About the Journal

AGORA FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT (E-ISSN 1989-7200). Multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary open access international journal that publishes original academic papers written in Spanish, English and Portuguese. In addition, it may be published in any of the co-official languages in Spain (Catalan, Basque and Galician) an article previously reviewed and accepted in Spanish.

Ágora is fundamentally situated in the social sciences and humanities. Its purpose is to promote the dissemination and exchange of experiences, reflections and research on the different issues that make up the field of Physical Education, Sport, Recreational Physical Activity and the Body, giving priority to theoretical, socio-historical, qualitative, narrative and critical texts.

Ágora for Physical Education and Sport doesn’t necessarily identify with the contents of the papers that are the sole responsibility of the authors.

Ágora for Physical Education and Sport was first published on paper (ISSN: 1578-2174) in 2001 thanks to the initiative of two PE teachers associations whose members were mostly linked to the University of Valladolid. Its design was modified in 2010 and the journal became an open access online journal (E-ISSN: 1989-7200). In 2017, with the volume 19(1), Ágora for Physical Education and Sport moved to the new website of open access journals of the University of Valladolid. The content of the previous volumes is available in external databases (for example, in Ágora EFyD-Dialnet). As of the year 2023, with the partial replacement in the editorial team, Ágora begins a new stage, in which it tries to promote the social and humanist aspect of the journal. 

The journal does not have either article submission charges or article processing charges. Articles published inÁgora for Physical Education and Sport may be included in thematic or institutional repositories immediately after their publication as long as the text is not modified and the place where it is published is clearly stated.

Institutional affiliation

This journal is owned by the University of Valladolid (Spain), which provides its digital hosting and is responsible for its maintenance and management through Ediciones Universidad de Valladolid (EdUVa) and the Servicio de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones de la Universidad de Valladolid (STIC). The University of Valladolid guarantees open access to the contents of the journal. The works published in the journal will be included in the Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Valladolid, guaranteeing their long-term preservation.

Peer Review Process (Double Blind)

People interested in publishing in Ágora for Physical Education and Sport must send their writings using this platform. To do this, they must proceed through the Submissions section.

Articles which do not comply with all the requisites established in the "Author Guidelines" will be returned to the authors for their eventual correction. Articles which comply with all the requisites will be subject to a double process of evaluation: At first, the Editorial Board will make a selection from the texts received, valuing if they meet the applicable requirements associated to quality academic publications. Secondly, articles that have passed the first selection will be submitted to two experts in the field for a blind examination.

In order to maintain anonymity, authors are requested to refrain from referring to themselves in the first person. In case of doing so, these citations should be hidden in the first draft.

Articles with two positive reports will be sent to the authors to make the corrections suggested by the referees. Authors have a maximum period of one month to return their papers. If the Editorial Board considers that a second assessment round is not necessary, the articles will be published taking submission dates into account.

Should the evaluations be contradictory, the Editorial Board would request a third evaluation and then decide whether to publish the article. The decision of the Editorial Board is final and, if possible, authors will be informed of the decision within a maximum of ninety days following the reception of the paper.

Publication Frequency

Ágora para la Educación Física y el Deporte is an annual publication.

With the exception of the deadlines established in the occasional call for papers, there is no deadline for sending articles. Due to the Spanish summer holidays, August is not a convenient month for submitting papers.

Open Access Policy

This journal enables free and immediate access to its content to foster global knowledge.

Code of Conduct

The journal will comply with the ethical code established in the Ediciones Universidad Valladolid Good Practice Guidelines, which adheres to the principles proposed by the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE). This guide establishes the ethical way of proceeding by authors, editorial committees and reviewers, the content of which is summarized below:

1. Authors

Authors of articles must undertake to conduct their research in an ethical and responsible manner, in compliance with prevailing legislation and the aspects included in section 1 of the Ediciones Universidad Valladolid Good Practice Guidelines. Work shall be original and unpublished, and shall be duly attributed to those who have prepared it, avoiding plagiarism (misappropriation of others' work or ideas), self-plagiarism (taking advantage of ideas or previous works of one's own authorship without citing the source) and multiple or redundant publication of the same work. Clear reference should be made to the sources used and to previous papers on the same subject matter, explaining the origin of the data and ideas, of the literal quotations or of other resources (such as graphs, images, tables, etc.). Failure to comply with these aspects may lead to the public disavowal of the articles, as explained in section 2. 2 of the aforementioned guide.

Information from private conversations or discussions with others in academia or science may not be used without their explicit permission. If images or graphics that are not originally from the author are included in the work, they must have express permission to use them and cite the authorship appropriately.

Woks that are being evaluated in whole or in part by another publisher cannot be submitted. Once submitted to Ediciones Universidad de Valladolid, the originals cannot be sent to another journal or publisher until the evaluation process has been completed.

2. Editorial committee

The members of the editorial committee must ensure the quality of the publications, promoting good practices in research, trying to avoid malpractice and trying to speed up the publication processes.

The evaluation process must be managed fairly and impartially, respecting the thinking of those who have written the work and guaranteeing them the right to disagree with the evaluation reports.

It is the responsibility of the editorial committee to manage the evaluation process of publications fairly and impartially, respecting the thinking of authors and guaranteeing them the right to disagree with the evaluation reports.

Members of the editorial committees must respect the confidentiality of the articles and their contents until the time of publication and may not use the data in the work for their own research, unless they have the express permission of the authors.

The editorial committees may consider the refusal of authors to have their work evaluated by certain persons, evaluating whether the reasons provided are justified, but they are not obliged to dispense with the use of these persons.

The editorial committees shall recognise the work of the reviewers, issuing, where appropriate, the corresponding accreditations to those who have adequately carried out their work.

The editorial committee must try to avoid malpractice in research (redundant publication, plagiarism or selfplagiarism, omission of cited sources, invented, misrepresented, manipulated or unauthorised use of data ...). Where instances of research malpractice are noted in manuscripts received, the author will be invited to correct them if the misuse affects a small part of the article, and the manuscript will be rejected if it affects a substantial part.

If malpractice is discovered after publication, the editorial committee will request clarifications from the author and, after evaluating their explanations, will make a decision on the matter. If only part of the work contains errors, this can be resolved by publishing an erratum. If the malpractice affects a substantial part of the article, it must be retracted, in accordance with the procedure described in section 2. 2 of the Ediciones Universidad Valladolid Good Practice Guidelines.

Likewise, the editorial committee will try to resolve any possible conflicts of interest described in section 2. 4 of the aforementioned guide.

3. Reviewer/s

Reviewers must refrain from reviewing the works if they had any relationship with the authors that would advise against it, as explained in section 3 of the Ediciones Universidad Valladolid Good Practice Guidelines.

The work of reviewers must be confidential, both during the evaluation process and after the eventual publication of the evaluated work. Reviewers will not be able to use the evaluated content for their own personal benefit or that of other people, and they must respect the opinions and intellectual position of those who have written the articles, judging the work objectively and impartially, arguing their judgements appropriately, showing respect, constructively correcting possible errors and providing suggestions for improvement with regard to the contents, formal presentation, writing and bibliography used in the work.

In the event that any malpractice is detected in the work reviewed, reviewers must notify the editorial committees so that their members can take the corresponding decisions.

Reviewers are required to submit their reports within the agreed time. If they are unable to complete their task on time, or if they do not consider themselves capable of evaluating the work, they should inform the members of the editorial committees as soon as possible.

 Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the purposes stated by this journal (namely, those relating the processing of manuscripts submitted for publication, their evaluating process, or the distribution of information concerning the published works) and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Under REGULATION (EU) 2016/679 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation), users can exercise their rights to request access to, and to rectification and erasure (right to be forgotten) of their personal information, restriction of and/or objection to data processing and portability, as well as not to transfer and/ or share your information with third parties individually.

Copyright Notice

The articles published at Ágora para la Educación Física y el Deporte will have a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Ágora para la Educación Física y el Deporte doesn’t necessarily identify with the contents of the papers that are the sole responsibility of the authors.

DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and preservation of digital files

A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) will be assigned to the articles published in the journal. The articles will also be housed in the Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Valladolid and in other databases, and will be archived by the Servicio de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones de la Universidad de Valladolid (STIC).

Plagiarism prevention tool

The journal has an plagiarism prevention tool provided by the Servicio de las Tecnologias de la Información y las Comunicaciones de la Universidad de Valladolid (STIC).