This is a new journal brought to you by the Association of Human-Computer Interaction. We are making preparations to publish our debut issue and are making call for papers. Because this is a new journal, it is important to consider whether submitting to a new journal/publisher is right for you. Below outlines some of the pros and cons to consider.

Pros of publishing in our new journal

• If your paper is accepted and published, you will receive one year's free Expert membership to the Association of Human-Computer Interaction
• Free Open Access publishing. There is no payment involved in publishing your research in the Open Journal of Human-Computer Interaction and there are no Article Processing Charges (APCs)
• Much less anxiety associated with the process of publishing in emerging scientific journals. Oftentimes, the process of publishing in high ranking competitive journals can be extremely daunting, drawn-out and stressful, due to extremely high competition and outdated processes.
• Potential future benefits associated with being one of the first published authors in the Open Journal of Human-Computer Interaction.
• A modernized approach to publishing. Our approach to peer-review and publishing makes the process simpler, faster and more effective for potential authors and early career researchers.
• Opportunity to demonstrate your intention to publish as a way to openly share knowledge, rather than using publishing as a method to boost your "h-index" and/or other forms of "reputation ranking".
• Your paper can be accessed using our unique HCI-ID (much like a DOI)
• Faster (≤8 weeks) peer-review process. Some journals can take up to 12 months to review your manuscript. We guarantee a peer-reviewed decision within 8 weeks because we value your time.

Cons of publishing in a new journal

• As a new journal, our readership may take some time to grow. However, your published manuscript will still be indexed by Google, and over time, within other research databases.
• If your research has been funded by external organisations, they will often require you to publish in specific journals with high Impact Factors to help boost the organisation's reputation of funding research that has made it into "high ranking journals".
• If your aim is purely to boost your h-index, and/or are targeting journals with a high "Impact Factor" (either in the hopes of boosting your research reputation or complying with external funder requirements), you may be better off submitting your manuscript to a journal operated by one of the major publishers.

Whilst we've listed more pros than cons, it is clear that much of the deciding factors between publishing in a new vs established scientific journal comes down to two main things: initial reach, and hopes of boosting reputation by ranking methods such as h-index, i10-index and citation count. Publishing in a more established journal is primarily to do with reach and reputation. Both of which takes time to establish. A new journal would of course need time to extend their reach and prominence. However, the Association of Human-Computer Interaction is a rapidly growing association in the field of human-computer interaction, and there can be clear benefits to publishing within a new and emerging scientific journal.

Both our submission and peer-review process aims to be as simple as possible for authors. This means ease of submission, faster peer-review times, and an overall smooth process.

Manuscript submission

Submissions are made using a simple one-page form, which should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete. During the submission stage, we do not expect you to restructure or reformat your paper to match our Editorial guidelines, as it makes little sense for you to spend additional time on this prior to being informed whether your manuscript has been accepted or not. Any post-acceptance formatting will be carried out in-house before publication. Submissions should be uploaded as both PDF and an editable file such as Word or LaTeX (zipped).

Peer-review

All submissions are single-blind reviewed by at least two reviewers. Authors will not know who the reviewers are. This is the most conventional method of peer-reviewing. We guarantee a peer-review time of no longer than 8 weeks. 

Publication format

Accepted manuscripts will be published online on a rolling basis as and when they are accepted, after editorial formatting has been completed. Accepted manuscripts for our first issue will be searchable and accessible from this page as of when we receive our first accepted manuscript. The full-text of each accepted manuscript will be presented within a single web page and as a downloadable PDF. 

Citing and direct linking to articles

Articles can be linked to directly using a unique HCI-ID which will be allocated exclusively to each article. This HCI-ID works in the exact same way as a DOI, which is simply a persistent identifier (PI or PID).

We do not charge extortionate article processing charges (APCs). In fact, we do not charge anything at all to publish in our Open Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. The purpose of our journal is to share new research and knowledge in human-computer interaction to the world, without restriction. You have the opportunity to support the Association or apply for membership during the submission stage, but neither of these are required.

In keeping with transparency, below outlines some of the ways we are able to offer free open access publishing without charging authors or readers:

• Prioritizing efficiency in how we operate and manage content  
• Membership fees contribute towards some of the costs incurred for the upkeep of our website, hosting and general management of content
• Utilization of our own persistent identifier (HCI-ID) which works in the exact same way as a DOI. A DOI is simply a permalink. However, publishers must pay ongoing annual fees to keep them active, and individual registration fees per DOI allocation. This could end up costing hundreds of thousands of pounds over the years, cumulatively. Our HCI-IDs do not expire, and are exclusive to the Association of Human-Computer Interaction.