About the Journal
International Sports Studies is a scholarly journal in physical education and sport with a unique focus. It aims to advance understanding and communication among members of the global community who share a professional, personal, or scholarly interest in the state and development of physical education and sport worldwide. By 2024, the journal can claim a tradition spanning 45 years. Its origins lie in comparative education and the demand for more concentrated attention on the growing and vibrant curriculum area of physical education. The impetus goes back to the 1960s through the initiatives of pioneers such as Pierre Seurin (France), John Nixon and Lynn Vendien (US) before reaching its clear identity in the work of Bennett, Howell and Simri's (1975) text Comparative Physical Education and Sport. This development, in turn, led to the foundation of the International Society for Comparative Physical Education and Sport in 1978 at the Wingate Institute in Israel. A natural outcome of the need to contribute to and develop the body of literature associated with the field led to the establishment of the Journal of Comparative Physical Education and Sport (JCPES) by the Society's membership.
In 1999, the Society changed the title of its journal to International Sports Studies (ISS) to reflect the continuing development of the field. At that time, the editors introduced the inaugural issue as "a journal in which multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural and international perspectives are promoted as having a critical role in furthering our understanding of complex phenomena in physical education and sport." The current editorial team thoroughly endorses this approach such that despite its earlier traditional base in education, the social sciences and humanities, ISS remains without paradigmatic prejudice and reflects an eclectic approach to understanding physical education and sport in the contemporary world. It simply asks that its contributors generate knowledge about international physical education and sport studies through research work involving comparisons between regional, national, and international settings or by providing unique insights into specific national and local phenomena, contributing to an understanding that can be shared across and within national borders.
ISS begins its full open access format effective with the 2024 volume, making scholarly research freely available to the public online without any cost or access barriers. This is a proactive move of the International Society for Comparative Physical Education and Sport towards reducing the environmental impact caused by the production and distribution of printed journal copies and will allow the journal to invest in further innovation, digital development and sustainability measures. Previous subscription-based issues may still be accessed through Logos Verlag Berlin.
ISS is indexed in Scopus and EBSCO and has been accepted for indexing in the Emerging Sources Citation Index, a new edition of Web of Science™. Content in this index is under consideration by Clarivate Analytics to be accepted in the Science Citation Index Expanded®, the Social Sciences Citation Index®, and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index®.
