scholarly journals Research output is low, but increasing, and focuses on public health at new universities in southern Ethiopia

Author(s):  
Bernt Lindtjørn ◽  
Fekadu Massebo ◽  
Taye Gari ◽  
Solomon Hailemariam Tesfaye

AbstractObjectiveThe aim of this work is to describe the developments in research publication at three new universities in southern Ethiopia.DesignBibliometric analysis.MethodsWe retrieved references from 1998 to July 2021 from the Web of Science database using the authors’ affiliation. English language publications and peer-reviewed journals were included. The bibliometric analyses were conducted by using Web of Science and the bibliometrix package (version 3.1) under R version 4.0.5.ResultsWe reviewed 1019 scientific papers, and there was a substantial increase in the number of publications over the years, especially since 2016. The publications were in 304 different journals with 2606 authors; the number of documents per author was 0·39. Most of the studies were descriptive, 17 (1·7%) were clinical trials, 60 (5·9%) were case-control studies, and 83 (8·1%) were cohort studies. Topics related to public health were the most often studied. The average citations per publication was 9·1. The most frequently cited papers occurred with international collaboration. A total of 886 (84%) publications were “All Open Access” and only 5% of the papers were published in Ethiopian journals. We identified ten groups that maintained scientific production for 8 years or more, mainly in research on malaria and vector borne diseases, nutrition, microbiology, and various public health issues. One of seven papers were published with support from external funding, and with collaborative links with the United States, Europe, and New Zealand.ConclusionsThere has been a remarkable increase in health research at the three universities. The institutions should enhance the research culture, strengthening their health research capacity by encouraging good research practice and ensuring connections between health research and implementation.

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sa’ed H. Zyoud

Abstract Background At the global level and in the Arab world, particularly in low-income countries, COVID-19 remains a major public health issue. As demonstrated by an incredible number of COVID-19-related publications, the research science community responded rapidly. Therefore, this study was intended to assess the growing contribution of the Arab world to global research on COVID-19. Methods For the period between December 2019 and March 2021, the search for publications was conducted via the Scopus database using terms linked to COVID-19. VOSviewer 1.6.16 software was applied to generate a network map to assess hot topics in this area and determine the collaboration patterns between different countries. Furthermore, the research output of Arab countries was adjusted in relation to population size and gross domestic product (GDP). Results A total of 143,975 publications reflecting the global overall COVID-19 research output were retrieved. By restricting analysis to the publications published by the Arab countries, the research production was 6131 documents, representing 4.26% of the global research output regarding COVID-19. Of all these publications, 3990 (65.08%) were original journal articles, 980 (15.98%) were review articles, 514 (8.38%) were letters and 647 (10.55%) were others, such as editorials or notes. The highest number of COVID-19 publications was published by Saudi Arabia (n = 2186, 35.65%), followed by Egypt (n = 1281, 20.78%) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), (n = 719, 11.73%). After standardization by population size and GDP, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Lebanon had the highest publication productivity. The collaborations were mostly with researchers from the United States (n = 968), followed by the United Kingdom (n = 661). The main research lines identified in COVID-19 from the Arab world are related to: public health and epidemiology; immunological and pharmaceutical research; signs, symptoms and clinical diagnosis; and virus detection. Conclusions A novel analysis of the latest Arab COVID-19-related studies is discussed in the current study and how these findings are connected to global production. Continuing and improving future collaboration between developing and developed countries will also help to facilitate the sharing of responsibilities for COVID-19 in research results and the implementation of policies for COVID-19.


2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (01) ◽  
pp. 199-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. E. Dixon ◽  
H. Kharrazi ◽  
H. P. Lehmann

Summary Objectives: To survey advances in public health and epidemiology informatics over the past three years. Methods: We conducted a review of English-language research works conducted in the domain of public health informatics (PHI), and published in MEDLINE between January 2012 and December 2014, where information and communication technology (ICT) was a primary subject, or a main component of the study methodology. Selected articles were synthesized using a thematic analysis using the Essential Services of Public Health as a typology. Results: Based on themes that emerged, we organized the advances into a model where applications that support the Essential Services are, in turn, supported by a socio-technical infrastructure that relies on government policies and ethical principles. That infrastructure, in turn, depends upon education and training of the public health workforce, development that creates novel or adapts existing infrastructure, and research that evaluates the success of the infrastructure. Finally, the persistence and growth of infrastructure depends on financial sustainability. Conclusions: Public health informatics is a field that is growing in breadth, depth, and complexity. Several Essential Services have benefited from informatics, notably, “Monitor Health,” “Diagnose & Investigate,” and “Evaluate.” Yet many Essential Services still have not yet benefited from advances such as maturing electronic health record systems, interoperability amongst health information systems, analytics for population health management, use of social media among consumers, and educational certification in clinical informatics. There is much work to be done to further advance the science of PHI as well as its impact on public health practice.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seydou Doumbia ◽  
Ydrissa Sow ◽  
Mahamadou Diakite ◽  
Chuen-Yen Lau

Abstract Mali, like the rest of the world, has seen a rapid spread of COVID-19 since the first report of imported cases. Despite being a low-income country, Mali has leveraged scientific research resources via coordinated approaches to enable public health emergency planning and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mali’s approach includes the harmonization of research activities; leveraging of research laboratory capacity of the University Clinical Research Center, Mali International Center for Excellence and three other in-country laboratories for community COVID-19 testing; strengthening relationships amongst local and international stakeholders; and collaboration with the Ministry of Health to integrate scientific evidence into public policy and emergency management of COVID-19 through a platform of consultation and open communication. The country has implemented national coordination of its COVID-19 response by establishing a COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Committee and a COVID-19 Technical Coordination Committee, both within the Ministry of Health and working collaboratively with other stakeholders. Members of Mali’s COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Committee also serve as leaders of its principal academic and government clinical and public health research entities. This centralised approach has enabled the prioritisation of COVID-19 control activities, informed allocation of resources, evidence-based public health practices and timely decision-making in the pandemic setting. Though challenges remain, lessons learned from Mali’s harnessing of clinical research capacity to guide and support its COVID-19 response can be applied to future global health research challenges and illustrate the power of building public health-responsive research capacity in resource-limited settings through international collaboration.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (01) ◽  
pp. 241-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. L. Massoudi ◽  
K. G. Chester

Summary Objectives: To survey advances in public and population health and epidemiology informatics over the past 18 months. Methods: We conducted a review of English-language research works conducted in the domain of public and population health informatics and published in MEDLINE or Web of Science between January 2015 and June 2016 where information technology or informatics was a primary subject or main component of the study methodology. Selected articles were presented using a thematic analysis based on the 2011 American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Public Health Informatics Agenda tracks as a typology. Results: Results are given within the context developed by Dixon et al., (2015) and key themes from the 2011 AMIA Public Health Informatics Agenda. Advances are presented within a socio-technical infrastructure undergirded by a trained, competent public health workforce, systems development to meet the business needs of the practice field, and research that evaluates whether those needs are adequately met. The ability to support and grow the infrastructure depends on financial sustainability. Conclusions: The fields of public health and population health informatics continue to grow, with the most notable developments focused on surveillance, workforce development, and linking to or providing clinical services, which encompassed population health informatics advances. Very few advances addressed the need to improve communication, coordination, and consistency with the field of informatics itself, as identified in the AMIA agenda. This will likely result in the persistence of the silos of public health information systems that currently exist. Future research activities need to aim toward a holistic approach of informatics across the enterprise.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-99
Author(s):  
Fábio Hech Dominski

Introdução: É notável o crescimento na produção de conhecimento na área da psicologia do esporte (PE). O conhecimento produzido pelos pesquisadores ocorre através da publicação de seus trabalhos no formato de artigos em periódicos científicos. Não existe na literatura análises considerando os periódicos específicos da área e suas características. Objetivo: Discutir acerca do cenário atual de periódicos específicos relacionados à PE. Métodos: Trata-se de uma pesquisa documental a respeito dos periódicos de PE. Foram extraídos e analisados dados como país, instituição, editora, língua de publicação, as métricas (JCR - ISI Web of Science, SJR, Citescore e SNIP – Scopus, e índice h5 – Google Scholar), periodicidade, período de publicações e número de artigos publicados em 2018. Resultados: Foram observados 14 periódicos na literatura relacionados diretamente a temática da PE. A maioria dos periódicos (5) é dos Estados Unidos, três da Espanha e três do Reino Unido. Brasil, Itália e Holanda apresentaram um periódico cada. A maioria dos periódicos publica na língua inglesa (13 dos 14). O fator de impacto (JCR) dos periódicos variou de 0,64 a 6,90, cinco periódicos não apresentaram essa métrica em 2018. Neste ano, os periódicos publicaram de 11 até 144 artigos. Conclusão: A partir da análise dos periódicos científicos específicos da PE, verificou-se que os de maior qualidade considerando as métricas analisadas, são dos Estados Unidos e da Europa. No Brasil ressalta-se a necessidade de fortalecimento do periódico específico existente na área, que pode ser realizado a partir da unificação das organizações que atuam na prática profissional e na pesquisa científica em PE. ABSTRACT. Sport psychology research and the specific journals scenario. Background: There is a remarkable growth in the production of knowledge in the field of sports psychology (SP). The knowledge produced by researchers occurs through the publication of their work in the format of articles in scientific journals. There are no analyses in the literature considering the specific journals of the area and their characteristics. Objective: To discuss about the current scenario of specific journals related to SP. Methods: This is a documentary research about the SP journals. The following data were extracted and analyzed: country, institution, publisher, publication language, metrics (JCR - ISI Web of Science, SJR, Citescore and SNIP – Scopus, and index h5 – Google Scholar), periodicity, publication period, and number of articles published in 2018. Results: It was observed 14 journals related to SP. Most of them are from United States, three from Spain and three from United Kingdom. Brazil, Italy and Netherlands showed one journal each. Most of the journals publish in English language (13 of 14). The impact factor ranged from 0.64 to 6.90, and five journals do not show this metric in 2018. In this year, the journals published from 11 to 144 articles. Conclusion: From the analysis of the specific scientific journals of the SP, it was found that the journals with highest quality are from the United States and Europe. In Brazil, there is a need to strengthen the existing specific journal in the area, which can be done by unifying the organizations that work in professional practice and scientific research of SP.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jude Igumbor ◽  
Edna N Bosire ◽  
Tariro Basera ◽  
Uwizeye Dieudonn ◽  
Funke Fayehun ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Strengthening research capacity in African academic institutions is crucial to address the ever-increasing health challenges across the continent. Since its inception in 2009, the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) program has focused on strengthening the capacity of nine African universities to produce skilled researchers and scholars able to improve public and population health on the continent. This study describes the alignment between CARTA-supported doctoral topics and publications with the priorities articulated by the African public and population health research agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs). Methods: We reviewed the output from CARTA PhD fellows between 2011 and 2018 to establish the volume and scope of the publications, and the degree to which the research focus coincided with the SDGs, World Bank, and African Development Bank research priority areas. We identified nine key priority areas into which the topics were classified.Results: In total, 140 CARTA fellows published 806 articles in peer-reviewed journals over the 8 years up to 2018. The publications are available in over 6300 online versions and have been cited in over 5500 other publications. About 69% of the published papers addressed the nine African public and population health research agenda and SDG priority areas. Infectious diseases topped the list of publications (26.8%), followed by the health system and policy research (17.6%), maternal and child health (14.7%), sexual and reproductive health (14.3%). About 70% of the articles were published by fellows from or affiliated to universities in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Conclusions and recommendations: Investments by CARTA in supporting doctoral studies provides fellows with sufficient training and skills to publish their research in fields of public and population health. The number of publications is understandably uneven across Africa’s public and population priority areas. However, even while low in number, fellows are nonetheless publishing in areas such as non-communicable disease, health financing, neglected tropical diseases, and environmental health. Violence and injury is perhaps underrepresented. There is need to keep developing research capacity in partner institutions with low research output by training more PhDs in such institutions and by facilitating enabling environments for research.


FACETS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-57
Author(s):  
Wytamma Wirth ◽  
David Lesbarrères ◽  
Ellen Ariel

Ranaviruses are large nucleocytoplasmic DNA viruses that infect ectothermic vertebrates. Here we report the results of a scientometric analysis of the field of ranavirology for the last 10 years. Using bibliometric tools we analyse trends, identify top publications and journals, and visualise the ranavirus collaboration landscape. The Web of Science core collection contains 545 ranavirus-related publications from 2010 to 2019, with more publications produced every year and a total of 6830 citations. Research output is primarily driven by the United States and People’s Republic of China, who together account for more than 60% of ranavirus publications. We also observed a positive correlation between the average number of co-authors on ranavirus publications and the year of publication, indicating that overall collaboration is increasing. A keyword analysis of ranavirus publications from 2010 to 2019 reveals several areas of research interest including; ecology, immunology, virology/molecular biology, genetics, ichthyology, and herpetology. While ranavirus research is conducted globally, relatively few publications have co-authors from both European and Asian countries, possibly because closer countries (geographical distance) are more likely to share co-authors. To this end, efforts should be made to foster collaborations across geopolitical and cultural boundaries, especially between countries with shared research interests as ultimately, understanding global pathogens, like ranaviruses, will require global collaboration.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0254003
Author(s):  
Kevin Jefferson ◽  
Kaitlyn K. Stanhope ◽  
Carla Jones-Harrell ◽  
Aimée Vester ◽  
Emma Tyano ◽  
...  

Objective To identify recommendations for conducting public health research with trauma-exposed populations. Methods Researchers searched Embase, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Open Grey, and Google Scholar for recommendations. Trauma that causes psychological impact was our exposure of interest and we excluded clinical articles on treating physical trauma. We reviewed titles and abstracts of 8,070 articles and full text of 300 articles. We analyzed recommendations with thematic analysis, generated questions from the existing pool of recommendations, and then summarized select gaps. Results We abstracted recommendations from 145 articles in five categories: community benefit, participant benefit, safety, researcher well-being, and recommendations for conduct of trauma research. Conclusions Gold standards to guide the conduct of trauma-informed public health research do not yet exist. The literature suggests participation in trauma research is not inherently harmful, and current recommendations concern using research to benefit communities and participants, protecting participants and researchers from harm, and improving professional practice. As public health researchers increasingly analyze trauma as a determinant of health, gold standards for the conduct of trauma-informed public health research would be appropriate and timely.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle V. Evans ◽  
Courtney C. Murdock ◽  
John M. Drake

AbstractNew vector-borne diseases have emerged on multiple occasions over the last several decades, raising fears that they may become established within the United States. Here, we provide a watchlist of flaviviruses with high potential to emerge in the US, identified using new statistical techniques for mining the associations in partially observed data, to allow the public health community to better target surveillance.


2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Redman-MacLaren ◽  
David J MacLaren ◽  
Humpress Harrington ◽  
Rowena Asugeni ◽  
Relmah Timothy-Harrington ◽  
...  

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