Abstract
ObjectiveTo map and investigate the relationships established on the web between leading health-research institutions around the world.MethodsSample selection was based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centres (CCs). Data on the 768 active CCs in 89 countries were retrieved from the WHO's database. The final sample consisted of 190 institutions devoted to health sciences in 42 countries. Data on each institution's website were retrieved using webometric techniques (interlinking), and an asymmetric matrix was generated for social network analysis.FindingsThe results showed that American and European institutions, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), are the most highly connected on the web and have a higher capacity to attract hyperlinks. The Karolinska Institute (KI-SE) in Sweden is well placed as an articulation point between several integrants of the network and the component's core but lacks general recognition on the web by hyperlinks. Regarding the north-south divide, Mexico and Brazil appear to be key southern players on the web. The results showed that the hyperlinks exchanged between northern and southern countries present an abysmal gap: 99.49% of the hyperlinks provided by the North are directed toward the North itself, in contrast to 0.51% that are directed toward the South. Regarding the South, its institutions are more connected to its northern partners, with 98.46% of its hyperlinks directed toward the North, and mainly toward the United States, compared with 1.54% toward southern neighbors.ConclusionIt is advisable to strengthen integration policies on the web and to increase web networking through hyperlink exchange. In this way, the web could actually reflect international cooperation in health and help to legitimize and enhance the visibility of the many existing south-south collaboration networks.
Highlights
Since the mid-1990s, the web has been widely explored to map and understand relations between organizations in different fields [1] and by various sectors of society [2,3,4]
In the era of globalization and when international cooperation in health plays an important role in reshaping global health, a better understanding of how health institutions are behaving on the web may greatly contribute to designing policies to help legitimize and enhance the visibility of existing collaborations on the web
The selection of these institutions was based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centres (CCs) and consisted of 190 institutions representing 42 countries
Summary
The research was primarily based on webometric and social networking analyses. Webometrics is a research field devoted to understanding the construction and use of information on the Internet [12]. In this paper, interlinking data (that is, hyperlinks between institutional websites) were retrieved to map the number of exchanged hyperlinks between two or more websites This type of analysis has proven to be very useful for studying institutional relations in the web environment [13,14,15]. The use of this criterion reduced the total number of studied institutions, the criterion provided a more balanced sample because all selected institutions presented a minimum level of required interconnection. This normalization process was performed successively until 190 institutions remained, based in 42 countries.
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