The recent, welcomed growth in women`s football (i.e., research, participation, investment, coverage, etc.) means that robust data and credible messaging are needed to support the health and performance of women football players (The Football Association Citation2022; Okholm-Kryger et al. Citation2022; Women`s Sport Trust Citation2024; FIFA Citation2024). Historically, women have been marginalised in football research. Clausen et al. (Clausen et al. Citation2025) showed that from the 722 studies in elite football, involving 98,777 participants, only 7% were women and from the 104 studies involving women, only four (<4%) provided sufficient information to define menstrual status. Moreover, in many sports and medicine-related academic degrees, women are siloed into a `special population`, with female-specific topics such as the menstrual cycle barely covered in the curriculum, if at all. Collectively, this contributes to: (i) a lack of knowledge and high-quality data on female-specific football and sport science topics; (ii) a gap in training of researchers to conduct high-quality studies in this space; and (iii) a low number of reviewers of scientific journals with expertise in these topics. We, as a research community, have an ethical and professional responsibility to uphold high-quality standards, ensuring data integrity and supporting validity of scientific findings. In this editorial, we synthesise existing guidance with disciplinary experience and expertise to facilitate rigorous menstrual cycle phase-based research methodology development and support the clear and transparent reporting of menstrual cycle phase-based studies. In doing so, we ensure that accurate information is reported, therefore safeguarding the quality of evidence to be translated into practice. While these guidelines have been written for Science and Medicine in Football, the developed ARMQ-MC checklist is relevant for all sport science journals. This editorial will be the official guidance for editors and reviewers of Science and Medicine in Football.
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