The journals of ASCE are a media through which civil engineers exchange technical and professional knowledge. Information published in the journals forms an archival record of the technical advances of the Society and the profession in general.
The ASCE Board of Direction's Publications Committee sets the policies governing the journals. Responsibility for reviewing manuscripts submitted to ASCE for publication rests with the editors, associate editors, and editorial boards of each journal. The Executive Committee of each division and council or the Publications Committee of each institute is responsible for the contents of its journal.
Technical papers, technical notes, discussions and closures of papers and technical notes, and errata are published in the journals. Book reviews, editorials, and forums are published in some journals. Authors need not be members of ASCE to submit material to the journals.
The ASCE Publications Committee has adopted the following guidelines regarding the type and quality of material published in the Society's journals.
Publication Guidelines
To be acceptable for publication in the journals, a manuscript must be of value and interest to civil engineers. It must be an original review of past practice, present information of current interest, or probe new fields of civil engineering activity. It should be a thought-provoking study that contributes to the planning, analysis, design, construction, management, or maintenance of civil engineering works. A manuscript should contribute to the advancement of the profession in the forum provided by the journals for the exchange of experiences by engineers for their common advantage. It should include a practical applications section whenever possible; theoretical manuscripts should indicate areas of additional research to implement technology transfer. Practical papers are strongly encouraged.
The manuscript must be consistent with the purpose of the Society, as set forth in its constitution, with established fact, and with the Ethical Standards for ASCE Journals. It must not contain purely speculative matter, although it can use scientific evidence to challenge current concepts or propose new ideas that will encourage progress and discussion.
The manuscript must be free of evident commercialism or private interest, but must neither obscure proper names when they are required for an understanding of the subject matter nor contain material that can be used to imply ASCE endorsement of products, services, and so on. The manuscript must also be free of personalities, either complimentary or derogatory. The material must not be readily available elsewhere; i.e., it should not have been published previously by ASCE (including a proceeding) or other professional or technical societies, federal agencies, or commercial publishers. Manuscripts based on material available elsewhere may be published by ASCE provided the manuscript has been significantly revised, updated, and condensed into a more concise and readable form, or otherwise made obviously and significantly more useful to the profession than the original material. The published material, however, must be supplied with such a submission. If a previously published manuscript is considered a highly significant advance in the field and its distribution has been very limited, the editor may request that the institute or technical division or council executive committee waive the policy against dual publication.
Society policy mandates that a journal technical paper and technical note be reviewed by at least two competent reviewers. Two positive reviews are required for acceptance or two negative reviews for rejection. The Society's goal is to have manuscripts reviewed within three months. Revisions and rereview are frequently required conditions of acceptance. (See also ASCE Policy on Peer Review.)
The Society will not review or publish papers or technical notes whose authorship is in dispute.
If the author is a participant in a case study in a submitted manuscript, the manuscript should describe that precise involvement in the initial paragraphs of the work.
ASCE does not accept simultaneous submissions; that is, a manuscript may not be submitted to more than one journal simultaneously, either outside ASCE or among the ASCE journals. If a manuscript declined by one ASCE journal is submitted to another, the reviews of the earlier submission will be sent to the new journal. In resubmitting a declined manuscript, the authors must inform ASCE that it was declined by a particular journal and reference the previously assigned file number.