@inproceedings{8578479,
  abstract     = {{Introduction
There is evidence that research in martial arts and combat sports (MA&CS) has boomed since the late 1990’s [see e.g., Green and Svinth 2010; Gutiérrez-García et al. 2011]. This has led to the birth of several scientific/technical journals specific to MA&CS. These journals are nowadays sharing a common scientific publication space with more traditional scientific field-oriented journals, which also publish studies on MA&CS. The aim of this study is to provide a general and up-to-date overview on the MA&CS publication space referred to journals, as a tool for helping authors decide where to publish their MA&CS studies.

Methods
This study followed a bibliographic approach. Scopus and the Web of Science (WoS) core collection databases were screened for journal retrieval as these are, arguably, the most relevant global and multidisciplinary scientific databases nowadays. SportDiscus and PubMed databases were also included due to their relevance in the physical activity and sport sciences field. In addition, the authors provided information of current MA&CS scientific/technical journals not indexed in these databases. In order to rate how many MA&CS papers were published in specific MA&CS journals we used data from several bibliometric studies. The interpretation of the results was based on the authors’ knowledge and included variables such as impact, visibility and accessibility, the latter both for authors and readers.

Results and discussion
Up to four specific MA&CS journals were indexed in the WoS. These were Archives of Budo (Science Citation Index Expended, category Sport Sciences, no Impact Factor in 2017 due to anomalous citation patterns – overuse of self citations, Impact Factor 2016=1.506; Q3), Ido Movement for Culture. Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology, Archives of Budo Science of Martial Arts and Extreme Sports and Revista de Artes Marciales Asiáticas (Emerging Sources Citation Index). Archives of Budo (category Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation, Cite Score2017=1.59; Q2) and Ido Movement for Culture. Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology (categories Philosophy, and Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation, Cite Score2017=0.80; Q1 and Q3 respectively) were also indexed in Scopus. SportDiscus provided one more current title: Journal of Combat Sports and Martial Arts. PubMed did not index any MA&CS journal. Titles not indexed in these databases include Research Journal of Budo, Martial Arts Studies Journal, Acta Taekwondo et Martialis Artium, International Journal of Wrestling Science, International Journal of Martial Arts, Chinese Wushu Research and Journal of Martial Arts Research – JOMAR (still not publishing any issue). These data must be considered as they are usually linked to authors’ research evaluation. Nevertheless, the specific states’ policies regarding the evaluation of researchers’ scientific production must be carefully taken into account, as they can be very different among countries. 

All cited journals but Chinese Wushu Research are electronic and free, open-access, which means important advantages for their visibility and accessibility. They publish papers in English but JOMAR (also in German), Research Journal of Budo (also in Japanese), Revista de Artes Marciales Asiáticas (also in Spanish and Portuguese) and Chinese Wushu Research (only in Chinese). Publishing papers in other languages but English may allow easier accessibility to authors and readers not fluent in this language, which is an important point to avoid language bias in scientific publication. On the contrary, this trend seriously limits the accessibility to some contents of the aforementioned journals, as no other language but English has turned nowadays into the lingua franca for scientific communication. Therefore, it is suggested that authors try to publish their studies in English, provided their papers reach an acceptable English-as-a-lingua-franca level standards. 

Another aspect that may limit accessibility for authors is publication fees/article processing charges (APC). Four MA&CS journals charge publication fees: Archives of Budo (€1210/US$1400 per article), Archives of Budo Science of Martial Arts and Extreme Sports (€260/US$300 per article), International Journal of Wrestling Science (€173/US$200 per article) and Journal of Combat Sports & Martial Arts (€70/US$81 per article). This can be specially limiting for independent researchers and/or authors from institutions from developing countries wanting to publish their findings. Authors must be aware of this fact before submitting their manuscripts, as APCs are not applied upon submission but when the manuscript is accepted for publication.

Finally, it is obvious to say that studies on MA&CS can be found in non-specific MA&CS journals. Studies rating the contribution of specific MA&CS journals to the whole output of MA&CS articles used the WoS databases. The specific MA&CS indexed journals – mainly Archives of Budo – were placed in top positions but contributing scarcely to the whole output: 4.4% [Gutiérrez-García et al. 2011], 10.9% [Peset et al. 2013], 4.5% [Pérez-Gutiérrez et al. 2015], 10.6% [Pérez-Gutiérrez et al. 2017], and 10.6% (9.05% from Archives of Budo and 1.55% from Archives of Budo Science of Martial Arts and Extreme Sports) [Franchini et al. 2018]. This means that studies on MA&CS are attractive to many scientific journals, which may increase the authors’ opportunities for getting their papers published.

Conclusion
There are, at least, twelve scientific/technical journals specific to MA&CS. These are diverse considering their impact, visibility and accessibility. We encourage potential authors to be aware about these journals and their characteristics before submitting their papers.

References
1. Franchini E., Gutiérrez-García C., Izquierdo, E. (2018). Olympic combat sports research output in the Web of Science: a sport sciences centered analysis, “Ido Movement for Culture. Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology”, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 21–27; doi: 10.14589/ido.18.3.4.
2. Green, T.A., Svinth, J.R. (2010), Introduction [in] T.A. Green & J.R. Svinth [eds.], Martial Arts of the WORLD. An Encyclopedia of History and Innovation, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara – California, pp. xvii-xix.
3. Gutiérrez-García C., Pérez-Gutiérrez M., Calderón-Tuero P. (2011), Bibliometric Analysis of the scientific production on martial arts and combat sport articles in the Web of Science databases (SCIExpanded, SSCI, A&HCI) (2000-2009) [in] A. Figueiredo and C. Gutiérrez-García (Eds.), Scientific Congress on Martial Arts and Combat Sports. Proceedings, IPV de Viseu, Viseu – Portugal, pp. 54-55.
4. Pérez-Gutiérrez M., Valdes-Badilla P., Gómez-Alonso M.T., Gutiérrez-García C. (2015), Bibliometric analysis of taekwondo articles published in the Web of Science (1989-2013), “Ido Movement for Culture. Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology”, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 27-34; doi: 10.14589/ido.15.3.4.
5. Pérez-Gutiérrez M., Valdés-Badilla P., Gutiérrez-García C., Herrera-Valenzuela T. (2017). Taekwondo scientific production published on the Web of Science (1988-2016): Collaboration and topics. “Movimento”, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 1325-1340.
6. Peset F., Ferrer-Sapena A., Villamon M., Gonzalez L.-M., Toca-Herrera J.-L., Aleixandre-Benavent R. (2013), Scientific literature analysis of Judo in Web of Science, “Archives of Budo”, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 81-91.}},
  author       = {{Gutiérrez-García, Carlos and Cynarski, Wojciech J. and De Crée, Carl and Escobar-Molina, Raquel and Figueiredo, Abel and Franchini, Emerson and Green, Thomas and Pérez-Gutiérrez, Mikel and Raimondo, Sergio and Reguli, Zdenko and Ruiz-Barquín, Roberto and Santos, Luis and Svinth, Joseph and Vit, Michal and Zhang, Guodong}},
  booktitle    = {{Abstract Book 4th World Scientific Congress of Combat Sports and Martial Arts & 7th International Martial Arts and Combative Sports Scientific Society (IMACSSS) International Scientific Conference}},
  editor       = {{Cynarski, Wojciech and Szajna, Gabriel}},
  isbn         = {{978-83-7996-585-4}},
  keywords     = {{Martial arts,Combat sports,Journals,Science,Research}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  location     = {{Rzeszów, Poland}},
  pages        = {{39--41}},
  publisher    = {{Uniwersytet Rzeszówski [University of Rzeszów]}},
  title        = {{In which journals can I publish my research on martial arts and combat sports? An up-to-date approach}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}