ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction: The State of the Journal

As the first robotics journal offered by ACM, the Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction (ACM THRI) made considerable progress to advance the field of HRI since its inaugural offering in 2018. ACM THRI remains the flagship journal for leading research in the burgeoning area of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). The interdisciplinary field of HRI aims to understand and advance our knowledge of human-robot systems towards advancing usable and useful robotic technology. ACM THRI features leading thought into how people interact with robots and robotic technologies, how to improve these interactions and make new kinds of interaction possible, and the effects of such interactions on organizations or society. HRI brings together researchers and practitioners with diverse expertise, including but not limited to robotics, artificial intelligence, human factors, psychology, design, haptics, and mechatronics. We officially began our term in January 2017 as Editors-in-Chief of the Journal of Human-Robot Interaction, the predecessor to ACM THRI. We were fortunate to build on the foundation of JHRI provided by its founding editors, Profs. Sara Kiesler and Michael Goodrich. Our leadership of ACM THRI would not be possible without the tremendous effort and dedication of our core editorial team, including our amazing Managing Editor (Prof. James Young), Journal Administrator (Gita Delsing) and Information Director (Dr. Daniel Rea) as well as their predecessors (Prof. David FeilSeifer, Ms. Jeanie Lyubelsky, and Prof. Monica Anderson). Although it has presented unique challenges and new opportunities, we remain grateful for the opportunity to lead the transition of JHRI to ACM ownership and further extend ACM THRI. Our focus as Editors-in-Chief has been to establish commitment to excellence, sustainability, and inclusion in the scholarship and review processes of ACM THRI, which has proved successful to this point. As stated in our introductory editorial, our primary aims for the Journal have been three fold: (1) increase the sustainability and impact of HRI as a field (both quantitatively and qualitatively), (2) enable timely and productive review feedback, and (3) cultivate new and leading ideas in both robotics and the human-centered sciences. ACM THRI has remained true to this scope and made significant strides towards realizing these values across the practices of the journal. For our review processes, our goal has been to provide useful feedback to our authors that enables them to improve their work and make contributions worthy of intellectual leadership. We aim to return substantive review feedback to authors within 105 days of the date of submission, and 70 days for revisions. The total average for ACM THRI returning decisions for submitted manuscripts is currently 142 days in 2021, 122 days from April 2020 to December 2020, 114.7 days in the first three months of 2020 (submissions just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic), and 99 days in 2019. Our review process includes significant deliberation and discussion among our editorial board of every manuscript and decision, which occurs during our weekly editorial teleconferences. A summary of our editorial consensus with a reasoned and supported argument is provided with