Global Health: Guidance for Global Health Research
Created by Health Science Librarians
Questions to Ask Before Diving In
Below are some questions to ask yourself and your collaborators before you consider including global health research in your project, paper, or grant.
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Will you involve collaborators from other countries?
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If so, do you have an understanding of what resources are available to them?
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Do you have knowledge of cultural norms or issues related to the topic you're researching?
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Do you have the ability to include sources that are not published in English?
"Big Picture" Questions
The questions below are more abstract and intended to get you thinking about the implications of including global health research in your paper, project, or grant.
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Who benefits from published research? Who has the resources to apply evidence-based practices?
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Who gets to be first author on a global health paper?
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What is the difference between global health and public health? Who benefits or loses from making that distinction?
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Who has access to published research? If a global health research paper is published, is it accessible globally?
Further Learning and Resources
- "Bibliodiversity at the Centre: Decolonizing Open Access"" .. Publishing is dominated by Northern publishers, which disadvantages Southern authors through platform capitalism and open access models requiring article processing charges to publish... "
- "Critical Reflections on International Librarianship""... Most have done little to systematise or develop a conceptual framework for international librarianship. In this article an attempt is made to fill this gap... "
- "Excluding the poor from accessing biomedical literature: A rights violation that impedes global health""The author proposes that the biomedical literature should be considered a global public good, basing his arguments upon longstanding and recent international declarations that enshrine access to scientific and medical knowledge as a human right. "
- "Latin America’s longstanding open access ecosystem could be undermined by proposals from the Global North""...However, the open access (OA) movement also faces a different dilemma. Whilst, on the one hand, more science and research is being made openly available, on the other, five publishing companies continue to control a dominant stake in producing the legitimate research outputs required for research evaluation...."
- "Strategies for Engaging in International Librarianship: Misconceptions and Opportunities""..... In order for IL to be studied, practiced, and funded in ways that are appropriate to its potential, this essay revisits the concept of IL, discusses some of its misconceptions, and advocates for more intentional, reciprocal, and reflective applications. It is also argued that IL praxis should be coupled with critical theorist (or critical librarian) values, in order to achieve the most balanced relationships...."
- "Who is telling the story? A systematic review of authorship for infectious disease research conducted in Africa, 1980–2016""Africa contributes little to the biomedical literature despite its high burden of infectious diseases. Global health research partnerships aimed at addressing Africa-endemic disease may be polarised. Therefore, we assessed the contribution of researchers in Africa to research on six infectious diseases."
- LMIC Databases, Journals, and Websites by Cochrane LibraryThis list has been put together in a collaborative effort by Cochrane Groups, the WHO Library and volunteers outside the Cochrane Collaboration.
