EDITORIAL
Robert
Robergs, PhD
Welcome
to the first issue of the Journal of Exercise Physiologyonline.
This
first issue represents a significant accomplishment for the American Society
of Exercise Physiologists (ASEP) and all exercise physiologists. We now
have our own journal that is functional, available free on the Internet,
and with no publication costs to authors. Furthermore, the editorial staff
of the Journal of Exercise Physiologyonlineis
committed to making the time delay from manuscript submittal to eventual
acceptance and then publication as short as possible, with a realistic
average duration being 4 months. As many of you are aware, this is considerably
shorter than the 6 to 12 months with traditional paper publications, and
should make the
Journal of Exercise Physiologyonline
the publication of choice to find the most current research findings in
exercise physiology.
Content
The
Journal
of Exercise Physiologyonlineis
suited to the publication of original research, and as described in the
Information
for Authors involves a blinded peer review arranged by a topics editor
with expertise in the topic of the manuscript. Apart from original research
manuscripts, review articles and shortened research manuscripts suited
to an expedited review will also be accepted for review. The editors
and accepted manuscripts are organized by the following topics:
Body
Composition
Environmental
Exercise Physiology
Exercise
and Health
Fitness
and Training
Metabolic
Responses to Exercise
Nutrition
and Exercise
Physical
Fitness and Clinical Exercise Testing
Research
Design and Statistics
Reviews
Special
Populations
Systems
Physiology:
Cardiopulmonary
Endocrinology
and Immune Function
Neuromuscular
and Skeletal
Anticipated
Publication Schedule
Currently there are seven
additional manuscripts in review, with an expected rate of submittal of
3 manuscripts per month. This rate of submittal is expected to increase
dramatically once the journal is recognized on the Internet. Given a 50%
anticipated acceptance rate of submitted manuscripts and our relatively
short duration of peer review and editorial correspondence, we should be
able to initially support a quarterly publication (January, April, July,
October) with hope of more frequent issues after the second or third year
of existence. The editorial staff would rather present few manuscripts
of high quality rather than numerous manuscripts of questionable quality
and contribution to exercise physiology.
Special
Issues
As Editor-in-Chief, I view
one of the important roles that I play is to stimulate submission of manuscripts
on topics that are of special importance to exercise physiologists. I plan
to do this through the development of special issues of the Journal
of Exercise Physiologyonline
that are composed of manuscripts on specific topics, and/or research methods.
For example, I perceive the following to be research related topics within
exercise physiology that exercise physiologists require more knowledge
on, or remain controversial topics suited to further academic inquiry:
Statistics and Research
Design
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
and Imaging
Minimal Training Requirements
for Different Populations
Minimal Exercise/Physical
Activity Requirements for Optimal Health
Is There a Valid Method
to Quantify a maximal "Anaerobic Capacity"?
Should Exercise Prescription
be Based on Relative Proportions of VO2max or a Ventilation/Metabolic Threshold?
There are obviously additional
topics to these. However, of these topics, the first I want to address
is statistics and research design. I request that if you are qualified,
or feel qualified to write and publish on statistics and research design,
and believe that you can contribute to the improvement in how we as exercise
physiologists conduct research (design, statistics, and interpretation),
please e-mail me with your ideas for future manuscripts. I will also seek
a commitment from statisticians who specialize in exercise science disciplines
to contribute to this special issue.
To start the process going,
I believe that too many of us have conducted and still conduct research
(myelf included) with too few subjects and poor statistical power. We conduct
research focused on attaining significance, and are not prepared to document
the validity of our insignificant findings. In addition, as far as statistics
is concerned, many of us complete a course in ANOVA and forever remained
convinced that research design and inquiry based on specific mean comparisons
is the best approach for our field. It could be aruged quite strongly that
ANOVA may not be appropriate for many physiological studies that involve
a factor that is a continuous variable (e.g., time, VO2,
%VO2max, etc.). Time
series analysis is an approach that many of us should experiment with to
improve our statistical power at detecting whether groups differ in their
response over a continuous variable that we seem to so willingly able to
categorize to suit ANOVA. How many of us really know
what we are losing or gaining in our statistics and data interpretation
when we categorize a continuous variable?
Letters
to the Editor-in-Chief
I want to make it known that
your response to publish articles in Journal of Exercise Physiologyonlineis
needed and invited. I will review each letter for suitability for inclusion
in the subsequent issue of the Journal of Exercise Physiologyonline.
Thank you for your interest
in the Journal of Exercise Physiologyonline.
Managing
Editor:
Tommy Boone, PhD, MPH
April, 1998, marks the launching
of the first issue of the Journal of Exercise Physiologyonline.
Online
electronic publishing is a reality for the American Society of Exercise
Physiologists (ASEP). Of course, as is true with all new ventures, there
will be problems and challenges. Keeping up with the technology and its
use on the Internet is a full time job. However, ASEP is designed as a
service to its members and the Internet global readership. It is our desire
to provide scholarly, informative manuscripts on a broad range of topics
of interest to exercise physiologists. As we hear from you, we shall make
every effort to be responsive to your interests.
This
journal and this issue is the first of its kind in the history of Exercise
Physiology.We are grateful to our associate editors, reviewers, and Editor-in-Chief,
Dr.
Robert Robergs, and to our contributing authors for helping us launch Vol.1
No. 1, April, 1998.
If
you would like to submit an article, we would be happy to review it for
publication. Articles are accepted from all over the United States and
abroad which we believe will provide exercise physiologists a wide range
of topics from an international view point.
Please
refer to the"Guidelines
for Contributors" to prepared your manuscripts for JEPonline.
You
may also want to click on "Electronic
Sources: APA Style of Citation" for the recommended patterns for
citing electronic journal articles. In short, the following is an example
of how to reference one of the following JEPonlinearticles:
Kreider,
R. B. (1998). Creatine supplement: Analysis of ergogenic value, medical
safety, and concerns.
Journal of Exercise Physiologyonline[Online],
Vol. 1(No. 1), 12 pages. Available:www.css.edu/users/tboone2/asep/jan.htm
[1998, April].
Copyright
©1999-2001
American
Society of Exercise Physiologists
All Rights Reserved.
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