There is an ancient link between sports and medicine. Galen, the Greek physician, wrote extensively on improving health through aerobic fitness and muscle tone, and the first Olympic athletes were trained by ancient Greek physicians largely using principles still applied today. The connection between athletics and medicine appears natural.
Renaissance physicians developed a more complex theory of the human body. Exercise physiology moved beyond the realms of training and competition and into academia. By the start of the 20th century, prestigious academic journals like the American Journal of Physiology were regularly publishing articles linking health and exercise. And now, in the 21st century, the importance of exercise in managing health is common knowledge and widely accepted.
With the launch of BMC Sports Science, Medicine, and Rehabilitation – considering manuscripts on all aspects of sports medicine and the exercise sciences, including rehabilitation, traumatology, cardiology, physiology, and nutrition – sports medicine becomes a part of the BMC series. Research in the field encompasses a wide variety of disciplines. It seeks not only to improve levels of mental and physical fitness and performance but also aims to advance the treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise, along with improving overall health and nutrition. With the prevalence of obesity rising on a worldwide scale and public health policy aimed at increasing levels of exercise at a population level, the growth of sports science and medicine as a field of research is inevitable.
Deborah Kahn, BioMed Central’s Publishing Director, says:
“This new journal moves the BMC series into an exciting and fast growing field. The broad scope and open access nature of BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation offers authors and readers from a wide range of disciplines a unique venue to serve their communities’ needs.”
BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation incorporates the recently closed Sports Medicine, Arthroscopy, Rehabilitation, Therapy & Technology (SMARTT) with an expanded scope and Editorial Board. BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation fills its own niche in the BMC series alongside companion journals including BMC Physiology, BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, and BMC Surgery.
The launch articles reflect the breadth and scope of the new journal and include a study on the ‘Determinants of pain, functional limitations and health-related quality of life six months after total knee arthroplasty’ by François Desmeules et al. and an interview with Section Editor Michael Carmont examining the discipline of sports traumatology research. A narrative review by Emily Churton and Justin W Keogh highlights the constraints influencing sports wheelchair propulsion performance and injury risk.
Per Renström from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, said: “The field of sports science and medicine is unquestionably an area with a very high public interest. The transparent open peer review process on BMC Sports Science, Medicine, Rehabilitation provides greater trust in the research you report.”
We hope the articles published in BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation will not only prove to be informative and of interest to researchers, athletes, and clinicians at all levels, but will be of public interest as well. Please consider us for your future manuscript submissions.