OOIR: Observatory of International Research

Papers

(The median citation count of Science and Medicine in Football is 3. 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 2021-05-01 to 2025-05-01.)

Article	Citations
A special issue only for one virus: has the football research community responded well to the pandemic?	49
Reliability of spatial-temporal metrics used to assess collective behaviours in football: an in-silico experiment	45
Exploring decision-making practices during coaching sessions in grassroots youth soccer: a mixed-methods study	40
Determining age-specific velocity thresholds for elite youth female soccer players	39
A formative investigation assessing menstrual health literacy in professional women’s football	37
World Congress on Science and Soccer 2025 (WCSS 2025): encourage progress, enhance practice	33
Perspectives of the barriers and enablers to nutritional adherence in professional male academy football players	31
The incidence and characteristics of heading in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup™	26
Load monitoring, strength training, and recovery in futsal: Practitioners’ perspectives	25
Estimating is not measuring: the use of non-invasive estimations of somatic maturity in youth football	23
Exploring the impact of athletic identity on gender role conflict and athlete injury fear avoidance in male English professional academy football players	22
Are there differences in the attention of elite football players concerning playing positions?	22
An investigation into the effect of audiences on the soccer penalty kick	17
Multi-hosting UEFA European Football Championship: fair enough between participating teams?	16
Sleep duration is associated with overnight changes in perceived fatigue in elite women soccer players	16
Monitoring the beautiful adapted game: a 3-year prospective surveillance study of injuries in elite English Para football	16
The effectiveness of 3D multiple object tracking training on decision-making in soccer	16
A systematic review of concussion education, knowledge, and attitudes in football	16
The psychological impact of COVID-19 infection on athletes: example of professional male football players	16
Optimising classification in sport: a replication study using physical and technical-tactical performance indicators to classify competitive levels in rugby league match-play	15
The development of metrics for measuring the level of symmetry in team formation and ball movement flow, and their association with performance	15
Collective behaviour in high and low-level youth soccer teams	15
Driving the future of health and performance in Women’s football	14
The associations of transformational leadership and team cohesion on the psychological health of young football players through basic psychological needs	14
#ReadyToplay: hamstring injuries in women’s football – a two-season prospective cohort study in the Norwegian women’s premier league	14

Need a break? The locomotor and tackle pacing profile and loads of women’s rugby league match-play following various between-match turnaround durations	13
One of these things is not like the other: time to differentiate between relative age and biological maturity selection biases in soccer?	13
The relative age effect in the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA): a mixed methods approach	13
Lessons from establishing a football-specific registry of anterior cruciate ligament injuries - data collection and first epidemiological data	12
The incidence and burden of injury in male adolescent community rugby union in Australia	12
Distinguishing skill from technique in football	12
Tactical analysis of individual and team behaviour in professional Australian Football	12
Psychology research in women’s soccer: a scoping review	12
The effect of bio-banding on technical and tactical indicators of talent identification in academy soccer players	11
The emergence of critical incidents in Rugby Union matches using Markov chain analysis	11
The effect of knee-flexion angle on peak force and muscle activation during isometric knee-flexor strength testing using the Nordbord device in soccer players	11
Effects of concussion on technical performance in professional Australian football	10
Seasonal health tracking of Australian Football League Women’s athletes	10
Sport-related concussion knowledge and attitudes of staff working in English elite women’s football: a survey-based study	10
Time-loss injuries and illnesses at the FIFA world cup Qatar 2022	10
Survey of the current practices of German football academies towards biological maturation assessment	10
Development of novel calibration model(s) to predict whole-body density in professional football players	10
Low sleep quality and morningness-eveningness scale score may impair ball placement but not kicking velocity in youth academy soccer players	10
Additional time error in association football is associated with interruption type and goal difference	9
Where do you go when your periods go?: A case-study examining secondary amenorrhea in a professional internationally-capped female soccer player through the lens of the sport nutritionist	9
Discriminative validity of summarized hip and knee angular accelerations for lower extremity training load quantification in male soccer players during a standardised training drill	9
FIFA Arab Cup tournament with full capacity of spectators during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study	9
Match activity profile and heart rate responses of top-level soccer referees during Brazilian national first and second division and regional championships	9
Do environmental temperatures and altitudes affect physical outputs of elite football athletes in match conditions? A systematic review of the ‘real world’ studies	9
Broadening our understanding of injury mechanisms to include at-risk situations: an overview of potential injuries at the FIFA men’s World Cup Qatar 2022 ^TM	9
Maximum speed exposures in Australian rules football: do methods matter?	8
The variability of physical match demands in elite women’s football	8
Quantity and quality of sleep in young players of a professional football club	8
The relative age effect in under-17, under-20, and adult elite female soccer players	8
‘After they see what you have, they contact you’: a qualitative study of national team football players’, coaches’ and clinicians’ experiences in engaging with a context-specific injury surveillance s	8
A preliminary study of the reliability of soccer skill tests within a modified soccer match simulation protocol	8
Soccer coaches vs. sport science and medicine staff: who can more accurately predict the skeletal age of high-level youth soccer players?	7
Factors associated with cooperative network connectedness in a professional Australian football small-sided game	7
Technical involvements and pressure applied influence movement demands in elite Australian Football Match-play	7
The influence of relative playing area and player numerical imbalance on physical and perceptual demands in soccer small-sided game formats	6
The relative age effect in male and female English age-grade rugby union: Exploring the gender-specific mechanisms that underpin participation	6
Exploring psychosocial risk factors for dropout in adolescent female soccer	6
Evolution of passing network in the Soccer World Cups 2010–2022	6
Decrease in aerial challenges after revision of goal kick rules in Japan Professional Soccer League: explorative study of the possibility of a risk reduction for head injury, concussion, and brain dam	6
Heading in football: a systematic review of descriptors, definitions, and reporting methods used in heading incidence studies	6
The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on soccer positional and physical demands in the Spanish La Liga	6
Characteristics of potential head injury situations at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 ^TM	6
Analysing the impact of the 50:22 kick law changes in South African rugby tournaments between 2021 and 2022	6
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in football – a “Keeping SCORE” approach to judicious use	6
Acute pre- and post-competitive soccer match-play changes in neuromuscular factors, physical performance, and muscle response in youth male players	6
Inter-methodological quantification of the target change for performance test outcomes relevant to elite female soccer players	6
Incidence of concussion and associated risk factors in collegiate soccer: findings from the NCAA-DoD CARE consortium	6
Relative age and biological maturity-related selection biases in male youth soccer across different competitive levels within a national association	6
Individual and situational factors affecting the movement characteristics and internal responses to Touch match-play during an international tournament	5
Research on women’s futsal: a scoping review	5

Assessing the association between on-field heading technique and head impact kinematics in a cohort of female youth soccer players	5
The impact of simulated soccer match-play on hip and hamstring strength in academy soccer players	5
Single leg drop jump is affected by physical capacities in male soccer players following ACL reconstruction	5
Change of direction frequency off the ball: new perspectives in elite youth soccer	5
No independent or synergistic effects of carbohydrate-caffeine mouth rinse on repeated sprint performance during simulated soccer match play in male recreational soccer players	5
A prospective epidemiologic study of injuries and illnesses in the football matches of the 14th National Student Games of China	5
Energy availability and macronutrient intake in elite male Gaelic football players	5
Examining the mental health status of referees in the turkish professional football league	5
Video analysis of anterior cruciate ligament injury situations in the women’s Australian football league	5
An audit of hormonal contraceptive use in Women’s Super League soccer players; implications on symptomology	5
The use of sand as an alternative surface for training, injury prevention and rehabilitation in English professional football and barriers to implementation: a cross-sectional survey of medical staff	5
Evolution of physical and technical parameters in the Spanish LaLiga 2012-2019	5
Most common movements preceding goal scoring situations in female professional soccer	4
Epidemiology of football-related injuries in young male football players. An additional analysis of data from a cluster-randomised controlled trial	4
Frequency and intensity of change of directions in German Bundesliga soccer	4
Author reply to Weaving et al.: comment on: ‘A contemporary multi-modal mechanical approach to training monitoring in elite professional soccer: a mathematical problem?’	4
Monitoring the physical demands of training in Rugby League: the practices and perceptions of practitioners	4
A holistic analysis of collective behaviour and team performance in Australian Football via structural equation modelling	4
Assessing maximal sprinting speed in soccer – criterion validity of commonly used devices	4
Physical demands in Spanish male and female elite football referees during the competition: a prospective observational study	4
Elite female football players’ perception of the impact of their menstrual cycle stages on their football performance. A semi-structured interview-based study	4
Effect of an Energy Drink On Muscle and Liver Damage Enzymes, And Cardiovascular Indices in Soccer Players	4
A multi-club analysis of the locomotor training characteristics of elite female soccer players	4
Interchangeability of optical tracking technologies: potential overestimation of the sprint running load demands in the English Premier League	4
Walking football for Health – physiological response to playing and characteristics of the players	3
A scoping review of the research supporting coaching practice in women’s football – as the game grows the research strives to keep up	3
Missing data: current practice in football research and recommendations for improvement	3
Identification of potential risk factors for lower limb injuries in female team-sport athletes: a prospective cohort study	3
Re: A contemporary multi-modal mechanical approach to training monitoring in elite professional soccer: a statistical problem?	3
Mental health and well-being during COVID-19 lockdown: A survey case report of high-level male and female players of an Italian Serie A football club	3
Correction	3
Surveying the youth-to-senior transition landscape in Major League Soccer: a new frontier	3
Acute fuelling and recovery practices of academy soccer players: implications for growth, maturation, and physical performance	3
Exploring the true burden of a time-loss injury: full vs partial time-loss in elite academy football (soccer)	3
Measures of (injury and illness) occurrence: a primer on epidemiological concepts and terminology for authors	3
Elite female footballers in England: an exploration of mental ill-health and help-seeking intentions	3
Injury, illness, and medication use surveillance during the 2020 COSAFA Women’s championship: a prospective cohort study of football players from Southern Africa	3
A risk-reward assessment of passing decisions: comparison between positional roles using tracking data from professional men’s soccer	3
The short-term relation between load and acute psychophysiological responses in football: a meta-analysis and methodological considerations	3
The effect of team formation on match running performance in UEFA Champions League matches: implications for position-specific conditioning	3
Mind the gap! A survey comparing current strength training methods used in men’s versus women’s first team and academy soccer	3
Data analytics practices and reporting strategies in senior football: insights into athlete health and performance from over 200 practitioners worldwide	3