Publication challenges in developing countries

Extract

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the world countries are divided into Global North and South according to political and socio-economic criteria. The term Developed Countries has also been used to describe Europe, Northern America, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Japan, and South Korea, the countries of the Global North, while those of the Global South are referred to as Developing Countries. These latter countries generally have higher population density, lower income, and a less developed infrastructure.

Unfortunately, this divide can also be seen in scientific publications as a possible reflection of these international imbalances. The disparity in distribution of authorship between investigators around the world is well documented and spans over various specialties.¹ Studies published by researchers from low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) represent only a fraction of that by their peers from high-income countries (HICs). And although there has been an increase in the number of healthcare related research from LMICs, its proportion in terms of global output is small. As an example, a bibliometric assessment of research led by African authors showed it represented only 1.3% of worldwide publications in 2014 (from 0.7% in 2000), despite the fact that the absolute number of African author-led studies more than tripled between 2000 (3623 studies) and that year (12 709).² Similarly, a study that assessed the bibliometrics of men’s sexual and reproductive healthcare found only 98 studies published between 1985 and 2022.³ Furthermore, collaboration projects between authors from LMICs and HICs are limited.³ And authors from the latter are more likely to be listed as first or last authors, which are roles that usually represent leadership and decision-making capacity, respectively.³