Symptoms
Within the context of a list view which contained a data label column we used a hyperlink operator in an expression to build a URL. To get this URL to open in a separate window/tab we used a javascript:window.open command and while this worked, successfully opening the page in a new tab the parent form which hosted the hyperlink would reinitialize and show only [objects].
Diagnoses
When running javascript:window.open('www.URL.com') in the SmartForm it seems as though SmartForm is trying to do something with the returned window object which would otherwise be discarded.
Resolution
With some reformatting of the javascript we resolved this issue.
javascript:window.open('https://www.URL.com') void(0)
the void(0) effectively ends the javascript command thereby preventing the page from re-rendering.