Why Are African Researchers Left Behind in Global Scientific Publications? – A Viewpoint

Document Type : Viewpoint

Authors

1 World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Congo

2 Centre for Health Professions Education, Faculty of Health Sciences, NorthWest University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Abstract

Why Are African Researchers Left Behind in Global Scientific Publications? – A Viewpoint

Keywords


Background 

 

Despite the many years of training and capacity building in health research, the low publication record by African scientists is a matter of concern. The modest improvements registered in the recent past, with a reported increase in Africa’s share of world publication output from 1.5% in 2005 to 3.20% in 2016,1 is nothing to celebrate. Africans’ contribution to the global share of 36 326 indexed publications on SARS-CoV-2/ COVID-19 10 months into the pandemic was only 3.0%.2 ...(Read more...)

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