Journal policy

EDITORIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to SMB will be published. The Editor-in-Chief is guided by the Editorial Policy and constrained by legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to decide not to publish submitted manuscripts in case it is found that they do not meet relevant standards concerning the content and formal aspects. The Editorial Staff will inform the authors whether the manuscript is accepted for publication within 60 days from the date of the manuscript submission. Editor-in-Chief must hold no conflict of interest with regard to the articles they consider for publication. If an Editor feels that there is likely to be a perception of a conflict of interest in relation to their handling of a submission, the selection of reviewers and all decisions on the manuscript shall be made by the Editorial Board. The Editor shall evaluate manuscripts for their scientific content free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias. The Editor and the Editorial Staff must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain. The Editor and the Editorial Staff shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the evaluation process, and the authors remain anonymous to reviewers until the end of the review procedure.

AUTHORS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

Authors must ensure that their submissions are original, ethically sound, and not under review elsewhere. Preprints may be shared before submission, provided full disclosure and linking are included. Manuscripts must contain sufficient methodological detail to allow replication and must comply with the standards of the Equator Network where applicable. All listed authors must have made a significant intellectual contribution, following ICMJE authorship criteria, and must specify their roles using the CRediT taxonomy. Any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest must be declared; otherwise, the statement “No competing interests were disclosed” should be included. Authors are responsible for accurate citation, permission for copyrighted materials, and proper acknowledgement of contributors. All submissions are screened using iThenticate plagiarism detection software.

Reporting standards

SPORTS, MEDIA and BUSINESS is committed to serving the research community by ensuring that all articles include enough information to allow others to reproduce the work. A submitted manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit reviewers and, subsequently, readers to verify the claims presented in it – e.g. provide complete details of the methods used, including time frames, etc. Authors are required to review the standards available for various research applications from the Equator Network and use those that are relevant to the reported research. The deliberate presentation of false claims is a violation of ethical standards.

All manuscripts undergo double-blind peer review by at least two independent experts. Reviewers evaluate scientific quality, relevance, originality, and methodological rigour. In cases of divergent recommendations, the Editorial Board may appoint an additional reviewer. Reviews must remain confidential and free from bias.

The journal adheres to the COPE and WAME guidelines regarding artificial intelligence. AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT) cannot be listed as authors. Any use of AI tools must be transparently disclosed in the manuscript, and authors remain fully responsible for all generated content. Editors and reviewers are strictly prohibited from using AI tools in the peer review process.

INVESTIGATION

• Editor-in-Chief will consult with the Editorial Board on decisions regarding \ the initiation of an investigation.
• During an investigation, any evidence should be treated as strictly confidential and only made available to those strictly involved in investigating.
• The accused will always be given the chance to respond to any charges made against them.
• If it is judged at the end of the investigation that misconduct has occurred, then it will be classified as either minor or serious.

Authors are encouraged to make data supporting their findings openly available, ideally in FAIR-compliant repositories. Exceptions may apply for ethical, privacy, or legal reasons. Each manuscript must include a Data Accessibility Statement detailing data availability and access conditions.

Authors are encouraged to make data supporting their findings openly available, ideally in FAIR-compliant repositories. Exceptions may apply for ethical, privacy, or legal reasons. Each manuscript must include a Data Accessibility Statement detailing data availability and access conditions. No fees are charged at any stage of submission, review, or publication. Authors retain copyright and may self-archive preprints, accepted versions, or final PDFs in institutional or public repositories, including ResearchGate and Academia.edu.

Authors retain copyright of the published papers and grant to the publisher the non-exclusive right to publish the article, to be cited as its original publisher in case of reuse, and to distribute it in all forms and media. Articles will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Authors can enter the separate, additional contractual arrangements for non-exclusive distribution of the published paper (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

The views expressed in the published works do not express the views of the Editors and Editorial Staff. The authors take legal and moral responsibility for the ideas expressed in the articles. The publisher shall have no liability in the event of issuance of any claims for damages. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.