Meeting report of the editorial board meeting for World Journal of Hepatology 2021

The 2021 online editorial board meeting of the World Journal of Hepatology (WJH) was held on January 16, 2021. Xiang Li, Director of Production Office on behalf of the Baishideng Publishing Group, organized the meeting. Three Editors-in-Chiefs (EiCs) and 15 Baishideng Publishing Group staff attended the meeting. The meeting goal was to brief EiCs on journal performance and gather ideas for journal development in 2021. In 2020, WJH published 204 articles, a 20% increase compared to 2019, authors were from 32 countries and regions, and the average citation per article was three times. However, attracting high quality original article submissions remains a challenge. The EiCs provided feedback and suggestions centered on four topics: (1) Improve journal quality by building editorial; (2) Improve board engagement by establishing a clear policy and consistent internal communications; (3) Improve peer review quality and efficiency; and (4) Refine the current journal marketing strategy to increase visibility and discoverability.