South-south collaboration on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment research: when birds of a feather rarely flock together

Abstract

BackgroundSouth-south collaboration on health and development research is a critical mechanism for social and economic progress. It allows sharing and replicating experiences to find a “southern solution” to meet shared health challenges, such as access to adequate HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. This study aimed to generate evidence on the dynamics of south-south collaboration in HIV/AIDS research, which could ultimately inform stakeholders on the progress and nature of collaboration towards increased research capacities in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).MethodsBibliometric and social network analysis methods were used to assess the 10-year (2006–2015) scientific contribution of LMIC, through the analysis of scientific publications on HIV/AIDS prevention and/or treatment. Five dimensions oriented the study: knowledge production, co-authorship analysis, research themes mapping, research types classification and funding sources.ResultsPublications involving LMIC have substantially increased overtime, despite small expression of south-south collaboration. Research themes mapping revealed that publication focus varied according to collaborating countries’ income categories, from diagnosis, opportunistic infections and laboratory-based research (LMIC single or LMIC-LMIC) to human behavior and healthcare, drug therapy and mother to child transmission (LMIC-HIC). The analysis of research types showed that south-south collaborations frequently targeted social sciences issues. Funding agencies acknowledged in south-south collaboration also showed diverse focus: LMIC-based funders tended to support basic biomedical research whereas international/HIC-based funders seem to cover predominantly social sciences-oriented research.ConclusionsAlthough the global environment has fostered an increasing participation of LMIC in collaborative learning models, south-south collaboration on HIV/AIDS prevention and/or treatment research seemed to be lower than expected, stressing the need for strategies to foster these partnerships. The evidence presented in this study can be used to strengthen a knowledge platform to inform future policy, planning and funding decisions, contributing to the development of enhanced collaboration and a priority research agenda for LMICs.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12992-018-0341-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Stuck in the middle: a systematic review of authorship in collaborative health research in Africa, 2014–2016

“…An interesting finding from our analyses is that Africa-based researchers may more readily hold a prime authorship position if they engage in South-South collaborations with researchers from other African countries. Similar to others,35–38 we found that intra-African collaborations produced a small fraction of the health research in Africa, and of these, South African researchers were the most common collaborative partner 35 39. Beyond the benefit of local representation in first and last authorship positions, these collaborations likely focus on research priorities of the region 40.…”

CARTA Fellows’ Scientific Contribution to the African Public and Population Health Research Agenda (2011 to 2018)

“…Tackling these challenges and coming up with pragmatic solutions requires robust research [6,7]. This need for local research is occurring when Africa has in the recent past been reported to lag behind other regions in research output -producing less than 1% of the world's research [8], including research in the elds of population and health [9,10]. The under-performance in research in Africa is partly due to inadequate research funding by African governments [11,12].…”

CARTA Fellows’ Scientific Contribution to the African Public and Population Health Research Agenda (2011 to 2018)

“…Tackling these challenges and coming up with pragmatic solutions requires robust research [6,7]. This need for local research is occurring when Africa has in the recent past been reported to lag behind other regions in research output -producing less than 1% of the world's research [8], including research in the fields of population and health [9,10]. The under-performance in research in Africa is due in-part to inadequate research funding by African governments [11,12].…”