The 150th Anniversary of the Journal of Transportation Engineering: Our Distinguished History and the Future of Transportation Engineering

As the Journal of Transportation Engineering celebrates its 150th volume, it seems appropriate to reflect on the history, publishing issues, and future of our journal. This editorial is intended to do just that, albeit rather briefly.

Transportation engineering has been a major component of civil engineering from the origins of the profession and certainly for the entire existence of ASCE. It is often argued that the Romans were the first large-scale civil engineers and their road engineering from antiquity is still admired. The content of our articles mirrors the evolution of our US transportation system. Early articles were related to the new technology of canal systems. These were followed by the next evolution in transportation technology: railroads. These in turn gave way to articles focused on the development of roadway systems, including roadways and transit. In more recent years, articles on new technologies have appeared, including connected and automated vehicles, electric drones, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity. The journal has continuously adapted its content to the important technologies and issues of the times. What has not changed is the focus on our audience: practicing transportation engineers, planners, and researchers.

Changes in transportation systems have been instrumental in the development of modern society, providing movement of goods and people. Our authors and readers were the ones that achieved these changes. Because of this impact, the journal has lasted through 150 years.

Transportation engineering articles were contained in general ASCE Transactions and Proceedings originally (Sinha 2021). By 1956, various divisions of ASCE began publishing their own journals, such as the Highway Division. The Transportation Engineering Journal appeared as a separate publication in 1969 and included all types of transportation articles. The name was changed to the Journal of Transportation Engineering in 1983.

Many ASCE journals are transportation related now. Titles include the Journal of Aerospace Engineering, Journal of Bridge Engineering, Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice, Journal of Transportation Engineering, and Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering. In 2017, The Journal of Transportation Engineering split into a Part A (Systems) (JTE-A) and a Part B (Pavements) (JTE-B). Other journals include transportation articles for specialized audiences such as computing or geotechnical engineering. The JTE-A, JTE-B, Journal of Infrastructure Systems, and Journal of Urban Planning and Development are now sponsored by the ASCE Transportation & Development Institute. These multiple journals reflect the growing size of the transportation engineering community overall and the specialty interests of civil engineers in the field.

For JTE-A, there has been a general growth in the numbers of papers submitted and published. Printed issues appear monthly, although the bulk of all readers use the digital editions. Close to 1,000 papers are submitted for review each year with more than 500 published. Over 60,000 article downloads occur each year, and each download may be read multiple times.

Throughout the history of the journal, professional ethical standards have been applied and maintained. For example, editors and reviewers must avoid and disclose conflicts of interest. A close collaborator should not review or pass judgment on a colleague’s manuscript. Financial conflicts would similarly disqualify an editor or reviewer. Manuscripts serving to promote commercial products are not to be published.

Cases of false data and plagiarism are quite rare in JTE-A. Transportation infrastructure such as intersection designs or traffic controls are typically widely reproduced, so many engineers can observe their behavior and performance. As a result, papers based on faulty data would be readily discovered. Plagiarism is also rarely seen, even in this age of digital text. Authors are reminded that dual publication of articles, including published conference proceedings, is not permitted.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) software provides a new challenge to ensure publication quality. Some of its uses can be beneficial. For example, nonnative English speakers can appreciate the software’s editing and translation capabilities to produce standard English text. Generative AI may also suggest new research approaches or topics. However, overreliance on the software for actual manuscript writing can result in false results, including imaginary references or other hallucinations.

The rise of impact factor sensitivity creates other tensions. Impact factors do not represent the impact on engineering practice but rather are an average of the number of times articles are cited in other articles over a predefined period. Editors at other journals may be tempted to suggest that authors include multiple references from their own journal in order to increase the impact factor for their journal. Similarly, authors may be tempted to include self-citations that might not be relevant to a given paper in order to increase their own impact factors. The test for journal quality concerns the relevance of the citations to the article’s topic. Certainly, providing a context for an article by referencing relevant work is helpful to readers. JTE-A has had an increasing impact factor for the past few decades. There are other transportation journals with higher impact factors. We believe, however, that JTE-A continues to be one of the leading transportation journals in the world and that will continue to positively influence our profession in the future—just as it has for the past 150 years.

JTE-A wishes to publish papers that will inform our readers and improve the practice of transportation engineering (Hendrickson and Rilett 2019). As a result, practitioner readers and authors are encouraged. Papers that are of interest only to an isolated community of researchers are of secondary importance.

At the same time, JTE-A continues to employ a rigorous peer review process. We gratefully thank our reviewers and editors who make this peer review work. Peer review provides quality assurance for the long-term value of our archival journal. Understandably, authors would like the review process to speed up. Digital tools and publishing online have reduced the process time. Our voluntary reviewers have many competing tasks, but we hope they can make JTE-A reviews a priority.

Transportation engineering has no lack of important research topics. First, the field is in the midst of several technology revolutions. Decarbonization to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions has provided incentives for vehicle electrification, greater efficiency in energy use (such as biking or walking), and more efficient construction processes (Hendrickson and Rilett 2022). Automation and connectivity can transform the operations of vehicles and transportation networks. Information technology provides new tools for designing and operating transportation systems as well as supporting communications as a complement to transportation (Caldwell et al. 2021).

Second, socioeconomic challenges continue (NASEM 2023). Equity and workforce training are critical issues. Financing is a continuing problem for transportation engineering. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of resilience, especially for modes such as public transportation (Hendrickson and Rilett 2020; Hendrickson et al. 2023). Transportation is intertwined with public health in many ways, especially with a growing senior population.

The ASCE journals will likely continue to evolve as the field grows. Presently, JTE-A includes a special section on automated and connected vehicles under the editorship of Professor Yinhai Wang. If the section grows, it may become JTE part C.

No data were used in this editorial.

Financial support from the Safety21 National University Transportation Center and the Mid-America University Transportation Center, both of which are sponsored by the US Department of Transportation, is gratefully acknowledged.