About the Journal
Background
Following the world's largest reported scombroid outbreak, involving 92 cases in Southeast Asia, it was revealed that many public health professionals were unaware of this outbreak. Despite the completion of the investigation, the report was only available in an Asian language and had limited circulation. In addition, many applied epidemiology training programs in the Asia-Pacific region undertake thousands of investigations and hundreds of surveillance analyses, with most being documented but having limited circulation. The creation of the Outbreak, Surveillance, Investigation & Response (OSIR) Journal was prompted by this need for a publication devoted to public health response in Asia and the Pacific as these reports hold the potential to revolutionize approaches to disease control, not only within their countries of origin but also beyond.
The Outbreak, Surveillance & Investigation Reports (OSIR) journal (e-ISSN 2286-8933) was established in 2008 as an annual journal, featuring three articles per issue, and continued with this format in 2009. Between 2010 and 2012, the journal increased its frequency to two issues per year. Between 2013 and 2017, the journal was released quarterly; in March, June, September, and December, with each issue featuring three articles. In 2018, to emphasize on the prompt response to the public health threats, the journal was renamed the “Outbreak, Surveillance, Investigation & Response (OSIR) journal” and expanded the number of articles to four per issue. In 2023, the journal increased the number of articles to between five and eight per issue, with 25 articles per volume. Previously, the journal accepted posters presented at conferences for publication on its website, providing authors with an additional opportunity to share their work with a wider audience. However, since 2023 the journal no longer accepts posters for publication.
The OSIR journal is included in several reputable databases, including the ASEAN Citation Index (ACI), Google Scholar, Thai-Journal Citation Index (TCI), and Health Science Journals in Thailand. The OSIR Journal has been certified as a Tier 1 academic journal since 2013.
The covers of the OSIR Journal have undergone changes over time, as follows:
Goal
To encourage and facilitate communication of health information and disease response across Asia and the Pacific with a freely available e-journal.
Objectives
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To disseminate reports of outbreak investigation, surveillance evaluation and analyses, epidemiologic studies, and public health response relevant to Asia and the Pacific
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To facilitate communication of health information across the region by increasing the number of publications by trainees and alumni from Thailand’s Field Epidemiology Training Program, as well as those from other competency-based epidemiology training programs
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To strengthen capacity building of applied epidemiology training programs by promoting the quality of publications
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To understand similarities and differences in investigation, surveillance, and response in the region
Sponsorship
Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand
Open access policy
The OSIR journal retains the copyright for all articles published in the journal. To increase accessibility, the journal offers unrestricted access to the content under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
