Explore the vast range of titles available.

ObjectivesWe aimed to determine (1) the proportion of women authors overall, in first (lead) and last (senior) author positions, (2) the proportion of women research participants and (3) the association between women in first and/or last author positions and the proportion of women research participants in original research articles and editorials/opinion pieces in four sport and exercise medicine/physiotherapy journals.MethodsThe journals evaluated were the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy, Physical Therapy in Sport and International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy.We reviewed all original research articles and editorials/opinion pieces published in 2008, 2009, 2018 and 2019. For each, we aimed to determine the gender/sex of all authors (through gender pronouns, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, institutional profiles, personal websites, photographs and/or social media), and the gender/sex of study participants reported as ‘female’ or ‘male’ or ‘women’ or ‘men’ or ‘girls’ or ‘boys’.ResultsWe included 952 original studies and 219 editorials/opinion pieces. There were 5146 authors of original studies and 706 authors of editorials/opinion pieces. Compared with 2008/2009, the proportion of women as first and last authors was 3.6% (33.0% compared with 29.4%) and 4.8% (33.2% compared with 27.4%) higher respectively in 2018/2019. On average, the proportion of women participants in original studies remained largely unchanged over the 10-year period, only 10% of all participants were women in studies.ConclusionWomen are strikingly under-represented in first and last author positions, as are women participants in sports and exercise medicine/physiotherapy journals.

With digitalization and virtual entertainment being the megatrends of the 21st century, there is reasonable concern about the role of physical activity (PA) in the daily life of children and adolescents. To identify risk-groups with insufficient PA and to guide interventions, continuous and representative tracking of PA is crucial. In this paper, representative PA data of children and adolescents from the Motorik-Modul (MoMo) baseline study (2003-2006, N = 4,528) is compared to those of Wave 2 (2014-2017, N = 3,708). Participants aged 4-17 were drawn out of 167 sample points in Germany and the data was weighted to ensure representativeness for Germany. Organized (sports clubs and schools) and unorganized (unorganized sports and playing outside) PA was measured by questionnaire and stratified by sex, age, and socioeconomic status. Contrary to common expectation, overall PA remained stable among youths in the past ten years, however, there is an ongoing trend towards organized forms of PA at the expense of unorganized sports and playing outside. Besides different trends in settings, there is inequality in PA distribution among socioeconomic status and gender, unequally pronounced in different settings. (Autor).

The combination of physical activity and being in nature is recognized as providing a range of significant benefits. The objective of this literature review was to compile an overview of the social benefits and costs associated with outdoor sports within the academic literature and to reflect on the quality of underlying evidence that supports the relationship. A systematic review was carried out with seven partners from different European countries, including Bulgaria, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. From a total of 17,560 studies identified, 133 studies were selected with relevant data extracted to standardized forms. The selected studies have been analyzed with qualitative research methods. A meta-analysis could not be conducted due to the heterogeneity of the study designs and outcome measures. As a result, the review gives an overview of the social impacts associated with outdoor sports which have been clustered to six broad categories: physical health, mental health and wellbeing, education and lifelong learning, active citizenship, crime reduction, and anti-social behavior, as well as additional benefits. The review furthermore revealed gaps in the evidence base which are especially notable in the long-term effects that outdoor sports can have on personal and social development.

All allegations of publication misconduct received by BMJ and BJSM relate to articles in which McCrory is listed as the single author. We have verified allegations about each of the nine articles authored by McCrory that were the subject of complaint. These articles are being retracted.9–17

Background It has frequently been reported that balance and lower-extremity muscle strength/power are associated with sports-related and everyday activities. Knowledge about the relationship between balance, strength, and power are important for the identification of at-risk individuals because deficits in these neuromuscular components are associated with an increased risk of sustaining injuries and falls. In addition, this knowledge is of high relevance for the development of specifically tailored health and skill-related exercise programs. Objectives The objectives of this systematic literature review and meta-analysis were to characterize and, if possible, quantify associations between variables of balance and lower-extremity muscle strength/power in healthy individuals across the lifespan. Data Sources A computerized systematic literature search was performed in the electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science, and SPORTDiscus up to March 2015 to capture all relevant articles. Study Eligibility Criteria A systematic approach was used to evaluate the 996 articles identified for initial review. Studies were included only if they investigated healthy individuals aged ≥6 years and tested at least one measure of static steady-state balance (e.g., center of pressure [CoP] displacement during one-legged stance), dynamic steady-state balance (e.g., gait speed), proactive balance (e.g., distance in the functional-reach-test), or reactive balance (e.g., CoP displacement during perturbed one-legged stance), and one measure of maximal strength (e.g., maximum voluntary contraction), explosive force (e.g., rate of force development), or muscle power (e.g., jump height). In total, 37 studies met the inclusionary criteria for review. Study Appraisal and Synthesis Methods The included studies were coded for the following criteria: age (i.e., children: 6–12 years, adolescents: 13–18 years, young adults: 19–44 years, middle-aged adults: 45–64 years, old adults: ≥65 years), sex (i.e., female, male), and test modality/outcome (i.e., test for the assessment of balance, strength, and power). Studies with athletes, patients, and/or people with diseases were excluded. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were extracted, transformed (i.e., Fisher’s z -transformed r z value), aggregated (i.e., weighted mean r z value), back-transformed to r values, classified according to their magnitude (i.e., small: r  ≤ 0.69, medium: r  ≤ 0.89, large: r  ≥ 0.90), and, if possible, statistically compared. Heterogeneity between studies was assessed using I 2 and Chi-squared ( χ 2 ) statistics. Results Three studies examined associations between balance and lower-extremity muscle strength/power in children, one study in adolescents, nine studies in young adults, three studies in middle-aged adults, and 23 studies in old adults. Overall, small-sized associations were found between variables of balance and lower-extremity muscle strength/power, irrespective of the age group considered. In addition, small-sized but significantly larger correlation coefficients were found between measures of dynamic steady-state balance and maximal strength in children ( r  = 0.57) compared with young ( r  = 0.09, z  = 3.30, p  = 0.001) and old adults ( r  = 0.35, z  = 2.94, p  = 0.002) as well as in old compared with young adults ( z  = 1.95, p  = 0.03). Limitations Even though the reported results provided further insight into the associations between measures of balance and lower-extremity muscle strength/power, they did not allow us to deduce cause and effect relations. Further, the investigated associations could be biased by other variables such as joint flexibility, muscle mass, and/or auditory/visual acuity. Conclusions Our systematic review and meta-analysis showed predominately small-sized correlations between measures of balance and lower-extremity muscle strength/power in children, adolescents, and young, middle-aged, and old adults. This indicates that these neuromuscular components are independent of each other and should therefore be tested and trained complementarily across the lifespan. Significantly larger but still small-sized associations were found between measures of dynamic steady-state balance and maximal strength in children compared with young and old adults as well as in old compared with young adults. These findings imply that age/maturation may have an impact on the association of selected components of balance and lower-extremity muscle strength.

The phenomenon of hyperprolific authorship has raised concerns about research quality, academic integrity, and the sustainability of publication practices across scientific disciplines. Hyperprolific authors (HA) are defined as those publishing 72 or more papers annually, while almost hyperprolific authors (AHA) publish 61-72. This study aimed to identify and characterize extremely productive (EP) authors, defined as HA and AHA, in sports medicine and musculoskeletal health research and assess their scientific impact. We analyzed publications from the top 20 CiteScore-ranked journals in sports medicine and musculoskeletal health between 2020 and 2024 using the Scopus database. Authors were classified as HA or AHA based on annual publication volume. Metadata was extracted regarding publication counts, authorship positions, institutional affiliations, and geographic distribution. Citation impact and scholarly attention were evaluated using h-index and total citation counts. Among 16,983 articles and 68,209 unique authors, 222 (0.45%) were classified as EP authors (125 HA, 97 AHA). Five authors maintained HA status across all five years, with the most prolific author publishing 1,174 papers and a peak annual output of 262. EP authors were concentrated in Europe (42.3%), Asia (28.4%), and the Americas (22.5%), especially in Germany, Japan, China, and the United States. Most EP authors were middle authors (median 59.8%-60.9%), with low first authorship (1.9%-2.1%) and higher last authorship rates (22.6%-27.0%). Despite concerns about volume, EP authors demonstrated substantial research attention, over their entire career, as measured by citation metrics: mean h-index 79.9 and mean total citations 35,654. Extremely productive authors comprise a small but influential subset of researchers. Their high output is not necessarily at the expense of research attention, but the concentration of productivity among a limited group raises important questions about authorship norms, research equity, and global representation.

The editorial by Meyer et al. offers a realistic reflection of the challenging state of peer review participation in some journals that hold this task to highest standards. With an increasing publishing market that is still heavily quantitatively driven by publish or perish incentives, a limited or finite peer pool of experienced sports scientists, a peer rewards scheme (Publons) that was decommissioned in mid-2022, and the lack of appetite for open peer review, sports journals are faced with challenging times to try and attract peer reviewers, and keep them incentivized. Absent an equitable trade and career-boosting rewards, the crisis in peer review might not be easily resolved.

Background Ageing is accompanied by decreases in physical capacity and physiological regulatory mechanisms including altered hormonal regulation compared with age-matched sedentary people. The potential benefits of exercise in restoring such altered hormone production and secretion compared to age-matched physically inactive individuals who are ageing remains unclear. Objectives The aim of this systematic review was to summarise the findings of exercise training in modulating levels of ostensibly anabolic and catabolic hormones in adults aged > 40 years. Methods We searched the following electronic databases (to July 2021) without a period limit: Cochrane Library, PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, SPORTDiscus and Web of Science. Additionally, a manual search for published studies in Google Scholar was conducted for analysis of the ‘grey literature’ (information produced outside of traditional commercial or academic publishing and distribution channels). The initial search used the terms ‘ageing’ OR ‘advanced age’ OR ‘old people’ OR ‘older’ OR elderly’ AND ‘anabolic hormones’ OR ‘catabolic hormones’ OR ‘steroid hormones’ OR ‘sex hormones’ OR ‘testosterone’ OR ‘cortisol’ OR ‘insulin’ OR ‘insulin-like growth factor-1’ OR ‘IGF-1’ OR ‘sex hormone-binding globulin’ OR ‘SHBG’ OR ‘growth hormone’ OR ‘hGH’ OR ‘dehydroepiandrosterone’ OR ‘DHEA’ OR ‘dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S)’ AND ‘exercise training’ OR ‘endurance training’ OR ‘resistance training’ OR ‘ strength training’ OR ‘weight-lifting’ OR ‘high-intensity interval training’ OR ‘high-intensity interval exercise’ OR ‘high-intensity intermittent training’ OR ‘high-intensity intermittent exercise’ OR ‘interval aerobic training’ OR ‘interval aerobic exercise’ OR ‘intermittent aerobic training’ OR ‘intermittent aerobic exercise’ OR ‘high-intensity training’ OR ‘high-intensity exercise’ OR ‘sprint interval training’ OR ‘sprint interval exercise’ OR ‘combined exercise training’ OR ‘anaerobic training’. Only eligible full texts in English or French were considered for analysis. Results Our search identified 484 records, which led to 33 studies for inclusion in the analysis. Different exercise training programs were used with nine studies using endurance training programs, ten studies examining the effects of high-intensity interval training, and 14 studies investigating the effects of resistance training. Most training programs lasted ≥ 2 weeks. Studies, regardless of the design, duration or intensity of exercise training, reported increases in testosterone, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), human growth hormone (hGH) or dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) (effect size: 0.19 <  d  < 3.37, small to very large) in both older males and females. However, there was no consensus on the effects of exercise on changes in cortisol and insulin in older adults. Conclusion In conclusion, findings from this systematic review suggest that exercise training increases basal levels of testosterone, IGF-1, SHBG, hGH and DHEA in both male and females over 40 years of age. The increases in blood levels of these hormones were independent of the mode, duration and intensity of the training programs. However, the effects of long-term exercise training on cortisol and insulin levels in elderly people are less clear.

Correspondence to Dr Tracy Blake, Department of Physical Therapy, University of Toronto, Toronto ON M5S, Canada; tracyablakeptphd@gmail.com The British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) has worked diligently to position itself as ‘a multi-media platform that provides original research, reviews and debate relating to clinically-relevant aspects of sport and exercise medicine, including physiotherapy, physical therapy, and rehabilitation’.1 Its global community and partnership network includes well over 10 000 sport and exercise medicine (SEM) physicians and sport physiotherapists—each with an ethical obligation to prioritise athlete health, safety and well-being . Racism is a human rights issue and a public health issue. Indigenous Australian elder, artist, educator and activist Lilla Watson belonged to a collective from which the following quote arose: “If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together”.7 Racial justice is more than just a pipe dream.