The scientific research publications of the Faculty of Sports Sciences and Health (Sports Management Journal, Journal of Sports Motor Development and Learning, Journal of Sports Biosciences, and Sport Sciences and Health Research) consider the production and publication of original scientific research as its mission. To achieve this goal, the process of reviewing and publication of research articles must be carried out accurately and with an impartial approach along with the trust of the parties. According to this approach and considering that this publication follows international guidelines such international Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE) guidelines, therefore the ethical charter of this publication is announced as follows. To achieve high ethical standards, all parties involved in writing, reviewing, and publishing articles should commit themselves to comply with these ethical principles.

The following points are considered in this ethical charter:

A) Ethical principles for writers

• Submitted articles should be in the specialized field of the journal and should be prepared scientifically and coherently, according to the journal’s standards. Authors are ultimately responsible for the content of the entire article submitted to the journal. The authors are committed to providing a detailed view of the research conducted and an objective discussion regarding the importance of the research.
• Authors should report their findings completely and should not omit data that is relevant to the text or structure of the research questions. Results should be reported regardless of whether they support or contradict expected outcomes. Authors should have a specific accuracy in presenting properties or characteristics related to their research or their findings and interpretation. The fundamental assumptions, theories, methods, indices, and research plans related to the findings and interpretations of their work should be revealed and stated.
• The submitted articles must be the original research of the authors presenting the article and any use of others' research must be mentioned in the article with a citation of the source. The research must be done accurately and objectively and the data must be reported correctly. The authors are responsible for the correctness and accuracy of the article’s content, and the authors are obliged to ensure the correctness and accuracy of the article’s content. The publication of the article does not mean the approval of its content by the journal.
• Authors are required to avoid unethical research and publication misconduct such as plagiarism.
• The submitted article, whether full or partial version, must not have been previously published or accepted for publication in any other journal inside or outside the country.
• Authors are not allowed to "overlapping publication". Overlapping publication means publishing the data and findings of the previous articles with slight changes in an article with a new title.
• Authors are required to use other people's materials with accurate citations and, if necessary, use the required sources after obtaining written and explicit permission. When the exact texts of other researchers are used, direct quotation methods and punctuation marks such as putting texts inside quotation marks (" ") should be used.
• The corresponding author of the article must ensure that all authors’ names and information are included and there are no other names except the researchers who contributed to the research and preparation of the article. In other words, adding "honorary author" and removing the actual author must be avoided.
• The corresponding author of the article is required to ensure that all the authors read the manuscript and agree on its submission and the order of authors in the article.
• The corresponding author must state the sources of financial support for the project both at the end of the English extended abstract and in the acknowledgments section at the end of the article, then submit the article.
• Authors are required to inform the journal about any errors and carelessness in their article and take action to correct it or withdraw the article. Authors should act quickly and appropriately in the revision and correction of the article. If an author cannot meet the deadline, they should contact the editor-in-chief as soon as possible to request an extension of time or to withdraw from the reviewing process.
• The authors are expected to keep the raw samples and information used in the preparation of the article for at least one year after the publication of the article in the journal to answer possible criticisms and questions from the journal’s readers.
• Any possible risks to humans or the environment due to research should be clearly stated in the article.

b) Ethical principles for reviewers

Evaluation and review is a professional activity for journals that provides value to the entire profession. Generally, researchers who submit their articles to the journal are expected to reciprocally accept the journal's invitation to evaluate the articles. Reviewers are also expected to adhere to the following ethical principles when accepting review invitations.

• The journal follows a confidential double-blind review process whereby neither authors nor the reviewers know each other’s identity
• The reviewers must keep the information regarding the article confidential.
• The reviewers should evaluate the quality of the article impartially.
• The reviewers must inform the editor-in-chief of any information that may be a reason for rejecting the publication of an article.
• The reviewers should objectively evaluate the articles only based on their content, originality, importance, and relevance to the journal's subject area.
• The reviewers must report any conflict of interest to the editor-in-chief.

C) Ethical principles for the group of editors and the editorial board

The editorial board of the Journal of Sports Management Journal, has a high level of expertise in the field of Sports Management. Its members are among the best university experts in the country in the subject area of the journal. The names and full information of the group of editors are provided on the journal website. https://jsm.ut.ac.ir/journal/editorial.board

• Journal editors must maintain their independence in writing and work to ensure that authors have freedom of writing. The editors are responsible for accepting or rejecting articles. During the usual process, this work requires the opinions and recommendations of reviewers; however, articles that consider completely inappropriate by editors may be rejected without peer review.
• The editors are responsible for judging the articles solely based on their scientific merits and should act without any personal bias.
• Editors should avoid any actions that result in a potential conflict of interest. The responsibility and authority to write and edit any article written by the editor and sent to the journal office must be delegated through the editor to another competent person, such as a member of the editorial board

D) Publisher’s Responsibilities and commitments

• The Sports Management Journal, is required to make the final decision on the submitted articles based on professional judgment and not be influenced by commercial or personal interests.
• The Sports Management Journal, is committed to the confidentiality of anonymous evaluation and reviewing process.
• In this publication, articles are accepted, sent for revision, or rejected based on the decision of the reviewers and the editorial board and the final decision of the editor-in-chief.
• The journal is required to check the submitted articles using plagiarism checker software to ensure compliance with ethical principles and to prevent plagiarism and scientific violations.
• The Sports Management Journal, always evaluates and supervises compliance with ethics in the publication of scientific articles by the editor-in-chief, expert editors, members of the editorial board, reviewers, writers, and readers.

Unethical publication and research misconduct

If in any phases of submitting, reviewing, editing, or publishing an article in the journal or afterward, ensuring the occurrence of any following cases is considered as an unethical publication and research misconduct and the journal has the right to take legal actions.

• Data falsification: It means reporting untrue content and presenting fabricated data or results as laboratory results, experimental studies, and personal findings. Untrue recordings of what did not take place or manipulation of the results of different studies are examples of this violation.
• Plagiarism: It includes closely adopting the thoughts and expressions of other authors, copying in the expression of thoughts, structural similarities in the writing, attributing the ideas and results of others without proper citation, or presenting it as original scientific research.
• Ghost author: It means that the author (authors) hires another person to conduct the research and after the end of the research, he publishes it in his name with a small modification.
• Resubmission of an article, duplicate publication, add "Honorary Author" or remove "Actual Author"

Officials of the journal check for any unethical publication and research misconduct. To protect the credibility and efforts of other researchers, without any condonation and tolerance regarding the amount of unethical publication and research misconduct, the following legal action is taken:

1. The article will be rejected and if printed, it will be removed from the websites.
2. The names of all the authors of the article will be placed on the blacklist of Tehran University publications.
3. Legal action will be taken by the competent legal authorities.
4. The plagiarism file will be shared with other universities and related local and foreign publications through an official letter.
5. The status will be notified through an official letter to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, the Islamic World Science Citation Database (ISC), universities, institutions, publications, and any place where the authors have used the privilege of publishing this article.