Authorship trends in infectious diseases society of America affiliated journal articles conducted in low-income countries, 1998-2018

Abstract

An increasing amount of infectious diseases research is conducted in low-income countries (LIC) given their high burden of disease; however, the contribution of LIC investigators as measured by authorship metrics, specifically to infectious diseases research, has not been thoroughly studied. We performed a literature search for primary research conducted either within LICs or using samples from LIC participants published between 1998-2017 in the Infectious Disease Society of America-affiliated journals Clinical Infectious Diseases, Journal of Infectious Diseases, and Open Forum Infectious Diseases. Primary outcomes included proportion of LIC-affiliated first and last authors (i.e. lead authors) per year and authorship trends over time. Secondary outcomes included proportion of LIC-affiliated authorship by geographic distribution and disease focus. Among 1308 publications identified, 50% had either a first or last LIC-affiliated author. Among these authors, 48% of LIC-affiliated first authors and 52% of LIC-affiliated last authors also reported a non-LIC institutional affiliation. While the absolute number of articles by LIC-affiliated lead authors increased over the 20-year period, the proportion of articles with LIC-affiliated lead authors decreased. There is a growing literature for infectious disease research conducted in LICs yet authorship trends in a small subset of these publications demonstrate a pronounced and worsening exclusion of LIC-affiliated investigators from publishing as lead authors.

Fig 1. Methodology and inclusion/exclusion criteria.

Criteria were applied and accessed via Scopus abstract and citation database search strategy. Abbreviations: LIC, low-income country.

Fig 2. Proportion of LIC-affiliated first and last authorship over time.

(A) Overall proportion of LIC-affiliated first, last and first or last authorship. Number of articles per year is represented by the size of the corresponding circle. (B) Proportions of LIC-affiliated and jointly-affiliated first authors. (C) Proportions of LIC-affiliated and jointly-affiliated last authors. Abbreviations: LIC, low-income country.

Fig 3. Adjusted proportion of first or last authors affiliated with low-income countries.

Displayed as adjusted for year, journal, study topic and geographic region. Abbreviations: NTD, neglected tropical diseases; HIV, human immunodeficiency virus.

Fig 4. Geographic distribution of LIC publications.

(A) Total number of publications between 1998–2017 and (B) by proportion of publications with LIC-affiliated first or last authorship. Maps were created using Plotly Chart Studio (Plotly Technologies Inc, released 2015). Abbreviations: LIC, low-income country.