{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.01614565441429062, 'fraction_numerical': 0.00034352456200618345, 'mean_word_length': 5.004123711340206, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Change made to the title of the journal

In the 2 years since the launch of the International Journal of Sport Policy, the journal has rapidly established itself as the key reference for those interested in the field of sport policy. The articles that we have published have been of a high standard and we have been successful in attracting articles from scholars across the world amply justifying the ‘international’ ambitions of the journal. However, two related factors have combined to lead us, in consultation with our publisher, Taylor & Francis, to alter the title of the journal by adding the phrase ‘and Politics’. The first factor is that we have received a small number of papers and a larger number of enquiries from authors offering interesting and high-quality papers which, though related to sport policy, did not fall clearly within the journal’s aims and objectives. Although we were impressed by the papers, we reluctantly had to suggest that the authors submitted to other journals. However, as a number of potential authors pointed out to us, there is no obvious alternative outlet for papers concerned with the intersection of sport and political science. The second factor was thus a consequence of the first and was the acknowledgement of the lack of publishing opportunities for papers exploring sport and politics. From discussions with those working in the area of sport and politics (e.g. on topics such as the relationship between sport and the construction of national/regional identities, the diplomatic use of sport, the ways in which sport is debated within national parliaments, the role of specialist parliamentary committees in relation to sport and the influence of ministers of sport), it was clear that the lack of a specialist publishing outlet discouraged political scientists from researching in this field. From these discussions it was also apparent that some scholars assumed that their research, even when it had clear policy implications, might not be appropriate for the IJSP, given the prominence of policy in the journal title. Although we are slightly broadening the scope of the journal, we would emphasize that we do not intend to dilute the journal’s concern with sport policy, but rather to acknowledge that there is considerable research which explores the relationship between sport and politics, which would be of interest to scholars in the field of policy analysis. With this in mind we have consequently amended the journal’s aims and objectives and also amended the title to International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics. As a result of these changes we would welcome the submission of articles that fall within the ambit of the amended aims and objectives and that seek to explore the opportunities for analysis presented by the application of political science and related disciplines to the complex interweaving of sport, policy and politics.