Best Practice 9 March 2022

SABP-A-092
Technical Services Publication Best Practice
Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee

Previous Revision: 21 September 2021 Next Revision: 9 March 2031

Contact: (Khalid A. Al-Jabr: jabrka), (Amjad W. Almonzer : monzeraw) Page 1 of 10
© Saudi Arabian Oil Company, 2022

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-092
Issue Date: 9 March 2022
Next Revision: 9 March 2031 TS Publication Best Practice

Contents

Saudi Aramco References ...................................................................................................................... 3

Acronyms ................................................................................................................................................ 3
Definitions ............................................................................................................................................... 3

Objective ................................................................................................................................................. 4
Guidelines ............................................................................................................................................... 4

© Saudi Arabian Oil Company, 2022 Page 2 of 10

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-092
Issue Date: 9 March 2022
Next Revision: 9 March 2031 TS Publication Best Practice

Scope
This document provides Technical Services (TS) Business Line professionals a Publication Best
Practice including guidelines, submission procedures, approval process, database of suggested
publications venues and tracking System to be followed in technical publications.

Conflicts and Deviations

If there is a conflict between this Best Practice and any Mandatory Saudi Aramco Engineering
Requirements (MSAERs), the mandatory document shall take the precedence. Other conflicts
shall be addressed in writing to the EK&RD Coordinator.
References
All referenced specifications, standards, codes, drawings, and similar material are considered
part of this Best Practice to the extent specified applying latest revisions unless stated otherwise.
Saudi Aramco References
Saudi Aramco General Instructions (GIs)

SA G.I. 850.006 Review & Approval of Information for Public Release

SA G.I. 431.001 Protection of Intellectual property
SA G.I. 710.002 Classification of Sensitive Information

Saudi Aramco Operational Excellence

OE Process 12.5 Knowledge Management

OE Process 3.2 Employee Development

Terminology

Acronyms
CPH : Chief Position Holder
CCSD : Corporate Communications Support Department
CKB : Corporate Knowledgebase
IP : Intellectual Property
IPM : Intellectual Property Management Team
JOT : Journal of Technology
KPI : Key Performance Indicator
NDA : None Disclosure Agreement
PAF : Publication Approval Form
PRD : Public Relations Department
PBP : Publication Best Practice
TS : Technical Services
TPTS : Technical Publication Tracking System

Definitions
Technical Publication: It is a document that describes technical challenge or a new solution,
research method, progress and results of scientific, technical or industry related research. The

© Saudi Arabian Oil Company, 2022 Page 3 of 10

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-092
Issue Date: 9 March 2022
Next Revision: 9 March 2031 TS Publication Best Practice

Technical Publication may include some recommendations, conclusions, and potential future
work to be considered. Technical Publication key elements are Abstract, Introduction, Previous
Work, Results & Discussion, Conclusion, and References. Technical publications could be
generated after completing a technology item of the company technology program, after granting
a patent, or after completing a major technical report. In addition, collaboration with universities
and other external organizations can be a good source of technical publications.

Purpose
The purpose of this document is to:
• Promote awareness of the technical publications.
• Enforce practices that adequately protect the Company’s from potential intellectual risks.
• Foster exposure of Company in the industry and academic activities.
• Ensure standardized procedures are in place when submitting any technical publications
from Technical Services.
• Provide the suggested database of journals and conferences for TS professionals.
• Encourage technical collaboration with local /international universities & research centers.
• Recommend Publication KPIs in each admin area in TS.
• Recommend Technical Publication in the TS Recognition /Reward program.

Publication Objective & Guidelines

Objective
Technical Service encourages all professional employees to participate in conferences and/or
publish technical papers. These platforms are considered as an ideal venue in which ideas and
views on a technical topic can be exchanged among Saudi Aramco and other industry companies.
While it is encouraged to share our work and knowledge with others, it is equally important that
we protect our intellectual assets by not releasing any confidential and sensitive information that
might endanger or jeopardize the well-being of Saudi Aramco.

Guidelines

• The technical paper author(s) are recommended to forecast their potential contribution on
annual basis. The forecast should be communicated to their Chief Position Holder (CPH) for
budget consideration.

• The author(s) are recommended to consider joint paper submission to promote learning
organization.

• The author(s) are recommended to review the abstract with their CPH.

• The author(s) may submit the abstract to different events to ensure at least one acceptance.

• The author(s) are encouraged to submit his publication to Saudi Aramco Journal of
Technology (JOT) where applicable.

© Saudi Arabian Oil Company, 2022 Page 4 of 10

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-092
Issue Date: 9 March 2022
Next Revision: 9 March 2031 TS Publication Best Practice

• It is recommended that presentation slides include reference(s) wherever applicable. This will
enhance the credibility and authenticity of the subject being presented.

• Author(s) may utilize the provided format (Appendix-1) for drafting their technical publication:
paper or presentation, however, author(s) should use the recommended format by the targeted
journal/ conference.

• Author(s) are encouraged to complete E-learning course on how to write and publish technical
papers, which is available in TSPA website to improve his/her writing skills.

• The specific points and emphasis will change with the purpose of the document and the target
audience.

• Author(s) should identify the proper technical venue for their publication from the Suggested
TS Journals and Conferences database (Appendix-2). Otherwise, the author(s) can use other
technical venue after conducting their internal assessment.

• Author(s) are highly recommended to upload and share their publications through the corporate
knowledgebase (https://ckms/)

Instructions

Paper/Presentation Approval:

• Author(s) should submit a complete paper/presentation to their CPH for review and approval.

• Author’s CPH may recommend another SMEs to review the content when required.

• The author(s) should develop an abstract submission of high quality to secure preliminary
approval.

• Author should fill the Publication Approval Form (PAF) (Appendix-3) and submit it to get his/her
Department Head approval.

• If the paper contains information on intellectual property (*copyrights, trade secrets, patents,
etc.), novel processes, or improvements, the paper should be reviewed by Intellectual Property
Management Team (IPM) as a part of PAF approval processes.

• The collaboration work with a third party in developing a scientific technical paper is governed
by the terms and conditions of an NDA or a contract.

• If the publication meets these terms and conditions, the researcher needs to route the
publication for review and approval through the Technical Publication Tracking System (TPTS).
This is mainly to prevent leakage of sensitive information outside of Aramco through technical
events.

© Saudi Arabian Oil Company, 2022 Page 5 of 10

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-092
Issue Date: 9 March 2022
Next Revision: 9 March 2031 TS Publication Best Practice

• Author creates a CRM request (Publication Approval) and attach scanned version containing
all signatures to the Corporate Communication Department for final approval.

• After obtaining the approval from Corporate Communication, the author can share the
publication to the journal or conference.

• Author should upload the approved publication by CCSD in the TS Publication Tracking
System (when available).

• All technical publications outside Saudi Aramco shall be processed by submitting the
Corporate Communications Support Department (CCSD) Publication Approval Form (PAF).
Then, a CRM (Publication Approval Form) must be submitted to Corporate Communications
Support Department (CCSD) for approval.

• Approval for one type of publication (i.e. abstract, presentation, poster, paper) does not
automatically warrant approval of any other type of publication. Each publication must be sent
for review to acquire an independent approval.

• Approval of publications for a specific event does not grant permission to share or present the
material in other venues. Another Publication Approval Form may be required.

• For co-authors whom are not Saudi Aramco employees, the primary author must receive a
written document from the co-author, granting permission for publication of the subject paper.

• Any document that contains field wide information, negative statements about current
situations, exaggeration of challenges, information that can be used by a competitor or may
have negative impact on the company or the Kingdom is not allowed to be published. The
focus must only be on technical findings and only masked examples, if absolutely required,
should be used to illustrate concepts.

• The publications must not contain environmental and safety issues or any information that
can be interpreted to identify the source field or reservoir. Detailed discussion of specific
reservoir properties should be generic and non-specific in nature.

• Any pictures must not contain sensitive information, and any pictures of individuals may be
used only if a written release has been received.

• The publication must not include any information regarding Saudi Aramco’s financial results
or projections.

• Presentation slides must be designed in accordance with Saudi Aramco Corporate Identity
guidelines and templates. Other templates (event template) must be reviewed by Corporate
Communications Support Department (CCSD) for approval.

• Author should extend acknowledgements to Saudi Aramco and those who supported him/her
whenever they are due.

© Saudi Arabian Oil Company, 2022 Page 6 of 10

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-092
Issue Date: 9 March 2022
Next Revision: 9 March 2031 TS Publication Best Practice

• The Author(s) are required to classify the content of the submission as per GI 710.002,
Classification of Sensitive Information.

• Technical Publications Best Practice do not supersede Saudi Aramco’s G.I. 850.006 (Review
& Approval of Information for Public Release) and Aramco’s G.I. 431.001 (Protection of
Intellectual property) and GI 710.002 (Classification of Sensitive Information).

Journal/Conference Selection:

• Author should consider the following steps in selecting a journal/conference for publication if
the Journal/conference is not in the database of suggested TS journals and conferences.

• Avoid publishing in journals/conference that do not have a rigorous peer review process.

• Consider prestigious journals. One way to determine if the journal is prestigious is to surf the
internet and find credible references such Scientific Journal Ranking ().

• Journals/conference of renowned technical institutes and societies (e.g. IEEE, ASCE, ASQ,
ASME, SPE…. etc.) are usually considered prestigious.

• Avoid predatory publisher. Predatory publisher charges publications fees without checking the
quality. The following site may be checked to ensure that the journal is not a predatory journal
().

• Double Check open access journal to ensure it is not a predatory journal

• Make sure that the conference is well recognized. Author can check with the company SME
for such conferences.

• The author (s) shall immediately notify the publishing entity of withdrawing their abstracts
when multiple approvals are received.

• If the author(s) did venue internal assessment and it shows a good impact, author may inform
the Knowledge Management Unit (Email: *KM Team) to add the new Technical venue to the
suggested TS Journals & Conferences database.

© Saudi Arabian Oil Company, 2022 Page 7 of 10

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-092
Issue Date: 9 March 2022
Next Revision: 9 March 2031 TS Publication Best Practice

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

The following are suggested KPIs for technical publications by each Department within TS:

KPI Measurement Target

Technical Actual publications / Target publications 2 papers for each SDP/APDP
Publications participant per year
The technical publications cover both
Index
peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed
publications

The following table describe the considered work as a publication:

Type Definition Criteria

Article /Paper Original research or opinion in a journal or Peer-reviewed or Non-Peer-
specialized magazines reviewed

Book A whole monograph or entire book Has ISBN /National reference

number

Chapter A book chapter Defined as chapter by a heading

or section indicator in a book with
ISBN/National reference number
Conference Original article reporting findings presented Peer reviewed by a conference
Presentation in a conference or symposium committee

Recognition/ Reward Program

Each department should consider including Technical Publications in their annual recognition/
reward program. The department should recognize those who have been active in submitting
technical papers. The department may set up their internal criteria for evaluating the publications
before extending the recognition/ reward to ensure maintaining high standards.

© Saudi Arabian Oil Company, 2022 Page 8 of 10

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-092
Issue Date: 9 March 2022
Next Revision: 9 March 2031 TS Publication Best Practice

Document History
9 March 2022 Revised to comply with SAEP-203 requirements
21 September 2021 New

APPENDICES
1- Paper outline format
2- Recommended Journals/Conference
3- Publication Approval Form

APPENDIX-1: Paper Outline Format

i. Introduction
o What is the problem
o What is the subjects leading to publications (Technology programs, Approved patents, Major
technical investigations, or others)?
o Why it is not already solved or other solutions are inferior in one or more important ways?
o Why is the presented solution worth considering and why is it superior in some ways?
o How the rest of the paper is structured?
II. Literature (Related Work)

o What other efforts to solve this problem exist and why do they solve it less well than the
paper/presentation?
o What are challenges, gaps, and or areas that require additional research that the
paper/presentation is addressing?
III. Discussion

1. Model
o Explain the proposed model, algorithm, and or design the publication is addressing.
o What are the results of the simulations?
o What are the test cases that validate model?
2. Implementation
o What is the pilot? Empirical data?
o How is the pilot performed as compared to the simulation?
IV. Evaluation

o How the paper recommendation is tested?

o How the paper recommendation is performed and how performance is compared to
others?
o Why, how, and to what degree the recommendation is better than others?

© Saudi Arabian Oil Company, 2022 Page 9 of 10

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-092
Issue Date: 9 March 2022
Next Revision: 9 March 2031 TS Publication Best Practice

V. Conclusion and Future Work

o What is the problem?

o What is the recommendation to the problem?
o Why the recommendation is better?
o What we will do next to:
o improve the recommendation.
o solve related problems with this recommendation.

APPENDIX-2: Recommended Journals/Conference

Author should identify the proper technical venue for publication from the suggested database.

Suggested TS
Journals & Conferences.xlsx

https://sharek.aramco.com.sa/Cop/km/KMDocs/TS%20Publication%20BP/Worksheet%20in%20TS%20P
ublication%20Best%20Practice%20-%20SABP-A-092.xlsx

APPENDIX-3: Publication Approval Form

• This is the required Publication Approval Form (PAF), which should be filled by Author(s).
Publication Approval Form

Adobe Acrobat
Document

https://sharek.aramco.com.sa/Cop/km/KMDocs/TS%20Publication%20BP/Publication%20Approval%20F
orm.pdf

© Saudi Arabian Oil Company, 2022 Page 10 of 10

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use