Journal of Human-Robot Interaction

Journal of Human-Robot Interaction
Title	Journal of Human-Robot Interaction
Discipline	Human–robot interaction, robotics, human factors
Abbreviation	JHRI
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or independent societies (varies)
Frequency	Biannual (typical)
History	2012–present
Openaccess	Hybrid / open access options
Issn	2329-2737

Journal of Human-Robot Interaction is a peer-reviewed scholarly periodical devoted to the study of interactions between humans and robotic systems. It publishes empirical studies, theoretical analyses, design reports, and interdisciplinary reviews that bridge engineering, psychology, and design practices. Contributors and readers include researchers from institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Oxford, Carnegie Mellon University, and Georgia Institute of Technology.

History

The journal was founded in the early 2010s amid growing interest sparked by conferences like Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Robotics: Science and Systems, and CHI PLAY. Founding contributors included researchers affiliated with MIT Media Lab, Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, University of Tokyo, and ETH Zurich. Early editorial initiatives paralleled workshops at IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, symposia at Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and gatherings at Royal Society venues. Over time the journal intersected with special issues tied to events such as CogSci Conference, ACM SIGCHI, HRI Conference, and collaborations with societies including IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.

Scope and Topics

The journal covers multidisciplinary topics spanning design, evaluation, and deployment of robotic systems in contexts associated with institutions like National Institutes of Health, European Commission, DARPA, and United Nations initiatives. Typical subjects include user studies from groups at Johns Hopkins University, University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Michigan; robot platforms from labs like Honda Research Institute, Boston Dynamics, Toyota Research Institute, iRobot, and SoftBank Robotics; and ethical, legal, and social analyses referencing bodies such as European Court of Human Rights, US Supreme Court, and UNESCO. Research intersects methodologies promoted by American Psychological Association, Association for Computing Machinery, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and standards from International Organization for Standardization.

Editorial and Publication Information

Editorial boards have included scholars from University of Washington, Imperial College London, Delft University of Technology, University of Toronto, and Tsinghua University. The journal follows peer review practices aligned with guidelines from Committee on Publication Ethics, COPE, and publishing frameworks used by Springer Science+Business Media, Elsevier, and Wiley-Blackwell. Production workflows reference indexing arrangements similar to those for titles distributed by ACM Digital Library and IEEE Xplore. Funding acknowledgments commonly cite grants from National Science Foundation, European Research Council, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and national research councils such as NSERC.

Abstracting and Indexing

The journal is abstracted in databases and services that index work alongside titles like Nature Robotics, Science Robotics, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, ACM Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, and Autonomous Robots. Indexing platforms include aggregators similar to Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubMed Central, and library catalogs managed by Library of Congress and major university systems such as Harvard University Library and British Library.

Impact and Reception

Scholarly reception references citation metrics comparable to journals cited by researchers at Cornell University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, and Duke University. Practitioners at companies such as Google DeepMind, Meta Platforms, Amazon Robotics, NVIDIA, and Microsoft Research consult the journal for applied findings. Policy-makers in organizations like European Parliament, US Department of Transportation, and World Health Organization have cited research from the field in reports addressing deployment, safety, and regulation.

Notable Articles and Special Issues

Notable contributions have come from authors linked to Helen Haywood-style design labs, established groups at Hiroshi Ishiguro’s labs, and interdisciplinary teams spanning MIT Media Lab, Stanford HCI Group, and Oxford Robotics Institute. Special issues have focused on themes present at conferences such as International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, workshops at IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, and collaborative volumes responding to calls from European Commission Horizon 2020 and national initiatives like Robot Operating System community efforts. Landmark articles address long-term field deployment case studies, ethics frameworks used in debates at UNESCO World Conference on AI Ethics, and methodological advances highlighted at ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Category:Robotics journals Category:Human–computer interaction publications