One of the advantages of serving as Executive Editor for a journal is the opportunity to see more completely the entire review and publication process. It is particularly interesting to me to see where the manuscripts come from, and which conferences tend to contribute significantly to the pages of this journal. For an author, or a potential author, an investigation along these lines can also be enlightening.

This month’s papers originate from a variety of sources. Three were originally presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE). Two were presented at the SPE Western Regional Meeting, three from the Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery (IOR), and three others at SPE conferences or symposia on specialized topics (including those dedicated to oilfield chemistry, underbalanced drilling, and reservoir simulation). Another paper in this month’s issue came to SPE as an unsolicited manuscript.

These numbers are generally in line with longer-term averages. Each issue of SPEJ contains 12 technical papers. Thirty of the 72 papers in the six most recent issues were originally presented at the ATCE, 10 at the IOR, and four each at several symposia for specialists (including those dedicated to oilfield scale, formation damage, and reservoir simulation). Interestingly, six papers during this period (an average of one per issue of SPEJ) were never presented at any SPE meeting, but were submitted directly to SPEJ for consideration.

It is not surprising to me that the largest source of papers in SPEJ is the ATCE. After all, approximately 400 papers are presented at the ATCE, so the 20 per year that are published in SPEJ represent 5% of the papers presented at the conference. (Others appear in SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering, SPE Drilling & Completion, SPE Production & Operations, and SPE Projects, Facilities & Construction.) Although the SPE IOR symposium is much smaller, with 110 papers presented, six per year (5%) on average are accepted for publication in SPEJ. These numbers tend to be higher than the rates from other SPE symposia or conferences.

For the Society as a whole, the number of unsolicited manuscripts submitted for review is small compared to the number that come from conference proceedings. I estimate that only 2 to 3% of the manuscripts that arrive in my inbox are unsolicited (i.e., submitted by the authors directly for review), yet these papers make up approximately 8% of the papers published. While there are many valid reasons to present papers at one of the SPE meetings (e.g., networking), based purely on the averages, it would seem that submitting an unsolicited manuscript is the best way to get a paper into this journal.

In this issue, you will find another collection of outstanding papers, with topics ranging from flow behavior at the microscale, to wellbore-scale studies of sand production, to reservoir-scale studies of uncertainty. Everyone with an interest in the science of petroleum engineering should find something of interest.

The membership of the SPEJ Editorial Board is continually undergoing adjustment, as people who have volunteered for many years move on and are replaced by the young and energetic. We also monitor the need for review chairs with expertise that is limited or not currently present on the board. Subhash Shah joins us this month on the Editorial Board as a Review Chair. Subhash is a professor in the Mewbourne School of Petroleum & Geological Engineering at the U. of Oklahoma. His specialties are fluid rheology, particle transport, and coiled-tubing operations. He has extensive experience as a technical editor for the SPE Drilling & Completion journal.