Author Instructions
The Australian Energy Producers Journal, formerly known as The APPEA Journal, recognised in the Australian upstream oil and gas industry as the leading peer-reviewed publication for information on geoscience, engineering and management, is a multidisciplinary technical journal that publishes Peer-Reviewed Papers presented at the Australian Energy Producers annual conference. Conference proceedings are published as a supplement to the Journal, including Extended Abstracts, PESA Reviews, oral and visual presentations, and plenary videos. Papers on current and topical material are sought in both technical and commercial areas for presentation at this world-class event. The conference consists of a plenary program where speakers are invited by Australian Energy Producers, and a technical & business (concurrent) program, which will include papers received by open invitation. The open invitation is via a Call for Papers which goes out at the end of the previous year’s conference.
The owner of the Australian Energy Producers Journal is the Australian Energy Producers, formerly known as the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA).
The publisher of the Australian Energy Producers Journal is CSIRO Publishing.
Detailed guidance for preparation of contributions can be found below or as a pdf. The author template should be used to assist in formatting manuscripts.
- Publishing Policies
- Peer review
- Authorship
- Licence to publish
- Submission of Manuscripts
- Use of inclusive language
- Communications
- Copyright and Licence to Publish
- Journal Policy and Notes
- Format of Manuscripts and Template
- Acknowledgements
- Data Availability Statement
- Conflicts of Interest
- Declaration of Funding
- General Preparation of Manuscripts
- References
- Units
- Tables
- Figures
- Page Corrections and Proofs
- Awards
Publishing Policies
The Australian Energy Producers Journal insists on high standards of ethical behaviour throughout the publication process. Our journal editors work within the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Further information on our policies can be found at http://www.publish.csiro.au/ep/PublishingPolicies.
Peer review
The Australian Energy Producers Journal is a peer-reviewed journal that uses a single-blind peer-review. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for maintaining high-quality peer-review of papers submitted to the journal and works with the Editorial Board to ensure a thorough and fair peer-review and the highest scientific publishing standards. The Editor-in-Chief selects reviewers and when at least two review reports are received for Peer-reviewed Papers makes the decision whether to accept/reject or send a manuscript for revision. The final decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief. Conference proceedings (Extended Abstracts and PESA reviews) published as supplementary issues are not peer-reviewed but are assessed by a member of the Technical Program Committee. Non-peer-reviewed content published within supplements is clearly marked at the HTML level.
Authorship
The conditions around authorship for the Australian Energy Producers Journal should follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), for more information see http://www.publish.csiro.au/ep/PublishingPolicies.
Licence to publish
For details regarding copyright, please see Copyright/Licence to Publish.
Submission of Manuscripts
Submissions, via the online journal management system ScholarOne Manuscripts, may only be submitted for review during the specified period when the Australian Energy Producers and the Conference Technical Program Committee are working on the upcoming conference. Authors for the Australian Energy Producers Journal and conference proceedings supplement may choose to submit either a Peer-Reviewed Paper or Extended Abstract.
If you encounter any difficulties using the ScholarOne system, or you have any queries, please contact editorial.ep@csiro.au.
Use of inclusive language
These guidelines should be used to assist in identifying appropriate language, but are by no means exhaustive or definitive. Inclusive language comprises carefully chosen words and phrases that are respectful and promote the acceptance and value of all people. It is language which is free from words, phrases or tones that demean, insult, exclude, stereotype, or trivialise people on the basis of their membership of a certain group or because of a particular attribute. As such, inclusive language should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, and contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on any grounds including but not limited to: age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition. We encourage the use of plural nouns (e.g., 'they' as default wherever possible instead of 'he/she'), and recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes, unless there is scientific or clinical relevance. For further guidance on inclusive language see Inclusive language | Style Manual. If there are questions about language use and/or publishing with regards to First Nations people, please contact the Journal.
Communications
Throughout this process you may wish to contact the Publisher (CSIRO Publishing), the Organiser (Australian Energy Producers) or the Technical Program Committee. In this instance, please include your name, the title of your Peer-Reviewed Paper or Extended Abstract, and the reference number assigned to your text.
Enquiries about logistical conference details, including registration, AV appointments and onsite requirements, should be directed to:
Sarah Hall
Australian Energy Producers Events Manager
Australian Energy Producers Speaker Liaison
Telephone +[61] 416 414 836
Email speakers@energyproducers.au
Questions about content for Peer Reviewed Papers and Extended Abstracts should be addressed to the Australian Energy Producers Technical Program Committee as follows:
Dr Steve Mackie
Chairman, Australian Energy Producers Technical Program Committee
Telephone +[61 0] 403 146 373
Email geosimconsulting@gmail.com
Questions about submitting your paper onto the ScholarOne site, or publication of your Peer Reviewed Paper or Extended Abstract, should be addressed to the publisher, CSIRO Publishing:
Philippa Tolmie
Editorial Assistant, CSIRO Publishing
Telephone +[61 3] 9545 8790
Email editorial.ep@csiro.au
Copyright and Licence to Publish
Presentation at the Australian Energy Producers conference and publication in the Australian Energy Producers Journal requires that authors complete the Australian Energy Producer's and CSIRO Publishing’s forms regarding copyright and consent. Please note: the Licence to Publish form gives consent to publish the paper as well as the associated oral or visual presentation in the Australian Energy Producers Journal conference proceedings supplements.
Authors need to be aware they must have permission from all copyright holders for third party material that is used in their presentation and paper. Such permission is required in writing.
Authors should also be aware of other legal issues involved in the production and presentation of papers, Extended Abstracts and visual presentations. These include the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia and those of Australia’s States and Territories related to libel, slander, defamation and misleading and deceptive conduct.
Journal Policy and Notes
Submission of a paper implies that the results have not been published and are not being considered for publication elsewhere. It also implies that all co-authors of the paper have consented to its submission. The Journal will use its best endeavours to ensure that work published is that of the named authors except where acknowledged and, through its reviewing procedures, that any published results and conclusions are consistent with the primary data. It takes no responsibility for fraud or inaccuracy on the part of the authors.
Australian Energy Producers has a 'no paper – no presentation' policy. This means that if a paper (either Peer-reviewed Paper or Extended Abstract) is not submitted the material cannot be presented at the conference.
Format of Manuscripts and Template
A template is provided to help authors with the formatting of their manuscript. Authors should prepare their manuscript following the guidelines within this template.
Peer Reviewed Papers: maximum 5000 words
Peer Reviewed Papers are large pieces of original work dealing with any area of the upstream energy industry. They are restricted to a maximum of 5000 words for the body of the work (and no more than 8000 words in total including abstract, captions, references, author statements, author biographies) and can include a maximum of 15 figures and/or tables. The Australian Government Publishing Service’s Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers and the Macquarie Dictionary are the main editorial references. Your paper should be structured as shown in the following order.
- Title
- Authors’ bylines
- Authors’ affiliations and addresses
- Abstract
- Keywords
- Main body of paper
- Data availability statement
- Conflicts of Interest
- Declaration of funding
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- References
- Authors’ biographies (150 words maximum) and photos
You must put this document through computer virus detection, spell checker and grammar checker programs before submitting it.
Extended Abstracts: maximum 1500 words
Extended Abstracts are short pieces of original work dealing with any area of the upstream energy industry. They are restricted to a maximum of 1500 words for the body of the work (and no more than 2300 words in total including abstract, captions, references, author statements, author biographies, etc) and a maximum of 3 figures and/or tables in total. The Australian Government Publishing Service’s Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers and the Macquarie Dictionary are the main editorial references. Your paper should be structured as shown in the following order.
- Title
- Authors’ bylines
- Authors’ affiliations and addresses
- Abstract
- Keywords
- Main body of paper
- Data availability statement
- Conflicts of Interest
- Declaration of funding
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- References
- Authors’ biographies (150 words maximum) and photos
You must put this document through computer virus detection, spell checker and grammar checker programs before submitting it.
Acknowledgements
The contribution of colleagues who do not meet all criteria for authorship should be acknowledged. Anyone included in the Acknowledgements section should have granted permission to be listed. Sources of financial support should be acknowledged in a separate ‘Declaration of Funding’ rather than here.
Data Availability Statement
CSIRO Publishing encourages authors to share the research data underlying their papers to support transparency and reproducibility of research. A Data Availability Statement must be included at the end of the manuscript indicating whether the data used to generate the results in the paper are available and, if so, where to access them. For more information on CSIRO Publishing’s data sharing policy and for examples of what to include in the data availability statement please see https://www.publish.csiro.au/journals/publishingpolicies#6.
Authors can get credit for their work by citing their research data in the reference list of their article. Citations should include at a minimum: all authors, year of publication, title of dataset, record ID, publisher. DOI or URL if available. Examples of how to cite research data:
Wang L, Edwards D, Bailey A, Carr L, Boreham C, Grosjean E, Anderson J, Jarrett A, MacFarlane S, Southby C, Carson C, Khider K, Palu T, Henson P (2021) Well log data analysis and interpretation on the pre-Carboniferous succession in Waukarlycarly 1, Canning Basin, Western Australia. Record 2021/003 [Dataset] Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Available at http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144547
Fiddes S, Pepler A, Saunders K, Hope P (2020) Southern Australia’s climate regions (Version 1.0.0) [Dataset] Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4265471
Digital Earth Australia (2021) Wetlands Insight Tool Queensland Wetlands Polygons. Version 1.0.0 [Dataset] Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Available at http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144795
Conflicts of Interest
Under a subheading 'Conflicts of Interest' at the end of the text all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with organisations or people that could inappropriately influence their work. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should state that "The authors declare no conflicts of interest”.
Declaration of Funding
Under a subheading ´Declaration of Funding´ at the end of the text authors are required to declare all sources of funding for the research and/or preparation of the article, and the inclusion of grant numbers is recommended. Authors should declare sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources if any in the preparation of the data or manuscript or the decision to submit for publication; or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement. If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence: "This research did not receive any specific funding".
General Preparation of Manuscripts
The work should be presented clearly and concisely in English. The title should reflect the key points of interest in the paper. The names and addresses of all authors should be presented on the first page, together with the full postal address and email address of the corresponding author. The introduction should indicate the reason for the work and include essential background references. Lines numbered must be included in the left-hand margin to assist in the editing process.
Title
The title should be concise and appropriately informative and should contain all keywords necessary to facilitate retrieval by modern searching techniques.
Authors
Author names should be listed as full first name, initial and surnames for all authors, and a current institutional/company mailing address for each. The corresponding author should be indicated, and their email address given.
Abstract*
A 250-word abstract (summary) is published alongside the paper. This summary is a specific overview of the content of your paper, and the associated conference presentation. As a general rule, the abstract should consist of a brief and condensed version of your paper's introduction, discussion and conclusions made. Authors should thoroughly review their abstracts to ensure consistency with their finalised paper's text. Acronyms and references should be avoided in the Abstract.
*NB: The Abstract (250 word) is presented to delegates to assist them in choosing which oral/visual presentations they wish to attend/view. This should not be confused with the ‘EXTENDED ABSTRACT’ which is a 1500 word option format for a final paper (i.e. presenters can choose a Peer Reviewed Paper or an Extended Abstract paper).
Keywords
List 8–30 keywords or phrases here, separating each keyword/phrase with commas. These terms will be used in a searchable function in the Australian Energy Producers Journal. Do not include author names or company affiliations as keywords.
References
All references cited must be listed alphabetically at the end of the paper; all entries in this list must correspond to references in the text.
In the text, references are cited chronologically by author and date and are not numbered. Names of two co-authors are linked by 'and' for three or more co-authors, the first author's name is followed by 'et al.'. No editorial responsibility can be taken for the accuracy of the references and authors are requested to check these with special care. Titles must be included for all references as well as first and last page numbers. Papers that have not been accepted for publication may not be included in the list of references and must be cited either as 'unpubl. data' or as a 'pers. comm.'; the use of such citations is discouraged. It is the authors' responsibility to ensure that they have permission to cite material as a personal communication. Titles of periodicals should be written in full.
EndNote provides an output style for the Australian Energy Producers Journal and the Endnote style file can be downloaded here. References should be in the following formats:
Chapter in a book
Calderon I, Healy D (1993) Endocrinology of IVF. In 'Handbook of in vitro Fertilization'. (Eds A Trounson, DK Gardner) pp. 1-16. (CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL)
Journal article
Florio G, Fedi M, Pasteka R (2006) On the application of Euler deconvolution to the analytic signal. Geophysics 71, L87-L93.
Whole book
Cohen J, Malter HE, Talansky BE, Grifo J (1992) ‘Micromanipulation of Human Gametes and Embryos.’ (Raven Press: New York
General conference proceedings
Hayman PT, Collett IJ (1996) Estimating soil water: to kick, to stick, to core or computer? In ‘Proceedings of the 8th Australian Agronomy Conference, Toowoomba, 1 January 1996’. (Ed. M Asghar) p. 664. (Australian Society of Agronomy: Toowoomba)
SPE (OnePetro) conference reference
Hall FE, Chunhe Z, Gasem KAM, Robinson RL, Dan Y (1994) Adsorption of pure methane, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide and their binary mixtures on wet fruitland coal. (Society of Petroleum Engineers) doi:10.2118/29194-MS
Electronic reference
BP (2016) BP decides not to proceed with Great Australian Bight exploration. Press release, 11 October 2016. Available at http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/press/press-releases/bp-decides-not-to-proceed-with-great-australian-bight-exploration.html
Standard
ISO (2018) Risk management – Guidelines. ISO31000:2018. (International Organization for Standardization: Geneva) Available at https://www.iso.org/standard/65694.html
Report (or section in a report)
IPCC (2022) Summary for Policymakers. In ‘Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’. (Eds PR Shukla, J Skea, R Slade, A Al Khourdajie, R van Diemen, D McCollum, M Pathak, S Some, P Vyas, R Fradera, M Belkacemi, A Hasija, G Lisboa, S Luz, J Malley) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. doi:10.1017/9781009157926.001
Units
Authors are requested to use the International System of Units (Système International d'Unités). SI units of measurement should be used wherever possible, particularly for distances and drilled depths. Most companies, like Australian Energy Producers, prefer to refer to reserves and production rates in the traditional API system (oilfield units). This is accepted for the Australian Energy Producers Journal.
Mathematical equations should be editable and not embedded pictures.
Tables
Editable tables should be prepared in Word using the ‘Table’ tool (not tabs), without any hard returns within cells, or can be set up in Excel. Number each table and refer to it in the text (Table 1, Table 2, etc.) in order of appearance. There is no need to add instructions on the placement of tables as long as each table is referred to in the text. Do not provide tables as images.
Table titles should be concise and clear and should fully explain the table. Use sentence case throughout the table. Supporting information relating to the whole table should be placed in a footnote. Any symbols, abbreviations or acronyms used in the table should also be defined in the footnote. Additional information relating to specific cells should be placed as table footnotes using superscript capital letters as identifiers. Symbols for units of measurement should be placed in parentheses beneath the column heading.
Keep tables as simple as possible, without excessive subdivision of column headings.
Figures
Figures should be supplied as separate files but the captions should be included in the main document (at the end). Refer to each figure in the text (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.), and number each figure according to the order in which it appears in the text. There is no need to add instructions on placement of figures as long as each figure is referred to. If your figure has multiple parts label with (a), (b), (c), etc. and place the labels in the top left of each image where possible. Figure parts can be supplied as separate images if needed. Please make sure all images are supplied are at highest possible resolution.
Format
Where possible, line diagrams (graphs, charts, etc.) should be provided as editable files and prepared using either a graphics or chart/graph program such as MacDraw, Illustrator, CorelDraw, Excel, Sigmaplot, Harvard Graphics, Cricket Graph etc. and files should be saved in one of the following formats: encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Illustrator or Excel (provided the Excel files have been saved with the chart encapsulated in it). The submission of scanned images or illustrations prepared in a paint program, e.g. Photoshop (and PICT and JPEG files) is discouraged, because of the difficulty in making editorial corrections to these files. If illustrations must be created in a paint program, save the file as a TIFF or EPS (these files should be 600 dpi for line drawings and 300 dpi for halftone figures). Photographs can be supplied in the highest resolution possible.
Size
Figures can be provided as single column width, 2/3 page width, double column width, or full page (portrait or landscape). Sizes are as follows:
- single column: 19–20 pica width
- 2/3 width: 28–30 pica width
- double column: 41 pica
- full page (width and height): 41 x 53 pica
Fonts
Please prepare figures using a standard sans serif font. Arial preferred. Font sizes for main axis labels, part labels should not be more than 8pt. Legends and data points should be 7pt font size where possible. Font should never be smaller than 5pt to ensure readability.
Style
- Use sentence case for text within figures
- Use Australian English spelling (ise, not ize, etc.) throughout
- Use ‘and’ not ‘&’
- For ranges in numbers (5–10) or minus signs (–20) please use an en rule rather than a hyphen as this is clearer for the reader.
Graphs
Should be prepared with one main x and y axis line. Grid lines are not required. Line weight of x- and y-axes should be ~1.0 (not below 0.7). State on the axes of a graph what is being measured and give the appropriate units in parentheses. Ensure any symbols/colours used are explained in a legend on the figure, or in the caption. Ensure numbers on axes have the same number of decimal places.
Maps
Ensure north is identified and a scale is provided. Ensure any symbols used are fully explained in a legend within the figure, or the caption. If maps are taken from Google Earth (or similar) please ensure attribution information is retained either on the figure, or provided in the caption
Photographs
Ensure that permission has been gained by the copyright holder of the photograph and include a photographer credit in your caption. If your photograph contains people, please ensure that they have provided permission for their image to be published.
Captions
Captions should be concise and clear and should fully explain the figure. Explain any symbols or abbreviations used in the caption of the figure or in a legend. If your figure has multiple parts, ensure each part is explained in the caption. If your figure is a photograph, ensure the photographer is credited in the caption.
If your figure files are too large for upload to ScholarOne please ensure you let CSIRO Publishing know as soon as your paper is accepted and an alternative transfer will be arranged. Note: Figures used in the final paper will be based on what is provided – if the quality is low in the original, it will remain low in the final publication.
Authors are responsible for obtaining prior permission from the copyright holder for the use of figures/images from other publications. Authors may be charged a fee by the copyright holder for such reuse.
Page Corrections and Proofs
Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author for checking prior to publication. At this stage only essential alterations and correction of printer errors may be undertaken.
Awards
Awards for Best Oral Presentation, Best Peer Reviewed Paper, Best Extended Abstract and Best Visual Presentation will be presented at The Australian Energy Producers Conference. The Best Visual Presentation Award is judged by the conference delegates. The winner will be announced at the closing ceremony of the conference.
