Guide for Authors

The Journal of Research on Applied Geophysics (JRAG) is an open-source journal that is published by Shahrood University of Technology in collaboration with Iranian Geophysical Society. This journal aims to publish researches carried out, and to introduce to scientists and researchers the latest advances, in different fields of applied geophysics such as mineral, hydrocarbon, groundwater and geothermal explorations, various engineering, environmental and geological investigations as well as other geophysical applications, and thus, includes exploration and earthquake seismology, gravity, geomagnetism, geoelectric and electromagnetic methods, and other issues related to applied geophysics. In general, any research work from the fields of geoscience, remote sensing, GIS, well logging, petrophysics, exploration and investigations of underground resources and materials, mining, civil, water and petroleum engineering that uses geophysics practically, can be published in this journal if it is accepted by the respected reviewers of the journal. Researchers can submit their papers in one of English or Persian languages via the website https://jrag.shahroodut.ac.ir. It is necessary to say that the process of initial review of the papers will last around one month. Presently, the Journal of Research on Applied Geophysics is free of charge, and hence, does not require any cost for processing of the papers including their submission, evaluation, editing and publication.

JRAG is a peer-reviewed journal, which is published Quarterly.  This journal publishes original research papers, case reports, research notes, short communications and review papers on various aspects of applied geophysics and related issues mentioned above. The authors of articles submitted to the journal should pay attention to the following notes:

1. Submission of an article to JRAGimplies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in English or in any other language.
2. Manuscripts must be submitted in English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these) and should be written according to sound grammar and proper terminology.  
3. Manuscripts should be typed with a font Times New Roman of 11 pt. in the MS-Word format, single spacing, in two columns with 7 cm width of each column and 1 cm distance between the columns and 2.5 cm margin at each side. Alternatively, the manuscripts can be submitted in one column, but, if accepted, will finally be published in two columns. All pages should be numbered consecutively. Each sentence in the text must begin with a capital letter. Lowercase letters, mathematical symbols, or numerals may not be used to begin a sentence.
4. Any manuscript must have title, author(s) full name(s), affiliation(s), E-mail address(es) and corresponding author.
5. The text of manuscript should include an abstract (150 - 250 words), which states the purpose of the study, basic procedures, main findings and the principal conclusions, followed by 5-7 keywords, introduction, materials and methods or methodology, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgments, and references. There is some flexibility in labeling these components or sections, but they should be clearly identifiable and should follow in order. Some manuscripts may contain items such as heavy or complicated and detailed mathematics that may be best placed in a separate section called appendices. The appendices section, if exists, should be placed immediately after the acknowledgments section and before the references list.
6. Tables, figures and graphs should be submitted on manuscript text with the heading of a table placed above the table without style options and the caption of a figure or graph should be placed below the figure or graph without style options. Do not submit tables as photograph. Place explanatory matters in footnotes, not in the heading. Each figure and table must be called out (mentioned) sequentially in the text of the paper. Each figure must have a caption, and each table must have a heading. Captions and headings should be explicit enough that the reader can understand the significance of the illustration or table without reference to the text.

Each illustration and table should be given a number and should be referred to by that number in the text. In the figure caption and text, spell out the word Figure and capitalize it when a number follows it. In table heading and text, spell out the word Table and capitalize it when a number follows it.

Footnotes should be avoided unless absolutely essential and then should be held to a minimum, and should be numbered consecutively.

All equations should be typed clearly, and then, numbered sequentially throughout the manuscript.

7. Suggested place of tables and figures should be clearly marked throughout the text after citations in the text.
8. The same data should not be presented simultaneously in tables and figures.
9. Editors of the journal reserve the right to accept or reject any article in any stage, if necessary.
10. Manuscripts should be submitted to the journal electronically via the website https://jrag.shahroodut.ac.ir.
11. Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections without style options. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2,), 1.2, etc. The abstract, keywords, acknowledgement and references are not included in section numbering. 
12. How to cite references: The ability to cite references correctly is an important part of an article. It is in the interests of both the writers and the readers of the articles that references should be cited correctly, systematically and in full, so that they form a useful integral part of the work as a whole.

 

- Citations in the text:

Citation of previous work acknowledges the importance of those investigations and makes available to the reader much more background information than is practical to include in a single paper. However, to be of real value, all references must be readily accessible to the reader. Citations of personal communications, including papers submitted to a journal but not yet published, may be placed in the text but not in the reference list. Cite personal communications with initial(s), surname, and year, e.g. (J. Smith, personal communication, 2011).

Citation of a reference in the manuscript as "in press" implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

In the text of submitted manuscript, literature citations should show the author's surname followed by the year of publication in parentheses, e.g., Nettleton (1940). If the author's name is not referred to in the text, it and the year should be inserted in parentheses at the point where the reference applies: (Nettleton, 1940).

If there is more than one reference to the same author at a given point in the text, list the years in chronological order with a comma and space between. When more than one author is referenced at a given point in the text, separate the references by a semicolon and a space. If a specific page is referenced, include the page number within the parentheses, after the year (Nettleton, 1940, p. 142).

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list, and vice versa.

 

- Creating a reference list:

A list of references contains details only of those works cited in the text. The reference list should be arranged alphabetically, and is displayed under the heading "References" at the end of the article, after the acknowledgments and appendices (if any).

References should be alphabetized according to sections 15.10–15.20 and 16.56–16.93 in The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, i.e., a single-author work precedes a multiauthor work beginning with the same author's name. For a given author referenced more than once for the same year, use the suffixes a, b, etc., after the year of publication to distinguish references. References with identical authorship should be listed in chronological order.

Material in preparation, submitted, or not yet accepted and scheduled for publication should not be included in the references. Material accepted for publication may be cited as a reference if its publication date has been established, but it will be necessary to double-check the status of the material before your article is published. If the material has not yet been published, it should be cited only as a personal communication.

References not cited in the text should not be included in the reference list unless the paper is of a survey or tutorial nature. Under such circumstances, those references should be grouped separately under the heading "References for General Reading."

In the reference list, the form and punctuation shown in the examples below will be observed. Please note that (1) titles of journals and names of institutions and publishers should not be abbreviated, and (2) initials of secondary authors' names precede surnames.

Different forms of published work (book, journals, …) are referenced in slightly different ways as given in the examples below:

 

References to an electronic material should include:

1. the standard information,
2. the format (e-book, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc.),
3. the digital object identifier (DOI) if the material is registered with Crossref, and
4. the access date if no DOI is available.

 

Reference to a journal publication:

Guitton, A., 2005, Multiple attenuation in complex geology with a pattern-based approach: Geophysics, 70, V97–V107.

Kosloff, D. D., and E. Baysal, 1982, Forward modeling by a Fourier method: Geophysics, 47, 1402–1412.

Mungall, J. E., and J. J. Hanley, 2004, Origins of outliers of the Huronian Super group within the Sudbury Structure: Journal of Geology, 112, 59–70, accessed 28 October 2021; https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/379692.

Rouse, W. C., A. J. Reading, and R. P. D. Walsh, 1986, Volcanic soil properties in Dominica, West Indies: Engineering Geology, 23, 1–28.

Capitalize only the first word of the title and proper nouns. Do not use quotation marks unless they are actually part of the title. Do not underline or use italics. Show the volume numbers, omit the issue number, and show beginning and ending page numbers or article numbers if the journal does not use page numbers. 

 

Reference to a magazine publication:

Castagna, J. P., 1993, Petrophysical imaging using AVO: The Leading Edge, 12, 172–179.

Follow the instructions for papers from journals. If each issue of the magazine begins with page 1, include the issue number after the volume number, e.g., no. 3.

 

Reference to a book:

Davis, P. J., and P. Rabinowitz, 1975, Methods of numerical integration: Academic Press Inc.

Hellman, H., 1998, Great feuds in science: Ten of the liveliest disputes ever: John Wiley & Sons, e-book.

Follow the instructions for papers from journals. Reference the full name of the publisher. Do not reference the city of publication or the number of pages in the book.

 

Reference to a chapter or article in an edited book:

Baker, D. W., and N. L. Carter, 1972, Seismic velocity anisotropy calculated for ultramafic minerals and aggregates, in H. C. Heard, I. V. Borg, N. L. Carter, and C. B. Raleigh, eds., Flow and fracture of rocks: American Geophysical Union Geophysical Monographs 16, 157–166.

 

Reference to a thesis or dissertation:

Lodha, G. S., 1974, Quantitative interpretation of airborne electromagnetic response for a spherical model: M.S. thesis, University of Toronto.

Reference to a thesis or dissertation requires neither the name of the department nor the number of pages.

 

Reference to a discussion:

Zhou, B., 1992, Discussion on: "The use of Hartley transform in geophysical applications," R. Saatcilar, S. Ergintav, and N. Canitez, authors: Geophysics, 57, 196–197.

 

Reference to a website:

Roemmich, D., 1990, Sea-level change, https://www.nap.edu/catalog/1345/sea-level-change, accessed 28 October 2021.

 

Reference to an oral presentation that is not published in a proceedings or abstract volume:

Hubbard, T. P., 1979, Deconvolution of surface recorded data using vertical seismic profiles: Presented at the 49th Annual International Meeting, SEG.

Do not include city.

 

Reference to a conference paper or expanded and extended abstracts:

Warner, M., T. Nangoo, A. Umpleby, N. Shah, D. Kahn, and M. Isernia, 2021, Adaptive reflection waveform inversion: Faster, tighter, deeper, smarter: First International Meeting for Applied Geoscience & Energy, SEG/AAPG, Expanded Abstracts, 582–586.

Constable, S. C., 1986, Offshore electromagnetic surveying techniques: 56th Annual International Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 81–82.

Valenciano, A. A., C. C. Cheng, N. Chemingui, and S. Brandberg-Dahl, 2009, Fourier finite-different migration for 3D TTI media: 71st Conference and Exhibition, EAGE, Extended Abstracts, P065.

References to proceedings of many conferences are appropriate only if these proceedings are generally available to the reader. Authors are requested to avoid such references to material of limited availability.

 

Reference to a patent:

Williams, K. E., 2007, Method and system for combining seismic data and basin modeling: U. S. Patent 7,280,918.

After name, indicate the year the patent was granted.

General guidelines:

 

Types of articles

The journal publishes full-text papers, short communications, and state-of-the-art reviews. Prospective review authors are requested to contact the managing Editor prior to submission.

A short communication is a concise but complete description of a limited investigation, which will not be included in a later paper. Short communications should be as completely documented, both by reference to the literature and description of the experimental procedures employed, as a regular paper. They should not exceed 4-6 printed pages but must include complete descriptions of any investigation of the research that must be cutting-edge and novel with knowledge that warrants speedy communication to the readership.

 

Conflict of interest

All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work.

 

Submission declaration and verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere), Moreover, its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright holder.

 

Changes to authorship

Please be advised that, as per journal policy, we are unable to make changes to the author list once a paper has been accepted for publication. Please ensure that the authorship of your article is correct when submitting it to JRAG as no amendments can be made after its acceptance.

 

Copyright 

JRAG is an open access journal (i.e. all papers published will be free for everyone to read and download), and publishes papers free of charge.

 

Role of the funding source

You are requested to identify (in Acknowledgement) who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated.

 

Language

The submitted manuscripts must be written in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who feel their English language manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English should use qualified editing services to enhance the English quality of their manuscripts.

 

Submission 
Submission to the journal proceeds totally online and the authors will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of their files. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail removing the need for a paper trail.

 

Reviewers 
Authors are required, in addition to submission of their manuscripts, to suggest the names, addresses, and e-mail addresses of at least three potential referees or reviewers. Note that the editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers are used.

 

Submission checklist

The following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.

 

Ensure that the following items are present:

One author has been designated as the corresponding author with the following contact details:

• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone and fax numbers

All necessary files have been uploaded, and contain:

• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including title, description, footnotes)

Further considerations

• Manuscript has been 'spell-checked' and 'grammar-checked'
• All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web)

Notes to consider in the main sections of your paper:

Abstract

Please pay particular attention to the preparation of your abstract; use the material in this reference as a guide. Every manuscript other than a discussion must be accompanied by an informative abstract of no more than one paragraph (150 to 250 words). The abstract should be self-contained. No references, figures, tables, or equations are allowed in an abstract. Do not use new terminology in an abstract unless it is defined or is well known from prior publications. The use of commercial names or parenthetical statements in the abstract is discouraged. The abstract must not simply list the topics covered in the paper but should:

1, state the scope and principal objectives of the work;

2, describe the methods used;

3. summarize the results; and
4. state the principal conclusions.

Do not refer to the paper itself in the abstract. For example, do not say, "In this paper, we will discuss…". The abstract must stand alone as a very short version of the paper rather than as a description of the contents. Remember that the abstract will be the most widely read portion of the paper. Various groups throughout the world publish abstracts of papers. Readers and occasionally even reviewers may be influenced by the abstract to the point of final judgment before the body of the paper is read.

 

Introduction

The purpose of the introduction is to tell readers why they should want to read what follows the introduction. This section should provide sufficient background information to allow readers to understand the context and significance of the problem. This does not mean, however, that authors should use the introduction to rederive established results or to indulge in other needless repetition. The introduction should:

1. present the nature and scope of the work;
2. review the pertinent literature and establish the terminologies and notations;
3. state the objectives; and
4. provide a brief overview of the methodology and results to highlight the contribution.

 

Methods or Methodology

The methodology employed in the work should be described in sufficient detail so that a competent expert in the field could duplicate the results. More detailed items (e.g., heavy mathematics) often are best placed in appendices. For complex mathematical articles, authors are strongly encouraged to include a table of symbols.

 

Results

The results section contains applications of the methodology described above. The results of experiments (either physical or computational) are data and can be presented as tables or figures and analyses. Whenever possible, include at least one example of recorded data to illustrate the technology or concept being proposed. Case-history results are usually geologic interpretations.

Selective presentation of results is important. Redundancy should be avoided, and results of minor variations on the principal experiment should be summarized rather than included. Details appearing in figure captions and table heads should not be restated in the text. In a well-written paper, the results section is often the shortest.

 

Discussion

The discussion section should be separate from the conclusion section. Some papers may not require a discussion section. If this is the case with your paper, do not include a discussion section.

 

Conclusion

The conclusion section should include:

1. principles, relationships, and generalizations inferred from the results (but not a restatement or summary of the results);
2. any exceptions to or problems with those principles, relationships, and generalizations, as indicated by the results;
3. agreements or disagreements with previously published work;
4. theoretical implications and possible practical applications of the work; and
5. conclusions drawn (especially regarding significance).

In particular, with reference to item (1) above, a conclusion that only summarizes the results is not acceptable.

The conclusion should not include figures, tables, equations, or reference citations.

 

Acknowledgments

If the authors choose to include an acknowledgments section, it should be placed after the conclusion and before the appendices (if any) and reference list.

 

Appendices

An appendix should not be cited in the text in such a way that the appendix is essential to a reader's understanding of the flow of the main text. It may be required for further explanation of some parts of the paper, if appropriate. Each appendix should be called out (mentioned) sequentially in the text of the paper by name, i.e., "Appendix A.". Each appendix should have a label such as "Appendix A" on the first line and a subtitle such as "Mathematical Considerations" on the second line. In each appendix, number equations and figures beginning with 1: A-1, B-1, etc.

Authors also are strongly encouraged to place complicated and detailed mathematics in appendices. The Appendices section is placed before the reference list.

 

References

References under the heading "References" is placed last in a manuscript, after the acknowledgments and appendices (if any). In this section, the references should be arranged and displayed alphabetically.

 

Permission to reprint figures and tables

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to use figures and tables previously published in other books or journals and for certifying that they have obtained all necessary permissions when executing copyright transfer forms or license agreements. It is also the responsibility of the author to check reproduced materials against the originals for absolute accuracy.