports Medicine and the Journal of Sport and Health Science, are the likeliest candidates. Confirm before relying on it.

Do Chinese universities accept Scopus Q1, or only CAS Zone 1 and 2?

It depends on the institution, and most Chinese universities do not treat Scopus Q1 as equivalent to CAS Zone 1 or 2. The usual hierarchy is CAS zone first, then an internal list, with Scopus counting for less.

Sport science authors in China have an unusual option: the Journal of Sport and Health Science is published for a Chinese university, sits at SSCI Q1 and charges no APC.

How much does it cost to publish a sport science paper in an indexed journal?

Anywhere from nothing to 4,390 US dollars. Nine Diamond titles and eighteen subscription titles charge no APC, including the field's flagship. Where an APC applies, the range is 400 to 4,390 dollars, and Biology of Sport shows price does not track rank: SCIE Q1 for 650 dollars.

What editors screen before a reviewer sees your paper

The editorial office checks whether the English is clear enough to review, whether the structure and reference style match the journal, and what the similarity report says. In sport science a further check is common: whether the ethics statement covers minors or athletes properly and the reporting checklist is attached. Run your own overlap check first with the Plagiarism & AI Similarity Checker, and use the AI Journal Finder to confirm the journal's scope matches your abstract before you submit.

Where Research Ramp comes in

We match a finished abstract against live indexing, tell you plainly when a design will not survive the first screen, and prepare the submission so the editorial office has no reason to bounce it. Subject-matched PhD editors, milestone payments, and the author stays the author. The revision round is Review & Response Support, language is Manuscript Editing, planning a sequence of papers is the Mentorship Program, partners with athlete access are Collaboration Matching, and past work is on our Case Studies page.

Questions we are asked about publication fees

Send us the abstract, we will send back the shortlist

Send us your abstract and we will return a shortlist that separates SCIE, SSCI, AHCI, Scopus and EI options, with the access model marked against each. Tap the WhatsApp icon, or scan the WeChat code. To hand over the whole route from venue choice to acceptance, that is the Full Publication Package.

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发送摘要，即可获得按检索类型分层的期刊清单。

Disclaimer. Every table on this page is correct as on October 2026 and no later. Article charges shown in US dollars are approximate conversions at October 2026 rates, and journals bill in their own currency. Indexing, quartile, access model and charges change through the year, and journals can be added to or removed from Scopus and Web of Science at any time. This page is general information only. Research Ramp Private Limited accepts no responsibility or liability for any decision made on the basis of it, including the choice of journal, any charge paid, or the outcome of any submission. Every detail must be independently verified by the author with the journal's own website and the live Scopus source list and Web of Science Master Journal List before submitting. If you would like an informal second check, send us the title and we will look at it for you.

本页所有列表数据截至 2026 年 10 月，仅供一般参考。Research Ramp 不对任何依据本页作出的选刊、付费或投稿结果承担责任。投稿前请务必通过期刊官网及 Scopus、Web of Science 实时数据自行核实收录情况与费用。