Manuscript should be sent in Microsoft word (double spaced) to facilitate emailing to reviewers and a faster
reviewing process. The ASCA will not accept hard copies of manuscripts.
2. Please ensure the submission is in accordance with the guidelines outlined below for all different categories of
submissions. All authors are required to clearly state the specific submission category for their paper ie Review of
the Literature or From the Field: Directed Topic etc. on page 1 of their paper.
3. Referencing must conform to the guidelines, irrespective of the manuscript or article. From the field articles do not
necessarily require referencing, though it is encouraged.
4. All video files that are emailed to the ASCA are required to be 5MB or less. Please do not send flash files. All
video footage should be professional in appearance with athletes wearing tidy clothes, shoes etc.
5. It is the author(s) responsibility to gain permission from other publishers if they are going to include copyrighted
information in their articles and to include appropriate acknowledgement of the material(s) in the article. Authors
must provide proof to JASC of such permission otherwise the reviewers will return the article to the author.
6. Many people working and studying in the area of strength and conditioning have very firm views on what they
believe are the best training and testing methods etc. Such strong views can often result in one sided articles
which merely reflect the strong views of the author(s) and in effect become self-fulfilling prophecies. For example
people who just love Olympic weightlifting may do a review of the literature on effective training techniques and
tend to only include those papers in their review which conform to their world view. Such myopic thinking does not
really progress our discipline. The JASC encourages all authors to write papers with an open independent mind
and allow all points of view to be presented and considered and include papers and points of view that are
challenging to their own or the prevailing view. Reviewers will be stringent on this point in order to ensure wellbalanced evidence based best practice is presented
• All submissions should include a brief description of the author and their current interest in the field.
• The ASCA will accept multi-authored submissions however, it is a requirement that the Level 2 candidate is the
lead author.
• While the specific structure of the article will depend on the type of contribution i.e. research article, review, etc.
the articles must be applied. The author should make an attempt to allow potential readers to take something
away with them that they may be able to implement in their training.
• Consequently, a Practical Application section to all articles is seen as essential. Further, where possible,
authors should be very specific regarding the type of training and/or testing that was conducted, such that readers
are able to duplicate the methods exactly.
• If you wish to include video footage of the practical application, please do so.
• Articles should be reader friendly and hence the use of abbreviations and the use of unfamiliar scientific jargon
should be minimised, and the author should assume minimal knowledge from the reader when writing the article
so that all exercises and techniques need to be thoroughly described.
• Students completing study outside of the ASCA who provide submissions from their studies must ensure their
submission is formatted to the JASC Author Guidelines.
• All ASCA Level 2 submissions must include references to support the points made in the article.
Each OSRS submission will be reviewed by 2 independent reviewers (The Editor-In-Chief and 1 Associate Editor).
Once reviewed the author will be required to respond to each reviewers’ comments in a point-by-point fashion to each
comment made and submit the responses and the revised paper as 2 separate Microsoft Word documents.
Please avoid using the words I, me, we, us etc. and write the paper from the 3rd person narrative point of view, written
in past tense.
1. Title Page
The title page should include the manuscript title and type of submission (i.e. Original scientific research study), brief
running head, setting(s) where the research was conducted, authors’ full name(s) spelled out with middle initials,
department(s), institution(s), full mailing address of corresponding author including telephone and email address. Please
ensure no abbreviations are used in this information.
2. BLUF
On a separate sheet of paper, the manuscript must begin with a ‘BLUF’ (Bottom Line Up Front) statement. This
statement should be a single sentence of no more than 40 words. The intent of this statement is to provide the reader
with the key message of the paper (the main conclusion and/or key practical application). This BLUF differs from an
abstract in that it does not summarise the background, methods, evidence or arguments. No acronyms or references
are to be used.
3. Abstract and Key Words
Following the BLUF is the abstract, a basic summary of the paper. The abstract is limited to 275 words and followed by
3 – 6 key words. The abstract should have sentences (no headings) related to the purpose of the study, brief methods,
results, conclusions and practical applications.
4. Text
The text must contain the following sections with titles in ALL CAPS in this exact order:
Journal of Australian Strength and Conditioning – Author Guidelines
Effective February 2017
A – INTRODUCTION
This section should demonstrate the need for the study or the underlying reason for the study. Focus on the studies
lending support to your hypothesis(es) and giving the proper context to the problem being studied. In most cases use
no subheadings in this section and try to limit it to 4 – 6 concisely written paragraphs. At the end of the introduction
please include one sentence that clearly outlines the purpose of the study.
B – METHODS
Within the METHODS section, the following subheadings are required in the following order:
Approach to the Problem: where the author(s) show how their study design will be able to test the hypotheses
developed in the introduction and give some basic rationales for the choices made for the independent and dependent
variables used in the study;
Subjects: All subject characteristics that are not dependent variables of the study (e.g. subject height, weight, age etc.)
should be included in this section and not in the RESULTS. A statement should be included to the effect that all subjects
were explained the risks and benefits of participation in the study and provided informed consent to participate.
Procedures: After reading this section another investigator should be able to replicate your study or totally understand
how it was carried out. Under this subheading you can add others but please limit their use to that which makes the
methods clear and in order of the investigation (e.g. 1RM bench press test procedures or Agility testing procedures etc.).
The ASCA encourages authors to submit photos or short videos of their procedures and methods where such
contributions aid the reader’s understanding of the methods and procedures used.
Statistical Analyses: Here is where you clearly state your statistical approach to the analysis of the data and also
whether it be statistical or practical significance and so on. Please outline the specific statistical tests used (if any) and
also the level of statistical significance applied. As most of the JASC readership are strength and conditioning coaches
please try not to use overly complicated statistical procedures where possible.
NB – JASC will publish manuscripts of note that do not have control groups or that have low subject numbers and limited
statistical comparisons: JASC understands that this is the typical case when training elite athletes and JASC seeks to
embrace studies done upon elite athletes.
C – RESULTS
Present the results of your study in this section. Put the most important findings in Figure or Table format and less
important findings in the text. Make sure that you cite each Figure and Table and that each Figure and Table is numbered
and has a title. Where possible place the Figures and Tables in the text in the location they should appear in the final
published document. If this is not possible then indicate in the text where each Figure and Table should be placed.
D – DISCUSSION
Discuss the meaning of the results of your study in this section. Relate them to the literature that currently exists and
make sure that you bring the paper to completion with each of your hypotheses.
E – PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
This is an important section for the JASC reader. In this section, tell the ‘coach’ or practitioner how your data can be
applied and used. This section of the paper should speak directly to this audience and not to the exercise or sport
scientist.