A bibliography of applications of operational research in West Africa

Smith, David K.

doi:10.1111/j.1475-3995.2008.00625.x

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 234 publications

(264 reference statements)

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“…As has been explained earlier, the scope of this paper is those less‐developed sub‐Saharan African nations which were not included in Smith (2008). These countries are listed later in the paper (Table 2).…”

Section: Compilationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2008, the author published a bibliography of papers relating to applications of Operational Research (OR) in 18 countries of West Africa (Smith, 2008). This paper complements that bibliography, by applying the same principles to identifying the OR‐related literature for the remaining nations of mainland sub‐Saharan Africa, with the exception of South Africa.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A bibliography of applications of operational research in sub-Saharan Africa

Smith

2010

International Transactions in Operational Research

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There continues to be considerable interest in the potential for applying Operational Research (OR) in less‐developed countries. A recent paper provided a bibliography of published research from West Africa. This paper extends that bibliography to the other sub‐Saharan nations, with the omission of South Africa. In some parts of this region, there have been numerous applications described in the literature, while in others there is very little on record. As in the earlier paper, the material has been collected from a wide range of journals, extending from the regular OR literature to many application journals. In addition to the references, the paper describes the manner of collection of this information, and discusses the resulting picture of OR in sub‐Saharan Africa.

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Section: Compilationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A bibliography of applications of operational research in sub-Saharan Africa

Smith

2010

International Transactions in Operational Research

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“…We chose to focus on papers published in the year 2000 and later. As such, there is some overlap with the hand-searched literature [ 11 , 16 , 17 , 23 , 24 , 26 – 28 , 32 ], but not with the review of OR in global health by Datta [ 10 ], which at the time of our review was over 20 years old. To fill this gap would have been an onerous task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Identifying studies for the impact theme was less straightforward. As noted by others who have reviewed OR in global health or LMICs [ 10 , 11 , 23 , 24 ], many OR studies are published before any evidence of having influenced policy- or decision-making has been demonstrated. Thus, it would be misleading to assess the impact of OR studies based solely on a review of published literature.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Operations research in global health: a scoping review with a focus on the themes of health equity and impact

Bradley

Jung

Tandon-Verma

et al. 2017

Health Res Policy Sys

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BackgroundOperations research (OR) is a discipline that uses advanced analytical methods (e.g. simulation, optimisation, decision analysis) to better understand complex systems and aid in decision-making.SummaryHerein, we present a scoping review of the use of OR to analyse issues in global health, with an emphasis on health equity and research impact. A systematic search of five databases was designed to identify relevant published literature. A global overview of 1099 studies highlights the geographic distribution of OR and common OR methods used. From this collection of literature, a narrative description of the use of OR across four main application areas of global health – health systems and operations, clinical medicine, public health and health innovation – is also presented. The theme of health equity is then explored in detail through a subset of 44 studies. Health equity is a critical element of global health that cuts across all four application areas, and is an issue particularly amenable to analysis through OR. Finally, we present seven select cases of OR analyses that have been implemented or have influenced decision-making in global health policy or practice. Based on these cases, we identify three key drivers for success in bridging the gap between OR and global health policy, namely international collaboration with stakeholders, use of contextually appropriate data, and varied communication outlets for research findings. Such cases, however, represent a very small proportion of the literature found.ConclusionPoor availability of representative and quality data, and a lack of collaboration between those who develop OR models and stakeholders in the contexts where OR analyses are intended to serve, were found to be common challenges for effective OR modelling in global health.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12961-017-0187-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…In 1988, Ehie et al compiled the first comprehensive literature review on OR/MS applications in developing countries. Recently, Smith (2008) compiled the most recently published bibliography on OR/MS in developing countries to cover only the West Africa region. This study is designed, however, to compile the published literature related to OR/MS in the Arab world that has appeared during the last three decades.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Operations research/management science in the Arab world: historical development

Yousef

2010

International Transactions in Operational Research

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This study aims to review the related literature on operations research (OR)/management science (MS) in the Arab world published during the last three decades. Owing to the nature of this study, an extensive survey of the related literature was conducted and inferences were drawn. The inferences drawn from the literature survey on OR/MS in the Arab world were first, there is a paucity of published real‐world applications of OR/MS. Second, there is a lack of published survey‐type studies in most Arab countries, except in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. Third, the majority of published works on OR/MS were of a conceptual nature. A few papers concerned with OR/MS in the Arab world were published during the 1980s, with a special emphasis on conceptual issues rather than on applied or survey‐type studies. The 1990s witnessed an increased number of publications on both survey‐type and conceptual studies. Since 2000, the number of publications has increased substantially, mainly through conceptual studies. This study has a number of implications for both practitioners and researchers. Practitioners will be made aware of the applications of OR/MS in the Arab world and the type of problems that have been addressed. This, in turn, might motivate the decision makers and the managers to adopt OR/MS approaches in solving their organizations' problems. As a result, this might increase the usage of OR/MS in this part of the world. Researchers will be able to identify the OR/MS research areas that need more attention in the Arab world. The study mainly covers the studies that are written in English and indexed in non‐Arabic databases. Although the Arabic works were not surveyed exhaustively, the author reviewed and included some available OR/MS works written in Arabic. This study is considered as the first work of its type in surveying the scholarly publications pertaining to OR/MS in the Arab world since the 1980s.

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A bibliography of applications of operational research in West Africa

Cited by 12 publications

References 234 publications

A bibliography of applications of operational research in sub-Saharan Africa

A bibliography of applications of operational research in sub-Saharan Africa

Operations research in global health: a scoping review with a focus on the themes of health equity and impact

Operations research/management science in the Arab world: historical development

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