First 2026 JIS Issue is Published + Journal Updates

2026-01-28

JIS Community,

 

Happy start to 2026! I hope everyone is surviving from the winter blast through most of the U.S. this past week. We are happy to announce our first 2026 issue! We also have lots of good news related to the journal, including being listed on Scopus, our first journal impact metrics, and our reviewer decision time averaging below 17 days!

 

New Issue

Here is our 2026 first issue and a link to each article!

 

 Understanding the Experiences of Para-Collegiate Student-Athletes: A Mixed Methods Study

Derek Whaley, Jasmine Townsend, Christy Brown, Cedomir Stanojevic, Ramon Zabriskie

 

“No One’s Thriving During Football Season”: A Narrative Inquiry on the Biopsychosocial Well-Being of Collegiate Athletic Administrators and Their Partners

Lauren Beasley, Elizabeth A. Taylor, Kelsie Saxe, Robin Hardin

 

A Comparative Analysis of Name, Image, and Likeness Policies at NCAA Institutions

Jaxon Wiley, Adam R. Cocco, Ashleigh Antal, Sarah Stokowski, Chris Corr

 

Chasing the AD Chair: Bridging Career Paths, Professional Development, and Mentorship from Classroom to Athletic Department Leadership

Kelly Elliott, Donald Rockey, Riley Forrester

 

Driven To Lead: Gendered Differences in Leadership Competencies Among NCAA Athletes

Karina Jolly, Jake Simms, Chris Corr, Sarah Stokowski, Amanda Paule-Koba

 

Why are they leaving?: An investigation into the experiences of Division I men’s basketball athletes who enter the transfer portal

Despina M. Evangelopoulos, Hannah R. Kloetzer, Elizabeth A. Taylor

 

“Mission Impossible: Maintaining Higher Education’s Purpose in an Age of College Sports Revenue Sharing Through a Student-Athlete Holistic Development Framework”

Deborah Hogan

 

“You Never Saw the Light at the End of the Tunnel”: Examining the Developmental Impacts of the Redshirt Freshman Year

Hannah Kloetzer, Molly Harry

 

Examining Athletic Academic Advisors’ Experiences: A College Athlete Mental Health Approach

Jessica K. Brougham, Nicholas Swim, Lisa M. Rubin

 

 

Journal Updates

I wanted to provide everyone with an update on journal activities and metrics!

  • Journal Metrics
    • New Low for Review Time!
  • Scopus Acceptance
  • ABDC Submission
  • Web of Science
  • Creation of a Generative AI Policy
  • EOB Changes
  • Reminder of Practitioner Contributions

 

 

Journal Metrics

Lot of positive data points here pointing to the continued improvement in journal performance and interest from prospective authors. Huge thanks to our editorial board and guest reviewers to achieving these numbers!

  • Submissions were way up this year, as 85 articles were submitted in 2025. This was an increase of 73% from the previous year. It was an all-time high for submissions for JIS since joining KU Press and likely an all-time high for the journal’s history
  • Completed reviews also reached an all-time high (142)
  • The journal published 21 papers last year, tying our all-time since since joining KU Press in a non-special issue volume.
  • Our review time reached a new low, with the average reviewer completing their review in 16.88 days.
  • We started tracking days from manuscript submission-to-decision this year. JIS averaged 22.51 days. When backtracking this data, this is an all-time low for the journal. We have shrunk this number from 50.25 days in 2023.
  • Average of 30 days for article submission-to-rejection
  • Average of 125 days for article submission-to-acceptance
  • Average days of first decision is 2 days

 

 

Scopus Acceptance

The Scopus Content Selection & Advisory Board (CSAB) has reviewed our application and approved it for coverage. This means that all articles posted from the final 2025 issue and beyond will be listed on Scopus and be considered in their citescore calculation. Scopus Citescore is their comprehensive metric for measuring impact for academic journals. Since acceptance, JIS has a 1.0 citescore. For comparison’s sake, Journal of Sport Management’s 2025 citescore is 7.0. This metric will provide published/prospective authors with data to justify the quality of their publication on merit review, promotion & tenure submissions, and other scholarly tracking considerations.

 

ABDC Submission

We have applied for being listed on the Australian Business Dean’s Council Journal Quality List in Summer 2025. They are expected to post their decision and updated list in early 2026.

 

 

Web of Science

Our application was reviewed and declined. WoS provided the editorial team feedback on changes that would be necessary to consider further review. We can re-submit the journal for review in two years.

 

 

Creation of a Generative AI Policy

Generative Artificial Intelligence has become a growing resource in academia and scholarly writing. We expect its involvement to only grow. Therefore, the JIS editorial team and review board has created an AI Policy. The policy has implications for authors, reviewers, and the editorial leadership team. The full details of the policy are posted on the journal’s website (JIS homepage  About  AI Policy).

 

 

Editorial Board Changes

We have made changes to our editorial board since Summer 2025. Editorial board members Brian Turner, Janelle Wells, Barbara Osborne, Billy Hawkins, Nicole Melton, and Michael Sagas recently rotated off the board. We thank them for their countless contributions to the journal! We have added several scholars to the board in the past few months. Please welcome Jessica Brougham, Chris Corr, Natalie Bunch, and James Johnson to the editorial board. Each of these scholars have already been providing vital contributions to the journal as guest reviewers and we expect that exceptional work to continue.

 

 

Reminder of Practitioner Contributions

Just a quick reminder that JIS create a new submission option called Practitioner Contributions. Information on this submission option is listed under the ‘Submit to Journal’ tab on the homepage.