Who reads the SSMJ? Summary report on the readership of the journal 2008–2021
Introduction
In February 2008 Dr Eluzai Abe Hakim launched the Southern Sudan Medical Bulletin which has evolved into the quarterly 24-page free online journal, the South Sudan Medical Journal (SSMJ), the only medical journal in South Sudan. The Editor-in-Chief is Dr Edward Eremugo Kenyi. There are three Trustees who oversee our limited funds.
To date (August 2021) we have published 55 issues each containing around 5-8 main peer reviewed articles and several short items. SSMJ is a member of African Journal Online (AJOL), is listed by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and has a Facebook group. We are presently updating our website, and investigating other ways to improve the journal.
We hope that this article, which shows an increasing number of visits to the journal, will encourage readers to continue submitting their research and other manuscripts, and to tell us how we can improve the content, and outreach of the journal, especially within South Sudan and Africa. Send your feedback to [email protected].
SSMJ readership: who? what? where?
We have examined data from AJOL, Google Analytics and our mailchimp mailing list. The journal is also distributed through the networks of the SSMJ team and colleagues.
Data from AJOL
The AJOL website shows the number of views of abstracts and downloads of articles over time and by country for each issue of SSMJ (click on the month of interest).
As of July 2021 (the latest date with complete data), the site carried 354 titles (articles) in 56 issues (since we joined AJOL in 2017). AJOL does not upload all SSMJ items and does not show the number of views for specific articles. Downloads of articles have increased from 269 in January 2017 to 2373 in July 2021. See Summary Figure AJOL 1.
Summary Figure AJOL 1. Views and downloads from each issue from February 2017 to July 2021
The maps in Summary Figures 2a and 2b show that the countries with the greatest the number of downloads has changed (and increased) between 2017 and 2021.
Summary Figure AJOL 2a. Number of articles downloaded by country in February 2017 (note: scale 1-100)
Summary Figure AJOL 2b. Number of articles downloaded by country in July 2021 (note: scale 1-1K)
Summary Figure AJOL 3 shows the number of downloaded articles in July 2021 by countries from which there were at least 10 article downloads; note that there were no downloads in South Sudan although 46 Abstracts were viewed.
Summary Figure AJOL 3. Number of downloaded articles in July 2021 by countries from which there were at least 10 article downloads
Data from Google Analytics (analysed by James Beard)
Data showing the number of pages (or titles/articles) viewed were available from 2010. See the full report for detailed individual tables.
Summary Table A lists the top most popular titles, (published between 2008 – 2017), the number of times they were viewed in June 2020 and May 2021, and the total views for each over the 12-month period between June 2020 and May 2021.
Summary Table A. Page views of most popular articles in June 2020 and May 2021
|
[Issue] Page Title |
202006 |
202105 |
Total over 12 months |
|
[May 2010] How to read an Electrocardiogram (ECG). Part One: Basic principles of the ECG. The normal ECG |
21386 |
39336 |
346357 |
|
[May 2008] How to Read a Chest X-ray – A Step by Step Approach |
5322 |
13721 |
99292 |
|
[Nov 2011] How to treat kerosene poisoning |
5658 |
3866 |
58415 |
|
[May 2016] Factors contributing to, and effects of, teenage pregnancy in Juba |
1250 |
4608 |
38051 |
|
[Feb 2013] Tuberculosis 2: Pathophysiology and microbiology of pulmonary tuberculosis |
2268 |
3674 |
31907 |
|
[Nov 2008] Tapes for measuring Mid Upper Arm Circumference |
1042 |
1531 |
17715 |
|
[Aug 2016] How to interpret an unenhanced CT Brain scan. Part 1: Basic principles of Computed Tomography and relevant neuroanatomy |
1196 |
1538 |
16174 |
|
[Nov 2010] How to read an electrocardiogram (ECG). Part 2: Abnormalities of Electrical Conduction |
953 |
1361 |
13990 |
|
[May 2008] Undernutrition in Adults and Children: causes, consequences and what we can do |
719 |
2518 |
13557 |
|
[May 2017] How to interpret liver function tests |
649 |
2546 |
12375 |
|
[Nov 2016] How to perform a Lumbar Puncture |
822 |
835 |
9449 |
|
[May 2009] Feeding infants whose mothers are HIV-positive |
709 |
722 |
8564 |
|
[Nov 2015] The importance of research in healthcare |
470 |
436 |
5802 |
|
[May 2016] Open Appendicectomy….How I do it |
305 |
504 |
5518 |
|
Other |
10077 |
13033 |
133842 |
|
Total |
54245 |
92223 |
829985 |
Papers with ‘How to’ in the title were consistently most popular. Of the 14 titles 8 were entitled ‘How to….’; three were related to malnutrition.
The top title, ‘How to read an ECG’, had consistently the most views over the 12-month period with a total of 346K views (which is ~43% of the total visits of all titles of ~830K). However, this seems to be an ‘outlier’ as the second most popular title had 99K views, and views to the other ‘top-14’ titles ranged from totals of 58K to 6K.
The number of visits to each paper went up over the year; there was a total of 54K views in June 2020 and 92K in May 2021.
When ‘top’ titles were examined by number of viewers in East Africa there was a similar picture with ‘How to…’ articles being popular. See Table C in the full report.
Summary Tables B.1 and B.2 list total visits to titles by countries from 1 June 2020 to 31 May 2021. The 15 countries with the most frequent visits are shown in Summary Table B.1.
Summary Table B.1 Total visitors to articles between June 2020 – May 2021 – top 15 countries
|
Country |
Total |
|
South Sudan |
4608 |
|
India |
199594 |
|
United States |
102256 |
|
Philippines |
40456 |
|
United Kingdom |
30888 |
|
South Africa |
19661 |
|
Kenya |
19436 |
|
Pakistan |
19264 |
|
Nigeria |
16610 |
|
Malaysia |
10494 |
|
Australia |
10372 |
|
Canada |
9763 |
|
Ghana |
7518 |
|
Zambia |
7092 |
|
Saudi Arabia |
6795 |
|
Bangladesh |
6749 |
Again, the trend in most countries (see full report) was for visits to increase over the year. The total visits from all countries were 40K in June 2020 and 70K in May 2021.
Among African countries the five with the highest number of total visits over the year were: South Africa 20K, Nigeria 17K, Kenya 19K, Ghana 8K and Zambia 7K; South Sudan was 4.6K. For countries neighbouring South Sudan (Summary Table B.2) those with the most visits (i.e., ≥ 1K ) were: Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
Summary Table B.2. Total visitors from East/Central Africa to articles between June 2020 – May 2021
|
Country |
Total |
|
Burundi |
40 |
|
Central African Republic |
50 |
|
Congo - Kinshasa |
115 |
|
Djibouti |
24 |
|
Eritrea |
9 |
|
Ethiopia |
3289 |
|
Kenya |
19436 |
|
Rwanda |
593 |
|
Somalia |
1013 |
|
South Sudan |
4608 |
|
Sudan |
2540 |
|
Tanzania |
6070 |
|
Uganda |
5209 |
Data from the Mailchimp mailing list
Our mailing list was started in 2010. In August 2020 it contained >400 email addresses but the number of ‘clicks’ had decreased from a high of 50% in 2010 to around 15% in 2020. This is probably due to many email addresses changing, and thus this analysis gave no useful data.
Conclusion
These data give a clear indication of:
- The increasing access to the journal and
- the type of papers read which in turn
- helps us the focus on what readers find valuable.
- The spread of countries across the world from where readers access SSMJ.
- What can be done with minimal resources (apart from our collective voluntary hard work) and
- this indicates that sustainability of such a journal can be maintained by international co-operation and commitment.
In addition:
- Mailchimp is of limited direct use but the mailer is being forwarded on by recipients to colleagues.
- Comments received by some of the team indicate that presentation/format has improved.
- Access and thus number of visits should increase when the new website allows better access via cellphone/mobile.
Shows value of being accepted and listed by AJOL.
Follow-up
Although the readership data are encouraging, we have several challenges to keep the journal sustainable and improving. For example:
The need for more people to find authors/topics for articles, and to collect ‘news’ relevant to health professionals working in South Sudan.
Need to encourage more Board members to motivate their students/colleagues to submit their manuscripts.
About 5-6 people are doing most of the editorial work. So we need more people to copyedit – for authors unused to publishing we can spend a lot of time (and emails) sorting their articles.
Need backstops for key people such as the Editor-in-Chief, especially to deal with IT issues.
Need to ‘advertise’ the journal more widely through networks and social media. Do we need more publicity within and outside South Sudan? Why are there so many readers in Kenya compared to other neighbouring countries?
How do we reach out to more nurses/midwives, and other health professionals, including medical students?
Types of articles and content
Although ‘How to…’ articles are popular they are not the only well-read ones and for the journal to increase its prestige we must publish more good research relevant to South Sudan.
When resources (especially human) allow we should develop our ‘e-learning zone’.
