SPE Journals Consolidation

Why consolidate?

Our past journal portfolio has served as a foundational resource for our community for decades. With advances in digital publication and the streamlined reader experience on OnePetro, the time was right to pool our resources and build a single, robust journal footprint. 

The new consolidated journal offers many benefits, including:

• Simplified access to our complete range of technical content on OnePetro: Find all the latest articles within your discipline in one place.
   
• Greater impact and reputation: Consolidating the journals is expected to raise our overall impact factor and reputation, further incentivizing our industry’s top researchers to publish with SPE. We want SPE to remain the premier publisher for petroleum engineering research.
   
• Reduce redundances and inter-journal competition: The best papers in each discipline now appear in one place, as well we have spread out the work for our tireless volunteer editors to maintain our high standards in peer review.
   
• Rapid response to a changing research landscape: Our new journal structure allows us to respond to new research topics as they become popular and better reflect the leading-edge of petroleum engineering research.

The Logistics

Starting in January 2024, SPE Journal (SPEJ), SPE Drilling & Completion (DC), SPE Production & Operations (PO), and SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering (REE) has consolidated into a single journal, SPE Journal, with an Editor-in-Chief and seven Executive Editors (EEs) which are experts/recognized in their own sub-topic area(s). 

Each of the past specialized journals (DC, PO, REE) have a representative section(s) within the new journal. The journal also features sections based on new and emerging research topics.

The new expanded SPE Journal is a hybrid Open Access (OA) journal offering traditional publication behind a paywall with no author fees, as well as an open access option with our current fee structure [USD 2,500 (USD 2,000 for SPE members)] for authors who want it. 

The journal will publish monthly issues (12 per year, 40–45 papers per issue) and will be available on OnePetro. 
 

How will the editor roles be handled in the new journal?

All active editors (executive editors and associate editors) will continue to serve on the new journal under one of the new journal sections. AEs’ classifications will be evaluated, and AEs will be placed in the appropriate section based on their area(s) of expertise and the needs of the journal. Our 100 or so AEs will be assigned to the roughly 1,500 submissions we receive a year as evenly as possible.
 

How will this change the journal communities?

Our goal in this consolidation process is to integrate our resources in a more efficient manner. We do not want to lose any of the valuable content in our current journals. 

Each section in the new SPE Journal will run like its own sub-journal with 1-2 EEs and a pool of AEs. Rather than splitting submissions between various journals, each section will represent all the accepted papers under a given topic. 

Authors will have the option of selecting “Fundamental Research” or “Applications” as a research article type to reflect the historic differences between the journals.
 

How will the author submission process be different?

All authors must submit via ScholarOne on the SPE Journal site. Authors will select the best-fitting section for their paper. EEs will have the right to transfer a paper to a different section if they feel that it is a better fit. The EE will then select an AE from their pool of editors within their respective section. 
 

How will the reader experience be different on OnePetro?

Readers will easily be able to find the papers within their specific discipline within a journal issue. The historic content for DC, PO, and REE (2023 and earlier) will be maintained, and a link will be included to the new consolidated journal. 

For OnePetro subscribers, there will be no change to access. Current individual subscribers will be asked to purchase a subscription to the new consolidated journal. The subscription price is considerably less than the previous charge for the entire bundle of SPE journals (DC, PO, REE, and SPEJ).

Scope

The new expanded SPE Journal covers the fundamental research and practical aspects of subsurface energy resources for sustainable oil and gas exploration and production, while broadening its focus on circular carbon economy, energy transition, and alternative/renewable energy sources. It involves novel theories, emerging concepts, fundamental/applied research and development, invited review papers, case histories, and field application studies spanning across all domains of petroleum science and engineering. General topics include but are not limited  to drilling and completion, production and operations, reservoir engineering, formation evaluation, petrophysics, rock physics, geology, geophysics, geochemistry, geomechanics, numerical simulation and modeling, injection/producing facilities, oilfield chemistry, water treatment, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), hydrogen transport and storage, geothermal energy, digitalization, artificial intelligence, data analytics, economics, health, safety, environment, sustainability, and other special topics of current interest.
 

Section Descriptions

Data Science & Engineering Analytics

Covers data science and engineering analytics (DSEA) topics from all SPE technical disciplines that involve understanding and making effective use of data and digital solutions in petroleum engineering. DSEA, including data analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, natural language understanding, and big data, focuses on applications, case studies, computational and other tools such as data acquisition, storage, retrieval, sharing, analysis, optimization, and visualization for better decision making, collaboration, safety, sustainability, return on investment, and value creation.

Drilling & Completion

Covers all components of drilling and completion activities from well design to abandonment phase for both conventional and unconventional operations, including well integrity and data analytics.

Formation Evaluation

Covers the fields of Formation Evaluation and Petrophysics including both fundamental research on characterization of porous media from molecular- to reservoir-scale domains as well as practical applications. The publications under this section comprise a wide range of topics including but not limited to petrophysics, rock physics, multi-phase and compositional fluid transport in porous media, mechanical/elastic properties of rocks, conventional, advanced, and innovative core laboratory analysis, borehole geophysical measurements, well logging, well navigation and geosteering, formation testing, well testing, borehole fluid monitoring and production assessment systems, subsurface measurement methods, intelligent borehole and formation time-lapse monitoring systems, outcrop measurements, integration and interpretation of in-situ rock measurements, resource and reserve evaluation, geology, geophysics, carbon dioxide and hydrogen storage, and evaluation of geothermal systems.

Production & Operations

Covers fundamental research into and field applications of production operations, artificial lift, downhole equipment, formation damage control, multiphase flow, workovers, stimulation, facility design and operations, water treatment, project management, construction methods and equipment, and related perfluorocarbon systems and emerging technologies. In addition, subsurface renewable energy and CO2 and hydrogen transport, and injection are included.

Reservoir Engineering

Covers the broad field of reservoir engineering from both fundamental research and practical application perspectives. The wide range of reservoir topics include: waterflooding, reservoir management, reservoir monitoring & surveillance, improved/enhanced recovery, SCAL studies, unconventional resources, flow through porous media, performance prediction, reservoir simulation & modeling, heavy oil, phase behavior, reservoir aspects of CO2 and hydrogen storage, geothermal energy, reserves evaluation, and uncertainty/risk assessment.

Special Topics in Petroleum Engineering

Covers solutions that are unique to the oil and gas industry but do not fit in typical petroleum engineering categories. The topics include but are not limited to innovative research and application of technologies adopted from other industries, multidisciplinary topics, management, and decision analysis.

Sustainability & Energy Transition

Covers fundamental research and applications related to environmental sustainability and emerging energy resources not covered in other sections. Examples include environmental aspects of produced water disposal, mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, and topics related to health, safety, and sustainability.