The Problem
Scientific research is conducted all over the world, and increasingly in developing countries. In an effort to help countries solve problems and speed development, development aid has been invested in research capacity, notably by Sweden and Canada. The results of this research must be available through publication to be useful in economic development and to other researchers. Yet only an extremely small fraction of the scientific literature is written by developing world authors, even in fields such as health and environmental studies, where it is universally recognized that the world’s dominant problems manifest themselves in developing regions.
An analysis, published in ‘‘Science’’ in 2005, of 4061 health-related journals from 1992 to 2001 showed a growing gap in scientific publications between low-income countries and the rest of the world. Similarly, Athula Sumathipala and her colleagues found under-representation of developing world authors in leading medical journals such as the BMJ, Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, and JAMA, in 1999 and 2000.
Read more about this topic: Author AID
Famous quotes containing the word problem:
“Give a scientist a problem and he will probably provide a solution; historians and sociologists, by contrast, can offer only opinions. Ask a dozen chemists the composition of an organic compound such as methane, and within a short time all twelve will have come up with the same solution of CH4. Ask, however, a dozen economists or sociologists to provide policies to reduce unemployment or the level of crime and twelve widely differing opinions are likely to be offered.”
—Derek Gjertsen, British scientist, author. Science and Philosophy: Past and Present, ch. 3, Penguin (1989)
“In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead; in the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)