Petrela K, Roshi M, Laaser U, Burazeri G. Survey exploring the opinion of corres- ponding authors of articles published in the South Eastern European Journal of Pu- blic Health during 2014-2021 (Short report). SEEJPH 2021, posted: 09 July 2021. DOI: 10.11576/seejph-4585 P a g e 1 | 6 SHORT REPORT Survey exploring the opinion of corresponding authors of articles published in the South Eastern European Journal of Public Health during 2014-2021 Kreshnik Petrela1, Meri Roshi1, Ulrich Laaser1, Genc Burazeri1 1 South Eastern European Journal of Public Health. Corresponding author: Prof. Dr. med. Ulrich Laaser DTM&H, MPH; Faculty of Health Sciences, Bielefeld University Address: POB 10 01 31, D-33501 Bielefeld, Germany; E-mail: ulrich.laaser@uni-bielefeld.de mailto:ulrich.laaser@uni-bielefeld.de Petrela K, Roshi M, Laaser U, Burazeri G. Survey exploring the opinion of corres- ponding authors of articles published in the South Eastern European Journal of Pu- blic Health during 2014-2021 (Short report). SEEJPH 2021, posted: 09 July 2021. DOI: 10.11576/seejph-4585 P a g e 2 | 6 Abstract The aim of this survey was to assess the intentions of corresponding authors for publishing again in the South Eastern European Journal of Public Health (SEEJPH), the aspects that they like most about the jour- nal, and things which can be improved by SEEJPH in order to be more attractive to potential contributors. A three-item questionnaire was sent out by email to all cor- responding authors (N=89) who published in the 16 volumes of the SEEJPH journal between 2014 and 2021. Among 84 eligible corresponding authors, we collected 26 answers, or 31%. There were generally favourable and constructive comments, which is encouraging. The wide ar- ray of coun- tries of the corresponding authors represents the successful global orientation of SEEJPH. Also, more than half of all related articles are classified as original papers, and the average of four authors per represented paper is satisfying. Furthermore, all corresponding au- thors would publish again in SEEJPH (“definitely”, or “probably”), and their numbers are almost equally distributed throughout 2014-2021. Keywords: author survey, corresponding author, scientific journal, South Eastern European Journal of Public Health (SEEJPH). Acknowledgments: We express our gratitude to our Publisher Dr. Hans Jacobs, Sebastian Wolf, and all our supporters in the University of Bielefeld/Germany, our Boards of Editors, and our authors, friends, and colleagues. Petrela K, Roshi M, Laaser U, Burazeri G. Survey exploring the opinion of corres- ponding authors of articles published in the South Eastern European Journal of Pu- blic Health during 2014-2021 (Short report). SEEJPH 2021, posted: 09 July 2021. DOI: 10.11576/seejph-4585 P a g e 3 | 6 Introduction In the past few years, there is evidence of an intensive proliferation and competition of many online scientific journals including also health sciences (1). Hence, perceptions and practices of researchers regarding the current state of play and the future of scholarly pub- lishing is important to be assessed and is ac- tually subject to ongoing research (2). In 2014, the first volume of a new open ac- cess journal was published by Jacobs Com- pany (3). The South Eastern European Jour- nal of Public Health (SEEJPH) is an open ac- cess international peer-reviewed journal in- volving all areas of the health sciences and public health (4). SEEJPH welcomes submis- sions of scientists, re- searchers, and practi- tioners from all over the world, but particu- larly pertinent to transition countries (4). After six years of release of the journal, we aimed at exploring the opinions of all corre- sponding authors of the articles published in SEEJPH. More specifically, we aimed at as- sessing the intentions of corresponding au- thors for publishing again in SEEJPH, the as- pects that they liked most about the journal, and things which can be improved by the journal in order to be more attractive to po- tential contributors. Methods A three-item questionnaire was sent out by email twice (in February and April 2021) to all corresponding authors (N=89) who pub- lished in the 16 volumes of the SEEJPH jour- nal between 2014 and 2021. Two emails of corresponding authors turned out to be not functional, whereas one of the corresponding authors was deceased. In addi- tion, two other corresponding authors (co-au- thors of this short report) were excluded from the current analysis. Overall, among 84 eligible corresponding authors, we collected 26 answers, or 31% (the complete Excel database is annexed). Results Addressees responded from the following countries: Albania, Croatia, England, Ethio- pia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Ivory Coast, Kosovo, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Sweden. Out of the represented publications, 14 stud- ies (53.8%) were classified as original arti- cles. The other 12 papers are distributed be- tween reviews (n=3), re- ports (n=4), case studies (n=2), commentaries (n=1), and edi- torials (n=2). Altogether, 104 scientists co-authored these papers, i.e. on average 4 authors per publication. The 26 corresponding authors participated during the period 2014-2021 in 10 additional arti- cles, a total of 36 papers distributed over the years almost evenly with 6 publications in 2017, 2019, and 2020, and a minimum of 3 in 2015 and 2 in 2021 (only the first volume of the two planned in 2021). We addressed the corresponding authors per email as follows: “You have published in the South Eastern European Journal of Public Health (SEEJPH) as the corresponding author. To develop the journal, we would like to ask you three short questions about your experience with SEE- JPH (please send your short answers as a re- ply to this email to kreshnikp@gmail.com):” Question 1: Would you publish again in SEEJPH? (a. definitely, b. probably, c. un- likely, d. no) Regarding the answers: 22 or 84.6% of the corresponding authors answered “definitely” and 4 authors answered “probably”. mailto:kreshnikp@gmail.com) Petrela K, Roshi M, Laaser U, Burazeri G. Survey exploring the opinion of corres- ponding authors of articles published in the South Eastern European Journal of Pu- blic Health during 2014-2021 (Short report). SEEJPH 2021, posted: 09 July 2021. DOI: 10.11576/seejph-4585 P a g e 4 | 6 Question 2: What did you like about SEE- JPH (free wording)? Answers (the favorable core terms underlined and listed in alphabetical order) include: open access; coverage of Balkan (2 times); public health content; reasonable cost; format; inno- vative (new ideas); excellent organization; orientation; fast and helpful peer-review (19 times); global perspective; good quality; global readership; serious and correct; sup- portive; registered in SCOPUS. Question 3: What should be improved in SEEJPH (free wording)? Answers (core terms underlined and listed in alphabetical order) include: technical im- provement of layout (2 times), copyediting (1 time), and website (4 times); ORCID num- bers; inform mainstream providers and pro- vide volumes free of charge e.g. to Elsevier, Academic Search Ultimate, ScienceDirect, Emerald Insight, ProQuest etc.; register with PubMed/Medline; link to services (Public health, medicine, health promotion, Minis- tries of Health); use of social media; more special volumes; more volumes per year. Discussion The generally favorable and constructive comments are encouraging. The wide array of countries of the corresponding authors rep- resents the successful global orientation of SEEJPH. Also, more than half of all related articles are classified as original papers, and the average of four authors per represented paper is satisfying given the widespread mis- use of co-authorships (5). Furthermore, all corresponding authors would publish again in SEEJPH, definitely or probably, and their numbers are almost equally distributed throughout the years 2014-2021. Most im- portantly, quality, organization, and fast peer-review are perceived as very positive, especially the fast and supportive peer review at the top with 19 out of 26 possible judg- ments (only one author perceived a delayed peer-review process). Even more critical, and the primary purpose of the survey, are the suggestions for possible improvements: proactive information of mainstream providers, intensified use of so- cial media, more publications per year (three or four - partly special - volumes per year), linkage to ORCID, and improvement of the website layout and copyediting (together, seven times, or 26.9%). References 1. Gasparyan AY, Yessirkepov M, Vo- ronov AA, Maksaev AA, Kitas GD. Article-Level Metrics. J Korean Med Sci 2021;36:e74. DOI: 10.3346/jkms.2021.36.e74. 2. Gupta L, Gasparyan AY, Zimba O, Misra DP. Scholarly publishing and journal targeting in the time of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID- 19) pandemic: a cross-sectional sur- vey of rheuma- tologists and other specialists. Rheumatol Int 2020;40:2023-30. DOI: 10.1007/s00296-020- 04718-x. 3. The South Eastern European Journal of Public Health (SEEJPH), pub- lished by Jacobs Verlag, Hellweg 72, D-32791 Lage, Germany. 4. Holst J, Breckenkamp J, Burazeri G, Martin- Moreno JM, Schröder-Bäck P, Laaser U. Five years of the South Eastern European Journal of Public Health (SEEJPH): Focusing on health sys- tems in transition and global health. SEEJPH 2018 (Vol X). DOI: 10.4119/seejph-1870. Petrela K, Roshi M, Laaser U, Burazeri G. Survey exploring the opinion of corres- ponding authors of articles published in the South Eastern European Journal of Pu- blic Health during 2014-2021 (Short report). SEEJPH 2021, posted: 09 July 2021. DOI: 10.11576/seejph-4585 P a g e 5 | 6 © 2021 Petrela et al; This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribu- tion License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and repro- duction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 5. Zimba O, Gasparyan AY. Scientific authorship: a primer for research- ers.Reumatologia 2020;58:345-9. DOI: 10.5114/reum.2020.101999. __________________________________________________________________________ Petrela K, Roshi M, Laaser U, Burazeri G. Survey exploring the opinion of corres- ponding authors of articles published in the South Eastern European Journal of Pu- blic Health during 2014-2021 (Short report). SEEJPH 2021, posted: 09 July 2021. DOI: 10.11576/seejph-4585 P a g e 6 | 6 Annex. Detailed answers of all corresponding authors who participated in the survey (Excel database) The excel file is attached to this PDF.