Editor—Scientists from developing countries are seriously under-represented in various areas of health research.1,2 Capacity building in developing countries is essential to improve health research and reduce health inequity.3,4 We report a retrospective analysis of original articles that appeared in the BMJ, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health between October 2003 and September 2004.
We noted information on the number of contributing authors and their country affiliation by income.5 We also classified the scientific contributions of authors from middle income and low income countries as being “major and intellectual” (contributing to two out of three: study conception or design, analysis, and intellectual contribution to manuscript drafting) or “operational” (contributing to data collection, routine supervision, etc).
The three journals reviewed 659 articles. The median number of authors per article was five (range 1-29). Single author publications were rare (3.2%). The numbers of articles that included authors from all three categories were 646 (97.8%), 49 (7.4%), and 11 (1.6%), respectively. Forty seven (7.1%) of the articles were products of collaborations between authors from different country groups: 38 between high income countries and middle income countries, seven between high income countries and low income countries, and one between all three. The nature of collaboration was such that the authors from middle income and low income countries had mostly “operational” roles in research (table). In two instances (0.3%), research papers had no representation from the low income countries where the research was conducted.
Table 1.
Extent and nature of research collaborations between countries classified by income in the three journals studied
| Characteristic | No (% of total) |
|---|---|
| Total articles | 659 (100) |
| No of articles based in a middle income or low income country but with no local representation* | 2 (0.3) |
| No of research collaborations involving authors from: | |
| Middle income countries | 38 (5.8) |
| Low income countries | 9 (1.3) |
| Total | 47 (7.1) |
| Role of the 47 authors from middle income or low income countries in research collaborations: | |
| Predominantly intellectual | 12/47 (25) |
| Predominantly operational | 35/47 (75) |
Equity in health research is important to reduce health inequity. There is no better time than now for us to translate into practice the rhetoric of strengthening research capacity in developing countries.
Competing interests: None declared.
References
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