High-income countries remain overrepresented in highly ranked public health journals: a descriptive analysis of research settings and authorship affiliations
Open accessAbstract
Scientific contribution in high-impact journals is largely from authors affiliated with institutions in high-income countries (HICs). Publication of papers by contribution of individual countries to leading journals can provide a picture of the most influential countries in a particular discipline. The aim of the study was to identify changes in the patterns in authorship and origin of original research articles in relation to countries’ income level in the field of public health in 2016 in comparison to previous studies. A descriptive analysis was conducted based on articles published in highly ranked public health journals in 2016. Based on the inclusion criteria, 368 research articles were identified. Over 80% of these studies were conducted in HICs. Authors were mainly based in HICs (84%), especially in the USA. The majority of first, last, and corresponding authors were affiliated with HICs (over 90%). Our study might serve as a prompt for editorial and advisory boards of the leading international journals to provide more opportunities for researchers based in low and middle-income countries.
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The dominance of high-income countries in included studies reflects the disproportionate location of public health research in the global north more generally.
“but reflects the disproportionate location of public health research in the global north more generally [63].”
From The use of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to address causality in complex systems: a systematic review of research on public health interventions (2021) · cites this paper as [63]
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- Authors
- Plancikova, D., Duric, P., & O’May, F.
- Affiliations
- Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences and Social Work, Trnava University in Trnava, Trnava, Slovakia
- Institute for Global Health and Development, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, UK
- Queen Margaret University (GB)
- ORCID
- O’May, Fiona
- Venue
- Critical Public Health
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2020-02-04
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 487-493
- ISSN
- 0958-1596 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-3682
- OpenAlex
- W3005021303
- Cited by
- 41
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 3.20
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- redun.educons.edu.rs
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Critical Public Health (publishedVersion)
- REDUN - Repository of the EDUCONS University (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Queen Margaret University Publications Repository (Queen Margaret University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Academic Publishing and Open Access
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Academic Writing and Publishing
- Keywords
- high-income countries, country income level, publication bias, public health journals, international scientific collaboration, low- and middle-income countries, journal rankings
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