ITE Journal Writer's Guidelines
ITE Journal is published monthly, 12 times a year, by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). The journal is written by and for transportation engineers, transportation planners, and others responsible for the safe and efficient movement of people and goods on our surface transportation systems. Authors of articles in ITE Journal include both ITE members and non-members in the transportation profession as well as stakeholders and partners in the transportation industry.
If you are interested in submitting an article for ITE Journal, please submit a query letter to Holly Stowell, senior editor and writer, at hstowell@ite.org. You may also reach Holly by phone at 202.785.0060 ext. 139 to propose an article idea. ITE accepts manuscripts, informational pieces, case studies, member profiles, and varied content based upon the editorial calendar. Some typical topics covered are below, but pieces on other areas of interest to transportation professionals will be considered.
Big data • Complete streets • Connected and Automated vehicles • Context sensitive solutions • Distracted driving • Education • Energy and environment • Expert witness/legal liability • Freeway operations/incident management • Funding • Goods movement • Infrastructure maintenance • Intelligent transportation systems • Parking • Pedestrians/bikes • Planning/land use • Policy/legislation • Safety • Signals and signal systems • Signs/markings • Smart cities • Traffic calming • Traffic engineering • Traffic operations • Transit/public transportation • Transportation apps • Transportation demand management • Trip generation • V2X technologies
Papers on concrete pavement, bitumen, and highly technical modeling concepts are not being accepted at this time. Research papers for graduate and doctorate thesis projects are not commonly sought; please contact Holly Stowell prior to submitting a thesis paper. The following articles are examples of the types of pieces currently sought and authored by people both within and outside of ITE membership:
Are Parking Minimums a Thing of the Past?
Storytelling: The Newest, Age-Old Method to Communicate Your Transportation Project
The Use of Intelligent Transportation Systems in Risk and Emergency Management for Road Transport Planning and Operation
Connected Vehicle Challenges for the Dense Urban Environment
When preparing your manuscript for submission, please follow the guidelines presented in this document. By meeting submission requirements, you will help to ensure your manuscript moves quickly through the review process.
Peer Review of Manuscripts
All unsolicited manuscripts submitted to ITE Journal undergo a peer review. After acknowledgment and in-house review by ITE staff, each manuscript selected for peer review is sent to three to five transportation professionals considered experts in the manuscript’s topic area. The review process takes approximately two months, although it sometimes may take longer due to issues such as reviewer availability. At the conclusion of the review process, the managing editor makes a final decision and informs the author. Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, it is scheduled in the next available issue of ITE Journal, with consideration given to the topic’s relationship to an editorial theme.
All manuscripts are then edited for clarity, grammar, readability, and style. If your manuscript is accepted, you will be asked to submit additional items needed for publication (see section “If Your Manuscript Is Accepted”).
Submitting Your Manuscript for Peer Review
Upload your completed manuscript, along with any tables and figures, to https://ite-journal.scholasticahq.com.
No fee is required to submit a manuscript. Text should be no longer than 2,500 words, including references, tables, and figure text/captions. Each page should be numbered. On the first page, list the manuscript’s title and the name(s) of the author(s); please include full contact information for the corresponding author (the author who will interact with the managing editor. For expediency and efficiency, we request that all correspondence regarding the manuscript come solely from the designated corresponding author). Authors’ names should be listed in the order you wish them to be published. Your manuscript can contain a maximum of six exhibits (e.g., tables, figures, charts). Manuscripts with more than the maximum number of exhibits will be returned. Use as little word processing formatting as possible—no more than is needed for clarity. Excessive formatting such as tab indents and all capitals increases your workload unnecessarily because it must be removed.
Abstract
Each manuscript must be accompanied by an abstract—a self-contained (not requiring reference to the manuscript to be understood) statement of the primary objectives and scope of the study or the reasons the manuscript was written. The abstract should not contain unfamiliar terms that are not defined, reference citations, or displayed equations, lists, figures, or tables. Maximum length is 50 words.
Keywords
Each manuscript must be accompanied by five keywords. It should be specific so as not to get lost in a thousand papers with the keyword “traffic.” It can be more than one word but no more than three (e.g., “traffic demand management”). The search engine will search the abstract as well, so the keywords can be different. Use plurals when applicable (the keyword “lights” will be found if someone searches for “light” or “lights”). The keywords will be used for ITE Journal online and the online ITE Library.
References
Your reference list, which should be submitted on a separate page, should include complete citations for only those references cited in the text. Number your references sequentially in text using superscript. Note: You may “jump around” with references (e.g., 1, 2, 14, 5). Do not label references as footnotes or endnotes. Simply list them at the end of your manuscript in a reference list. Please use the following guidelines when compiling your reference list. Book references should include the following:
Name of the author(s), the editor(s), or the institution responsible for writing the book
Full title of the book, including any subtitle
Volume number or total number of volumes of a multi-volume work;
Edition number (if not the original)
City, state/province and country of publication
Publisher’s name
Date of publication.
Example 1. Stover, V.G. and F.J. Koepke. Transportation and Land Development. Washington, DC, USA: Institute of Transportation Engineers, 1987.
Authors’ names should be spelled and listed as they appear on the title pages of their books; degrees or affiliations should be omitted. In the case of multiple authors, all authors should be listed; the first author’s name is listed last name first (Stover, V.G.), and the other authors are listed normally (F.J. Koepke). If a publication issued by an organization lists no author’s name on the title page, then the organization should be listed as the author.
Journal/Magazine References
References for items published in a journal or magazine should include the following:
Name of the authors(s)
Article title in quotes
Title of journal/magazine
Volume, number and issue date
Inclusive page numbers.
Example 2. Jain, R. “Traffic Management During Reconstruction of I-91 in Connecticut.” ITE Journal, Vol. 57, No. 10 (October 1987): 29–32.
Brand Names
Unless they are essential to proper understanding of your manuscript, please do not include brand names in text. If they must be included, include the manufacturer’s name and location in parentheses immediately following the first mention of the product.
Abbreviations
Please define all abbreviations at their first mention in the text. Do not assume readers will be familiar with abbreviations and acronyms, regardless of how commonplace they are. Example Most agencies are using some form of intelligent transportation systems (ITS). ITS is the…..
Units of Measurement
Throughout your manuscript, please use English units of measurement. If research discussed in your manuscript is presented in English units, you must also provide the metric equivalent in parentheses.
Permissions
The manuscript must be your original work and must not be under consideration with another publication. When you include an extended quotation, figure, or table from another publication, you must secure permission to do so from the publisher. ITE Journal will not publish your manuscript without this written permission. Please send copies of such permission with your manuscript and be sure to provide proper credit in your manuscript.
If Your Manuscript is Accepted
If your manuscript is accepted for publication in ITE Journal, you will be required to submit several items prior to publication; these can be uploaded to your account within Scholastica. The following items are needed prior to publication:
Microsoft Word file of your final paper. Tables may be embedded in the document; however, do NOT embed figures or other graphic files. We will need those files separately in order to print them correctly.
Separate, high-resolution files for any figures or photos. JPG, EPS, and TIFF formats are acceptable. We cannot print bitmap (BMP) or GIF images. The resolution for these formats must be 300 dots per inch (dpi). Each figure should be submitted in a separate electronic file. If you have questions about whether your file is suitable, please contact Holly Stowell.
Head-and-shoulders photograph (a color photo is preferred) of each author. When submitting author photos in electronic format, please note that only JPG, EPS, and TIFF formats are acceptable. The resolution for these formats must be 300 dots per inch (dpi). Each photograph should be submitted in a separate electronic file.
Biographical sketch (two or three sentences) of each author.
A completed and signed Transfer of Copyright form, which transfers copyright of the manuscript to ITE. You do, however, retain 1) all proprietary rights other than copyright, such as patent rights and 2) the right to use all or part of the manuscript in future works of your own, such as lectures, press releases, reviews, textbooks, or reprint books.
After reviewing, please click here to submit a manuscript for possible publication.
If you have questions, please contact Holly Stowell at 202.785.0060 ext. 139 or hstowell@ite.org.
