Association of paper characteristics with collaborative groupings on health research from Africa, 2014–2016
| For papers with collaborators outside of country of focus, authors include individuals from: | P value | ||||||||||||
| Local authors only | Top US university (only) | USA/Canada, no top US university (only) | Europe (only) | Other African countries (only) | Multiple locales | ||||||||
| n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | ||
| Region of paper’s focus | |||||||||||||
| Central Africa | 85 | 21.7 | 22 | 5.6 | 32 | 8.2 | 158 | 40.4 | 35 | 9 | 59 | 15.1 | <0.001 |
| East Africa | 768 | 24.8 | 437 | 14.1 | 480 | 15.5 | 795 | 25.7 | 98 | 3.2 | 514 | 16.6 | |
| Southern Africa | 615 | 39.1 | 199 | 12.7 | 171 | 10.9 | 261 | 16.6 | 69 | 4.4 | 257 | 16.4 | |
| West Africa | 786 | 38.4 | 172 | 8.4 | 233 | 11.4 | 451 | 22.1 | 101 | 4.9 | 302 | 14.8 | |
| Number of authors on paper | |||||||||||||
| Single author | 140 | 49.8 | 14 | 5.0 | 53 | 18.9 | 62 | 22.1 | 11 | 3.9 | 1‡ | 0.4 | <0.001* |
| Multiple authors | 2114 | 31.0 | 816 | 12.0 | 863 | 12.7 | 1603 | 23.5 | 292 | 4.3 | 1131 | 16.6 | |
| Disease area* | |||||||||||||
| HIV/AIDS | 310 | 21.3 | 285 | 19.6 | 239 | 16.4 | 311 | 21.4 | 53 | 3.6 | 257 | 17.7 | <0.001 |
| Tuberculosis | 119 | 30.1 | 34 | 8.6 | 58 | 14.7 | 112 | 28.4 | 10 | 2.5 | 62 | 15.7 | 0.034 |
| Malaria | 159 | 25.2 | 62 | 9.8 | 74 | 11.7 | 174 | 27.5 | 32 | 5.1 | 131 | 20.7 | <0.001 |
| Epidemic/pandemic prone diseases | 51 | 18.4 | 15 | 5.4 | 59 | 21.2 | 51 | 18.4 | 11 | 4.0 | 91 | 32.7 | <0.001 |
| Neglected tropical diseases | 62 | 29.1 | 12 | 5.6 | 9 | 4.2 | 72 | 33.8 | 8 | 3.8 | 50 | 23.5 | <0.001 |
| Non-communicable diseases | 114 | 41.2 | 19 | 6.9 | 27 | 9.8 | 68 | 24.6 | 16 | 5.8 | 33 | 11.9 | 0.001 |
| Cancer | 72 | 42.6 | 27 | 16.0 | 23 | 13.6 | 26 | 15.4 | 8 | 4.7 | 13 | 7.7 | 0.001 |
| Sickle-cell disease | 6 | 27.3 | 3 | 13.6 | 0 | 0.0 | 3 | 13.6 | 2 | 9.1 | 8 | 36.4 | 0.038* |
| Mental and neurological disorders | 101 | 25.5 | 63 | 15.9 | 56 | 14.1 | 107 | 27.0 | 6 | 1.5 | 63 | 15.9 | 0.001 |
| Road traffic injuries | 30 | 44.1 | 14 | 20.6 | 4 | 5.9 | 8 | 11.8 | 7 | 10.3 | 5 | 7.4 | <0.001* |
| Journal coverage | |||||||||||||
| African, National | 206 | 75.7 | 11 | 4.0 | 16 | 5.9 | 22.0 | 8.1 | 5 | 1.8 | 12 | 4.4 | <0.001 |
| African, Regional | 303 | 61.0 | 23 | 4.6 | 41 | 8.3 | 65.0 | 13.1 | 45 | 9.1 | 20 | 4.0 | |
| International | 1745 | 27.6 | 796 | 12.6 | 859 | 13.6 | 1578 | 24.9 | 253 | 4.0 | 1100 | 17.4 | |
| Journal's 2015 impact factor | |||||||||||||
| No impact factor | 528 | 60.6 | 45 | 5.2 | 89 | 10.2 | 114 | 13.1 | 56 | 6.4 | 39 | 4.5 | <0.001* |
| Less than 1 | 277 | 52.0 | 27 | 5.1 | 56 | 10.5 | 102 | 19.1 | 41 | 7.7 | 30 | 5.6 | |
| 1–2.5 | 1018 | 32.8 | 370 | 11.9 | 401 | 12.9 | 747 | 24.1 | 138 | 4.5 | 430 | 13.9 | |
| 2.5–4 | 373 | 18.5 | 295 | 14.6 | 272 | 13.5 | 560 | 27.8 | 63 | 3.1 | 454 | 22.5 | |
| 4–10 | 50 | 12.2 | 77 | 18.8 | 58 | 14.2 | 113 | 27.6 | 5 | 1.2 | 106 | 25.9 | |
| Greater than 10 | 8 | 4.8 | 16 | 9.6 | 40 | 24.1 | 29 | 17.5 | 0 | 0 | 73 | 44.0 | |
*Note, it is possible for a paper to have more than one area of focus or to cover a topic not captured on this list.
†P value calculated using Fisher's exact test.
‡Possible for a single author paper to be considered as having authors from multiple locales if that single author has multiple affiliations from different locales.