Early career researchers (ECRs) are important stakeholders leading efforts to catalyze systemic change in research culture and practice. Here, we summarize the outputs from a virtual unconventional conference (unconference), which brought together 54 invited experts from 20 countries with extensive experience in ECR initiatives designed to improve the culture and practice of science. Together, we drafted 2 sets of recommendations for (1) ECRs directly involved in initiatives or activities to change research culture and practice; and (2) stakeholders who wish to support ECRs in these efforts. Importantly, these points apply to ECRs working to promote change on a systemic level, not only those improving aspects of their own work. In both sets of recommendations, we underline the importance of incentivizing and providing time and resources for systems-level science improvement activities, including ECRs in organizational decision-making processes, and working to dismantle structural barriers to participation for marginalized groups. We further highlight obstacles that ECRs face when working to promote reform, as well as proposed solutions and examples of current best practices. The abstract and recommendations for stakeholders are available in Dutch, German, Greek (abstract only), Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Serbian.

Background: Food insecurity and malnutrition in children are pervasive public health concerns in Zimbabwe. Previous studies only identified determinants of food insecurity and malnutrition with very little efforts done in assessing related inequalities and decomposing the inequalities across household characteristics in Zimbabwe. This study explored socioeconomic inequalities trend in child health using regression decomposition approach to compare within and between group inequalities. Methods: The study used Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data sets of 2010\11 and 2015. Food insecurity in under-five children was determined based on the WHO dietary diversity score. Minimum dietary diversity was defined by a cutoff point of > 4 therefore, children with at least 3 of the 13 food groups were defined as food insecure. Malnutrition was assessed using weight for age (both acute and chronic under-nutrition) Z-scores. Children whose weight-forage Z-score below minus two standard deviations (− 2 SD) from the median were considered malnourished. Concentration curves and indices were computed to understand if malnutrition was dominant among the poor or rich. The study used the Theil index and decomposed the index by population subgroups (place of residence and socioeconomic status). Results: Over the study period, malnutrition prevalence increased by 1.03 percentage points, while food insecurity prevalence decreased by 4.35 percentage points. Prevalence of malnutrition and food insecurity increased among poor rural children. Theil indices for nutrition status showed socioeconomic inequality gaps to have widened, while food security status socioeconomic inequality gaps contracted for the period under review. Conclusion: The study concluded that unequal distribution of household wealth and residence status play critical roles in driving socioeconomic inequalities in child food insecurity and malnutrition. Therefore, child food insecurity and malnutrition are greatly influenced by where a child lives (rural/urban) and parental wealth.

BackgroundInequalities in child health remain a threat to this global efforts to achieve universal health coverage. We assessed socioeconomic inequalities in child health focusing on malnutrition and food insecurity in Zimbabwe.MethodsWe used Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data sets of 2010\11 and 2015. Food insecurity in children was determined based on the WHO dietary diversity score. Minimum dietary diversity was defined by a cut- off point of >4 therefore, in this study children with less than 3 of the 13 food groups were defined as food insecure. Malnutrition was assessed using weight for age Z-score, with children whose weight-for-age Z-score below minus two standard deviations (-2 SD) from the median considered malnourished. Concentration indices were computed to understand if malnutrition was dominant among the poor or rich. The study used the Theil index and decomposed the index by population subgroups (geographical clusters and socioeconomic status).ResultsOver the study period, malnutrition prevalence increased by 1.03 percentage points (p.p) [2010/11(3.73%); 2015(4.76%)], while food insecurity prevalence decreased by 4.35p.p [2010/11(78.29%);2015(73.94)]. Prevalence of malnutrition and food insecurity increased by; 9.6p.p and 2p.p among poor children & 10.23p.p and 0.5p.p among rural children. Children from wealthy households were more likely to be food secure and children from poor households were more likely to be nutritious. For nutrition status, socioeconomic inequality gaps appeared to be widening as the concentration indices between the two time periods increased, while for food security status socioeconomic inequality gaps appeared to be contracting as the concentration indices between the two time periods reduced. Food security status showed contracting socioeconomic inequality gaps in both geographical clusters (urban & rural), while for nutrition status there were widening socioeconomic inequality gaps among urban children and contracting socioeconomic inequality gaps among rural children.ConclusionWithin-group inequalities are driving most of the socioeconomic inequalities in nutritional status and food security status among children in Zimbabwe. There is need for policies that focus on addressing within-group inequalities and direct food security interventions for food insecure children through availing food aid parcels especially for children from poor households irrespective of where they reside.

IntroductionOutbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases continue to threaten public health, despite the proven effectiveness of vaccines. Interventions such as vaccination, social distancing and palliative care are usually implemented, either individually or in combination, to control these outbreaks. Mathematical models are often used to assess the impact of these interventions and for supporting outbreak response decision making. The objectives of this systematic review, which covers all human vaccine-preventable diseases, are to determine the relative impact of vaccination compared with other outbreak interventions, and to ascertain the temporal trends in the use of modelling in outbreak response decision making. We will also identify gaps and opportunities for future research through a comparison with the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak response modelling literature, which has good examples of the use of modelling to inform outbreak response intervention decision making.Methods and analysisWe searched on PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and some preprint servers from the start of indexing to 15 January 2020. Inclusion: modelling studies, published in English, that use a mechanistic approach to evaluate the impact of an outbreak intervention. Exclusion: reviews, and studies that do not describe or use mechanistic models or do not describe an outbreak. We will extract data from the included studies such as their objectives, model types and composition, and conclusions on the impact of the intervention. We will ascertain the impact of models on outbreak response decision making through visualisation of time trends in the use of the models. We will also present our results in narrative style.Ethics and disseminationThis systematic review will not require any ethics approval since it only involves scientific articles. The review will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal and at various conferences fitting its scope.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020160803.

Early career researchers (ECRs) are important stakeholders leading efforts to catalyze systemic change in the conduct and communication of science. Here, we summarize the outputs from a virtual unconventional conference (unconference), which brought together 54 invited experts from 20 countries with extensive experience in ECR initiatives designed to improve science. The event was focused on why ECRs are needed to improve science and the obstacles they face when trying to promote reform. Our discussions also highlighted the additional obstacles that ECRs in countries with limited research funding experience when working to improve the scientific system. We provide the lessons learned from successful ECR-led or ECR-focused initiatives and outline actions that individuals and organizations can take to further support ECRs who are working to improve research culture and practice.