Table 2.

Barriers to research in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) and proposed solutions.

Type of barrier	Barriers	Proposed solutions
Barriers to conducting research	Lack of research priority	Government and academic institutions should prioritize research and develop a research priority agenda for common health conditions. Funding should be allocated toward addressing these research priorities.
	Research awareness and education	Research should be introduced early in school and during undergraduate education. The importance of research should be shared with the public. Academic institutions and clinical settings (e.g. hospitals) should emphasize the importance of both conducting and using research for improving healthcare.
	Research funding	Government and universities should allocate a defined proportion of their budgets for research. Research scholarships should be awarded for postgraduate degree and postdoctoral fellowships.
	Lack of institutional support	Universities should support researchers. Full-time and part-time research roles should be created so that researchers can commit their time and focus on conducting high-quality research. Academic staff should be allocated research hours to allow dedicated research time. Institutions should also favorably appraise high-quality research over any research.
	Lack of research workforce	As above, both government and universities should support full-time and part-time research roles to develop research workforce and high-quality research skills.
	Lack of research training	Government and universities should promote high-quality research training. They should also promote local and international research mentoring as well as collaborations across fields.
Barriers to publishing research	High editorial bar for international journals	Journals could offer special editorial support to authors from LMICs. International collaborations or mentorship could help with the publication process. Appointing editors and reviewers who understand local research priorities and contexts and who are better able to make informed judgment about the need for the research and its potential impact.
	Language barrier	Proofreading of the final manuscripts by native English-speaking collaborators and journal editorial board members could address language barriers related to publishing in an international journal. AuthorAID (https://www.authoraid.info/en/) connects researchers from LMICs to the international community. Mentors and mentees can connect through the AuthorAID program.
	Predatory publishing	Frequent webinars around publishing in the right journals should be offered. Government, funding bodies (if present), and institutions should emphasize publishing in credible journals. Authors should think critically about the credibility of the journals they submit to, drawing on resources like Think, Check, and Submit (http://thinkchecksubmit.org).