PHM-Exch> PRESS RELEASE: Research Output in Developing CountriesReveals 194% Increase in Five Years

[Leslie London]

Dear Claudio
 
This is an interesting report
 
However, some cautions should be stated.
 
1. The authors of the report are claiming a lot from an ecological association between the introduction of the Research4Life iniative and increase in scholarly output in scientific journals.
As we know, there have been umpteen investments in building research capacity in developing countries in the same period. 
It may well be that Research4life has contributed to this trend, but it is quite a step to claim that "Research4Life Demonstrates Profound Impact on Scholarly Landscape" based on an ecological association.
 
2. Some of the data on which this claim is made is produced by agents with overwhelmingly strong vested interests in the matter - Elsevier, Thomson's, for example. We know there have been huge criticisms made of what journals are counted in the Thomson's database, for example, and it isn't clear that changes in the profile of journals included in the database over the study period were accounted for.
 
3. Experiences shared with me by colleagues in Tanzania, anecdotal though it may be, is that access to journals through the HINARI portal is limited by IT connectivity, so the benefits of free access to journals for researchers in eligible countries is completely negated by impractical IT systems in these same countries which make it practically impossible to download articles. The seeming benefits of increased access to journal articles in encouraging developing country researchers to publish is entirely dependent on better IT connectivity. What is to say that it isn't improvements in the IT infrastructure in these countries that has simply enabled developing country researchers to 'catch' up?
 
This is not to say that I am opposed to or critical of efforts to improve developing country research outputs through public-private partnerships that offer health, agriculture and environmental research for free or at very low cost to developing countries.
 
However, I would be a bit more critical about accepting dogmatic claims at face value, particularly with strong vested interests at stake.
 
For one, if the IT and telecommunications industry invested in ICT to support scientific endeavours in these same countries, we would no doubt overcome many of the problems experienced to date
 
Thanks
 
Leslie
 
 


>>> Claudio Schuftan <cschuftan at phmovement.org> 7/3/2009 7:07 PM >>>

From: Vern Weitzel <vern.weitzel at gmail.com>
crossposted from: "[health-vn discussion group]" health-vn at anu.edu.au 


From: Kimberly Parker <parkerk at who.int>


Posted on behalf of Shira Tabachnikoff. Please note that the graphs
cannot be attached, and are available in a PDF version:
http://www.who.int/entity/hinari/Increase_in_developing_country_research_output.pdf 
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Research4Life Demonstrates Profound Impact on Scholarly Landscape

London, 2 July 2009 - The partners of Research4Life announced today at
the World Conference of Science Journalists 2009 that a new research
impact analysis has demonstrated a dramatic rise in research output by
scientists in the developing world since 2002. By comparing absolute
growth in published research before (1996 - 2002) and after (2002 -
2008) the advent of the Research4Life programmes, the analysis has
revealed a 194% or 6.4-fold increase in articles published in peer
reviewed journals.

Research4Life is the collective name given to HINARI, AGORA and OARE,
the three public-private partnerships that offer health, agriculture and
environmental research for free or at very low cost to developing
countries. Key partners include WHO, FAO, UNEP, Cornell and Yale
Universities, the International Association of Scientific, Technical and
Medical Publishers and Microsoft as the technology partner. Over 150
publishers, among them Elsevier, Springer, Wiley-Blackwell and Oxford
University Press provide the journal content.

The analysis, conducted by Elsevier's Associate Director of
Scientometrics & Market Analysis, Dr Andrew Plume, showed that absolute
growth in research between 1996 - 2002 was 25% in non Research4Life
countries (countries not eligible due to their GNI per capita), 22% in
Band 1 countries (eligible countries with less than $1250 annual per
capita income or GNI) and 30% in Band 2 countries (eligible countries
with $1251 to $3500 GNI). Five years on, between 2002 - 2008, the same
figures are dramatically higher at 67%, 145% and 194% respectively
indicating 2.6-, 6.5- and 6.4-fold increases over the 1996-2002 growth.

Dr Plume used a database sourced from Thomson Reuters to count the
appearance of each country in the author affiliations of indexed journal
articles, and then grouped these countries by their Research4Life
eligibility.

In addition, an in-depth look at three selected Band 1 countries,
(Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania) and one Band 2 country (Bulgaria) reveals
a remarkable progression of article output from 1996 - 2008. By
contrast, the non Research4Life country Japan (for example) showed
steady and continuous growth over this period without a sharp change in
output over the period analysed.

"The opportunities to conduct original scholarly research without access
to the world's published literature are limited. Discoveries build on
generations of research done previously," remarked Kimberly Parker,
HINARI Program Manager at the WHO. "Research4Life has extended the reach
of that scholarly heritage into the developing world, increasing
researchers' opportunities to participate in the global research
community by conducting groundbreaking research, collaborating with
global colleagues, and in time contributing to evidence-based scientific
policy in their own countries. We are very excited to see the growing
output coming from the developing world."

Dr Andrew Plume noted, "The massive and sustained growth in scholarly
output from the Research4Life countries, over and above the growth for
the rest of the world, is probably the result of many related factors
such as scientific policy, government and private research funding, and
other global developments. However, such a dramatic increase in research
output also reflects a clear correlation with the launch of the
Research4Life programmes. These statistics point to Research4Life's
profound impact on institutions and individual researchers' ability to
publish."

"Since we have had access to Research4Life, the researchers, and
especially the clinicians at the College of Medicine, University of Port
Harcourt, have been able to engage more with the global science
community," stated Henrietta Otokunefor, Automation Librarian at the
University of Port Harcourt Library in Nigeria. "The library computers
and those at the ICTC for faculty are often occupied and I've seen a
growth in published research from our students as well. It is great to
see that Nigeria has made progress in this area as increased scientific
developments can lead to improved health and economics, and in the end,
a better quality of life."

The results of the impact analysis are further illustrated by
Research4Life's recent institutional growth findings announced in May
2009. OARE, the Online Access to Research in the Environment program has
registered 1500 institutions since its launch in 2006, an increase of
nearly 700 percent. The Health Access to Research programme: HINARI has
grown by 61% since 2006 so that researchers at 3,866 not-for-profit
institutions in 108 countries now have access to over 6,300 medical and
health journals. AGORA or Access to Global Online Research in
Agriculture has increased registrants by 77% since 2006, providing
researchers at 1,760 developing world institutions with access to 1,276
food, agriculture, and related social sciences journals.

# # #

Notes to Editors:

A Research4Life reception will be held at the World Conference of
Science Journalists on Thursday, July 2 18:30-20:00 at Central Hall
Westminster.

About Research4Life

Research4Life is the collective name for three public-private
partnerships which seek to help achieve the UN's Millennium Development
Goals by providing the developing world with access to critical
scientific research. Since 2002, the three programmes, Health Access to
Research (HINARI), Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture
(AGORA) and Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE), have
given researchers at more than 5,000 institutions in 108 developing
world countries free or low cost access to over 7,000 journals provided
by the world's leading science publishers.

Research4Life is a public-private partnership of the WHO, FAO, UNEP,
Cornell and Yale Universities and the International Association of
Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers. Together with technology
partner Microsoft, the partnership's goal is to help attain six of the
UN's eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015, reducing the scientific
knowledge gap between industrialized countries and the developing world.

For further information please visit www.Research4Life.org ( http://www.research4life.org/ ) or view the
Research4Life YouTube channel.

Media Contacts

Shira Tabachnikoff
s.tabachnikoff at elsevier.com 

Kimberly Parker
parkerk at who.int 



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