After a multiyear process, the Translational Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine (TJACSM) is now indexed through Scopus, indicating a higher credibility pathway in the scientific, technical, and medical publishing world. Indexed journals are considered to be of higher scientific quality as compared to non-indexed journals, and achieving indexation represents a critical stage in the trajectory of any journal — a stage that has become much more difficult to achieve.
Indexing TJACSM entailed a series of requirements ranging from scientific stringency in disclosure statements to article formatting and style that started years ago to establish a clear focus and raise the journal’s status. This began with the vision of Joe Donnelly — the founding editor-in-chief (EIC). Current EIC John Bartholomew, Ph.D., FACSM, and his former editorial assistant, Emily Dunlap, along with the help of the editorial team, have worked to further refine the vision for TJACSM and increase the efficiency with authors.
“We moved to a continuous publishing format and continued no fee for publishing online. We are pleased that this has resulted in continued growth in submissions and quality of publications. I am so gratified by the work of so many to continue to advance the journal and establish TJACSM as a go to journal for translational research on human movement,” says Bartholomew.
TJACSM was first recognized by Clarivate, who was the first to index TJACSM and will lead to TJACSM’s first impact factor being calculated this year.
“Recognition by Scopus is the next step in this process,” Bartholomew says. “And it recognizes the work of the associate editors, editorial board and, most importantly, the authors.”
Stephanie Custer, managing editor of TJACSM, was integral in the process of making TJACSM more scientifically sound to, ultimately, aim big and index TJACSM in Scopus but also get the journal ready to apply for Medline (PubMed).
“It’s very exciting to see this work come to fruition and to have been accepted!” Stephanie says.
TJACSM also received comments from the Scopus reviewers that will be useful moving forward. The team at TJACSM has already made notes about how they can improve the journal even more to have a better chance at Medline indexing. TJACSM is now indexed by two of the three primary sources and hopes to see Medline indexing this summer!
Katie Feltman, ACSM chief operating officer, was the college’s director of publishing when TJACSM launched in 2016 and with the help of ACSM’s publishing staff outlined the roadmap for progressing ACSM’s newest journal at the time through the increasingly challenging steps needed to ultimately achieve indexing and an impact factor — milestones many new journals never reach.
“Achieving Scopus indexing marks a key step in TJACSM’s growth not just recognizing the rigor of the science published but TJACSM’s novel contribution to the sports science field,” Feltman says. “This is a journal by and for ACSM’s members and the ultimate team effort! The achievement would not have been possible without the contributions from the committed individuals giving their time and expertise to this process, including EIC John Bartholomew, Emily Dunlap and the many members involved as associate EICs/associate editors, reviewers, ACSM’s Publications Committee, and those who have chosen to publish their work in TJACSM and Stephanie’s keen attention to detail.”
Scopus combines a comprehensive, expertly curated abstract and citation database with data and linked scholarly literature across a wide variety of disciplines. Scopus has one of the largest global representations of scholarly work with over 84 million records, including 25,000+ peer reviewed journals in the social sciences, physical sciences, health sciences and life sciences.
TJACSM is a peer-reviewed journal publishing original research, clinical trials, systematic review articles, and meta-analysis and policy research that discuss the translational implications of basic, clinical and policy science to everyday real-world practice. TJACSM is freely available through the ACSM website.
Congrats to TJACSM on this accomplishment, and be sure to consider TJACSM when publishing your work!