Authorship in Global Mental Health Research: Recommendations for Collaborative Approaches to Writing and Publishing

Nagendra P Luitel,Bonnie N Kaiser,Noreen Khan,Sujen M Maharjan,Brandon A Kohrt,Elizabeth K Macfarlane,Nawaraj Upadhaya

doi:10.1016/j.aogh.2014.04.007

Abstract

BackgroundCollaborations among researchers, clinicians, and individuals with mental illness from high-income countries (HICs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are crucial to produce research, interventions, and policies that are relevant, feasible, and ethical. However, global mental health and cultural psychiatry research publications have been dominated by HIC investigators. ObjectiveThe aim of this review was to present recommendations for collaborative writing with a focus on early career investigators in HICs and LMICs. MethodsA workshop was conducted with HIC and LMIC investigators in Nepal to discuss lessons learned for collaborative writing. The researchers had experience in cross-cultural psychiatric epidemiology, health services research, randomized controlled trials, and projects with war and disaster-affected populations in complex humanitarian emergencies including child soldiers and refugees. Additional lessons learned were contributed from researchers engaged in similar collaborations in Haiti. FindingsA step-by-step process for collaborative writing was developed. ConclusionsHIC and LMIC writing collaborations will encourage accurate, ethical, and contextually grounded publications to foster understanding and facilitate reduction of the global burden of mental illness.

Highlights

In the late 1890s and early 1900s, the first major expeditions in global mental health (GMH) research took place in the form of missions from Europe to the South Pacific [1]
A psychiatrist and an anthropologist, and Charles Seligman, an anthropologist, departed from England to travel to the Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea to study mental illness among remote island populations
Kraepelin’s studies with Javanese and later with Native Americans and African Americans were attempts to identify what aspects of mental disorders were consistent across cultures and what other aspects were more plastic in the face of culture

Summary

Introduction

In the late 1890s and early 1900s, the first major expeditions in global mental health (GMH) research took place in the form of missions from Europe to the South Pacific [1]. A few years later, Emil Kraepelin, considered the father of modern psychiatric classification, traveled from Germany to the island of Java to study mental health in a Dutch-run asylum with Javanese patients [2]. These trips addressed interesting questions that remain in GMH research today. Rivers’ work examined local practices of healing [3] He later used his study of healing in the Torres Strait to develop treatment for mental health problems among British soldiers who fought in World War I.

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Results

Conclusion