The biomedical publishing gap between the first world and the emerging world – Can it be overcome?

Abstract

The Pan-American Health Organization has stated that access to scientific knowledge is key to the development and well-being of nations, but it has also pointed out that there is a strong disparity in knowledge production, which translates into poor publication indicators and low citations rates for research coming from emerging countries. This paper overviews the reality of emerging countries in terms of biomedical publications and lists the obstacles that must be overcome in order to close the gap with first-world English-speaking countries. This review also describes the importance of local medical communication in order to change practice patterns based on evidence, as several studies show that local practitioners are more prone to adopt new approaches when the evidence is published in local journals as they are seen as more pertinent.

Keywords

• biomedical journals
• citation rates
• emerging countries
• first-world peer-reviewed journals
• local biomedical journals