BMJ Global Health | 2021
African authorship on African papers during the COVID-19 pandemic
Abstract
This study investigates the lack of African representation in the literature related to diseases on the continent. It argues that this is largely due to the country s low research funding. The results of this analysis indicate that African representation in the literature supporting COVID-19 is not sufficient. Most of the studies analyzed were focused on providing clinical advice and system response advice. Only a small portion of the world s population lives in Africa, yet only a few studies related to COVID-19 are being published in the top medical journals. Integranate policies are needed to accelerate the improvement of the representation of local population groups in medical literature. Although the majority of COVID-19-related articles in the world are published by international publishers, the lack of African representation in these articles undermines the continent s role in global health research. Beyond investigating the reasons for the underrepresentation of women and minorities in global health research, this review should also be looked into to establish the coloniality of the research conducted in this field. The responsibility for ensuring that cultural and contextual input is taken by the researchers and institutions falls on their shoulders.