HIV/AIDS research in Africa and the Middle East: participation and equity in North-South collaborations and relationships.

Abstract

Background: HIV/AIDS has attracted considerable research attention since the 1980s. In the current context of globalization and the predominance of cooperative work, it is crucial to analyze the participation of the countries and regions where the infection is most prevalent, African continent being the hardest hit (67.5% of estimated cases). This study assesses the participation of African countries in publications on the topic, as well as the degree of equity or influence existing in North-South relations.Methods : We identified all articles and reviews of HIV/AIDS indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. We analyzed the scientific production, collaboration, and contributions from African and Middle Eastern countries to scientific activity in the region. The concept of leadership was used to determine the equity in research produced through international collaboration. Results: A total of 68,808 documents published from 2010 to 2017 were analyzed. Researchers from North America and Europe participated in 82.14% of the global scientific production on HIV/AIDS, compared to just 21.61% from Africa and the Middle East. Furthermore, the research that did come out of these regions was concentrated in a small number of countries, led by South Africa (41% of the documents). Other features associated with HIV/AIDS research from Africa include the importance of international collaboration from the USA, the UK, and other European countries (75%-93% of the documents) and the limited leadership that is evident (30% to 36% of the documents). Finally, the research to which African countries contributed had a notably different disciplinary orientation, with a predominance of research on public health, epidemiology, and drug therapy.Conclusions: It is essential to foster more balance in research output, avoid the concentration of resources that reproduces the global North-South model on the African continent, and focus the research agenda on local priorities. To accomplish this, the global North should strengthen the transfer of research skills and seek equity in cooperative ties, favoring the empowerment of African countries. These efforts should be concentrated in countries with low scientific activity and high incidence and prevalence of the disease. It is also essential to foster intraregional collaborations between African countries.

Research productivity and collaboration of the NIH-funded HIV vaccine trials network: A bibliometric analysis

“…Table 2 shows a list of top 10 journals in which these articles appeared, and Table 3 shows the most frequent author locations (countries) based on their organizational affiliations. Our results are consistent with previous observations on the distribution of HIV/AIDS research outside the U.S. [ 29 , 30 ]; several low- and middle-income countries appear in Table 3 , led by South Africa.

Figure 3 HVTN productivity and impact.

…”