Submissions

Author Guidelines

General

Manuscripts should consist of original, unpublished material and are not being submitted for publication elsewhere simultaneously. Furthermore, manuscripts submitted to JHTR are received under the condition that all co-authors are aware of, and agree with, the submission.

JHTR commits to diversity and inclusion. We expect the references in submitted articles to reflect this.

All material to be considered for publication in JHTR should be submitted electronically through the online submission system. Submission by e-mail will not be accommodated. Once submitted, the author can track the submission and communicate with the editors via the online journal management system. Context-sensitive help and manuals are available in every workflow stage by clicking the help button in the upper right corner of the screen. 

We expect that authors, before submitting their work to JHTR, have read in detail our ‘Focus and Scope' information, which can be found on our About page. 

Review process

Review Policy

JHTR uses a rigorous and transparent peer review process to ensure the quality and integrity of its publications that adheres to the COPE policy. Editors and reviewers are encouraged to join COPE individually and agree to declare any conflict of interest. All editors and reviewers are required to declare any conflicts of interest.

The Editors-in-Chief and the editorial board (cf. Editorial Team page) may contribute to the published content, but a rigorous review workflow is implemented to ensure the integrity and quality of the review process. If one of the Editors-in-Chief or a member of the editorial board is listed as a (co)author, they will not be involved in the review process and will not access have accessed to the reviewers' identity in the case of anonymous, single anonymous or double anonymous review processes. In instances where an Editor-in-Chief is a (co)author, the responsibility of selecting the editor who will handle the paper will fall on the other (Co)editor-in-chief or another an independent editor to maintain a fair and unbiased review process.

The editorial team aims to ensure a timely processing of submissions. Incoming submissions are pre-reviewed by the Editors-in-Chief within 2-3 weeks. We typically ask reviewers to return their reports within 1-2 months. Once accepted, submissions move into copyediting and production, generally completed within 4 weeks.

Research articles and student essays

All research articles and student essays (cf. About the journal) are reviewed through a double-anonymized process:

• Reviewer and author identities are hidden from each other
• Editors have access to both identities but recuse themselves when conflicted

Submissions to JHTR are first subject to an internal scan for relevance and coherence by the Editors-in-Chiefs. When it is decided that the article fits the scope of the journal, the Managing Editor assigns it to a responsible Associate Editor, who will send it out for double-anonymous peer review by a minimum of two external Reviewers and with a minimum of one review round.  

Based on the Reviewers' recommendations, the Associate Editor(s) will decide for acceptance, minor revisions, major revisions or rejection for publication. In case of minor or major revisions, Authors are expected to submit a revised version of the manuscript together with a detailed description of the changes made and a response to the reviewer's comments. This document should outline in detail how each of the comments was addressed in the revised manuscript or should provide a rebuttal to the criticism. Revised submissions may be re-sent to Reviewers. Based on the advice of the Associate Editors, the Editors-in-Chief will decide about final approval of the revised manuscript. 

After acceptance the manuscript will be send to a Copy Editor to provide English-language text editing service. The Author will receive an e-mail with a link to the editorial system to proofread the copyedited version and to submit the final version. 

Finally, the copyedited version of the manuscript will be sent to the Layout Editor, who will prepare galleys ('proofs'). At this stage, the Author can only correct minor mistakes, if necessary. If the Author approves, the final version of the manuscript will be published online.

In all cases, during the review, reviewers interact with the editor and no information about the review process or editorial decision process is published.

In the case of submissions for a topical collection, the Guest Editor(s) will handle the submission instead of an Associate Editor.

Other article types (current affairs, response articles, reviews, book symposia)

Submissions in the categories current affairs, response articles, reviews, and book symposia undergo only (open) editorial review. These submission types are first subject to an internal scan for relevance and coherence by the Editors-in-Chief. When it is decided that the article fits the scope of the journal, the Editors-in-Chief either do a critical review of the submission themselves or assign an Associate Editor to do so. In case of reviews or book symposia, the book review editor of the Associate Editors team will handle the submission. These manuscript do not go out for external review. The handling editor decides for acceptance, minor revisions, major revisions or rejection for publication.

File requirements

The author(s) should submit two separate files: a manuscript file and, to guarantee the anonymity of the peer review, a cover page. 

A cover page should include:

• Manuscript's title  

• Full author name(s)

• Affiliation(s)

• ORCiD IDs

• Corresponding author’s email address

• Abstract (maximum 200 words) and up to 6 keywords

• Data Access Statement: Instructions and examples.

• Please list 3-5 potential reviewers (names and emails) for your manuscript, with whom you have no conflict of interest

• Contributor Statement: This section is about recognizing anyone that contributed to the planning, conduct, and reporting of the work described in the article. Please, follow the CRediT guidelines and fill in this section even for single-authored manuscripts.

• Acknowledgements: If applicable.

• If applicable, any relevant information for the editors to consider before reading your submission (e.g. the use of AI in writing, etc.)

Formatting and style

The manuscript should be written in English, preferably in US spelling. The citations and references should follow the APA guidelines.

The manuscript should start with a title, followed by an abstract (maximum 200 words) and up to 6 keywords. They keywords should be specific, as they will be used to index the article in search engines. 

The headings should be structured as follows (maximum 3 levels):

1.

1.1

1.1.1

All references cited within the submission must be listed at the end of the manuscript file (APA style).

After acceptance and before publication, the authors are asked to edit their approved manuscript according to the standard journal layout. They will be provided with the final proof of their paper to correct minor mistakes.

Article Processing Charges

Publishing in JHTR is completely free, so neither Submission Charges nor Article Processing Charge are required from the authors. The resources needed to run the journal are covered by the institutions where the (associate) editors are employed, mostly in the form of time invested.

Open Access Policy 

JHTR is an open access journal licensed under a CC-BY 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license. This means that all content is available without paywalls.  Anyone is free to share (to copy, distribute, and transmit the work), to remix (to adapt the work) under the following conditions:

• The original authors must be given credit.
• For any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are
• Any of these conditions can be waived if the copyright holders give permission.
• Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.

Copyright Policy

• Authors retain their copyrights.
• If you are using published images, text or other materials, please be aware of copyright regulations. The TU Delft Copyright helpdesk can provide further information and answer your copyright questions.
• In case of (alleged or proven) copyright breaches or scientific misconduct (e.g. fabricating data), JHTR will follow the developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

Research Data

TU Delft OPEN Publishing strongly supports that the data underlying the journals are archived in a recognised research data repository in line with the TU Delft Research Data Framework Policy and will support data citation. Please visit this page for more information on policies. 

Research Software

TU Delft OPEN Publishing strongly encourages the adoption of the TU Delft Research Software Policy. This policy facilitates best practices on management and sharing of research software and facilitates proper recognition of the contribution of TU Delft researchers to software.

Publication Ethics

Editors, authors, and publisher adopt the guidelines developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the fair data principles. The journal adheres to the COPE Core Practices and the principles of transparency described in the Declaration on transparent editorial policies for academic journals.

• Code of Conduct

Check TU Delft OPEN Publishing code of conduct and integrity policy.

• Similarity Check

A similarity check is part of the TU Delft OPEN Publishing standard publication procedure. Authors submitting their article to JHTR should expect their work to go through a similarity analysis at any stage of the workflow. All articles submitted are checked with iThenticate software. The editor and publisher carefully analyse the reports. In case of suspected plagiarism, the authors will have two weeks to provide an explanation.

The Journal also checks for AI-generated content. Articles will be rejected unless using AI-generated tools is part of the work and is clarified (see below).

• Use of AI

The use of AI technologies in writing/summarising is gaining popularity and is expanding. When used responsibly and appropriately in research, it can facilitate innovation. However, authors/editors remain fully responsible and accountable for the quality and content of their manuscripts. With this in mind and with reference to the COPE Position Statement of 13 February 2023, authors are required not to list AI tools as a co-author because these tools cannot take responsibility for the submitted work, and they need to be transparent in disclosing in the materials and methods of the manuscript how the AI tool was used and which tool was used (such as ChatGPT and other generative (language-based) AI tools for generation of images, etc.) in the writing of their manuscripts. If applicable, disclosure needs to take place at the bottom of the References section, in the Acknowledgements section, and separately in the cover letter submitted before the review process. This policy is subject to review based on new developments, including the COPE position statement.

• Conflict of Interest (COI)

All COIs will be handled as follows by the journal in first instance, then the publisher:

• • Disclosure: Anyone (editors, reviewers, authors and any other relevant parties) involved in the publishing process should disclose any potential conflicts of interest they may have.
  • Evaluation: After disclosing the potential COI, it needs to be examined to determine how important it is and its possible impact on the publication process.
  • Management: An identified COI requires appropriate steps. Those steps may include stepping back from certain duties or decisions, removal from the publication process, or taking other actions to reduce the conflict.
  • Transparency: Any identified conflicts of interest should be transparently disclosed to relevant parties, including readers, authors, and reviewers.
  • COI can be mentioned after the section Acknowledgement of the publication.

• Reviewer Ethics

Reviewers are expected to maintain confidentiality, provide objective and constructive feedback, and disclose any conflicts of interest. They must not use unpublished material for personal advantage.

• Data Transparency

The journal supports transparency and reproducibility. As of January 2025, authors are required to include a Data Access Statement in their manuscript, in accordance with TU Delft OPEN Publishing guidelines.

• Complaints and Appeals

Complaints such as misconduct, authorship dispute, or suspected conflict of interest should be brought to the attention of the publisher (publishing-lib@tudelft.nl) or the editorial board.

If an author wishes to appeal an editorial decision, the author may contact the Editors-in-Chief of the Journal. Their appeal decisions are final. This means that discussing or negotiating the final decision will be without effect and can be ignored.  

• Publication Notices and Changes

Any changes made to the published content will be accompanied by a post-publication notice. which will be permanently linked to the original content.

Publication notices include errors introduced by the journal (erratum), an author error (corrigendum), adding a (small) document to a published work to provide additional information (addendum), and retraction.

The Editors-in-Chief and the publisher handle publication notices through the following steps:

• • Reviewing the proposed changes to the published content to determine if they are necessary and appropriate.
  • Preparing a post-publication notice that accurately reflects the changes made to the content.
  • Linking the post-publication notice to the original content in a clear and prominent manner.
  • Distributing the updated content and the post-publication notice to relevant parties, including subscribers, indexers, and other databases.
  • Monitoring the impact of the changes on the academic record and making any necessary further updates or corrections.
• Authorship

All co-authors must agree to submit the work to the journal. For author dispute, see the “Complaints and Appeals” section above.

How to add extra authors before publication:

• • All co-authors must agree to add new (co)authors to the publication.
  • The agreement must be collected and sent to the editor with an explanation.