Abstract
BackgroundThis study designed and applied accessible yet systematic methods to generate baseline information about the patterns and structure of Canada's neglected tropical disease (NTD) research network; a network that, until recently, was formed and functioned on the periphery of strategic Canadian research funding.MethodologyMultiple methods were used to conduct this study, including: (1) a systematic bibliometric procedure to capture archival NTD publications and co-authorship data; (2) a country-level “core-periphery” network analysis to measure and map the structure of Canada's NTD co-authorship network including its size, density, cliques, and centralization; and (3) a statistical analysis to test the correlation between the position of countries in Canada's NTD network (“k-core measure”) and the quantity and quality of research produced.Principal FindingsOver the past sixty years (1950–2010), Canadian researchers have contributed to 1,079 NTD publications, specializing in Leishmania, African sleeping sickness, and leprosy. Of this work, 70% of all first authors and co-authors (n = 4,145) have been Canadian. Since the 1990s, however, a network of international co-authorship activity has been emerging, with representation of researchers from 62 different countries; largely researchers from OECD countries (e.g. United States and United Kingdom) and some non-OECD countries (e.g. Brazil and Iran). Canada has a core-periphery NTD international research structure, with a densely connected group of OECD countries and some African nations, such as Uganda and Kenya. Sitting predominantly on the periphery of this research network is a cluster of 16 non-OECD nations that fall within the lowest GDP percentile of the network.Conclusion/SignificanceThe publication specialties, composition, and position of NTD researchers within Canada's NTD country network provide evidence that while Canadian researchers currently remain the overall gatekeepers of the NTD research they generate; there is opportunity to leverage existing research collaborations and help advance regions and NTD areas that are currently under-developed.
Highlights
The cadre of research and development focused on neglected tropical diseases is driven by a common mission: generating discoveries, treatments, and interventions that will help reduce the global burden of a significant group of communicable diseases that thrive in impoverished settings and affect over 1 billion of the world’s 2.8 billion poorest people
NTD Keyword Classification In this study neglected tropical diseases are delineated as including diseases that cause significant morbidity and mortality in poor and rural populations but are the most severely neglected in terms of basic research, development, and deployment of safe and effective interventions [17]
Canada’s NTD Publication Activity and Specializations Between 1950 and 2010, Canadian researchers contributed to the production of 1079 NTD publications as per the criterion established for this study
Summary
The cadre of research and development focused on neglected tropical diseases is driven by a common mission: generating discoveries, treatments, and interventions that will help reduce the global burden of a significant group of communicable diseases that thrive in impoverished settings and affect over 1 billion of the world’s 2.8 billion poorest people. Collaborative neglected tropical disease research and development (where researchers work together from across disciplines, institutions, sectors, and countries) is as a strategy increasingly used to mobilize technical resources and diffuse the liability and financial risks amongst researchers and institutions involved in developing and bringing innovative solutions to market. The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), the Institute for One World Health (iOWH); the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative (PDVI); the Human Hookworm Initiative (HHI); Rotavirus Accelerated Development and Introduction Plan; and Pneumococcal Vaccine Accelerated Development and Introduction Plan are initiatives that each involve formal commitments from a collective of organizations, from across sectors, working to generate and deliver NTD. This study designed and applied accessible yet systematic methods to generate baseline information about the patterns and structure of Canada’s neglected tropical disease (NTD) research network; a network that, until recently, was formed and functioned on the periphery of strategic Canadian research funding
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