OOIR: Observatory of International Research

Papers

(The TQCC of Biology of Sport is 9. The table below lists those papers that are above that threshold based on CrossRef citation counts [max. 250 papers]. The publications cover those that have been published in the past four years, i.e., from 2022-05-01 to 2026-05-01.)

Article	Citations
A comparison of running and contact loads in U18 and U20 international rugby union competition	592
Does the Paleo diet affect an athlete’s health and sport performance?	89
Analysis of mental and physical fatigue over the course of a professional English Premier League season in outfield players	67
How do muscle injuries relate to return-to-performance metrics in male elite football players?	57
The effectiveness of differential learning in small-sided soccer games for skill development in U20 amateur male players	53
Relationships between training dose and record power outputs in professional road cyclists: insights and threats to validity	51
Data-driven classification of playing styles and match outcome prediction in UEFA Champions League teams	51
A comparison in knee flexor and extensor strength following ACL reconstruction in international, male soccer players receiving patellar tendon or hamstrings grafts	51
Laboratory-based determinants of simulated time trial performance in cyclists	50
Different pitch configurations constrain the external and internal loads of young professional soccer players during transition games	43
Relative age effect across the talent identification process of youth female soccer players in the United States: Influence of birth year, position, biological maturation, and skill level	41
Effects of daily use of intermittent pneumatic compression in competitive handball players: A randomized controlled trial	40
Core training and performance: a systematic review with meta-analysis	36
Return to performance: machine learning insights into how absence time following muscle injuries affects match running performance in LaLiga soccer players	33
A new conceptual framework for managing hamstring injury risk in soccer – implementing a data-informed approach: a narrative review	33
Movement patterns and player load: insights from professional padel	31
Are EFI data valuable? Evidence from the 2022 FIFA World Cup group stage	31
Comparison of the external load of professional goalkeepers in different weekly training sessions	29
Association between polymorphism rs6295 of HTR1A serotonin receptor gene and personality traits among athletes of combat sport	26
Intra-unit reliability and movement variability of submission grappling external load as measured by torso mounted accelerometery	26
Interaction effects between possession status and percentage: insights from modeling match-running performance across possession status in male soccer	24
Weekly external load distribution in football teams of different competitive levels	24
Load distribution across weekly microcycles according to match schedule in a team competing in the Australian national A-League Women’s soccer competition	22
The impact of caffeine-mediated gut microbiota regulation on the athletic performance of football players	22
The effect of two sessions of combined jump and sprint training per week on fitness parameters in soccer players. A randomized controlled trial	21

Impact of defensive team variables on goals conceded in the first division of the Spanish soccer league: a 10-year study	21
A professional assessment of training plans for muscle hypertrophy and maximal strength developed by generative artificial intelligence	21
Influence of contextual factors on most demanding scenarios in under-19 professional soccer players	20
Blood flow restriction as a post-exercise recovery strategy: A systematic review of the current status of the literature	19
Kinetics of skin temperature in lower limbs of professional soccer athletes	19
Are fluctuations in physical performance affected by contextual factors in women’s handball matches? An analysis using five-minute fixed phases	19
Comparison of the worst-case scenarios between training and competition weeks for each playing position in an elite football season	19
Association of the IL1A and IL6 polymorphisms with posttraining changes in body mass, composition, and biochemical parameters in Caucasian women	19
Different time course recovery of muscle oedema within the quadriceps femoris and functional performance after single- vs multi-joint exercises	19
The influence of functional kinematic asymmetry on maximum speed performance in repeated sprints	19
Effects of a cardiopulmonary rehabilitation programme on submaximal exercise in Tunisian patients with long-COVID19: A randomized clinical trial	19
More details, less variability? A crossover design study on the impact of information granularity on ChatGPT’s training program stability	18
Reliability, interrelationships, and minimal detectable changes in strength and power metrics among well-trained rugby sevens players	17
Warm-up optimization in amateur male soccer players: A comparison of small-sided games and traditional warm-up routines on physical fitness qualities	17
Optimal velocity loss threshold for inducing post activation potentiation in track and field athletes	17
The associations between physical-test performance and match performance in women’s rugby sevens players	17
An ecological investigation of average and peak external load intensities of basketball skills and game-based training drills	17
Match demands and physical qualities of female athletes in Australian football, rugby union, rugby sevens, and rugby league: a scoping review	17
Comparison of the effects of different foam rolling durations on knee extensors function	16
Exploring the potential synergistic pharmacological and psychological effects of caffeine on exercise performance: a placebo-balanced study	16
More injury stoppage time in women compared to men in elite level football tournaments: Retrospective comparison of match injuries in 2018 FIFA Men’s World Cup and 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup	16
Longitudinal cohort study on subsequent injury risk in professional football players in the Qatar Stars League: a probabilistic approach using basic learning	16
Validity of a low-cost friction encoder for measuring velocity, force and power in flywheel exercise devices	16
Late-stage rehabilitation effects do not differ between quadriceps and hamstring tendon autograft after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: a multicentre propensity score-matched case-control	16
‘Setting the Benchmark’ Part 4: Contextualising the Match Demands of Teams at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023	16
Acute effects of beetroot juice vs. creatine supplementation on maximal strength, autonomic regulation, and muscle oxygenation during incremental resistance exercise	15
The role of artificial intelligence in sports training: opportunities, challenges and future applications for competitive swimming	15
Reaching higher, landing harder: classifying individualized jump intensity zones and ground impact forces in professional male and female volleyball matches	15
Disentangling the dynamic interplay between muscle damage and energetics in male boxers during a short training block	15
Physical qualities and body composition predictors of running performance in national level women’s official soccer matches	15
Effects of eccentric- and concentric-based plyometric programmes on strength, speed and tensiomyography parameters of female athletes	14
An overview and prediction of 100 mm performance over 40 years during the Athletics World Championships	14
A novel combination of genomic loci in ITGB2, COL5A1 and VEGFA associated with anterior cruciate ligament rupture susceptibility: insights from Australian, Polish, Swedish, and South African cohort	14
Hamstring muscle fibre typology is not associated with hamstring strain injury history or performance in amateur male soccer players: a retrospective magnetic resonance spectroscopy study	14
Reciprocal relationships between sleep quality, mental health and the quality of life in elite athletes: A pilot study	14
The effect of α-lactalbumin consumption on sleep quality and quantity in female rugby union athletes: a field-based study	14
Multivariate analysis of teams’ physical performances in official football matches in LaLiga 2023–24	14
Return of match running performance following muscle strain injuries of varying severity in professional football	13
Applications of near-infrared spectroscopy in “anaerobic” diagnostics – SmO 2 kinetics reflect PCr dephosphorylation and correlate with maximal lactate accumulation and maximal pedalling rate	13
Enhancing physical performance with ischemic preconditioning: a systematic review and meta-analysis of moderators and performance outcomes	13
Application of arbitrary and individualized load quantification strategies over the weekly microcycle in professional soccer players	13
Monitoring physical match performance relative to peak locomotor demands: implications for training professional soccer players	13
Do small-sided games prepare players for the worst-case scenarios of match play in elite young soccer players?	13
Match running performance is influenced by possession and team formation in an English Premier League team	13
The effect of physical exercise during competitions and in simulated conditions on hormonal-neurophysiological relationships in kickboxers	13
Fatigue score as a promising complementing training monitoring tool: a pilot study in elite rugby sevens players	12
Knee isokinetic strength benchmarks in athletes across sports categories and performance levels	12
Effects of linear versus curvilinear sprint training on multidirectional speed in young soccer players: a randomized parallel-group trial	12
Female football players’ key physical qualities: playing-position specific comparison between national-team selected and non-selected players	12
The influence of menstrual cycle phase on neuromuscular performance and subjective perception of effort in elite football players	12

Injury incidence, burden and associated risk factors in walking football players	12
Twenty-four weeks of combined exercise training prevents metabolic syndrome progression in adult women: evidence from a randomized controlled trial	12
Contextualized acceleration and deceleration profiles of elite soccer players during English Premier League match-play. The effect of possession, positional demands and opponent ranking	12
A comparison of morning priming exercise using traditional-set and cluster-set configurations on afternoon explosive performance	12
Fitness and fatness in children and adolescents: investigating their role in the association between physical activity and cardiometabolic health	12
Do all matches require the same effort? Influence of contextual factors on physical demands during official female handball competitions	11
Contextualised high-intensity running profiles of elite football players with reference to general and specialised tactical roles	11
Genetic prediction of lower limb isometric strength changes after 12 weeks of resistance training	11
Top-class women’s soccer performance: peak demands and distribution of the match activities relative to maximal intensities during official matches	11
Establishing reference values for tensiomyography-derived parameters in soccer players: insights from a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression	11
Reproducibility and quality of hypertrophy-related training plans generated by GPT-4 and Google Gemini as evaluated by coaching experts	11
Effects of 24 weeks of collagen supplementation in active adults: Impact on body composition, neuromuscular and cardiorespiratory fitness	11
Assessing the contributions of technical error and biological variability to error of measurement in reliability studies	11
The effects of training type and area size variations on the physiological and session rating of perceived exertion responses during male judo matches	11
Hamstring muscle architecture and myotonometer measurements in elite professional football players with a prior strained hamstring	11
Effectiveness of short vs. long-distance sprint training on sprinting and agility performance in young soccer players	11
Does curvilinear sprint training with different radii improve multidirectional speed and sprint mechanics in youth soccer players?	10
Physiological, technical, and time-motion responses according to small-sided game formats and pitch size variations in adolescent male soccer players: effects of biological maturity status	10
Physical fitness in professional padel: performance differences according to players’ gender and playing side position	10
Effects of re-warm-up protocols on the physical performance of soccer players: A systematic review with meta-analysis	10
Association of the GALNTL6 polymorphism with muscle strength in Japanese athletes	10
Exercise intensity and reliability during recreational team handball training for 50–77-year-old unexperienced women	10
Physical activity shifts gut microbiota structure in aged subjects with overweight/obesity and metabolic syndrome	10
Effects of movement velocity in squat training with and without blood flow restriction	10
Relationships between training load and wellbeing measures across a full season: a study of Turkish national youth wrestlers	10
Repeated sprint training induces prolonged residual fatigue compared to other high-intensity interval training modalities in middle-distance runners	10
Effects of low-volume court-based sprint interval training on aerobic capacity and sport-specific endurance performance in competitive tennis players	10
The mediating effect of force and velocity changes on power output enhancement in bench press throw after submaximal isometric conditioning activity in trained males	10
Sodium bicarbonate and beta-alanine supplementation: Is combining both better than either alone? A systematic review and meta-analysis	10
Recreational soccer and basketball improve anthropometric, body composition and health-related outcomes in overweight and obese young adults: A randomized multi-arm study	10
A novel application of entropy analysis for assessing changes in movement variability during cumulative tackles in young elite rugby league players	10
Sex dimorphism in serum lipid dynamics after acute exhaustive exercise	10
Different sizes of position games and official matches in youth professional soccer player	10
Effects of different ischemic pressures on bar velocity during the bench press exercise: A randomized crossover trial	10
Key performance indicators of offensive transitions in elite women’s football: a machine learning and explainability approach	10
Influence of contextualized physical performance metrics on offensive and defensive outcomes in professional football players	9
Influence of game and quarter results on external peak demands during games in under-18 years, male basketball players	9
Possession or position games: What is the key in soccer?	9
Exploring sex differences in blood-based biomarkers following exhaustive exercise using bioinformatics analysis	9
Can OpenCap deliver valid and reliable kinematic data for motion analysis? A systematic review and three-level meta-analysis	9
Relationships between weekly changes in salivary hormonal responses and load measures during the pre-season phase in professional male basketball players	9
Are decorin gene variants associated with anterior cruciate ligament rupture susceptibility?	9
Comparison of running and accelerometry variables based on match outcome, match location and quality of opponent in elite professional soccer players. A five-season study	9