PUBLISHERS
akadeemia kirjastus
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PUBLISHED SINCE 1984 |
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ISSN 0208-189X (Print)
General information to authors
The Oil Shale is is an open access journal concerned with geology, mining, genesis, composition, methods of processing and combustion, economics, and utilization of oil shale and bituminous sands, as well as problems of environment protection and history of oil shale industry. See also the Editorial policy of the Oil Shale. The manuscripts submitted should be written in English and meet the following requirements.
It is essential that the paper would be written in clear, proper English. Manuscripts requiring substantial improvement of the English usage may be returned to the author(s) for revision before the review process. Authors for whom English is not their mother tongue should have their manuscripts checked by a competent linguist or native English speaker before submission. The editors reserve the right to adjust style to certain standards of uniformity.
Submission, review and resubmission processes
1. The manuscripts must be submitted online as outlined in the Instructions to authors.
2. The manuscript will be sent to at least two reviewers and one member of the Editorial board.
3. After receiving reviews, the authors of articles must revise the manuscript according to the comments of the reviewers and return it to the editorial office.
4. If there is a need for re-review, the manuscript will be sent back to the reviewers and the authors must revise the manuscript once more.
5. When the manuscript has been revised by the authors, the Editorial board will make the final decision on the acceptability of the article for publication.
All scientific papers to be published in the journal are peer reviewed internationally. The reviewers act only as advisors, and the final decision concerning the manuscript is on the responsibility of the editors. Authors are responsible for the factual accuracy and substance/subject matter of their papers.
The duration of the reviewing process is variable, depending on numerous factors. However, typically the entire process from the submission of the first version of the manuscript to publication takes 6 to12 months.
instructions to authors
publication types
Research articles should describe results and applications of unpublished original research and describe novel theoretical considerations and ideas. The length of an abstract is up to 100 words. Mathematical expressions and citations in the abstract should be avoided. The abstract should be followed by keywords (max seven) with the first key word indicating the discipline of the study. Original research articles should be supported by relevant figures and tables and should be preferably no more than 20 printed pages in length, including figures, tables and references. The volume of one page is considered to be max 3300 characters with spaces. Each page exceeding this volume shall be liable to a fee to the amount of €50 per page.
Oil Shale News is section where authors can publish short information concerning dissertations (the title, the author, short description and the link to the printed or online paper), information on new books, on new oil shale fields, technologies, chemical factories, mines, conferences, meetings, etc.
Historical Review is section for publishing brief accounts or articles about investigations made earlier or information on the topic that is not generally accessible (including books), because it had been published prior to electronic capture of articles, and/or published in languages other than English. The requirements for these two types of submissions are the same as for research articles.
manuscript elements
The manuscript elements should be in the following order: Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Data Availability Statement, Acknowledgements, Appendixes or Supplementary Material (if any) and References.
Numbering
Numbering system of headings and subheadings is the following: 1.; 1.1.; 1.1.1.
Title
The title should be concise but informative. The arrangement and selection of words is important for indexing purposes. A short running title should be provided.
The full name(s), affiliation(s) and full affiliation address(es) of the author(s) should follow the title of the paper. The corresponding author should be marked by an asterisk and his/her e-mail address should be given.
Abstract
The abstract (not more than 100 words) should be a self-contained summary of the paper, presenting concisely the objectives of the work reported, methodology, results, and conclusions. Mathematical expressions and citations in the abstract should be avoided.
Keywords
The abstract should be followed by keywords (max seven) with the first key word indicating the discipline of the study.
Introduction
The introduction should be a review of pertinent work, cite appropriate references, as well as include a clear statement of the object of investigation.
Conclusions
Conclusions should give a short summary of the achieved results followed by possible further steps and extensions.
Data availability statement
Data availability statement should be placed in a separate section before the Acknowledgements and should describe where the research data associated with a paper is available, and under what conditions the data can be accessed.
- If your data are in a repository, include hyperlinks and persistent identifiers (e.g. DOI or accession number) for the data where available.
- If your data cannot be shared openly, for example to protect study participant privacy, then this should be explained.
- Include both original data generated in your research and any secondary data reuse that supports your results and analyses.
- For manuscripts that do not report data, authors can state in their Data Availability Statement that data are contained within the article.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before References. The names of funding organizations should be written in full. The institution(s) or person(s) covering the publication costs must be shown in this section.
References
Oil Shale has its reference template available in many of the most popular reference management software products, such as Zotero, Mendeley, Papers etc. These software products support Citation Style Language styles. Using citation plug-ins from these products, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, after which citations and bibliographies will be automatically formatted in the journal’s style.
References to the literature cited should be indicated at the appropriate place in the text. Use abbreviated titles of journals in the list of references. Number references to published works consecutively and insert a numeral in the appropriate place in the text on brackets (e.g. [1]). A list of references in numerical order should appear at the end of the paper, and all references in this list should appear in the text and vice versa.
Authors are required to include Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for all references where available, ensuring accurate and efficient access to the cited sources.
EXAMPLES FOR REFERENCES:
(a) Book
Ots, A. Oil Shale Fuel Combustion. Tallinna Raamatutrükikoda, Tallinn, 2006.
Book by DOI
Zendehbondi, S., Bahadori, A. Shale Oil and Gas Handbook: Theory, Technologies, and Challenges. Gulf Professional Publishing, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2014-0-01653-X
Book chapter
Oja, V., Suuberg, E. M. Oil shale processing, chemistry, and technology. In: Fossil Energy. Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology Series (Malhotra, R., ed.). Springer, New York, NY, 2020, 47–83. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9763-3_102
(b) Article in journal
Arro, H., Prikk, A., Pihu, T., Öpik, I. Utilization of semi-coke of Estonian shale oil industry. Oil Shale, 2002, 19(2), 117–125.
Article by DOI (with page numbers)
Aboulkas, A., Makayssi, T., Bilali, L., El harfi, K., Nadifiyine, M., Benchanaa, M. Co-pyrolysis of oil shale and plastics: Influence of pyrolysis parameters on the product yields. Fuel Process. Technol., 2012, 96, 209–213.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuproc.2011.12.001
Article by DOI (before issue publication and without page numbers)
Gogolev, I., Pikkarainen, T., Kauppinen, J., Hurskainen, M., Lyngfelt, A. Alkali emissions characterization of wood, wood char, and straw fuels. Fuel Process. Technol., 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuproc.2022.107447
Article in electronic journal by DOI (no paginated version)
Yang, D., Wang, L., Zhao, Y., Kang, Z. Investigating pilot test of oil shale pyrolysis and oil and gas upgrading by water vapor injection. J. Petrol. Sci. Eng., 2021, 196, 108101.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2020.108101
(c) Article in collection
McCurry, P. The geology of the Precambrian to lower Paleozoic rocks of northern Nigeria, a review. In: Geology of Nigeria (Kogbe, C. A., ed.). Elizabethan Pub. Co., Lagos, 1976, 15–39.
(d) Conference paper
Sabanov, S. Risk assessment in the quality control of oil shale in Estonian deposit. In: 28th Oil Shale Symposium, October 13–17, 2008, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado. The Colorado School of Mines & The Colorado Energy Research Institute, 2008, 35.
(e) Organisation’s publication
World Energy Council. World Energy Resources 2016. https://www.worldenergy.org/assets/images/imported/2016/10/World-Energy-Resources-Full-report-2016.10.03.pdf/ (accessed 2016-04-11).
(f) Organisation’s website
Viru Keemia Grupp. https://www.vkg.ee/ (accessed 2021-12-04).
(g) Thesis
Pulkkinen, S. Development Prospects of the Oil Shale Industry under Conditions of Renewable and Low-Carbon Energy Policy. PhD thesis. Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia, 2019.
(h) Patent
Madgavkar, A. Upgrading Shale Oil by a Combination Process. Patent US4605489A, 1986-08-12.
(i) Report
EASAC (Europaen Academies Science Advisery Council). A Study on the EU Oil Shale Industry – Viewed in the Light of the Estonian Experience. A report by EASAC to the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy of the European Parliament, EASAC, 2007, 57 p. https://easac.eu/fileadmin/PDF_s/reports_statements/Study.pdf
Literature published in a language other than English, including those in Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, etc., scripts: The official title in English should be given if available. If the article has an English-language summary, the title should be given according to the summary’s. If no official English version is available, the titles of books and articles should be translated into English (with good reason the original name can be presented, but it should be transliterated into Roman script and put in brackets); journal names should be abbreviated and transliterated into Roman script. If the language of a literature source is other than English, the corresponding note should be made at the end of the reference, e.g. (in Chinese), (in German), (in Russian), etc.
The number of references to electronic materials (except electronic journals) should be reduced to a minimum and will be accepted only in exceptional circumstances. If material is available online, the access mode, address, and date should be given.
If material is available online, the address, and the access date should be given.
notations and abbreviations
Notations must be clear, compact, and consistent with standard usage. All notations and abbreviations should be defined in the text. Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract. Use standard abbreviations. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.
Equations should be numbered consecutively with equation numbers enclosed in parentheses at the right margin of the page. In the text, reference to an equation should be in the form of an equation number enclosed in parentheses.
The lettering (upper- and lowercase letters, italic, bold) should follow the usage in the text. Use commas to separate units of measurement from the text. Different parts of a figure should be marked by lowercase letters in parentheses. The size of symbols and lettering should not be smaller than 1.5 mm.
illustrations
Illustrations Line drawings for the figures should be of high contrast (600 dpi), suitable for direct reproduction. Plan figures to fit the proportion of the printed page (the maximum type area of the journal is 120 × 200 mm). Figures should be provided in the original application in which they were created. Avoid using dense shading for background. All illustrations must be clearly numbered. Each illustration should be indicated at the appropriate place in the text. All illustrations must have self-explanatory legends. The text, tables, and illustrations should not repeat one another.
Photographs (digital or scanned) should be saved as .tif or files at a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Do not submit artwork/figures in colour if it is to be published in black and white.
Colour illustrations should be in RGB and CMYK mode (resolution at least 300 dpi). Authors will be asked to cover the full cost for reproduction of colour artwork at a rate of €45 for one printed page. Colour figures online will be published free of charge.
If you wish to include any previously published figures or tables, written permission (for both the print and online formats) must be obtained from the copyright holder prior to submission, except for publications with open access licences. Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure/table caption.
SUPPLEMENTARY ONLINE MATERIAL
Large data tables, figures, photos and long descriptions, which do not fit into the printed version of the paper, can be published as online supplementary material.
All supplementary data files should be included at the first submission. The files should be ready for publication – these are not edited by the journal copy-editor. The data should be cited in appropriate places in the article text and a section ‘Supplementary online data’ added before the list of references, listing all data files associated with the paper.
submission
Manuscripts for the Oil Shale should be submitted online. The submitting author, who is generally the corresponding author, is responsible for the manuscript during the submission and peer-review process. The submitting author must ensure that all eligible co-authors have been included in the author list and that they have all read and approved the submitted version of the manuscript. To submit your manuscript, register and log in to the submission website. If you have problems with our article submission system, please contact hedi.tonso@eap.ee.
Please take the time to read and follow the instructions, as doing so will ensure your paper matches the journal’s requirements.
The attachments sent through the submission system should include:
- the covering letter (.doc, .docx, .rtf);
- the text files of the paper in Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx, .rtf);
- the PDF file of the paper (text, illustrations and tables in one file);
- original files of illustrations and/or tables (.xls, .xlsx, .tif, .eps, .psd, .ai).
The authors are asked not to use specially defined macros. If it has been necessary to define the commands they should be added to the text file.
COVERING LETTER
A covering letter must be included with each manuscript submission. It should be concise and explain why the content of the paper is significant, placing the findings in the context of existing work. It should explain why the manuscript fits the scope of the journal.
Covering letter is required to include the statements:
- Author(s) confirm that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its content are currently under consideration or published in another journal.
- All authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to (journal name).
- Author(s) must identify and declare any personal circumstances or interest that may be perceived as influencing the representation or interpretation of reported research results. If there is no conflict of interest, please state “The author(s) declare(s) no conflict of interest.”
We accept manuscripts already posted to a preprint server but kindly ask you to make us aware of that in the covering letter. Please include a link to the preprint, and as appropriate, state how the manuscript has been adjusted/updated between deposition and submission.
orcid
The journal recommends that all authors submitting a paper register an account with Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID). Registration provides a unique and persistent digital identifier for the account that enables accurate attribution and improves the discoverability of published papers, ensuring that the correct author receives the correct credit for their work. As the ORCID remains the same through out the lifetime of the account, changes of name, affiliation, or research area do not effect the discoverability of an author’s past work and aid correspondence with colleagues.
The journal recommends that all authors include an ORCID within their submitting author data. ORCID numbers should be added to the author data upon submission and will be published alongside the submitted paper, should it be accepted.
Authors will also need to follow these instructions on the ORCID website: https://support.orcid.org/hc/en-us/articles/360006896394-Auto-updates-time-saving-and-trust-building.
article publication charges
When submitting an article to the Oil Shale, the corresponding author agrees to pay the article processing charges (APC). Article processing charges (standard article publication fee, the excess page fee and cost of colour illustrations) are payable by the author, their institution or funder of the research.
Invoice with the banking data will be sent to the corresponding author. Prompt payment is advised, as the article will not be sent to the production cycle until payment is received. Payment should be made in Euro to the bank account of the Estonian Academy Publishers.
To partly cover the publication costs of the papers, the Estonian Academy Publishers charges a standard article publication fee of €300 per publication of papers up to 20 printed pages. For all papers longer than 20 printed pages, an additional charge of €50 will be requested for each extra page. Authors will be asked to cover the full cost for reproduction of colour artwork at a rate of €45 for one printed page. Colour figures online will be published free of charge.
| Description | EUR |
| Standard article publication fee (max. 20 printed pages) | 300 |
| Excess page fee (printed page) | 50 |
| Colour illustrations (one printed page) | 45 |
No handling fee is applied to the manuscripts rejected by the publisher.
The publication fee of articles up to 20 printed pages will be waived by the Estonian Academy of Sciences to the authors whose work was supported by Estonian granting agencies or other Estonian funding bodies and the authors have explicitly stated this information in the Acknowledgement section. The Editorial board has right to release authors from paying publication fee by way of exception. Requests for waivers of publication and/or excess page fees should be presented. Herewith, information about support received from the Estonian Academy of Sciences should appear in the Acknowledgement(s) section of the article.
proofs
The author (or the corresponding author) will receive a PDF file for correcting printer’s errors. No changes may be made and no new material inserted in the text at the time of proofreading.
offprints
Payable offprints of an article (minimum 10 copies) can be ordered from the Editorial office at proof stage.
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