English Krista M, Pourbohloul Babak
Complexity Science Lab, School of Population & Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Institute of Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Health Res Policy Syst. 2017 Aug 28;15(1):71. doi: 10.1186/s12961-017-0241-5.
The 2004 Mexico Declaration, and subsequent World Health Assembly resolutions, proposed a concerted support for the global development of health policy and systems research (HPSR). This included coordination across partners and advocates for the field of HPSR to monitor the development of the field, while promoting decision-making power and implementing responsibilities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
We used a network science approach to examine the structural properties of the HPSR co-authorship network across country economic groups in the PubMed citation database from 1990 to 2015. This analysis summarises the evolution of the publication, co-authorship and citation networks within HPSR.
This method allows identification of several features otherwise not apparent. The co-authorship network has evolved steadily from 1990 to 2015 in terms of number of publications, but more importantly, in terms of co-authorship network connectedness. Our analysis suggests that, despite growth in the contribution from low-income countries to HPSR literature, co-authorship remains highly localised. Lower middle-income countries have made progress toward global connectivity through diversified collaboration with various institutions and regions. Global connectivity of the upper middle-income countries (UpperMICs) are almost on par with high-income countries (HICs), indicating the transition of this group of countries toward becoming major contributors to the field.
Network analysis allows examination of the connectedness among the HSPR community. Initially (early 1990s), research groups operated almost exclusively independently and, despite the topic being specifically on health policy in LMICs, HICs provided lead authorship. Since the early 1990s, the network has evolved significantly. In the full set analysis (1990-2015), for the first time in HPSR history, more than half of the authors are connected and lead authorship from UpperMICs is on par with that of HICs. This demonstrates the shift in participation and influence toward regions which HPSR primarily serves. Understanding these interactions can highlight the current strengths and future opportunities for identifying new strategies to enhance collaboration and support capacity-building efforts for HPSR.
2004年的《墨西哥宣言》以及随后的世界卫生大会决议提议，齐心协力支持全球卫生政策与系统研究（HPSR）的发展。这包括各合作伙伴之间的协调以及HPSR领域的倡导者对该领域发展情况的监测，同时增强低收入和中等收入国家（LMICs）的决策权和实施责任。
我们采用网络科学方法，研究1990年至2015年PubMed引文数据库中不同国家经济组别的HPSR共同作者网络的结构特性。该分析总结了HPSR领域内出版物、共同作者和引文网络的演变情况。
此方法能够识别出一些其他方式难以发现的特征。从1990年到2015年，共同作者网络在出版物数量方面稳步发展，但更重要的是，在共同作者网络连通性方面。我们的分析表明，尽管低收入国家对HPSR文献的贡献有所增加，但共同作者关系仍高度集中在本地。中低收入国家通过与不同机构和地区的多样化合作，在全球连通性方面取得了进展。中高收入国家（UpperMICs）的全球连通性几乎与高收入国家（HICs）相当，这表明这组国家正在向成为该领域的主要贡献者转变。
网络分析有助于考察HSPR社区之间的连通性。最初（20世纪90年代初），研究团队几乎完全独立运作，尽管主题专门针对LMICs的卫生政策，但HICs提供了主要作者。自20世纪90年代初以来，网络发生了显著演变。在全面分析（1990 - 2015年）中，HPSR历史上首次有超过一半的作者相互连通，且UpperMICs的主要作者地位与HICs相当。这表明参与度和影响力正向HPSR主要服务的地区转移。了解这些相互作用可以凸显当前的优势以及未来的机会，从而确定新战略以加强合作并支持HPSR的能力建设努力。
