Editor,—I am constantly amazed that authors of refereed articles in sports science and medicine journals get away with dictating to the reader. I refer specifically to the use of the term “elite”. I think this is particularly inappropriate when used in the title of a paper, because it presupposes that the population studied is elite when in reality it is the reader who should make such a judgement.

If, in the body of the text, the author(s) wish to refer to the population in question as elite, then they should present their definition in the opening introduction. Clearly, there are many instances where the term elite can be questioned, but I think most reasonable scientists and doctors would agree that there cannot be 1000 elite junior athletes in the United Kingdom. I refer to the paper of Sharma et al.¹ I do not intend to victimise one research group, as I have seen many papers that “transgress” in this way. However, I have noticed that an earlier paper of Dr Sharma's, published as the result of a presentation at the European College of Sports Medicine Conference, Manchester 1998, also used the term “elite” when referring to junior athletes. Perhaps those of us who act as reviewers are also guilty here and should take a greater stand in the …