An analysis of Malawi\'s publication productivity

Background: Publications productivity, the number of scientific articles published, is a measure of a country's scientific output. If measured carefully it can be a useful indicator that describes a countries' research activity. Our objective was to analyze trends in publications originating from Malawi between 1996 – 2006. Methods: The MEDLINE/PubMed database, a registry of articles from over 5,000 scientific journals was searched for articles originating from Malawi between 1996 – 2006 by typing Malawi in the author affiliation search field. A review of abstracts was performed to determine health field and origin of first author – Malawian vs foreign. Results: 506 articles were retrieved of which 489 were on health. 15.5% on TB, 14.5% on HIV and AIDS, 11.2% on infectious disease, 7.2% on TB and HIV, 7.2% on Malaria. 20.9% of the authors were of Malawian origin and Tropical Doctor was the journal that had the most articles originating from Malawi. The number of articles published from Malawi has grown by 106% in the past ten years. Conclusions: Our results suggest there is growth in scientific publishing in Malawi but the main contribution is from foreign researchers residing in Malawi. More needs to be done to promote publishing by Malawian authors. Malawi Medical Journal Vol. 20 (3) 2008: pp. 90-9

Analysis of Global Research on Malaria and Plasmodium vivax

Background: Malaria is one of the infectious diseases of greatest interest to the scientific community and of greatest concern to international health authorities. Traditionally, the focus has been on Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes the most severe form of the disease in Africa. However, in the last twenty years, the Plasmodium vivax parasite, responsible for a large number of cases in Latin America, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, the Horn of Africa, and Oceania, has also generated enormous interest due, among other things, to the published evidence that it can cause severe malaria. Methods: In this paper, the international scientific publication on malaria and P. vivax has been analyzed using the Scopus database to try to define global trends in this field of study. Results: It has been shown that events such as the emergence of resistance to certain drugs can break a trend. The important role of non-malaria-endemic countries such as the USA or Switzerland in malaria research is also evident. Conclusions: International cooperation will be essential for the eradication of the disease. Moreover, in this sense, the general vision given by the bibliometric analysis of malaria caused by P. vivax is fundamental to paint the picture regarding the current situation and encourage international cooperation and control efforts

Welcome to Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine

Ethnobiology is a multidisciplinary field of study that draws on approaches and methods from both the social and biological sciences. Ethnobiology aims at investigating culturally based biological and environmental knowledge, cultural perception and cognition of the natural world, and associated behaviours and practices. Ethnomedicine is concerned with the cultural interpretations of health, disease and illness and also addresses the health care seeking process and healing practices. Research interest and activities in the areas of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine have increased tremendously in the last decade. Since the inception of the disciplines, scientific research in ethnobiology and ethnomedicine has made important contributions to understanding traditional subsistence and medical knowledge and practice. The Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (JEE) invites manuscripts and reviews based on original interdisciplinary research from around the world on the inextricable relationships between human cultures and nature, on Traditional Environmental Knowledge (TEK), folk and traditional medical knowledge, as well as on the relevance of the above for Primary Health Care (PHC) policies in developing countries

Cluster randomised trials in the medical literature: two bibliometric surveys

Background: Several reviews of published cluster randomised trials have reported that about half did not take clustering into account in the analysis, which was thus incorrect and potentially misleading. In this paper I ask whether cluster randomised trials are increasing in both number and quality of reporting. Methods: Computer search for papers on cluster randomised trials since 1980, hand search of trial reports published in selected volumes of the British Medical Journal over 20 years. Results: There has been a large increase in the numbers of methodological papers and of trial reports using the term 'cluster random' in recent years, with about equal numbers of each type of paper. The British Medical Journal contained more such reports than any other journal. In this journal there was a corresponding increase over time in the number of trials where subjects were randomised in clusters. In 2003 all reports showed awareness of the need to allow for clustering in the analysis. In 1993 and before clustering was ignored in most such trials. Conclusion: Cluster trials are becoming more frequent and reporting is of higher quality. Perhaps statistician pressure works

Fisheries and Aquaculture and Their Potential Roles in Development: An Assessment of the Current Evidence

Commissioned by the International Sustainability Unity, this report investigates a number of innovative solutions that have been developed to deal with five key challenges that are impeding progress in achieving sustainable fisheries: overcapacity; perverse subsidies; poor governance; lack of data; and by-catch and discards. These key challenges are interlinked and affect the sustainability of fisheries both directly as well as indirectly by undermining instances of good management. Through 22 case studies demonstrating good practice, we explore how these challenges have been addressed around the world and how these approaches might be scaled up and applied in other fisheries. Each case study draws on published material and interviews with key people involved in the fishery. The main report draws lessons from these case studies

Interdisciplinarity and research on local issues: evidence from a developing country

This paper explores the relationship between interdisciplinarity and research pertaining to local issues. Using Colombian publications from 1991 until 2011 in the Web of Science, we investigate the relationship between the degree of interdisciplinarity and the local orientation of the articles. We find that a higher degree of interdisciplinarity in a publication is associated with a greater emphasis on Colombian issues. In particular, our results suggest that research that combines cognitively disparate disciplines, what we refer to as distal interdisciplinarity, tends to be associated with more local focus of research. We discuss the implications of these results in the context of policies aiming to foster the local socio-economic impact of research in developing countries.Comment: 24 page

Interdisciplinarity and research on local issues: evidence from a developing country

This paper examines the role of interdisciplinarity on research pertaining to local issues. Using Colombian publications from 1991 until 2011 in the Web of Science, we investigate the relationship between the degree of interdisciplinarity and the local orientation of the articles. We find that a higher degree of interdisciplinarity in a publication is associated with a greater emphasis on local issues. In particular, our results support the view that research that combines cognitively disparate disciplines, what we refer to as distal interdisciplinarity, is associated with more local focus of research. We discuss the policy implications of these results in the context of national research assessments targeting excellence and socio-economic impact

A Machine Learning Approach to Improving Occupational Income Scores

Historical studies of labor markets frequently lack data on individual income. The occupational income score (OCCSCORE) is often used as an alternative measure of labor market outcomes. We consider the consequences of using OCCSCORE when researchers are interested in earnings regressions. We estimate race and gender earnings gaps in modern decennial Censuses as well as the 1915 Iowa State Census. Using OCCSCORE biases results towards zero and can result in estimated gaps of the wrong sign. We use a machine learning approach to construct a new adjusted score based on industry, occupation, and demographics. The new income score provides estimates closer to earnings regressions. Lastly, we consider the consequences for estimates of intergenerational mobility elasticities

A bibliometric analysis of malaria research in India during 1998–2009

Objective: This study analyses the research output of India in malaria research in national and global context, asreflected in its publications output during 1998–2009.Methods: SCOPUS Citation database has been used to retrieve the publication data, which has been furtheranalysed on several parameters including its growth, rank and global publications share, citation impact, overallshare of international collaborative papers and share of major collaborative partners and patterns of researchcommunication in most productive journals. The publications output, impact and collaborative publication shareof India is also compared with South Africa, Brazil and China.Results: Indian scientists together have published 2786 papers in malaria research during 1998–2009 and registeredan average citation per paper of 3.49. The country ranks 4th among the top 20 most productive countries inmalaria research with its global publications share of 6.47% during 1998–2009.Conclusion: Quantum of Indian research output in malaria research is high but its citations per paper is lowcompared to select developing countries, which can be improved by investing more funds in international andnational collaborative research projects, as well as increasing the participation of researchers in such projects