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Call for Papers | ”Integrity, Health and Governance Issues in Esports and Virtual Sports”, Special Issue of Performance Enhancement & Health | Call ends October 1, 2024

June 28, 2024

Guest editors:

- Dr. Andrew Richardson, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
- Professor Anne Tjønndal, Faculty of Social Sciences, Nord University, Bodø, Norway.
- Professor Zsolt Demetrovics, The Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary; Centre of Excellence in Responsible Gaming Research, University of Gibraltar, Gibraltar.
- Senior Lecturer Mathias Schubert, Department of Sport Economics, Sport Sociology and Sport History, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.

This special issue aims to examine various integrity, health and governance issues related to esports and virtual sports. We seek to garner submissions that examine issues in esports (competitive video gaming) and virtual sports (mixed reality sports games using interactive peripheral sports equipment).

Special issue information

Performance Enhancement & Health (PEH) invites submissions for a special issue on “Integrity, Health and Governance Issues in Esports and Virtual Sports”. To achieve elite sporting performance, some athletes, coaches, sports organizations, and other stakeholders engage in behaviours that may be unethical, unhealthy, or problematic for various reasons. Integrity issues and performance enhancement encompass topics such as match-fixing, doping, corruption, and cheating. In mainstream sports, integrity issues represent a well-established research field, but these issues remain largely unexplored in esports and virtual sports. The novelty of performance enhancement in esports and virtual sports makes it critical to investigate integrity issues, as lacking regulations and governance structures may facilitate unethical actions. New digital sports and virtual competition formats also facilitate novel ways of cheating, such as software and hardware manipulation. Besides these problems, several potential health issues are also related to these changes. These might not only be related to the use of performance-enhancing drugs (either legal or illegal substances) but also to the physical and mental health related to the special circumstances of training and competition, which might affect sleeping, eating, exercising, social relationships and other relevant factors. The involvement of minors might constitute an additional issue of discussion in relation to the above.

- - Match-fixing, corruption, and gambling
  - Methods to dope and cheat through mechanical, technological and physiological means
  - Substance use and performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs)
  - Health issues (physical and mental) related to esports and virtual sports
  - Governance, regulation and policy issues
  - Anti-doping, drug testing and education
  - Integrity, ethics, athlete health and safety issues
  - Diversity, equity and inclusion
  - Discrimination and harassment

Manuscript submission information

Presubmission enquiries

Submissions of the above topics or related issues are welcome. Please do not hesitate to query Guest Editors Dr. Andrew Richardson (andrew.richardson@newcastle.ac.uk), Professor Anne Tjønndal (anne.tjonndal@nord.no), Professor Zsolt Demetrovics (zsolt.demetrovics@gmail.com) or PD Dr. Mathias Schubert (schubert.m@uni-mainz.de) if you have questions regarding the suitability of your topic and/or proposed manuscript for this special issue.

For more information on the special issue topic, the guest editors encourage contributors to visit the following resources:

- - Virtual Sports: https://www.virtualsports.be/
  - Esports: https://esportsresearch.net/
  - Doping and performance-enhancement: https://humanenhancementdrugs.com/

Submission guide

For general guidelines on the appropriate preparation of manuscripts, please visit the journal’s website. Please submit your paper to Performance Enhancement & Health via Editorial Manager.

Please select Article Type, VSI: esports and virtual sports, in the drop-down menu during your submission to indicate that it is intended for this special issue.