Patterns of international collaboration in cardiovascular research in sub-Saharan Africa

Ettarh, Remare

doi:10.5830/cvja-2015-082

Cited by 25 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…In that sense, some papers have called for BRICS countries, including South Africa, to increase their efforts to tackle the challenges primarily affecting the developing world [19]. In the case of South Africa, this could be done by promoting intraregional collaborations in sub-Saharan Africa, as research undertaken at a local level has the most potential to produce benefits, both for population health and socioeconomic development [20,40]. Hernandez-Villafuerte, Li & Hofman [41] analyzed collaborations among sub-Saharan countries conducting economic evaluations of healthcare interventions, reporting results consistent with ours: researchers in this region tend to collaborate more with Europeans and North Americans than with each other.…”

Section: High Degree Of International Collaboration Low Level Of Leamentioning

confidence: 99%

HIV/AIDS research in Africa and the Middle East: participation and equity in North-South collaborations and relationships.

González‐Alcaide

Menchi-Elanzi

Nacarapa³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Background: HIV/AIDS has attracted considerable research attention since the 1980s. In the current context of globalization and the predominance of cooperative work, it is crucial to analyze the participation of the countries and regions where the infection is most prevalent, African continent being the hardest hit (67.5% of estimated cases). This study assesses the participation of African countries in publications on the topic, as well as the degree of equity or influence existing in North-South relations.Methods : We identified all articles and reviews of HIV/AIDS indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. We analyzed the scientific production, collaboration, and contributions from African and Middle Eastern countries to scientific activity in the region. The concept of leadership was used to determine the equity in research produced through international collaboration. Results: A total of 68,808 documents published from 2010 to 2017 were analyzed. Researchers from North America and Europe participated in 82.14% of the global scientific production on HIV/AIDS, compared to just 21.61% from Africa and the Middle East. Furthermore, the research that did come out of these regions was concentrated in a small number of countries, led by South Africa (41% of the documents). Other features associated with HIV/AIDS research from Africa include the importance of international collaboration from the USA, the UK, and other European countries (75%-93% of the documents) and the limited leadership that is evident (30% to 36% of the documents). Finally, the research to which African countries contributed had a notably different disciplinary orientation, with a predominance of research on public health, epidemiology, and drug therapy.Conclusions: It is essential to foster more balance in research output, avoid the concentration of resources that reproduces the global North-South model on the African continent, and focus the research agenda on local priorities. To accomplish this, the global North should strengthen the transfer of research skills and seek equity in cooperative ties, favoring the empowerment of African countries. These efforts should be concentrated in countries with low scientific activity and high incidence and prevalence of the disease. It is also essential to foster intraregional collaborations between African countries.

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Section: High Degree Of International Collaboration Low Level Of Leamentioning

confidence: 99%

HIV/AIDS research in Africa and the Middle East: participation and equity in North-South collaborations and relationships.

González‐Alcaide

Menchi-Elanzi

Nacarapa³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…African researchers commonly publish internationally in collaboration with Western scientists. Consequently, there has been a gradual increase in the volume of scientific publications from and about Africa, with a noticeable dominance by non-African coauthors 7 8. However, inequity in research partnerships can hinder true progress 9.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who is telling the story? A systematic review of authorship for infectious disease research conducted in Africa, 1980–2016

et al. 2019

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IntroductionAfrica contributes little to the biomedical literature despite its high burden of infectious diseases. Global health research partnerships aimed at addressing Africa-endemic disease may be polarised. Therefore, we assessed the contribution of researchers in Africa to research on six infectious diseases.MethodsWe reviewed publications on HIV and malaria (2013–2016), tuberculosis (2014–2016), salmonellosis, Ebola haemorrhagic fever and Buruli ulcer disease (1980–2016) conducted in Africa and indexed in the PubMed database using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol. Papers reporting original research done in Africa with at least one laboratory test performed on biological samples were included. We studied African author proportion and placement per study type, disease, funding, study country and lingua franca.ResultsWe included 1182 of 2871 retrieved articles that met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 1109 (93.2%) had at least one Africa-based author, 552 (49.8%) had an African first author and 41.3% (n=458) an African last author. Papers on salmonellosis and tuberculosis had a higher proportion of African last authors (p<0.001) compared with the other diseases. Most of African first and last authors had an affiliation from an Anglophone country. HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and Ebola had the most extramurally funded studies (≥70%), but less than 10% of the acknowledged funding was from an African funder.ConclusionAfrican researchers are under-represented in first and last authorship positions in papers published from research done in Africa. This calls for greater investment in capacity building and equitable research partnerships at every level of the global health community.

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“…Researchers in health sciences generally conduct collaborative research and publish with multiple authors compared to humanities and social sciences [ 9 ]. However, the collaboration between health researchers from different countries, institutions, and disciplines in Africa remains low [ 4 , 10 , 11 ]. Therefore, training programs that create opportunities for collaboration can make a valuable contribution to the African health research landscape [ 3 , 12 , 13 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing collaborative research output between early-career health researchers in Africa: lessons from the CARTA fellowship program

Uwizeye

Karimi

Otukpa

et al. 2020

Global Health Action

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In 2008 nine African Universities and four African research institutions, in partnership with non-African institutions started the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) to strengthen doctoral training and research capacity on health in Africa. This study describes particular aspects of the CARTA program that promotes collaboration between the PhD fellows in the program, and determines the patterns of collaborative publications that resulted from the intervention. We reviewed program monitoring and evaluation documents and conducted a bibliometric analysis of 806 peer-reviewed publications by CARTA fellows published between 2011 and 2018. Results indicate that recruiting multidisciplinary fellows from various institutions, encouraging registration of doctoral-level fellows outside home institutions, and organizing joint research seminars stimulated collaborative research on health-related topics. Fellows collaborated among themselves and with non-CARTA researchers. Fellows co-authored 75 papers (10%) between themselves, of which 53 (71%) and 42 (56%) included fellows of different cohorts and different disciplines respectively, and 19 (25%) involved fellows of different institutions. CARTA graduates continued to publish with each other after graduating-11% of the collaborative publications occurred post-graduationindicating that the collaborative approach was maintained after exiting from the program. However, not all fellows contributed to publishing collaborative papers. The study recommends concerted effort towards enhancing collaborative publications among the CARTA fellows, both doctoral and post-doctoral, which can include holding research exchange forums and collaborative grant-writing workshops.

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Patterns of international collaboration in cardiovascular research in sub-Saharan Africa

Cited by 25 publications

References 23 publications

HIV/AIDS research in Africa and the Middle East: participation and equity in North-South collaborations and relationships.

HIV/AIDS research in Africa and the Middle East: participation and equity in North-South collaborations and relationships.

Who is telling the story? A systematic review of authorship for infectious disease research conducted in Africa, 1980–2016

Increasing collaborative research output between early-career health researchers in Africa: lessons from the CARTA fellowship program

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