Journal of Field Robotics (JFR)

Aims and Scope

The Journal of Field Robotics seeks to promote scholarly publications dealing with the fundamentals of robotics in unstructured and dynamic environments. We welcome and encourage the submission of papers on robotics research covering:

• Real-world applications: environment, construction, forestry, agriculture, mining, nuclear, subsea, intelligent highways, healthcare, search and rescue, military, and space (orbital and planetary).
• Technical and scientific topics: sensing, sensors, mechanical design, computing architectures, communication, planning, learning, and control, human-robot interaction, robotic verification, validation and security.

The Journal encourages publication of work that has both theoretical and practical significance. Authors will be encouraged to implement their work and demonstrate its utility on significant problems with an emphasis on the underlying principles. That is, the Journal will encourage reporting on what was learned in doing the work, rather than merely on what was done. Also encouraged are comparative or meta-studies and verification of theoretical results as well as reports of extended field experiments that seek to validate autonomous systems in representative environments. Accepted paper submission categories include the research paper, review paper, research note (or short paper), field report, and invited paper.

The Journal will push the frontiers of electronic publishing in the following ways:

• Exploitation of the medium via multimedia that accompany articles. JFR will publish code, models, data, and animations (either synthetic or actual video demonstrations) as appendices to articles. Such appendices will not be a requirement for publication but will be encouraged.
• Low-cost access to articles and appendices. JFR will be deliberately structured so as to reduce the costs of publication. Fast and easy access to the journal will accelerate the pace at which new results can be absorbed by other researchers. It will also allow access to new results by a large population across the globe currently not privileged to the infrastructure required to support robotics research and, in some cases, who do not have easy access to archival quality printed journals.
• Reduced time to publication. JFR will organize the reviewing and publication process in such a way that a short turnaround time is possible. Reviews will be led by members of the Editorial Board and by notable researchers. Papers and reviews will be managed via a Web interface and a paid managing editor will be in charge of ensuring the process of submission and resubmission runs smoothly. Before being asked to review a paper, reviewers will be asked whether they have the time to review the paper, and if they do not, they will not be sent the paper.
• Free online access in the developing world. Free online access to this journal is available for developing world institutions through the Research4Life collective. For more information, visit www.research4life.org.