Physical Education and Sport Science Section

Call for Papers
38th National Student Research Conference
Physical Education and Sport Science Section

1. General Information and Organizers

Organizer of the event:

Eszterházy Károly Catholic University
Institute of Sports Sciences

Address: 3300 Eger, Eszterházy tér 1.
Phone: +36 36 520-400

Section website address: https://sportotdk38.uni-eszterhazy.hu/
Section e-mail address: sportotdk38@uni-eszterhazy.hu

Date of the event: 15-17 April 2027

The National Association for Student Research (OTDT), the OTDT Physical Education and Sport Science Section Committee, and the organizing Eszterházy Károly Catholic University, Institute of Sports Sciences hereby announce the 38th National Student Research Conference’s Physical Education and Sport Science Section under the conditions specified in the following call. The conditions for participation and registration in the Physical Education and Sport Science Section of the 38th OTDK are set out in the General Call of the 38th OTDK and in this specific Call issued by the OTDT Physical Education and Sport Science Section Committee.

2. Eligibility Criteria

2.1 Who is eligible to participate

In the 38th National Student Research Conference (OTDK), TDK papers and authors may participate that meet the conditions specified in the General Call for the 38th National Student Research Conference. Details are provided in Supplement 2 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK.

Student research groups from cross-border universities and colleges may participate in the 38th OTDK under the same professional conditions as institutions in Hungary. Further details are available in the General Call for the 38th OTDK.The conference is also open to secondary school students in Hungary and across borders who present their research results at conferences of higher education institutions or national high school science student conferences (for details see Supplement 4 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK) and are nominated for participation in the OTDK. A detailed description of the participation of secondary school students is available in the General Call of the 38th OTDK.

A thesis produced in the course of continuous TDK activity during BA and BSc studies, can be entered to the 38th OTDK, if it meets the requirements of the Call and its Supplements and has been presented at a student research conference either during the BA/BSc or the subsequent MA/MSc training and has there been delegated to the OTDK.

2.2. Supplement 1 to the Section Call includes the following:

• Content and format requirements for TDK papers and abstracts
• Evaluation criteria for the TDK paper and the presentation.

3. Sessions/topics

3.1 Planned sports science sessions/topics

1. Health science aspects of physical education and sport
2. Educational issues in physical education and sport
3. The social impact of physical education and sport
4. Sport psychology
5. Methodology of physical education
6. Sports management, sport marketing, sports economy
7. Recreational sports, sports tourism
8. Competitive sport, parasport
9. Training theory, exercise physiology, sports performance
10. Movement and performance analysis
11. Human kinesiology and biomechanics
12. Adapted physical education, movement therapy, therapeutic exercise
13. Fitness and anthropometric tests
14. Innovation, digitalization and artificial intelligence in physical education and sport

During the application process, students must indicate which session would be the most suitable for presenting their TDK paper. An author may submit a maximum of two TDK papers to the Physical Education and Sport Science Section.

4. Rules for the establishment of the final session assignment

The fundamental rules for the establishment of the final session assignment are included in the General Call of the 38th OTDK. The Physical Education and Sport Science Section Committee may, based on the number of TDK papers received and their topic, merge some of the planned sessions/topics or create additional ones, so that the TDK paper may be assigned to a different session than the one indicated by the authors during registration.

The condition for starting an independent session is the receipt of at least 6 TDK papers in the given topic, on the condition that at least 5 of the 6 to 15 papers will be presented at the OTDK. If the number of TDK papers to be presented in a given session is fewer than 5, that session may be merged with another session. The organizing institution, with the agreement of the Section Committee, reserves the right to redirect submissions with content that does not align with the Section’s field of study to another session of the National Student Research Conference that is more appropriate for the topic, with thanks for the application.

The final decision regarding the sessions, and the classification of the TDK papers will be made by the Physical Education and Sport Science Section Committee. Students will be informed of this decision via the OTDT online system no later than 31 March 2027.

4.1. Steps of registration for applicants

4.1.1. Pre-registration of TDK papers 

Following the student research conference:

Section selection and TDK paper upload within 30 days after receiving the email specified in point 4 of Supplement 2 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK.

ATTENTION! Uploading a TDK paper does not automatically constitute an entry to the OTDK, applications must be submitted during the registration period, following the steps described in the next section.

4.1.2. The application

Registration period: 16 November 2026 – 13 January 2027, 16:00 (CET)

Students’ tasks during this period are as follows:

• Filling in the information related to the uploaded application.
• As a general rule, the abstract must be uploaded in Hungarian.
• Students from non-Hungarian-speaking cross-border higher education institutions can submit their abstract in Hungarian or in English.
• Non-Hungarian native speaker students can submit their abstract and TDK paper in English or in Hungarian.
• On the abstract upload page, providing five keywords that do not appear in the title of the paper.
• An author may submit a maximum of two TDK papers to the Physical Education and Sport Science Section.
• A TDK paper may have a maximum of two authors and two supervisors.
• Detailed requirements regarding the abstract are provided in Supplement 1 to this Section Call.
• After completing the data entry and uploading the abstract, finalizing the registration in the OTDT online system.

After the registration deadline for students (13 January 2027, 16:00 CET) it will no longer be possible to upload application documents in the OTDT online system.

4.2. Additional tasks for students who have obtained a pre-degree certificate or are expected to obtain a pre-degree certificate in the semester of registration

Students who obtained a pre-degree certificate between the qualifying institutional TDK conference and the 38th OTDK must declare the date of obtaining their pre-degree certificate in the OTDT online system during the application process (those who are expected to obtain their pre-degree certificate in the semester of application, after the application deadline, must indicate that they are expected to obtain it in the semester of application).

In the case of students who qualified at ETDK, FTDK, KTDK, or VMTDK conferences, the expected date of finalizing the application to the 38th OTDK must be indicated as the date of the pre-degree certificate, as this has already been verified upon their acceptance to the qualifying conference.

5. Tasks of the TDT Chairs in relation to the 38th OTDK

5.1. Following the student research conference:

Uploading the documents of the student research conference and sending them to the OTDT Office according to Supplement 2 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK.

5.2. Following the participants’ registration deadline:

a) Approval of participant registrations in the OTDT online system (all registrations are automatically approved in the system, therefore, action is required only if the institution/faculty does not wish to delegate a submitted TDK paper to the OTDK).

b) Approval in the OTDT online system of the consolidated list containing the approved applications of TDK papers and their authors submitted to the Physical Education and Sport Science Section, and/or its generation from the online system and signature with a qualified electronic signature, or printing and signing, followed by electronic upload to the OTDT online system. By approving/signing the consolidated list, the TDT Chairs also declare that all TDK papers and their authors included therein meet the requirements set out in Supplement 2 to the General Call of the 38th OTDK.

Deadline for institutional and faculty TDT Chairs to upload documents to the OTDT online system: 18 January 2027, 16:00 (CET). After the deadline it will no longer be possible to upload application documents to the OTDT online system.

We are unable to accept TDK papers that do not meet the requirements outlined in the Section Call; such applications will be rejected.

Applications submitted individually are invalid.

6. Registration fee

The registration fees for the 38th OTDK will be determined at a later stage, subject to the availability of funding.

The awards that can be granted at the OTDK and the Special Prize of the Session Panel

A certificate of participation in the OTDK will be awarded to all authors and supervisors of each paper presented. In addition, a maximum of one third of the papers presented may be awarded one of the first, second and third places per section, taking into account that a maximum of one entry per session may be awarded first place. The Section Panel may award a special prize to those papers that do not achieve ranking but are judged by the Session Panel to be worthy of recognition on the basis of their professional merit, and which are judged to be immediately behind the winning applications. The authors of the winning papers and those of the papers receiving the Special Prize of the Session Panel will each receive a certificate for the ranking or the Special Prize of the Session Panel.

The total number of winning papers and papers awarded the Special Prize of the Session Panel may not exceed 50% of the total number of papers presented in a section. Further rules on prizes are set out in Supplement 3 to the General Call.

8. Submission of Pro Scientia Gold Medal application

Authors of TDK papers awarded first place at the national conference may apply for the Pro Scientia Gold Medal, provided that they meet the additional criteria set out in the call. Details are given in Supplement 5 to the General Call for the 38th OTDK.

We invite and welcome all interested student researchers and their supervisors.

Budapest, 21 April 2026.

Prof. Dr. Tamás Sterbenz
Chair of the OTDT Physical Education and Sport Science Section Committee

Prof. Dr. József Bognár
Chair of the Organizing Committee of the 38th OTDK Physical Education and Sport Science Section

Dr. habil. Balázs Fügedi
Co-Chair of the Organizing Committee of the 38th OTDK Physical Education and Sport Science Section

SUPPLEMENT 1 TO THE CALL OF PAPERS
38^TH OTDK
PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT SCIENCE SECTION

1. The language of the TDK paper and the presentation:

In the Physical Education and Sport Science Section student research conference (TDK) papers can be submitted in Hungarian and English. Hungarian native speaker students can submit their application only in Hungarian. Non-Hungarian native speaker students can submit their TDK paper and abstract in Hungarian or English and must deliver their presentation in the corresponding language. Students from non-Hungarian-speaking cross-border higher education institutions can submit their paper either in Hungarian or in English. Applications from students whose native language is not Hungarian must also be reported to the Executive Board of the Physical Education and Sport Science Section by a separate email.

2. Content requirements for the TDK paper:

According to the general guidance of the National Association for Student Research (OTDT), a basic requirement of a TDK paper is that it constitutes the intellectual work of the author(s). All TDK papers submitted to the 38th National Student Research Conference (OTDK) will be subject to a plagiarism check. The results will be reviewed by the Physical Education and Sport Science Section Committee, which will make decisions where necessary.

In accordance with the guidelines of the OTDT, applicants are advised that

1. plagiarism in any form is not permitted; even one’s own work may not be cited without proper reference (self-plagiarism is prohibited),
2. and the use of artificial intelligence is allowed only in a transparent and ethical manner (for more information see Supplement 6 of the General Call of the 38th OTDK). The author(s) must declare the use of AI in the OTDT online system during the application of the TDK paper to the 38th OTDK.

Applicants are requested to pay particular attention to indicating the original source when reproducing figures and tables. Tables may not be used in image format.

TDK papers that are proven to infringe copyright will be excluded from the 38th OTDK by the OTDT, with simultaneous notification to the nominating institution.

3. Formal requirements for the TDK paper:

General requirements:

Time for uploading the TDK paper is within 30 days after the acceptance of the student research conference, as described in Supplement 2 of the General Call of the 38th OTDK.

• All TDK papers must include the closing date (month, year).
• Maximum number of pages for the TDK paper is 20 pages.
• TDK papers must be uploaded in (non-protected) PDF format. The maximum file size is 10 MB.

Formal requirements:

• Font: Times New Roman
• Font size: 12 pt
• Page size: A4
• Alignment: justified
• Line spacing: 1.5
• Margin: 2.5 cm

Only TDK papers that comply with the formal requirements of the Physical Education and Sport Science Section will be accepted.

Section-specific requirements:

Applications can be uploaded to the OTDT online system either with the name(s) of the author(s) or anonymously.
It is not allowed to upload a supplementary document.
The referencing method should follow accepted scientific standards.

Additional section-specific rules for the TDK paper:

Papers must follow the following internal structuring: Introduction, Goals, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion (or Results and discussion), Summary, Bibliography, Acknowledgements (optional), Appendix (optional).

Figures and tables should be numbered and referred to accordingly in the text. Titles and captions of figures and tables, as well as literature references, should be in the format accepted by scientific journals. This format can follow any style but must be consistent throughout the TDK paper.

4. Printed TDK paper required: no

5. Rules for the abstract:

The abstract must be uploaded to the OTDT online system: only the body text, other data (name(s) of the author(s), name of the institution, name of the supervisor(s), position, etc.) are generated by the OTDT online system.

• The language of the abstract is Hungarian or English, in accordance with the language of the TDK paper.
• The length of the abstract should be minimum 500 and maximum 2.500 characters (including spaces).
• The abstract must provide a brief summary of the main components of the paper (see above), such as the choice of topic, the goals, the results, and the discussion.

6. Evaluation rules for the TDK paper:

After acceptance, each TDK paper will be evaluated in writing by two independent reviewers, according to a set of pre-defined criteria. The Executive Board of the Physical Education and Sport Science Section may, where justified (e.g. if the difference between the scores of the two reviews is at least 10 points), invite a third reviewer. In this case, the average of the two closest scores out of the three scores is the result.

A maximum of 30 points will be awarded in the written evaluation, with a maximum of 5 points for each unit (introduction, aims, material and methods, link between results and discussion, literature review, and coherence of the parts of the TDK paper). If the average score of the two written evaluations is less than 20% of the points available, the TDK paper cannot be presented at the 38th OTDK. If the written evaluation is not ready by the 10th day before the conference, the TDK paper cannot be excluded from the 38th OTDK for this reason.

The deadline for publishing the evaluation in the OTDT online system: 31 March 2027. The full evaluation, without scores indicated, will be published by the organizers of the Physical Education and Sport Science Section in the OTDT online system.

7. Evaluation criteria for the presentation:

If the TDK paper has two authors, it must be specified during the application process which author will deliver the presentation at the conference. The presentation may only be delivered in person.

At the conference, participants will have 10 minutes to present their TDK paper (presentation), followed by a 5-minute discussion. The presentation will be evaluated by a Session Panel of recognized members of the field.

The maximum score for the presentation is 70 points, of which

• 35 points for the scientific content of the research (choice of topic, literature review, goals, methods, results and discussion, conclusions and recommendations);
• 15 points can be given for the presentation style (including the use of visual aids, slides, etc.);
• 20 points for debating skills and professional competence.

• 38th OTDK Physical Education and Sport Science Section Call
• Supplement 1