Precision Vaccines Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.
JAMA Netw Open. 2022 May 2;5(5):e2213269. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.13269.
The association between geographic diversity of medical journal editorial staff and publications reporting research conducted in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is unclear.
To examine the association between having editorial staff members affiliated with LMICs and publishing research articles from LMICs in leading biomedical journals.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study included biomedical journals in fields representing the largest disease burden globally from January 1 to December 31, 2020. Websites of the 5 leading journals in general medicine, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, psychiatry, and nutrition were reviewed to obtain the country affiliations of editorial staff members. To determine article study countries, original research articles in each journal were reviewed through MEDLINE. Editorial staff country affiliations and study country locations were classified according to World Bank income brackets and regions.
Editorial staff country affiliation.
Descriptive statistics of the proportion of editorial staff affiliated with each income bracket and region and Spearman rank correlation coefficients were used to assess the association between the proportion of editorial staff affiliated with LMICs and the proportion of published articles reporting work conducted in these countries.
There were 3819 editorial staff members in the 45 included journals: 3637 (95.2%) were affiliated with high-income countries, 140 (3.7%) with upper-middle-income countries, 37 (1.0%) with lower-middle-income countries, and 5 (0.1%) with low-income countries. All 48 editors-in-chief were affiliated with a high-income country. Editorial staff members were mostly affiliated with North American countries (n = 2120 [55.5%]) and European or Central Asian countries (n = 1256 [32.9%]). Of the 10 096 original research articles included in our analysis, 7857 (77.8%) reported research conducted in high-income countries, 1562 (15.5%) reported research conducted in upper-middle-income countries, 507 (5.0%) reported research conducted in lower-middle-income countries, and 170 (1.7%) reported research conducted in low-income countries. Greater editorial staff representation correlated moderately with more published articles reporting research conducted in LMICs (Spearman ρ = 0.51; 95% CI, 0.25-0.70; P < .001).
In this cross-sectional study, editorial staff in leading biomedical journals were largely composed of individuals affiliated with high-income countries in North America and Europe. A correlation was found between greater editorial staff representation and publication of research focused on LMICs, suggesting that the inclusion of editorial staff affiliated with LMICs may promote the publication of research conducted in those countries.
医学期刊编辑人员地域多样性与在中低收入国家（LMICs）进行的研究报告之间的关联尚不清楚。
研究与 LMIC 相关联的编辑人员与在主要生物医学期刊上发表来自 LMIC 的研究文章之间的关联。
设计、设置和参与者：这项横断面研究纳入了 2020 年 1 月 1 日至 12 月 31 日期间在全球疾病负担最大的领域的生物医学期刊。审查了 5 种主要普通医学、儿科、外科、妇产科、癌症、心血管疾病、传染病、精神病学和营养期刊的网站，以获得编辑人员的国家隶属关系。为了确定文章的研究国家，通过 MEDLINE 审查了每个期刊的原始研究文章。根据世界银行收入分类和地区对编辑人员的国家隶属关系和研究国家地点进行分类。
编辑人员的国家隶属关系。
使用描述性统计数据评估与 LMIC 相关联的编辑人员比例与发表的报告这些国家进行的工作的文章比例之间的关联，使用 Spearman 秩相关系数。
45 种期刊共有 3819 名编辑人员：3637 名（95.2%）隶属于高收入国家，140 名（3.7%）隶属于上中等收入国家，37 名（1.0%）隶属于中下等收入国家，5 名（0.1%）隶属于低收入国家。所有 48 名总编辑均隶属于高收入国家。编辑人员主要隶属于北美国家（n=2120[55.5%]）和欧洲或中亚国家（n=1256[32.9%]）。在我们的分析中包括的 10096 篇原始研究文章中，7857 篇（77.8%）报告了在高收入国家进行的研究，1562 篇（15.5%）报告了在上中等收入国家进行的研究，507 篇（5.0%）报告了在下中等收入国家进行的研究，170 篇（1.7%）报告了在低收入国家进行的研究。编辑人员的代表性增加与发表更多报告 LMIC 进行的研究的文章之间存在中度相关性（Spearman ρ=0.51；95%CI，0.25-0.70；P<0.001）。
在这项横断面研究中，主要生物医学期刊的编辑人员主要由北美和欧洲高收入国家的个人组成。发现编辑人员代表性的增加与侧重于 LMIC 的研究发表之间存在相关性，这表明纳入与 LMIC 相关联的编辑人员可能会促进这些国家进行的研究的发表。
