Is International Journal of Hydrogen Energy a Good Journal? The Hydrogen Economy's Home Journal

IJHE has gotten more selective about what counts as hydrogen research versus general energy research that involves hydrogen. The test: if you replaced "hydrogen" with another fuel or energy carrier throughout your paper, would the scientific contribution change? If yes, the paper is genuinely hydrogen-specific and IJHE is a good fit. If the contribution would survive the swap, the paper is probably better placed in a broader energy journal.

This matters most for computational and theoretical work, where the same methodology often applies across multiple systems. IJHE wants papers where the hydrogen-specific insight is the point, not the example.

An IJHE hydrogen centrality and scope check can help assess whether your paper's hydrogen focus is strong enough for IJHE before you submit.

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (Elsevier, IF ~8) is the leading journal for hydrogen and fuel cell research. The scope covers hydrogen production, storage, distribution, utilization, and fuel cell technology across all aspects.

IJHE does not accept papers that mention hydrogen as a peripheral topic. The hydrogen or fuel cell component must be central to the contribution. Papers about general catalysis, materials science, or electrochemistry without a clear hydrogen connection belong at specialized chemistry or materials journals.

The journal has a relatively high acceptance rate for its tier, making it accessible for solid hydrogen research. Review times are moderate (6-12 weeks to first decision).

An IJHE submission readiness check can score desk-reject risk before you submit.

In our pre-submission review work with manuscripts targeting International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, three patterns generate the most consistent desk rejections among the papers we analyze.

Hydrogen-peripheral positioning in papers that are fundamentally materials or electrochemistry studies. IJHE's editorial guidelines require that hydrogen or fuel cell technology be central to the research contribution, not one of several applications tested. We see a consistent pattern where nanostructured electrode papers or photocatalyst papers test hydrogen evolution as one reaction among several, then target IJHE because the IF (8.1) is attractive. The desk editor applies the hydrogen-centrality test: if hydrogen is replaced with another application, does the paper's scientific contribution change? Papers that fail this test are returned without external review. The title, abstract, and introduction must make hydrogen the protagonist, not the demonstration vehicle.

Performance data reported under idealized conditions without durability evidence. IJHE reviewers from the hydrogen energy community expect stability data alongside headline performance metrics. We observe that papers reporting peak hydrogen production rates, record overpotential values, or maximum storage capacities frequently present measurements from short (less than 2-hour) experiments without cycling stability or operating condition data. The IAHE community is aware that bench-scale records rarely survive real operating conditions, and papers without at least 24-hour stability data or 100-cycle performance are treated as preliminary by the reviewer pool.

Scale-up pathway omitted from lab-scale contributions. IJHE has become more explicit about requiring that papers with lab-scale results address the scale-up pathway. We see authors report single-cell or small-scale results and claim hydrogen economy relevance without specifying which engineering barriers the work addresses or what TRL the contribution represents. Reviewers increasingly ask for explicit discussion of cost benchmarks and scale-up considerations as a condition of acceptance, particularly for electrolysis and storage papers.

SciRev author-reported data confirms IJHE's 6-12 week median to first decision. An IJHE hydrogen framing, durability data, and scale-up discussion check can verify whether your manuscript meets IJHE's editorial requirements before you submit to Elsevier's system.