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Authors' Guidelines

Who Can Submit?

Anyone may submit a manuscript to Clinical Practice in Athletic Training (ClinAT) provided they own the copyright or have authorization from the copyright holder(s). Authors are generally the initial copyright owners unless copyright has been transferred through an employment agreement. We highly encourage submissions from graduate students, practicing clinicians, and researchers.

General Submission Rules

All submissions must:
1. Be original and unpublished (publication in a working paper series does not constitute prior publication).
2. Not be under review by another journal during the ClinAT editorial process.
3. Remain exclusively under consideration by ClinAT until an editorial decision has been made.
Questions regarding submission policies should be directed to the editorial office.

Manuscript Categories

Submission templates are required for all manuscript types. Using the appropriate template streamlines formatting and expedites publication. Authors are required to prepare their manuscript directly within the appropriate Microsoft Word template. Available templates for the manuscript categories include:

Original Research

Point-of-Care/Clinical Outcomes Research

Clinical Case Study - Level I (Validation Case)

Clinical Case Study - Level II and III

Clinical Case Study - Level IV (Rare Events)

Clinical Education Innovationa>

Quality Improvement Report

Evidence-to-Practice Review

Commentary and Editorials

Conference Abstracts

ClinAT also publishes conference abstracts in partnership with professional organizations. Individuals should work with the professional organization to submit their abstract for the conference. ClinAT will publish selected abstracts from the conference.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • The manuscript has been fully de-identified.
  • All identifying names and institutions have been replaced with "XXX."
  • The correct ClinAT manuscript template has been used.
  • The manuscript follows current AMA style guidelines.
  • The submission is prepared in Microsoft Word using 11-point font, heading styles, and embedded tables and figures.
  • Tables and figures are created in Microsoft Word rather than inserted as images.
  • An abstract of no more than 300 words is included at the beginning of the manuscript.
  • Required key phrases appear immediately below the abstract.
  • References include DOIs or URLs when available and use AMA superscript citation formatting.
  • Patient photographs have identifying information removed or obscured.
  • An author/title page is submitted as a separate document containing: Author biographies (maximum three sentences each), Contact information for the Corresponding author and all contributing authors
  • Comments to the Editor are included if necessary (optional).
  • The manuscript has not been previously published or submitted elsewhere.
  • Copyright transfer is acknowledged as part of submission.

    Initial Peer Review Process

    All submissions first undergo a technical review to ensure compliance with journal formatting and submission requirements. Once the manuscript passes technical review, it proceeds to a double-blind peer review conducted by reviewers with relevant clinical or research expertise. The journal's goal is to provide an initial editorial decision approximately 3–4 weeks after reviewer assignment. Editorial decisions include:

  • Accept
  • Revise
  • Reject

    Revision Process

    When submitting a revised manuscript:

  • Retain all reviewer and editor comments.
  • Highlight all revisions using Microsoft Word's yellow highlighter.
  • Reply directly to each reviewer comment using the comment reply feature.
  • Respond to every reviewer comment, even when disagreeing.
  • No separate response letter is required.
  • Upload the revised manuscript, author/title page, and revised video abstract (if applicable).

    Rights for Authors and Scholar Commons

    As further described in our submission agreement, in consideration for publication of the article, the authors assign ClinAT all copyright in the article, subject to the expansive personal-use exceptions described below.

    Attribution and Usage Policies

    Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted by a personal-use exemption or by written agreement of Scholar Commons, requires credit to Scholar Commons as copyright holder (e.g., Scholar Commons © 2026).

    Personal-use Exceptions

    The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from Scholar Commons provided the author does not alter the format or content of the articles, including the copyright notification:

  • Storage and back-up of the article on the author's computer(s) and digital media (e.g., diskettes, back-up servers, Zip disks, etc.), provided that the article stored on these computers and media is not readily accessible by persons other than the author(s);
  • Posting of the article on the author(s) personal website, provided that the website is non-commercial;
  • Posting of the article on the internet as part of a non-commercial open access institutional repository or other non-commercial open access publication site affiliated with the author(s)'s place of employment (e.g., a Phrenology professor at the University of Southern North Dakota can have her article appear in the University of Southern North Dakota's Department of Phrenology online publication series); and
  • Posting of the article on a non-commercial course website for a course being taught by the author at the university or college employing the author.

    • People seeking an exception, or who have questions about use, should contact the editors.

    Open Access Policy

    This journal provides free access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The articles posted to the journal are online only and reprints of the journal and/or articles are not available. Clin AT does not charge article processing charges (APCs) or submission fees.

    Copyright Notice

    Clinical Practice in Athletic Training (ClinAT) requires authors to transfer copyright to ClinAT at the time of submission. If ClinAT decides not to publish a submission, then copyright is transferred back to the author at the time the submission is declined.

    Privacy Statement

    The contact information entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

    General Terms and Conditions of Use

    Users of the Scholar Commons website and/or software agree not to misuse the Scholar Commons service or software in any way. The failure of Scholar Commons to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between Scholar Commons and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.