Robert Brelsford
Downstream Technology Editor
As still relatively new to Oil & Gas Journal's editorial team, this technology editor has spent a great portion of the past year frequenting industry events in hopes of meeting you, our OGJ readers, in real-time, up close and personally.
In our age of rapidly evolving technology, when people on opposite ends of the globe can meet via a seemingly magical network of invisible connections and liquid-plasma images, there's something comforting these days about the face-to-face encounter.
The experience of stepping out from behind the desk and into the real world is an invaluable one for the OGJ editor. We could spend our careers cloaked behind the mysterious curtain of the editorial offices doing our jobs, and in truth, doing them quite well.
But something would be missing for OGJ editors, as well as for their readers.
At every industry event or gathering this editor has attended in the past year, a single question regarding OGJ content inevitably has emerged in conversation, most frequently in the following form: "So tell me. What's the secret to getting OGJ to publish this article I've been thinking about writing?"
The visible secret
While the question always serves as a pleasant reminder for OGJ editors that our readers frequently become our contributing authors, the most surprising element of the query continues to be the perception that acceptance of a manuscript involves a "secret."
To shed some light on the answer, then, let's dispel that myth right now. The key to having a manuscript accepted for publication involves no secret or esoteric formulary of magical words and phrases that will enchant the section editor into a "yes."
At its core, the key for an author wishing to have a manuscript accepted is to write the article he or she would find valuable in his or her everyday line of work.
First and foremost, OGJ is an operations magazine dedicated to providing its readers-most of whom are employed in operating oil and gas companies-useful information that will be beneficial to their day-to-day jobs in the industry.
While OGJ editors work closely with their contributing authors, the editor's primary role is to serve as an advocate for the OGJ readership. As such, the editor evaluates a manuscript based on its intended audience as well as the utility of the information it potentially might offer to readers working in the daily operations of a respective field.
An OGJ editor looks for manuscripts that deal largely with issues involving technology currently used in the context of actual, real-life settings, and which provide detail-oriented results, data, and solutions that help to solve similar issues potentially experienced by our readers.
A more thorough description of OGJ's publication criteria can be found in our "Guidelines for Contributors to Oil & Gas Journal," which can be accessed online at http://www.ogj.com/submit-article.html.
Read, write, submit
When this OGJ editor thinks about the manuscript submission and acceptance process, he recalls a few words from John Cheever, the famed US novelist and short-story writer.
Cheever once said he couldn't write without a reader. In many ways, this encapsulates the task of both OGJ contributing authors and editors.
The OGJ Golden Rule then, above all else, is this: The readership comes first.
If any such secret or magic formula exists to having a manuscript accepted by OGJ, then, it would be a simple one:
• Read OGJ. Get face-to-face with the articles in the sections to which you are thinking of contributing.
• Think about OGJ readers (yourself included). Does the article you want to write add to, enhance, or provide insights and solutions to the everyday problems you face?
• Write to those readers. Anticipate potential questions they might have, and provide answers.
• Take a chance. Submit your manuscript to an OGJ editor.
