About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Mission

The Boletim de Geociências da Petrobras is an international, open-access scientific journal dedicated to publishing original, previously unpublished research across a broad range of petroleum geoscience disciplines. Its mission is to provide the academic and professional communities, particularly those working in the petroleum industry, with a high-quality forum for the exchange of ideas, scientific discussion, and advances in the geosciences.

History

Founded in 1987, the journal was established as a platform for disseminating information on petroleum geosciences in Brazil, as well as technological advances in the industry. Its primary objective was to foster collaboration between universities and Petrobras, thereby contributing to the development of the geosciences in Brazil. The Boletim de Geociências da Petrobras thus emerged as a technical publication designed to promote the exchange of knowledge generated within the company and to communicate its achievements to both industry and academia.

The Boletim de Geociências da Petrobras was published semiannually, in May and November. Its print edition was distributed to institutions in 48 countries. Between 2017 and 2021, its online version received nearly one million accesses. The journal has previously been indexed in major bibliographic databases, including the American Petroleum Institute (API), Petroleum Abstracts (Tulsa), Compendex, Chemical Abstracts, GeoRef, Scopus (Elsevier), and Energy Science. The journal aims to restore and expand its coverage in bibliographic and indexing databases.

Subject Coverage

The journal has a broad scope encompassing sedimentary basin analysis and evaluation, geological modeling, geophysical interpretation, organic and inorganic geochemistry, sedimentology and stratigraphy, structural geology and geodynamics, petrophysics, reserves and resources estimation, data management, and the development of technologies applied to the geosciences. In addition, the journal welcomes geoscience research related to other energy sources and geological storage.

Target Audience

The readership of the Boletim de Geociências da Petrobras comprises industry professionals, students, researchers, and faculty members.

Languages Accepted for Publication

The journal accepts submissions in Portuguese, English, and Spanish. Articles are published in the original language in which they are submitted.

Editorial Timeline

The estimated time to the first editorial response is up to six weeks from submission. This period may be shorter depending on reviewer availability and the progress of the editorial process.

Publication Frequency

The Boletim de Geociências da Petrobras was published quarterly from 1987 to 1990, with an average of 12 articles per issue. It subsequently adopted a semiannual publication schedule, which remained in place throughout 2014. Publication was suspended from 2015 to 2024, and the journal resumed its activities in 2025.

Beginning in 2026, the journal adopts a continuous publication model, with a single annual volume covering January through December of each year. Under this model, accepted articles are published individually as soon as the peer-review and editorial revision processes have been completed, without the need to await completion of a full issue. This approach enables faster publication and facilitates broader dissemination of scientific knowledge.

Thematic special issues may be proposed by the Editorial Board and/or other members of the scientific community, providing opportunities to diversify submissions and encourage discussion of specific knowledge gaps.

Fees and Open Access Policy

The Boletim de Geociências da Petrobras provides immediate and unrestricted access to all its content. No fees or financial contributions are charged to authors, readers, or institutions. Authors may submit manuscripts free of charge and, if accepted, their articles will be published at no cost.

All users and institutions may access, read, download, copy, distribute, print, or search the full text of published articles.

License Terms

Copyright in published works remains entirely with the respective authors, without restriction. Submission of a manuscript and its acceptance for publication do not constitute a transfer of copyright to the Boletim de Geociências da Petrobras (BGP). Authors grant BGP the right to first publication. If an article is subsequently submitted to or published in another journal, its initial publication in BGP must be acknowledged.

BGP uses Creative Commons licenses, and all articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. This license permits others to share and adapt the content, including for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors.

For further information, please visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Repository Policy

The Boletim de Geociências da Petrobras reaffirms its commitment to the broad dissemination of scientific knowledge and to promoting open access to research outputs. In accordance with recognized editorial practices, the journal permits and encourages authors to deposit the final versions of published articles in open-access repositories, with no embargo period.

Article types

The Boletim de Geociências da Petrobras publishes Research Papers, Short Notes and Review papers. All submissions undergo a peer-review process.

Original articles: present the outcomes of research conducted with a clear and well-justified purpose, including explicitly stated research questions or hypotheses that are appropriately addressed throughout the text. The scientific methods employed and the analyses performed must be robust and competent, ensuring rigor in the study. It is essential that the presentation of data be distinct from its interpretation, thus guaranteeing objectivity and clarity in the delivery of information. Furthermore, the article should provide sufficient data to support its conclusions, with arguments, data tables, and figures presented in a clear and accessible manner for readers. The article is also expected to adequately explain the broad and general significance of the work, demonstrating its relevance to the field of geoscience. It is imperative that the material has not been previously published, ensuring the originality and exclusivity of the contribution.

Short Notes: These contributions address preliminary results, field guides, and topics of specialized interest, including instrumental techniques. They may present negative results and unusual findings. The formatting is like that of original articles; however, manuscripts must not exceed ten pages, including references and figures.

Review articles: These are works prepared by specialists with the goal of addressing technical and scientific advances in a specific field, critically analyzing the state of the art, presenting well-founded opinions, and indicating future perspectives and directions for the topic at hand. Such articles are based on the knowledge and experience of the author(s), without the requirement to rely on original research. The manuscript must cite all relevant international publications, contextualize the historical development of the topic, highlight its current relevance, and clearly state the motivations that guided the article’s preparation, detailing the adopted approach. It is essential to identify knowledge gaps, limitations, and opportunities for further research advancement.

Peer review

The BGP follows to a single-anonymized review process, where reviewers are aware of the author's identity, but the author does not know who the reviewers are. All submission will first be evaluated by our editors to determine if it is suitable for publication in this journal. If deemed appropriate, it will typically be sent to at least two reviewers for an independent expert assessment of its scientific quality. The final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of your article rests with our editors. Authors wishing to contest the editorial decision on their manuscript can submit a formal appeal request to editorial team:  cc-boletimgeociencias-bgp@petrobras.com.br
Our editors do not participate in decisions about papers that:
    • They have authored themselves.
    • Are authored by family members or colleagues.
    • Concern products or services in which they have a vested interest.
Such submissions will undergo the usual procedures, with peer review managed independently of the involved editor and their research group. Reviewers are chosen by editors based on their expertise in the manuscript's topics and methods, as well as their proven track record in evaluating previous manuscripts. They are instructed to follow the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidance for reviewers (COPE Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers — English. https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.9),

Evaluation Guidelines

BGP provides below its guidelines and the form used in the evaluation process, available for download.

Guidelines for Evaluation

Evaluation Questionnaire

Publishing Criteria

Successful research articles should demonstrate the qualities listed below. This list guides editorial decisions and helps authors identify weaknesses. Authors can use it as a checklist to prepare their paper for submission.

Criteria to evaluete the technical quality of the work and how it is presented:

• The paper has a clear and well-justified purpose.
• Research questions or hypotheses are clearly stated and addressed.
• The scientific methods and analysis are robust and competent.
• Data presentation is distinct from interpretation.
• There is sufficient data to support the conclusions.
• Arguments, data tables, and figures are clear and accessible. 

Criteria to evaluate the impact, novelty, and intellectual value of the paper:

•  The broad, generic importance of the work is adequately explained.
• The work contains novel elements with innovative aims, hypotheses or methods.
• The paper represents an important advance in the field with outcomes that are significant and that add to our scientific understanding of geosciences.
• The material has not been published previously.

Special issues

The peer review process for special issues follows the same procedure as regular submissions. However, a guest editor will send the submissions to the reviewers and recommend a decision to the journal's Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief supervises the peer review process for all special issues to guarantee high standards of publishing ethics and responsiveness are maintained and is responsible for the final decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of articles.

Open access

The BGP offers unrestricted and immediate access to all its content. There are no fees or financial contributions required from authors, users, or institutions. Authors are invited to submit articles, and if accepted, they are published at no cost. All users and institutions have the ability to access, read, download, copy, distribute, print, or search the full text of the published articles.

Publishing timeline

Currently, based on the deadlines initially established by the editorial team, the period between submission and first online publication is expected to be approximately 22 weeks. As new issues are published, additional details regarding the average duration of each stage in the editorial process will be provided.

Financing Institution

Petrobras – Petróleo Brasileiro SA