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Association of International Editorial Staff With Published Articles From Low- and Middle-Income Countries

IMPORTANCE: The association between geographic diversity of medical journal editorial staff and publications reporting research conducted in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is unclear. OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between having editorial staff members affiliated with LMICs and pub...

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Autores principales: Melhem, Gandolina, Rees, Chris A., Sunguya, Bruno F., Ali, Mohsin, Kurpad, Anura, Duggan, Christopher P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Medical Association 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9127552/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35604686
http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.13269
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author Melhem, Gandolina
Rees, Chris A.
Sunguya, Bruno F.
Ali, Mohsin
Kurpad, Anura
Duggan, Christopher P.
author_facet Melhem, Gandolina
Rees, Chris A.
Sunguya, Bruno F.
Ali, Mohsin
Kurpad, Anura
Duggan, Christopher P.
author_sort Melhem, Gandolina
collection PubMed
description IMPORTANCE: The association between geographic diversity of medical journal editorial staff and publications reporting research conducted in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is unclear. OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between having editorial staff members affiliated with LMICs and publishing research articles from LMICs in leading biomedical journals. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study included biomedical journals in fields representing the largest disease burden globally from January 1 to December 31, 2020. Websites of the 5 leading journals in general medicine, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, psychiatry, and nutrition were reviewed to obtain the country affiliations of editorial staff members. To determine article study countries, original research articles in each journal were reviewed through MEDLINE. Editorial staff country affiliations and study country locations were classified according to World Bank income brackets and regions. EXPOSURE: Editorial staff country affiliation. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Descriptive statistics of the proportion of editorial staff affiliated with each income bracket and region and Spearman rank correlation coefficients were used to assess the association between the proportion of editorial staff affiliated with LMICs and the proportion of published articles reporting work conducted in these countries. RESULTS: There were 3819 editorial staff members in the 45 included journals: 3637 (95.2%) were affiliated with high-income countries, 140 (3.7%) with upper-middle-income countries, 37 (1.0%) with lower-middle-income countries, and 5 (0.1%) with low-income countries. All 48 editors-in-chief were affiliated with a high-income country. Editorial staff members were mostly affiliated with North American countries (n = 2120 [55.5%]) and European or Central Asian countries (n = 1256 [32.9%]). Of the 10 096 original research articles included in our analysis, 7857 (77.8%) reported research conducted in high-income countries, 1562 (15.5%) reported research conducted in upper-middle-income countries, 507 (5.0%) reported research conducted in lower-middle-income countries, and 170 (1.7%) reported research conducted in low-income countries. Greater editorial staff representation correlated moderately with more published articles reporting research conducted in LMICs (Spearman ρ = 0.51; 95% CI, 0.25-0.70; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this cross-sectional study, editorial staff in leading biomedical journals were largely composed of individuals affiliated with high-income countries in North America and Europe. A correlation was found between greater editorial staff representation and publication of research focused on LMICs, suggesting that the inclusion of editorial staff affiliated with LMICs may promote the publication of research conducted in those countries.
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spelling pubmed-91275522022-06-09 Association of International Editorial Staff With Published Articles From Low- and Middle-Income Countries Melhem, Gandolina Rees, Chris A. Sunguya, Bruno F. Ali, Mohsin Kurpad, Anura Duggan, Christopher P. JAMA Netw Open Original Investigation IMPORTANCE: The association between geographic diversity of medical journal editorial staff and publications reporting research conducted in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is unclear. OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between having editorial staff members affiliated with LMICs and publishing research articles from LMICs in leading biomedical journals. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study included biomedical journals in fields representing the largest disease burden globally from January 1 to December 31, 2020. Websites of the 5 leading journals in general medicine, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, psychiatry, and nutrition were reviewed to obtain the country affiliations of editorial staff members. To determine article study countries, original research articles in each journal were reviewed through MEDLINE. Editorial staff country affiliations and study country locations were classified according to World Bank income brackets and regions. EXPOSURE: Editorial staff country affiliation. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Descriptive statistics of the proportion of editorial staff affiliated with each income bracket and region and Spearman rank correlation coefficients were used to assess the association between the proportion of editorial staff affiliated with LMICs and the proportion of published articles reporting work conducted in these countries. RESULTS: There were 3819 editorial staff members in the 45 included journals: 3637 (95.2%) were affiliated with high-income countries, 140 (3.7%) with upper-middle-income countries, 37 (1.0%) with lower-middle-income countries, and 5 (0.1%) with low-income countries. All 48 editors-in-chief were affiliated with a high-income country. Editorial staff members were mostly affiliated with North American countries (n = 2120 [55.5%]) and European or Central Asian countries (n = 1256 [32.9%]). Of the 10 096 original research articles included in our analysis, 7857 (77.8%) reported research conducted in high-income countries, 1562 (15.5%) reported research conducted in upper-middle-income countries, 507 (5.0%) reported research conducted in lower-middle-income countries, and 170 (1.7%) reported research conducted in low-income countries. Greater editorial staff representation correlated moderately with more published articles reporting research conducted in LMICs (Spearman ρ = 0.51; 95% CI, 0.25-0.70; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this cross-sectional study, editorial staff in leading biomedical journals were largely composed of individuals affiliated with high-income countries in North America and Europe. A correlation was found between greater editorial staff representation and publication of research focused on LMICs, suggesting that the inclusion of editorial staff affiliated with LMICs may promote the publication of research conducted in those countries. American Medical Association 2022-05-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9127552/ /pubmed/35604686 http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.13269 Text en Copyright 2022 Melhem G et al. JAMA Network Open. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License.
spellingShingle Original Investigation
Melhem, Gandolina
Rees, Chris A.
Sunguya, Bruno F.
Ali, Mohsin
Kurpad, Anura
Duggan, Christopher P.
Association of International Editorial Staff With Published Articles From Low- and Middle-Income Countries
title Association of International Editorial Staff With Published Articles From Low- and Middle-Income Countries
title_full Association of International Editorial Staff With Published Articles From Low- and Middle-Income Countries
title_fullStr Association of International Editorial Staff With Published Articles From Low- and Middle-Income Countries
title_full_unstemmed Association of International Editorial Staff With Published Articles From Low- and Middle-Income Countries
title_short Association of International Editorial Staff With Published Articles From Low- and Middle-Income Countries
title_sort association of international editorial staff with published articles from low- and middle-income countries
topic Original Investigation
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9127552/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35604686
http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.13269
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