INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS

Sport, Education and Child Journal (SEC) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access academic journal that publishes original scientific studies in the fields of sports sciences, educational sciences, and child development. The journal is published three times a year in January, May, and September. The publication languages are Turkish and English.
All manuscripts submitted to the journal are evaluated through a double-blind peer-review process. No article processing or publication fees are charged to authors at any stage of the evaluation or publication process.

Article Types

The journal accepts the following types of manuscripts:

• Research Articles
• Review Articles
• Case Reports / Applied Studies
• Scale Development and Adaptation Studies
• Letters to the Editor (with editorial approval)

Submission and File Structure

Submissions must be uploaded as separate files according to the language of the manuscript:

• Turkish Title Page
• Turkish Main Text (Blind Review)
• English Title Page
• English Main Text (Blind Review)

The main text files must not contain any identifying information, including author names, institutional affiliations, acknowledgements, or funding details.

Abstract and Keywords

• Turkish and English abstracts must be between 150 and 250 words.
• Abstracts should include the aim, method, results, and conclusions of the study.
• Three to five keywords must be provided below each abstract.

Writing and Formatting Guidelines

• Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the journal’s Turkish or English templates.
• Files must be submitted in .doc format. PDF or other file formats are not accepted.
• All manuscripts must comply with the APA 7 (American Psychological Association) style guidelines.

Ethical Principles and Declarations

The following statements are mandatory and must be included on the title page:

• Ethics Committee Approval Statement
• Artificial Intelligence Use Statement
• Conflict of Interest Statement
• Author Contribution Statement
• Funding / Financial Support Information
• Acknowledgements

For studies that do not require ethics committee approval, this must be explicitly stated. For studies requiring ethics approval, the relevant ethics committee documents must be uploaded to the system.

Plagiarism Policy

All manuscripts submitted to Sport, Education and Child Journal are subject to plagiarism screening. Plagiarism checks must be conducted by the author(s) using Turnitin or iThenticate, and the similarity report must be uploaded to the system.
During plagiarism screening, the following sections are excluded from similarity calculations:

• References
• Direct quotations (texts in quotation marks)
• Standard expressions related to methods and measurement tools

For a manuscript to be considered for evaluation:

• The overall similarity index must be below 20%, and
• The similarity index from a single source must be below 5%.

Manuscripts exceeding these limits are returned to the authors and will not be evaluated until the necessary revisions are made. The Editorial Board reserves the right to re-check plagiarism reports when deemed necessary.

Peer Review Process

Submitted manuscripts:

• Undergo an initial editorial screening,
• Are reviewed by at least two independent reviewers using a double-blind system,
• May be returned to the authors for revision when necessary.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject manuscripts on scientific or ethical grounds.

Copyright

The copyright of published articles belongs to the Sport, Education and Child Journal.
The scientific and ethical responsibility of the content rests with the authors.
The Copyright Transfer Form must be signed by the corresponding author and uploaded to the system.

Author Submission Checklist

By submitting a manuscript, the author(s) confirm that:

• The manuscript has been prepared in accordance with the journal’s writing template.
• The main text file complies with the double-blind review principle and contains no author-identifying information.
• The Turkish and/or English title page has been uploaded as a separate file.
• Abstracts are between 150–250 words and include 3–5 keywords.
• All tables, figures, and references comply with APA 7 guidelines.
• The Ethics Committee Statement (with document, if applicable) has been uploaded or exemption has been declared.
• Statements regarding Artificial Intelligence Use, Conflict of Interest, Author Contributions, and Funding are included on the title page.
• A plagiarism report obtained via Turnitin or iThenticate has been uploaded
  (Overall similarity ≤ 20%, single source ≤ 5%).
• The Copyright Transfer Form has been signed and uploaded.
• The manuscript has not been previously published and is not under consideration by another journal.

By approving this checklist, the author(s) are deemed to have accepted the journal’s publication and ethical policies.