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Sports Innovation Journal

About the Journal

The time is long overdue to close the widening gap of disconnect between scholars and practitioners within the ever-changing sports industry. The Sports Innovation Journal (SIJ) brings together researchers and practitioners dedicated to publishing research that informs the development of innovative ideas to move the sports industry forward through collaboration, access, and relevancy.

The SIJ is different by being clear that our intended end user is the practitioner who uses our research, as well as the scholar who builds on our work with relevant questions needing asked and solved for the future of sports.

The SIJ publishes scholarly research, non-empirical commentary, and case studies as part of the Indiana University Open Access Journals, and also summarizes the articles with infographics and discusses key takeaways and implementation strategy in a podcast interview and discussion with the author(s).

The Sports Innovation Journal Home

The Sports Innovation Journal Archive

Mission

This journal's mission is to create an ongoing culture of collaboration between researchers and practitioners in every aspect of the sports industry. Instead of only targeting findings to other researchers, the Sports Innovation Journal works with practitioners to better understand the problems facing the industry and then deploys researchers to study and solve those problems, becoming industry change agents.

Scope

Sport is a multidisciplinary field applied in many settings, including public, community, youth, scholastic, intercollegiate, and professional. Innovation has become a well-known term but less is known as to what constitutes innovation in different areas of sports.

Examples of content areas within the aforementioned levels of sport are listed below. This is not to be considered an exhaustive list. Authors are encouraged to use their own discretion as to what is considered an innovative research topic or question and the editorial board will provide an extra level of review.

Business Front Office (Marketing/Sales/Sponsorship/Ticketing)
Personnel Front Office (Roster Management/Draft/Free Agency/Salary Cap)
Legal & Compliance (NCAA Bylaws/Collective Bargaining Agreements/Media & Employment Contracts/Gambling/Agents & Attorneys)
Governance & Business Structure (NCAA/Olympic/League Offices/Athletic Departments)
Media & Journalism (Broadcasting/Radio/Writing/Creative/Interviewing/Technology)
Data Analytics (Data Visualization/Fan Experience/Moneyball/Strategy)
Human Centered Design (Fan & Participant Experience)
Engineering & Technology (Equipment Design/Modernized Facilities/Safety Innovations/Software Applications)
Sports Science (Treatment/Medical Devices/Athlete Performance Measurement)
Entrepreneurship (Start-Up Companies/Start-Up Sports Leagues)
Tourism (Event Bids/Travel Experience/
Philanthropy (Fundraising/Development/Donor Analytics/Athlete Charities)

Editorial Board

The editorial board consists of researchers and practitioners in various disciplines within college and professional sports to maintain a sense of balance in ensuring the journal is serving its mission, purpose, and scope.

Author Submission Guidelines and Distribution

As part of the submission process, authors are required to adhere to all of the following items, and manuscript submissions may be returned to authors that are not compliant with these guidelines.

The manuscript must clearly indicate what problem is being addressed; provide a brief background on the topic; describe the methods used; explain the results; and describe the implications and likelihood of implementation in the sports industry
The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration;
The manuscript is a single-spaced Microsoft Word document using a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL address citations); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end;
If applicable, data is can be made available in Tableau to allow users to interact with the data;
The manuscript has an abstract between 150 and 200 words, is less than 4,000 words, and includes keywords relevant to the research; and
The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the most recent edition of the “Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.”

The Sports Innovation Institute will supply infographic material for approved submissions that are published in the journal. The editors reserve the right to produce and share the creative design of the infographic but the author(s) will be sent a copy to approve content accuracy in relation to the submitted manuscript.

Another outlet for sharing and explaining research published in the journal is through the Sports Innovation podcast. While not required, authors will be asked whether they would be willing to be interviewed for a podcast episode in which they would provide an oral summary of their research in a question and answer segment with the podcast host. The goal of the podcast episode would be to reach a broader audience of practitioners while also driving more traffic to download and read the full journal article, which will be linked to the podcast episode.