About the Journal

Focus and Scope

It gives me great pleasure and honor to welcome you to the THE SPARK. It is my expectation that this journal will give our field an academic voice and a venue for research that will enhance our critical and intellectual understanding of sports education related issues. Ultimately, as any academic endeavor must begin and end with the interests of enriching the existing knowledge in mind, I believe THE SPARK will play its role appropriately. The Journal is, therefore, the ideal venue for the discussion of quality research in our field. In this way, we hope we will be able to fill an important academic niche. As such we welcome and encourage submission of quality original academic research focused on a wide range of sports related issues. We are honored to share the work of so many committed and thoughtful people. We appreciate your support and are so happy to have you as a contributor and reader of our journal. The journal editorial team is committed to maintain a high international and scientific standard by publishing original articles of research in order to establish the journal as one of the informative journals in sports education. The journal editorial board appeals to all researchers globally to contribute genuinely to advance the task of our journal in order to serve the academic community. We are looking forward to receiving your submission of articles, reports and notes.

Scope includes but is not limited to innovation in the fields of: Sports, Sports Sciences, Physical Education, Social Sciences, Bio Mechanics, Movement; Cognitive Development, Education, Sports Medicine, Motor Learning and training methodology.

Peer Review Process

I am pleased to inform all researchers/authors that the "THE SPARK" has gone online. The Journal follows blind peer review process, which is widely accepted as an objective process for the selection of quality papers. In this regard the role of referees is vital for maintaining quality standards for our journal. Therefore, all manuscript submitted to this journal are required to pass the peer review outlined below.

Manuscript Initial Evaluation

As soon as a submission is received, the Editors are tasked to evaluate it. After this initial evaluation, the submitted article may either be accepted to be forwarded for peer review or otherwise. The causes for rejection at this stage may be the insufficient originality, suffers from serious conceptual problems, very weak in grammar or English language, have scientific/ objective flaws, or may not fall within the aims and scope of the journal. In both the cases researchers/authors will be notified within 3-4 weeks after the submission.

Type of Peer Review

THE SPARK will be employing double blind review. The purpose of this blind review is to keep the author and referee anonymous throughout the process.

Selection of a Referee

The journal has a list of referees and this selection for any submission is made on the basis of matching principles. In addition, the journal management welcomes suggestions for referees from the author though these recommendations are not necessarily used.

Duration of Review Process

It will be hard to give any absolute duration for the review as it is subject to the response of the referees. However, the typical time for this journal may protract to 12 weeks. In case of divergent views from the referees, in such cases additional expert opinion will be sought which can add to the already committed duration. In some cases when finding a second editor is difficult, and the Editors feel that one referee report is outrightly convincing, the Editor has the discretion to accept, reject or ask the author for a revision. The Editor's decision will be sent to the author with recommendations made by the referees, which usually includes verbatim comments by the referees. Revised manuscripts might be returned to the initial referees who may then request another revision of a manuscript.

Publication Frequency

THE SPARK is an annual open access International Research Journal

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

THE SPARK

THE SPARK, a research journal, is a peer-reviewed annual research journal that publishes the research work of scholars, practitioners and academicians to impart the quality of empirical and theoretical research. Knowledge economy is the way forward for Pakistan in this competitive era. In order to emphasize upon the importance of research and innovation and to supplement its policy of promoting R & D activities, the University is looking for the research papers from all the researchers to contribute.

Plagiarism Policy

This journal believes in the originality and novelty of research and, therefore, a newly submitted paper will, first, will be checked for similarity index. After satisfactorily fulfilling this conditions, the paper will, then be considered for review. Otherwise the papers will be rejected at the first level.

The journal, therefore, strongly suggest NOT to use or copy any part of the already published materials.

The Editor's Decision is Final

Referees recommendations/views will be given due weightage in the decision process by the Editor. However, the Editor, will be responsible for the final decision to accept or reject the article.

Journal History

Sports Sciences & Physical Education are emerging disciplines and attempting to earn a reasonable status in academia.  In the world along with Pakistan many experts are involved in pushing the frontiers of knowledge. However a very few forums are available to share and disseminate the information. Globalization has also created a binding as well as sharing of information among the researchers and academics in the field. Sarhad University of Science & Information Technology, Peshawar, keeping in view, has taken initiative on behalf of the sister institutions and counterparts in the field and decided to launched "THE SPARK" The International Journal of Sports Sciences & Physical Education in 2016 with the collaboration of Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan and International Network of Sport and Health Science (INSHS)- A European Network.