Frequently Asked Questions

What is the timeline for article 

submissions to Public Roads?

▶ All articles that appear in Public Roads begin with the 

submission of a story idea proposal for the Editorial 

Board to review. The Editorial Board is comprised of 

Federal Highway Administration senior leadership.

▶ Story ideas are submitted to the Editorial Board in 

batches approximately every 2 months. If a story 

idea is sent to the team immediately following a 

submission to the Editorial Board, it will be held 

for the next submission. The team will provide the 

author with that information and the anticipated 

submission date.

▶ Whenever possible, providing a brief problem/solution 

statement in the proposal helps the Editorial Board 

understand the purpose of the article better.

▶ Typical timeline from story idea to print is 

approximately 9–12 months, or 2 to 3 issues, 

out from time of approval.

What is the step-by-step process 

for article submission?

▶ Story idea proposals (approximately 1–2 pages) are 

sent to the Public Roads team for initial review.

▶ The team collects those ideas and submits them to 

the Editorial Board for their consideration, through 

the Public Roads Editor-in-Chief, approximately every 

2 months.

▶ At the conclusion of their review period, the Editorial 

Board advises which articles are approved to advance 

to article development and what articles, if any, are 

not suitable for Public Roads.

▶ Upon receipt of that information, the team advises 

the authors of the Editorial Board’s decision and 

noting any special comments the Board may have 

had for development of the article.

▶ If approved, the Public Roads team schedules the 

article for a future issue—bearing in mind that, on 

rare occasion, articles may get shifted to an issue 

not originally scheduled. The team will also schedule 

an article kick-off, if needed or for new authors, to 

discuss process and deadlines.
What documentation and publication 

guidelines are provided when 

story ideas are approved?

▶ When articles are approved, the Public Roads

team sends a full package of materials for article 

development (Author Guidelines [which includes 

notes on formatting, style, photos and photo captions, 

and permissions], templates, etc.), as well as a 

calendar of deadlines and availability in future issues.

▶ Once the authors review the calendar, they respond 

with which issue they would like their article to 

appear. Again, that will be based on which issues have 

space available at the time of scheduling.

▶ Authors should be aware that, on occasion and at 

the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief, articles may be 

moved to a later issue.

How are articles chosen for the 

magazine and each issue?

▶ The Editorial Board chooses which articles/topics are 

suitable for the magazine that align with FHWA goals 

and mission.

▶ In general, the Editorial Board selects articles on 

innovation/research, safety, infrastructure, operations, 

and FHWA’s core values.

▶ The Public Roads team schedules articles to ensure 

each issue is diverse and does not cover the same 

topic or publish the same author/author team in the 

same issue in the event that authors have multipleapproved articles.

▶ Exception: A special themed issue—which takes 

approximately 14–16 months to plan—will cover 

multiple facets of the same topic. Special themed 

issues must also be approved by the Editorial Board in 

advance of scheduling.

What else should potential authors know about the process and Public Roads?

▶ Issues are published quarterly and released on the 

following schedule:

– Winter: January

– Spring: April

– Summer: July

– Autumn: October

▶ The Winter issue receives higher visibility, as it is 

shared at the Transportation Research Board Annual 

Meeting in January.

▶ Articles are short to moderate in length, generally 

2–4 pages, with minimum of 4–6 high-quality, 

high-resolution photos and graphics.

▶ On occasion, a feature article may run longer but 

ideally not exceeding 10 pages (which tends to be a 

rare occurrence or special feature).

▶ Articles should not be highly technical in nature (like a 

report or TechBrief) and should speak to a wide range 

of audiences.

▶ Photo and quote permissions are critical and 

a mandatory part of the editorial process. All 

permissions must be received by the Public Roads

team prior to submission to the designer for layout 

but preferably before the article goes through 

Technical Review.

▶ Quotes used in articles must be attributed to an 

individual and not an office or department.

▶ If the story idea is approved, an outline needs to be 

submitted to the Public Roads team for their review/

comments approximately 2 months before the first 

draft is due.

▶ If the story idea proposal submission was detailed 

and fleshed out, it may be used instead of an outline. 

At that time, an editor will be assigned to the article 

and will usher the author/author team through the 

editorial process until final layout.

▶ All feature articles go through a Technical Review 

process where FHWA subject matter experts, 

including those on the State level, examine each 

article for accuracy. All comments generated by the 

reviewers are shared with the authors anonymously 

at the completion of that phase to address prior to 

sending the final article to layout.

▶ All authors have multiple opportunities to review and 

respond to edits. They also have a final opportunity 

to review the article in layout to provide final, criticalonly edits or approval to proceed.

▶ Authors and other interested parties can subscribe 

to the digital version of Public Roads through the 

website at U.S. DOT Federal Highway Administration 

(govdelivery.com).

FHWA-HRT-22-108

HRTM-20/09-22(WEB)E

Recommended citation: Federal Highway Administration, 

Public Roads Frequently Asked Questions (Washington, DC: 2022) 

https://doi.org/10.21949/1521937

Title image: © taniasv / AdobeStock.com. 

All other images are owned by FHWA.