Background

OSIR Background

 

Few journals regularly publish outbreak investigations or surveillance analyses and those that do have limited coverage of Asia and the Pacific. The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) is one journal that publishes such works but MMWR’s primary focus is the United States. Just 2 months after an article in MMWR described 2 U.S. scombroid outbreaks with a total of 11 cases, the world’s largest reported scombroid outbreak – involving 92 cases - occurred in Southeast Asia. Most public health professionals were unaware of this outbreak; although an informative investigation report was completed, it was written in an Asian language and had limited circulation. This is the impetus behind OSIR, a publication devoted to public health reporting in Asia and the Pacific.

Many applied epidemiology training programs in Asia and the Pacific collectively conduct hundreds of investigations and dozens of surveillance analyses annually. Most are routinely documented in structured reports; however, circulation of the findings has been incomplete. The findings in these reports represent an impressive body of work and many of these reports have the potential to change approaches to disease control, not only in their countries of origin but also in other countries.

Significances of OSIR
Outbreak, Surveillance, Investigation & Response (OSIR) Journal is a free online publication of the epidemiological works of public health professionals in Asia and the Pacific.

The OSIR articles are published mainly in English, and also support in native languages of the authors so that more people are able to access the articles and understand similarities and differences of investigation and surveillance in the region without any language barrier. The OSIR articles are illustrated with more graphics to overcome language barrier in the region.

The OSIR published one issue with three articles per year in 2008 and 2009. The publication was increased to two issues per year in 2010-2012. With the further development in 2013, an issue is published every 3 months in March, June, September and December, with three articles in each issue. The OSIR articles mainly focus on surveillance, investigation, epidemiological study and field project of public health professionals in Asia and the Pacific.

The articles are peer-reviewed by two experts with double-blind review. We also obligate editorial support for authors from applied epidemiology training programs. We enlisted external editors from various countries in the region to conduct the review of the publication. The editors are public health experts from applied epidemiology programs in the region from various countries such as China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, and international organizations such as WHO and US CDC. The OSIR Editorial Board includes the Chief Editors, the OSIR Editors and the Associate Editor.

Posters
Posters presented in the conferences are also posted on the OSIR Journal website. Publishing the posters on the website gives authors another chance to display their posters and share the works with the world. The posters are published on the website quarterly.

Goal
To encourage and facilitate communication of health information and disease reporting across Asia and the Pacific through the use of a freely available e-journal

Objectives

  1. To disseminate outbreak reports and surveillance analyses relevant to Asia and the Pacific in an open-source e-journal
  2. To facilitate communication of health information across the region by increasing the number of publications from FETPs trainees/alumni
  3. To strengthen capacity building of applied epidemiology training programs by promoting quality of publications
  4. To understand similarities and differences of investigation and surveillance in the region



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