Exploring why global health needs are unmet by research efforts: the potential influences of geography, industry and publication incentives

Abstract Background: It has been well established that research is not addressing health needs in a balanced way ¿ much more research is conducted on diseases with more burden in high-income countries than on those with more burden in lower-income countries. In this study, we explore whether these imbalances persist and inquire about the possible influence of three factors, namely geography, industry and publication incentives. Methods: We use WHO data on the Global Burden of Disease as a proxy measure of health needs and bibliometric information as a proxy for research efforts. Scientific publications on diseases were collected from MEDLINE using MeSH terms to identify relevant publications. We used Web of Science to collect author affiliations and citation data. We developed a correspondence table between WHO ICD-10 and MeSH descriptors to compare global health needs and research efforts. This correspondence table is available as supplementary material. Results: Research output is heavily concentrated in high-income countries and is mainly focused on their health needs, resulting in a relative lack of attention to diseases in lower income countries. A new finding is that diseases with a similar burden in high- and middle-income countries are also under-researched, both globally and in relation to disease burden in high- and middle-income countries. Global industrial R&D is found to be very similar to the focus of public research. Diseases more prevalent in high-income countries generate ten-fold more research attention than those in low-income countries. We find no discernible preference towards diseases of high-income countries versus those of low-income countries in the top 25% most prestigious journals. However, in middle-income countries, citation rates are substantially lower for diseases most prevalent in low- and middle-income countries. Conclusions: From a global perspective, the imbalance between research needs and research efforts persists as most of the research effort concentrates on diseases affecting high-income countries. Both pharmaceutical companies and the public sector also tend to focus on diseases with more burden in high-income countries. Our findings indicate that researchers in middle-income countries receive more citations when researching diseases more prevalent in high-income countries, and this may divert the attention of researchers in these countries from diseases more prevalent in their contexts

Localization, regionalization and globalization of university-business research co-operation in the United Kingdom

CITATION: Tijssen, R., Van de Klippe, W. & Yegros, A. 2020. Localization, regionalization and globalization of university-business research co-operation in the United Kingdom. Papers in Regional Science, 99:1215–1236, doi:10.1111/pirs.12531.The original publication is available at https://rsaiconnect.onlinelibrary.wiley.comThis empirical study analyzes university-business co-operation (UBC) from a distance-based perspective. Focusing on the UK's 48 largest research universities, we collected data from author affiliate addresses in 2008–2017 university-business research publications (UBRPs). The spatial proximity between university and its business partners listed in these co-authored research publications concerns three main distance zones: “local” (0–99 km); “regional” (100–499 km); “global” (500 km or more). The annual UBRP trends reveal a tendency towards UBC globalization. Several universities show signs of UBC glocalization, where the numbers of their global UBRPs have increased more rapidly than local UBRPs. Four common factors largely determine the UBRP quantities, irrespective of the zone: business sector R&D-intensity in the university's local geographical area; university's research size; university's high-end international citation impact; presence of university researchers with work experience in the business sector.Publisher's versio

Synthesen und Reaktionen #alpha#-heterosubstituierter Carbonylverbindungen

SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: DW 3294 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

To support civil society organisations, research funders must listen to their needs

A key premise of research impact is that the inclusion and active involvement of different stakeholders in research processes can create more useful research outcomes. One key stakeholder in many areas of social scientific research are Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), such as charities and community groups. However, despite being acknowledged in research funding frameworks their reasons for engaging in research funding are not well understood. In this post, Wouter van de Klippe discusses findings from a case study of CSO organisations and explores their motivations for engaging (or not) with research funding and academic research

Bewaartermijn voor patiëntengegevens; Gezondheidsraad bepleit wetswijziging

According to the Dutch Medical Treatment Act (WGBO), patient data must be retained for at least 10 years or as much longer as required for the provision of good medical care. In practice, patient data are often destroyed after 10 years. This may lead to problems, for example if a treatment turns out to have long-term consequences. A committee of the Health Council of the Netherlands has now recommended a change in the law. They propose a longer retention period for the care of the patient, a statutory regulation governing retention for research purposes and supplementary provisions that make it possible to retain hereditary data in the interest of relatives. Until the necessary changes in the law have been made, further destruction of medical data must be prevented. This can be accomplished by revising the existing transition provision in the WGBO, while extending it by 5 years. The scientific societies can use this time to develop guidelines for the longer storage of data in specific areas of care and for the periodic cleaning up of the file

Deposition of Platinum from Bis(Acetylacetonato)Platinum(II)

The evaporation and deposition process of Bis(acetylacetonato)platinum(II) (Pt(acac)2) was examined in a computerized microbalance system, which allows the measuring of the mass of evaporating precursor and depositing layer simultaneously. The investigations were carried out in an argon-atmosphere and an argon/oxygen-atmosphere with pressure ranging from 250 Pa to 1000 Pa. The deposition kinetics were investigated in the temperature range between Tdep = 523 K and Tdep = 733 K. A strong dependence of the deposition rate on the pretreatment of the substrate was observed. Beginning the deposition on alumina with low deposition temperatures Tdep an activation energy of 204 [MATH] 9 kJ/mol was found. On platinum precoated substrates we observed higher deposition rates and lower values for the activation energy, if the precoating was carried out at temperature Tpre > Tdep. At long deposition times with Tdep = const. the deposition rates on precoated substrates decreased to the values obtained without precoating at higher temperatures. This effect has not been clarified. In argon-atmosphere platinum layers containing carbon were deposited. Increasing the deposition temperature caused increased carbon contamination. The carbon can be removed by oxidation in air after the deposition. Platinum coatings without carbon contamination were obtained by adding oxygen during the deposition process