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CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Volume 27, No 3, May/June 2016
194
AFRICA
Review Article
Patterns of international collaboration in cardiovascular
research in sub-Saharan Africa
Remare Ettarh
Abstract
The rising prevalence of cardiovascular disease in sub-
Saharan Africa (SSA) constitutes a significant health and
socio-economic challenge for the countries in the region. This
study examines the patterns and scientific impact of interna-
tional collaboration in cardiovascular research (CVR) in SSA.
Bibliographic data from 2005 to 2014 were obtained from the
Web of Science for cardiovascular-related publications with at
least one author affiliated to an SSA country. The number of
publications involving multiple SSA countries over this period
accounted for less than 10% of the total number of multi-
country publications that included at least one SSA country.
Collaboration patterns reflected dominance by countries in
Europe and North America, with South Africa accounting
for the bulk of scientific collaboration in CVR within SSA.
The findings indicate that pro-active strategies are needed to
strengthen collaboration in CVR across SSA for the region
to derive health and socio-economic benefits from locally
conducted research.
Keywords:
cardiovascular research, Africa, collaboration,
co-authorship analysis, academic impact
Submitted 15/6/15, accepted 4/10/15
Cardiovasc J Afr
2015;
26
: 194–200
www.cvja.co.zaDOI: 10.5830/CVJA-2015-082
The increasing burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in
sub-Saharan Africa has been reported in recent studies on
the global burden of disease.
1
The epidemiological transition
in the region from a predominantly infectious disease burden
to one that includes a high prevalence of non-communicable
conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, poses significant
challenges, not only for the economies and health systems of
the countries, but also for the local health research sector, which
often lacks the capacity to drive knowledge advancement and
innovation leading to positive health impacts.
2
Over the last decade, there have been efforts to develop
capacity in developing countries. These strategies have included
promoting international collaboration through the joint
development of projects by research groups in developed and
developing countries.
3,4
The value of this collaborative approach
for the developing country partner lies in the availability of
financial and technical resources for research, opportunities
to develop and nurture institutional research capacity, and the
potential impact of locally focused research on the health system.
The negligible contribution of Africa to global scientific
knowledge and impact is well documented.
5
However, there has
been a gradual increase in the volume of scientific publications
that include authorship from Africa in recent years, albeit with
a substantial dominance by non-African co-authors.
5,6
Some
of the reasons for this pattern of scientific output include:
(1) low budgetary funding for research by African countries;
(2) lack of investment in scientific infrastructure and research
equipment; (3) emphasis on personnel development within the
higher education system rather than on support for research;
and (4) the dearth of skilled research scientists in the region,
partly associated with the brain drain phenomenon. There are
suggestions that these challenges can be partly addressed by
increased international collaboration, which reduces research
cost and time, enhances knowledge transfer across borders, and
improves scientific impact.
7
The extent of research collaboration across SSA has been the
subject of a few recent publications,
5,8,9
although little is known
about the patterns of collaboration within the area of CVR in
this region. Additional studies are required to understand the
extent of scientific output as well as the patterns and impact of
collaboration in CVR among countries in SSA. The evidence
from such studies would be valuable in developing strategies to
advance knowledge in cardiovascular disease prevention and
care in the region.
The use of co-authorship networks for analysing research
collaboration at the individual ormicro-level is well established,
10,11
although there is an upward trend in its application for studying
macro-level or international collaboration.
12
Network analysis
offers possibilities for visualising and understanding the
relationships between the collaborating research entities. The
methodologies allow for the identification of hubs, boundary
spanners, clusters and the strength of relationships.
13
Temporal
analysis of the collaborative patterns is also possible using time-
sliced data.
14
In a macro-level network, the vertices represent
countries and the edges between them represent the presence
of collaboration in the form co-authorship by one or more
research groups. The weight of the edge reflects the number of
publications by a pair of vertices or countries.
This study examines the indexed scientific output
of cardiovascular research conducted solely or in part by
researchers in sub-Saharan Africa over the last 10 years in order
Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions, Edmonton, Canada
Remare Ettarh, PhD,
remare.ettarh@aihealthsolutions.ca