Submissions

Author Guidelines

Text Guidelines

The manuscript must be single-spaced using Cambria font, employing italics (rather than underlining (except with URL addresses). The manuscript must be in a Microsoft Word document file format, and not a PDF format. 

• Please use this ARTICLE TEMPLATE to directly compose your article. This will facilitate the timely publication of accepted articles. Articles not created using the journal template will be returned to authors. 

The manuscript should have right and left margins of 1 inch (2.54 cm) and be single-spaced throughout. The typical manuscript length is a maximum of 20 pages including references, figures, tables, and acknowledgements. All illustrations, figures, and tables must be placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. A title should be placed above all illustrations, figures, and tables. 

All manuscripts should have a Title Page, Introduction, and Conclusion with appropriate references.

Manuscripts (other than books reviews, editorials, and letters to the editor) must contain a title page, an abstract, an introduction, methodology, results, discussion, conclusions, acknowledgements, qualifications (of authors), and references. All pages (including the title page) should be numbered consecutively.

Main Headings (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, Authors’ Qualifications, References) should start at the far left margin in bold font. Sub-headings should be italicized starting at the far left margin in bold font.

All paragraphs should start with a brief indent (0.5 cm, see Article Example).

Language

English is the language of publication for this journal. Authors who speak English as a second language are encouraged to get assistance from someone with expertise in writing in English and publishing in English-language scientific journals.

Authors are required to use nonsexist language (see American Psychologist 30:682-684, 1975). Authors should avoid the excessive usage of acronyms. It is recommended that up to three acronyms be used per manuscript. All acronyms should be defined upon first appearance in the text.

Title Page (First Page; Journal Specific Style)

The title page (see Article Example) should contain:

• ‪The full title of the paper.
• ‪All authors (full names) listed in the desired order of appearance on the printed work.
• ‪The name and contact information for the corresponding author (mailing address, telephone, fax, and e-mail).
• ‪The institutional affiliation(s) for each author is established by the use of corresponding superscript numbers.
• ‪A running title consisting of no more than 60 characters (including spaces) should be included after the title page.

Title

The title should be no more than 85 characters including spaces. The title should be brief and informative.

Introduction

In the introduction, the author(s) must introduce the topic and discuss its relevance. The author(s) must state clearly the purpose and hypothesis (where applicable) of the work. The introduction should be approximately 2-3 paragraphs and well cited. All papers that present original research findings must be hypothesis driven (i.e., contain a clearly defined hypothesis at the end of the introduction). Other papers (such as position papers, systematic reviews, narrative reviews, student opinions, etc.) should also include a brief highlighting the need for this work and the key hypotheses (as appropriate).

Methods

The strength of any manuscript is in the ability to reproduce the experimental conditions and findings. As such, sufficient detail must be provided in the methods section. A formal methods section should be included in most articles (except for book reviews, editorials, and letters to the editor).

In the methods section the author(s) must present clearly the topic information, describe the experimental conditions (where applicable), include written informed consent and ethical approval statements (where applicable), establish that the study adhered to the guidelines established by the Declaration of Helsinki (see example in template), identify clearly the methods, equipment, and procedures utilized (with appropriate referencing), identify possible limitations in the experimental design and/or methodologies employed, identify clearly the statistical methods used (where applicable), denote statistical significance when present (where applicable), and provide sample size calculations (where appropriate).

Systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and narrative reviews should outline clearly the methodology employed. In the case of narrative reviews, a rationale should be provided for why a more systematic approach was not taken. Below are example subsections of the methods section.

Participants

A total of X participants engaged in this research trial. All participants provided written informed consent, and ethical approval was obtained from the University of XXX’s Clinical Ethics Research Board. The study adhered to the guidelines established by the Declaration of Helsinki.

Experimental Design

We carried out a randomized controlled trial examining the effects of …

Methodologies Employed

We examined the effects of a novel exercise intervention employing …

Results

It is important that the author(s) limit the results section to the questions posed in the introduction. This section should be concise yet provide enough information for the reader to have a clear understanding of the key findings. The findings should be presented in the text, tables or figures. The presentation of the same data in tables and figures is not permitted. No discussion of the implications of the findings is required or permitted within the results section.

Tables and Figures

The tables should not duplicate the text or each other. Figures should be computer-generated with clearly labelled axes and legends (see example Figure 1). Each figure and table should be given a title in numerical order according to its appearance within the text (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). Programs such as Microsoft Excel™ and Sigma Plot™ can be used and imported directly into this word template. All statistics must include mean and standard deviations. Statistically significant findings should be highlighted in all tables and figures using appropriate markers (such as *).

Authors are required to submit all materials in one single file (including text, figures, and references). Larger figures and tables can be formatted to go across the width of the page (see example). A font size of 10 should be used for tables and figures. Please use SI units (International System of Units) throughout. Please make sure that the distance from surrounding text is at least 0.25 cm.

We have included an example Table template (see Table 1) for authors to use. This table is designed to move with the text. Each table should be located shortly after its first mention. All tables should have a title at the top in bold face with a font size of 10 pt Cambria.

Please follow the format provided in Article Template. 

Discussion

This section should include a brief discussion of the results of the article. Results should be discussed as they relate to the available literature. This includes a well-referenced discussion of the findings in the context of other findings in the field. The discussion should be limited to the main contributions of the study to the field. The first paragraph of the discussion should contain an outline of the innovative contributions of the work.

Conclusions

All manuscripts require a succinct summary statement regarding the overall conclusions of the work. The conclusions should summarize but not repeat the findings of the discussion. All conclusions must be supported directly by the findings of the study.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements (written in third person) should recognize the contributions of individuals who contributed substantively to the paper but did not meet the minimal requirements for inclusion as a co-author (as outlined below).

Authorship Requirements

The Health & Fitness Journal of Canada has established authorship requirements that are consistent with the field and manuscripts sent to biomedical journals. For an individual to be included on a paper they must have participated sufficiently in the work to take responsibility for the content of the manuscript. Authors must also have 1) played a significant role in the writing and/or revision of the manuscript, 2) made significant contributions to the conception and design of the study and/or the interpretation of the data, and 3) provided final approval of the version to be published. Others that contributed to the work may be included in the acknowledgements.

It is important to highlight that the collection of data, the general supervision of data collection, and/or the acquisition of funding does not justify authorship. Individuals who received remuneration for their work also are not required to be listed as co-authors. The authors determine the order of authorship.

Qualifications

Each author is asked to provide a summary of his or her education and certifications. An example is provided:

The author qualifications are as follows: Darren E. R. Warburton MSc, PhD, HFFC CEP Shannon S. D. Bredin MSc, PhD, HFFC CEP

AI Use Statement

The journal supports responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automated tools that enhance clarity, accessibility, and efficiency in scholarly writing. To maintain transparency, authors must disclose any use of AI tools in the preparation of a submitted manuscript.

1) Required AI disclosure at submission

During submission, the corresponding author must indicate whether AI tools were used in any part of the manuscript preparation, including (but not limited to):

• drafting or rewriting text

• editing for grammar, style, readability, or translation

• summarizing literature or notes

• generating tables, figures, images, or graphical abstracts

• generating or debugging code or statistical scripts

• assisting with data extraction, screening, or qualitative coding

If no AI tools were used, authors must confirm:

“No AI or automated tools were used in the preparation of this manuscript.”

If AI tools were used, authors must provide the following details:

2) AI Use Statement (required fields)

Authors must include an “AI Use Statement” in the manuscript and provide the same information during submission including: 

1. Tool(s) used: (name and version, if available).
2. Purpose of use: (e.g., language editing, summarization, code assistance, figure generation).
3. Extent of use: (which sections/elements were supported).
4. Human oversight: brief description of how authors verified accuracy, originality, and sources.
5. Data privacy: confirmation that no confidential, proprietary, or identifiable participant data were entered into AI tools unless permitted by ethics and privacy requirements.

Example AI Use Statement

“AI-assisted tools (ChatGPT, OpenAI, accessed Month Year) were used to improve grammar and readability of the Introduction and Discussion. All scientific content, interpretations, and conclusions were developed by the authors, who reviewed and verified all edits. No identifiable participant information was entered into the tool.”

OR

“No AI or automated tools were used in the preparation of this manuscript.”

3) Authorship and accountability

• AI tools cannot be listed as authors.

• Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and citation of all content, including any AI-assisted text, code, figures, or analyses.

• Authors must ensure all claims are supported by appropriate citations and that AI tools have not introduced fabricated references or inaccurate statements.

4) Prohibited uses

The following AI uses are not permitted:

• generating or altering research data, results, or images in a misleading way

• producing fabricated references, quotations, or citations

• submitting AI-generated content without meaningful author oversight and verification

• using AI tools in ways that violate participant consent, ethics approval, or privacy law

5) Editorial review

Disclosed AI use will not automatically disqualify a submission. The editorial team may request additional information or documentation if AI-assisted content raises concerns related to originality, accuracy, ethics, or transparency.

Referencing Style

The Health & Fitness Journal of Canada makes use of the APA 7^th Edition referencing style. This format is similar to the referencing style used in previous years of our journal and will allow authors to more easily use referencing management software (such as Endnote, RefWorks, Mendeley, etc.). The University of British Columbia Library has created a guideline that outlines the key features of the APA 7^th Edition referencing style (https://guides.library.ubc.ca/apacitationstyle).  We ask that all authors follow our current Article Template in their submission to expedite the review and publication process. Minor changes have been made to the recommendations APA 7^th Edition referencing style.

The University of British Columbia Library has created a guideline that outlines the key features of the APA 7^th Edition referencing style (https://guides.library.ubc.ca/apacitationstyle). We ask that all authors use our Article Template in their submission to expedite the review and publication process. Key features include:

• Hanging indents should be used for the reference list. All lines after the first line of each reference entry should be indented one-half inch (1.27 cm) from the left margin (in Word 2010 use Format>Paragraph>Special>Hanging).
• Reference list is arranged in alphabetical order by the surname of the first author or by title if there is no author. Please use only the initials(s) of each author’s given name (not the full name) with a space between initials.
• When the reference list includes two or more articles by the same author(s), list these articles in chronological order (oldest first)
• Entries by the same author with the same year should be placed in alphabetical order by first letter of the title. A lower case letter (a, b, etc.) should be added after the year, within the parentheses.
• All references cited in the text must appear in the reference list (with the exception of personal communications).

Here is an example in-text citation and related reference list using the APA 7^th Edition.

In-Text Citation Example

… (Benji et al., 2021; Calo et al., 2019; First Nations Health Authority, 2018; Foulds et al., 2018a, 2018b; Miles et al., 2023; The First Nations Information Governance Centre, 2018).

Reference List Example

Benji, J., Tomasky, G., Kaufman, K., & Miles, R. (2021). Impacts of COVID-19 on Indigenous Communities in Canada. Health & Fitness Journal of Canada, 14(4), 22–34. https://doi.org/10.14288/hfjc.v14i4.358

Calo, L., Martino, A., Tranchita, E., Sperandii, F., Guerra, E., Quaranta, F., Parisi, A., Nigro, A., Sciarra, L., Ruvo, E., Casasco, M., & Pigozzi, F. (2019). Electrocardiographic and echocardiographic evaluation of a large cohort of peri-pubertal soccer players during pre-participation screening. Eur J Prev Cardiol, 2047487319826312. https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487319826312

First Nations Health Authority. (2018). First Nations Health Authority: Governance and Accountability. First Nations Health Authority. Retrieved August 23, 2018 from http://www.fnha.ca/about/governance-and-accountability

Foulds, H. J. A., Bredin, S. S. D., & Warburton, D. E. R. (2018a). Cardiovascular dynamics of Canadian Indigenous peoples. Int J Circumpolar Health, 77(1), 1421351. https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2017.1421351

Foulds, H. J. A., Bredin, S. S. D., & Warburton, D. E. R. (2018b). Ethnic differences in vascular function and factors contributing to blood pressure. Can J Public Health, 109(3), 316–326. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-018-0076-z

Miles, R. M., Bredin, S. S. D., Kaufman, K., Lai, H., Robinson, D., Warburton, D., Horn Miller, W., & Warburton, D. (2023). Culturally and traditionally appropriate primary and secondary cardiometabolic disease prevention in Indigenous peoples: A strengths-based approach. Health & Fitness Journal of Canada, 16(1), 24–45.

Shellington, E. M., Heath, M., Petrella, A. F. M., Gill, D. P., & Petrella, R. J. (2018). A six-month study of antisaccade reaction time in elderly adults with cognitive impairment in a retirement living home: A Mind Fun sub-study.: Antisaccade reaction time in elderly adults. The Health & Fitness Journal of Canada, 11(3), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.14288/hfjc.v11i3.262

The First Nations Information Governance Centre. (2018). The First Nations Principles of OCAP®. The First Nations Information Governance Centre. Retrieved August 20, 2018 from https://fnigc.ca/ocapr.html