keywords journal coverage, bibliometry, representation, developing countriesTropical Medicine and International Health’s (TMIH)uniqueness is that it is published on behalf of five Europeaninstitutions located in Belgium, Germany, The Nether-lands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. When it waslaunched in 1996, the news was received with cautiousoptimism, though most observers were happy that well-established institutions in Europe were able to cometogether to publish a journal that would focus significantlyon the field of tropical medicine and international health,as clearly reflected in the journal’s name. Most developingcountry scientists were concerned about the workability ofsuch a laudable project. Ten years down the line, however,TMIH has demonstrated that the project has worked well.I would therefore like to congratulate the architects of thisunion and the various teams who have worked hard overthe years to ensure the success of the Journal, and toimprove its impact factor.As stated on its website, TMIH’s scope includes infec-tious and non-infectious diseases, parasitology, clinicaldiseases and medicines of the tropics, epidemiologicaltheory and fieldwork, medical entomology, tropical publichealth and community medicine at all levels from villagepractice, and international policy. These topics are of directrelevance to the health problems of developing countries.Hence, TMIH is contributing to priority setting andhelping to galvanize health research in developing coun-tries. As Momen (2004) states, ‘scientific journals play acentral role in the dissemination of research results; at thesame time, the importance of scientific publication inadvancing the careers of research scientists has giventhem – particularly the top international journals –increased possibilities to influence priorities.’TMIH’s growth in the last 10 years was very significantespecially for scientists in the developing world. Glover andBowen (2004) look at the bibliometric profile of TMIHand examine the subject content in relation to diseasecoverage and geographical distribution of the authorship ofpapers published by TMIH between 1996 and 2003. Theiranalysis presents Africa with the second largest represen-tation with 517 authored papers, second to Europe having564 papers. Combined with Asia, developing countriesaltogether have a 69.9% representation. In terms ofcitations of papers, the authors conclude that ‘African-authored papers have been cited most with 3512 citations.’In terms of ratio of citations to papers by region, Africa isthe second highest with a citation rate of 6.793, second topapers featuring UK authors with 8.079.A quick review of 327 papers for the 2004–2005 periodshows at least 60% co-authorship by developing-countryscientists. This confirms Glover and Bowen’s view thatTMIH is ‘providing a fair and unbiased forum for authorsfrom the developing world to publish their research.’ I dareto say that TMIH is the first international destination forscientists from the developing world.Regarding numbers of papers by disease in TMIH forthe period 1996–2003, Glover and Bowen (2004) report329 papers covering malaria, 83 on HIV/AIDS, 83 onschistosomiasis, and 47 on TB. A review of 2004–2005shows 91 papers covering malaria, 24 HIV/AIDS, 16 TB,and 62 other diseases such as schistosomiasis. Thesereviews have shown that TMIH has focused adequatelyon malaria and that most of the work has been done indeveloping countries. The publications also provideinformation on several other diseases that are relevant todeveloping countries. Regrettably, much publishableresearch work on HIV/AIDS and TB has not reachedTMIH.As TMIH celebrates its 10th anniversary, I would like todraw its attention to a few issues. Admittedly TMIH is a‘European Journal’ and there are many European scientistsworking on developing-country health problems. How-ever, given its scope and focus and the fact that there aremany capable and reputable developing-country scientists,we expect that in the near future TMIH’s editorial boardwill have a few more developing-country scientists, espe-cially in the key disease areas.TMIH should continue to encourage developing-countryscientists and more papers in the important areas of TB andHIV/AIDS. As Momen (2004) states, ‘access to interna-tional health literature would be more useful if there wereincreased coverage by journals of topics of direct relevanceto the health problems of developing countries. This
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Dec 1, 2008
Marie E Mcveigh 
Open Access