Editors of the Journal of Sport for Development announce upcoming changes.
In March 2013, the Journal of Sport for Development (JSFD) published its first issue as an online, open-access academic journal explicitly dedicated to sport for development (SFD) research. JSFD’s mission was to embark on a journey towards advancing, examining and disseminating best practices and evidence of effectiveness from programmes and interventions that use sport to promote (international) development in the seven thematic areas of: education, disability, gender, health, livelihoods, social cohesion, and peace. Five years from its inauguration, it seems timely to look back and reflect on some of JSFD’s organisational developments, key achievements, and future challenges.
Since its inception, JSFD has achieved a number of important milestones. Most importantly, the journal has established itself as a reputable scholarly outlet that is attractive and relevant to researchers, practitioners and policymakers from around the world. More specifically, JSFD has published a total of six volumes with two issues per year. This has included a special issue on disability published in 2016, and another special issue on SFD in Latin America published in 2018. The special issue focusing on Latin America is a particularly important achievement, as JSFD has always aimed to encourage contributions from academics and practitioners from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across the globe, which are traditionally under-represented in scholarly research. Overall, over 150 submissions from scholars spanning 34 countries have been received to date, and 136 experts from different nations have been engaged in JSFD’s double-blind peer-review process. Finally, JSFD’s editorial board has grown to represent an internationally acclaimed group of academics and practitioners with largely diverse backgrounds and an equal gender balance. The JSFD editors and editorial board aim to “practice what we preach” with a strong focus on equity, access and diversity.
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