Introduction: Scientific research journals are the most important indicator of scientific knowledge and research achievements of countries. Content analysis of journal of sport physiology as a peer-reviewed scholarly journal may determine the scientific direction of the field of exercise physiology in Iran and may indicate its research priorities, weaknesses and inadequacies of scientific production.
Methodology: The aim of this study was to analyze the content of journal of Sport Physiology since the first issue until 2016. While the description of content was quantitative, a systematic and objective approach to measurement issues was also considered. Quantitative data was analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics v 23.0.
Results: The total number of papers were 263, in which 204 papers (77.6%) were in the scope of health, 24 papers (9.1%) were in the scope of championship and 35 remained papers were related to other areas. Surveying research designs, the methodology of 26 papers (9.9%) was descriptive, the methodology of 202 papers (76.8 %) was quasi- experimental, 33 papers (12.5%) were done using experimental method and 2 papers (0.8%) were done by other methods. Considering the research subjects, in 227 researches (86.3%), the subjects were human and in 33 researches (12.5%) the samples were animal. Reviewing the age range, from 217 articles, the samples of 2 articles were children (0.8%), 11.4% of subjects were youth (samples of 30 papers), 57.4% of subjects were adults (samples of 151 papers), 11.8% were middle aged (samples of 31 papers) and 1.1% (samples of 3 papers) were seniors. The subjects of 107 researches were healthy non athletes, subjects of 96 researches were athletes, 11% (29 research) were patients, 11.4% were obese people and one remained article was a review research.
Discussion: Most articles published in journal of sport physiology, were related to health in terms of area of study. The methodology of the most research was quasi- experimental with human samples in adult age range and the subjects were mainly healthy non athlete people. Exercise without any additional intervention was the most selected variable as independent variable, and the most selected variable as dependent variable was circulatory and respiratory system.