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bioRxiv2020

Uptake and determinants of cervical cancer prevention services among female college students in Kenya: A cross-sectional survey

Introduction Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women in low- and middle-income countries. In Kenya, cervical cancer incidence and prevalence have been increasing and in 2018 alone, there were 3286 deaths from cervical cancer. Previously, studies on cervical cancer prevention strategies have focused on women above 30 years old. However, as the risk factors for cervical cancer are acquired as early as in the teen years, an understanding of the awareness, uptake and determinants of screening services among college female students will help inform prevention strategies. This study sought to determine the awareness, uptake, determinants and barriers to cervical cancer screening services among colleges students in Kenya.Methods This was a multicenter cross-sectional study conducted in eight universities spread all over Kenya. Participants were interviewed using a self-administered structured questionnaire on sociodemographics, reproductive history, awareness on cervical cancer including screening practices, and attitude towards cervical cancer prevention services. Descriptive statistics were summarized using means and standard deviation (SD) for parametric data and median and interquartile range (IQR) for non-parametric data. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were done to determine odds ratios of factors associated with uptake of cervical cancer screening services. P-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results Between January 2017 and Sept 2017, we screened 800 and enrolled 600 female colleges students from eight universities in Kenya. In total, 549 of the 600 (92%) participants completed the questionnaire. The median age (IQR) was 21(20,22) years. Nearly two-thirds 338(62.7%) were sexually active, while 54(16%) had concurrent sexual partners. The main form of contraception was oral postcoital emergency pills 123(64.7%). Only 76(14.4%) had screened for cervical cancer, and the commonest approach was a Pap smear 47(61.8%). About one half 40(54.1%) did not like their experience due to pain, discomfort and bleeding. Four out of five participants (439, 80.7%) had poor knowledge on cervical cancer screening. On bivariate analysis, increased level of awareness (odds ratio [OR] 1.08 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.03,1.18, p = 0.004), knowledge of someone with cervical cancer(OR 0.43 CI 0.23,0.78 p=0.006) and a perception of self-risk (OR2.6 CI 1.38,4.98 p=0.003) were associated with increased odds of uptake of cervical cancer screening. In the multivariate analysis, high awareness was significantly associated with increased odds of cervical cancer screening (OR 1.12 CI 1.04, 1.20 p=0.002).Conclusions Female college students in Kenya had low levels of awareness on cervical cancer and had very low uptake of cervical cancer screening. However, high perception of self-risk and perceived benefit was associated with increased odds of cervical cancer screening.Recommendations Since female colleges students are generally thought to be more knowledgeable and have better access to information compared to the general population, the low levels of knowledge and uptake of cervical cancer screening, calls for a rethink of strategies that focus on the younger population including those in primary, high school and universities. Such strategies include HPV vaccination and incorporation of cancer prevention in school curriculum.View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Intuitive, reproducible high-throughput molecular dynamics in Galaxy: a tutorial

This paper is a tutorial developed for the data analysis platform Galaxy. The purpose of Galaxy is to make high-throughput computational data analysis, such as molecular dynamics, a structured, reproducible and transparent process. In this tutorial we focus on 3 questions: How are protein-ligand systems parameterized for molecular dynamics simulation? What kind of analysis can be carried out on molecular trajectories? How can high-throughput MD be used to study multiple ligands? After finishing you will have learned about force-fields and MD parameterization, how to conduct MD simulation and analysis for a protein-ligand system, and understand how different molecular interactions contribute to the binding affinity of ligands to the Hsp90 protein.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

COVID-19 research in Wikipedia

Wikipedia is one of the main sources of free knowledge on the Web. During the first few months of the pandemic, over 5,200 new Wikipedia pages on COVID-19 have been created and have accumulated over 400M pageviews by mid June 2020.1 At the same time, an unprecedented amount of scientific articles on COVID-19 and the ongoing pandemic have been published online. Wikipedias contents are based on reliable sources such as scientific literature. Given its public function, it is crucial for Wikipedia to rely on representative and reliable scientific results, especially so in a time of crisis. We assess the coverage of COVID-19-related research in Wikipedia via citations to a corpus of over 160,000 articles. We find that Wikipedia editors are integrating new research at a fast pace, and have cited close to 2% of the COVID-19 literature under consideration. While doing so, they are able to provide a representative coverage of COVID-19-related research. We show that all the main topics discussed in this literature are proportionally represented from Wikipedia, after accounting for article-level effects. We further use regression analyses to model citations from Wikipedia and show that Wikipedia editors on average rely on literature which is highly cited, widely shared on social media, and has been peer-reviewed.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

ODDPub - a Text-Mining Algorithm to Detect Data Sharing in Biomedical Publications

Open research data are increasingly recognized as a quality indicator and an important resource to increase transparency, robustness and collaboration in science. However, no standardized way of reporting Open Data in publications exists, making it difficult to find shared datasets and assess the prevalence of Open Data in an automated fashion.We developed ODDPub (Open Data Detection in Publications), a text-mining algorithm that screens biomedical publications and detects cases of Open Data. Using English-language original research publications from a single biomedical research institution (n=8689) and randomly selected from PubMed (n=1500) we iteratively developed a set of derived keyword categories. ODDPub can detect data sharing through field-specific repositories, general-purpose repositories or the supplement. Additionally, it can detect shared analysis code (Open Code).To validate ODDPub, we manually screened 792 publications randomly selected from PubMed. On this validation dataset, our algorithm detected Open Data publications with a sensitivity of 0.74 and specificity of 0.97. Open Data was detected for 11.5% (n=91) of publications. Open Code was detected for 1.4% (n=11) of publications with a sensitivity of 0.73 and specificity of 1.00. We compared our results to the linked datasets found in the databases PubMed and Web of Science.Our algorithm can automatically screen large numbers of publications for Open Data. It can thus be used to assess Open Data sharing rates on the level of subject areas, journals, or institutions. It can also identify individual Open Data publications in a larger publication corpus. ODDPub is published as an R package on GitHub.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Working groups, gender and publication impact of Canada's ecology and evolution faculty

ABSTRACTA critical part of science is the extraction of general principles by synthesizing results from many different studies or disciplines. In the fields of ecology and evolution, a popular method to conduct synthesis science is in working groups – that is, research collaborations based around intensive week-long meetings. We present in this report an analysis of the impact of working group participation and gender on the publication impact of ecology and evolution faculty at Canadian universities who were research active over the last three decades (N=1408). Women are underrepresented in this research population relative to the general population, and even the Canadian faculty population. Participation in working groups not only benefits science, but also benefits the researchers involved by accelerating the temporal increase in their H-index. However, this benefit is particularly driven by senior male researchers. The effect is weaker for female researchers and even negative for researchers within 4 years of their PhD. However, gender does not affect current participation rates in working groups, nor reported indirect benefits – such as future collaborations, funding and data resources. The results of this study suggest that working groups can act as career catalysts for researchers, but that – as in many areas of science – there are challenging issues of equity that require action. Because the H-index is a cumulative measure, gender inequities from before the turn of the millenium may still be distorting the perceived publication impact of today’s research-active faculty.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Improved accuracy of breast volume calculation from 3D surface imaging data using statistical shape models

Background Three-dimensional (3D) scanning is an established method of breast volume estimation. However, this method can never be entirely precise, since the thoracic wall cannot be imaged by the surface scanner. Current methods rely on interpolation of the posterior breast border from the surrounding thoracic wall. Here, we present a novel method to calculate the posterior border and increase the accuracy of the measurement.Methods Using principal component analysis, computed tomography images were used to build a statistical shape model (SSM) of the thoracic wall. The model was fitted to 3D images and the missing thoracic wall curvature interpolated (indirect volumetry). The calculations were evaluated by ordinary least squares regression between the preoperative and postoperative volume differences and the resection weights in breast reduction surgery (N=36). Also, an SSM of the breast was developed, allowing direct volumetry. Magnetic-resonance images (MRI) and 3D scans were acquired from 5 patients in order to validate the direct 3D volumetry.Results Volumetry based on a SSM exhibited a higher determination coefficient (R2=0,737) than the interpolation method (R2=0,404). The methods were not equivalent (p=0.75), suggesting that the methods significantly differ. There was no influence of BMI on the correlation in either method. The MRI volumetry had a strong correlation with the 3D volumetry (R2=0,978).Conclusion The SSM-based method of posterior breast border calculation is reliable and superior to the currently used method of interpolation. It should serve as a basis of software applications aiming at calculation of breast volume from 3D surface scanning data.View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Plant protein-based diets can replace a fish meal-based diet for sustainable growth and body composition of zebrafish (Danio rerio).

This 3 × 2 factorial study involving three diets at two stocking densities tested the effect of replacing fish meal (FM) with either soybean meal (SBM) or rapeseed meal (RSM) in diets on growth and body composition of zebrafish (Danio rerio). Fish were fed three times daily for eight weeks. Morphometric and water quality parameters were also determined. The survival rate of the fish ranged from 95.2 - 97.8%. The water quality remained within the acceptable limits for tropical aquaculture. The stocking density did not show any significant difference (p>0.05) for the length and weight of the fish. The length, weight and condition factors were significantly higher (p<0.05) in the fish fed FM based diet. The fish length and weight related well (R2) across the diets but this was more significant for RSM than those fed the other two diets. The weight gain (WG), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and protein intake (PI) were significantly higher (p<0.05) in the fish fed the FM based diet than the other diets. No significant differences observed (p>0.05) in the specific growth rate (SGR), food intake (FI) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) among the fish fed the three diets. The crude protein CP, nitrogen-free extract (NFE) and ash contents of these fish did not differ significantly (p>0.05). However, the ether extract (EE) of the fish fed SBM diet was significantly lower (p<0.05 than the other two diets. It appears that both SBM and RSM as sustainable source to partially FM in the diets of zebrafish and similar fish species.View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Democratising "Microscopi": a 3D printed automated XYZT fluorescence imaging system for teaching, outreach and fieldwork

Commercial fluorescence microscope stands and fully automated XYZt fluorescence imaging systems are generally beyond the limited budgets available for teaching and outreach. We have addressed this problem by developing "Microscopi", an accessible, affordable, DIY automated imaging system that is built from 3D printed and commodity off-the-shelf hardware, including electro-mechanical, computer and optical components. Our design features automated sample navigation and image capture with a simple web-based graphical user interface, accessible with a tablet or other mobile device. The light path can easily be switched between different imaging modalities. The open source Python-based control software allows the hardware to be driven as an integrated imaging system. Furthermore, the microscope is fully customisable, which also enhances its value as a learning tool. Here, we describe the basic design and demonstrate imaging performance for a range of easily sourced specimens. HighlightsO_LIPortable, low cost, self-build from 3D printed and commodity components C_LIO_LIMultimodal imaging: bright field, dark field, pseudo-phase and fluorescence C_LIO_LIAutomated XYZt imaging from a tablet or smartphone via a simple GUI C_LIO_LIWide ranging applications in teaching, outreach and fieldwork C_LIO_LIOpen source hardware and software design, allowing user modification C_LI

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Effect of mechanical properties of monofilament twines on the catch efficiency of biodegradable gillnets.

Gillnets made of the biodegradable resin polybutylene succinate co-adipate-co-terephthalate (PBSAT) were tested under commercial fishing conditions to compare their fishing performance with that of conventional nylon polyamide (PA) gillnets. Both types of gillnets were made of 0.55 mm Ø monofilaments. However, since the biodegradable nets are weaker than nylon PA nets when using the same monofilament diameter, we also used biodegradable nets made of 0.60 mm Ø monofilament that had a similar tensile strength to the 0.55 mm Ø nylon PA nets. The relative catch efficiency of the different gillnet types was evaluated over the 2018 autumn fishing season for saithe and cod in northern Norway. For cod, both biodegradable gillnets (0.55 and 0.60 mm) had a significantly lower catch efficiency compared to the traditional nylon PA net (0.55 mm) with estimated catch efficiencies of 62.38% (CI: 50.55–74.04) and 54.96% (CI: 35.42–73.52) compared with the nylon PA net, respectively. Similarly for saithe, both biodegradable gillnets (0.55 and 0.60 mm) had a lower estimated catch efficiency compared to the traditional nylon PA net (0.55 mm) with estimated catch efficiencies of 83.40% (71.34–94.86) and 83.87% (66.36–104.92), compared with the nylon PA net, respectively. Tensile strength does not explain the differences in catch efficiency between the two gillnet types, since increasing the twine diameter of the biodegradable gillnets (to match the strength of nylon PA gillnets) did not yield similar catch efficiencies. However, the elasticity and stiffness of the materials may be responsible for the differences in catch efficiency between the nylon PA and biodegradable gillnets.View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Preprinting a pandemic: the role of preprints in the COVID-19 pandemic

The world continues to face a life-threatening viral pandemic. The virus underlying the COVID-19 disease, SARS-CoV-2, has caused over 98 million confirmed cases and 2.2 million deaths since January 2020. Although the most recent respiratory viral pandemic swept the globe only a decade ago, the way science operates and responds to current events has experienced a paradigm shift in the interim. The scientific community has responded rapidly to the COVID-19 pandemic, releasing over 125,000 COVID-19 related scientific articles within 10 months of the first confirmed case, of which more than 30,000 were hosted by preprint servers. We focused our analysis on bioRxiv and medRxiv, two growing preprint servers for biomedical research, investigating the attributes of COVID-19 preprints, their access and usage rates, as well as characteristics of their propagation on online platforms. Our data provides evidence for increased scientific and public engagement with preprints related to COVID-19 (COVID-19 preprints are accessed more, cited more, and shared more on various online platforms than non-COVID-19 preprints), as well as changes in the use of preprints by journalists and policymakers. We also find evidence for changes in preprinting and publishing behaviour: COVID-19 preprints are shorter and reviewed faster. Our results highlight the unprecedented role of preprints and preprint servers in the dissemination of COVID-19 science, and the impact of the pandemic on the scientific communication landscape.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Developing and validation of a questionnaire for assessment of individual's perceived risk of four major non-communicable diseases in Myanmar

The adopting healthy life styles are greatly influenced by individual’s perceived risk of developing non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire that can assess the individual’s perceived risk of developing four major NCDs. Exploratory sequential mixed methods design was used. Qualitative part developed the question items pool by conducting two expert panels while quantitative part validated the questionnaire using both exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Separate samples were used for EFA (n=150) and CFA (n=210). The participants were aged between 25-60 years of both sexes with no known history of NCDs. Face to face interview was conducted. Parallel analysis was done to decide the number of factors to be extracted. EFA was done using maximum likelihood method with Promax rotation to extract the underlying factors of perceived risk while CFA was done to assess the goodness of fit of proposed EFA Model using model fit indices. Based on literature search, 86-item questionnaire was firstly generated. During two expert panels, some overlapped items and items that did not represent the specific construct were removed. Experts made sure the content validity of developed 51-item questionnaire which was used to collect data from 360 participants. EFA revealed the five factors model with 22 high loading items which extracted 54% of total variance. CFA proved that hypothesized five factors model of 21-item questionnaire (one item was removed due to low loading) was satisfied with adequate psychometric properties and model fit indices (RMSEA=0.056, CFI=0.921, TLI=0.908, SRMR=0.063 & χ2/df=1.66). Developed 21-item questionnaire was shown to be valid and reliable to assess the perceived risk of developing NCDs among Myanmar population. Further research should be conducted to assess on the utility of the questionnaire in mismatch between risk perception and current risk and individualized counseling for behaviour change communication.View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

The representation of women as authors of submissions to ecology journals during the COVID-19 pandemic

Observations made from papers submitted to preprint servers, and the speculation of editors on social media platforms, suggest that women are submitting fewer papers to scholarly journals than are men during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here I examine whether submissions by men and women to six ecology journals (all published by the British Ecological Society) have changed since the start of COVID disruptions. At these six ecology journals there is no evidence of a decline in the proportion of submissions that are authored by women (as either first or submitting author) since the start of the COVID-19 disruptions; the proportion of papers authored by women in the post-COVID period of 2020 has increased relative to the same period in 2019, and is higher than in the period pre-COVID in 2020. There is also no evidence of a change in the geographic pattern of submissions from across the globe.Competing Interest StatementCharles Fox is Executive Editor of Functional Ecology, one of the journals that contributed data for the analyses presented in this paper.View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Covid-19 pandemic and the unprecedented mobilisation of scholarly efforts prompted by a health crisis: Scientometric comparisons across SARS, MERS and 2019-nCov literature

During the current century, each major coronavirus outbreak has triggered a quick and immediate surge of academic publications on this topic. The spike in research publications following the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, however, has been like no other. The global crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has mobilised scientific efforts in an unprecedented way. In less than five months, more than 12,000 research items have been indexed while the number increasing every day. With the crisis affecting all aspects of life, research on Covid-19 seems to have become a focal point of interest across many academic disciplines. Here, scientometric aspects of the Covid-19 literature are analysed and contrasted with those of the two previous major Coronavirus diseases, i.e. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The focus is on the co-occurrence of key-terms, bibliographic coupling and citation relations of journals and collaborations between countries. Certain recurring patterns across all three literatures were discovered. All three outbreaks have commonly generated three distinct and major cohort of studies: (i) studies linked to the public health response and epidemic control, (ii) studies associated with the chemical constitution of the virus and (iii) studies related to treatment, vaccine and clinical care. While studies affiliated with the category (i) seem to have been the first to emerge, they overall received least numbers of citations compared to those of the two other categories. Covid-19 studies seem to have been distributed across a broader variety of journals and subject areas. Clear links are observed between the geographical origins of each outbreak or the local geographical severity of each outbreak and the magnitude of research originated from regions. Covid-19 studies also display the involvement of authors from a broader variety of countries compared to SARS and MRS.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Outcomes of Isoniazid Preventive Therapy among people living with HIV in Kenya: A retrospective study of routine health care data

Introduction Isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) taken by People Living with HIV (PLHIV) protects against tuberculosis (TB). Despite its recommendation, there is scarcity of data on the uptake of IPT among PLHIV and factors associated with treatment outcomes. We aimed to determine the proportion of PLHIV initiated on IPT, IPT treatment outcomes and screening for TB during and after IPT.Methods A retrospective cohort study of a representative sample of PLHIV initiated on IPT between July 2015 and June 2018 in Kenya. We abstracted information on socio-demographic, TB screening practices, IPT initiation, follow up, and outcomes from health facilities’ patient record cards, IPT cards and IPT registers. Further, we assessed baseline characteristics as potential correlates of developing TB during and after treatment and IPT completion using multivariable logistic regression.Results We enrolled 138,442 PLHIV into ART during the study period and initiated 95,431 (68.9%) into IPT. Abstracted files for 4708 patients initiated on IPT, out of which 3891(82.6%) had IPT treatment outcomes documented, 4356(92.5%) had ever been screened for TB at every clinic visit and 4,243(90.1%) had documentation of TB screening on the IPT tool before IPT initiation. 3712(95.4%) of patients with documented IPT treatment outcomes completed their treatment. 42(0.89%) of the abstracted patients developed active TB, 16(38.1%) during and 26(61.9%) after completing IPT. Follow up for TB at 6-month post-IPT completion was done for 2729(73.5%) of patients with IPT treatment outcomes. Sex, Viral load suppression and clinic type were associated with TB development (p<0.05). Levels 4, 5, FBO, and private facilities and IPT prescription practices were associated with IPT completion (p<0.05).Conclusion Two-thirds of PLHIV were initiated on IPT, with a high completion rate. TB screening practices were better during IPT than after completion. Development of TB during and after IPT emphasises need for keen follow up.View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Insight into the workforce advancing fields of science and technology

Advances in science and technology depend on the work of research teams and the publication of results through peer-reviewed articles representing a growing socio-economic resource. Current methods to mine the scientific literature regarding a field of interest focus on content, but the workforce credited by authorship remains largely unexplored, and appropriate measures of scientific production are debated. Here, a new bibliometric approach named TeamTree analysis is introduced that visualizes the development and composition of the workforce driving a field. A new citation-independent measure that scales with the H index estimates impact based on publication record, genealogical ties and collaborative connections. This author-centered approach complements existing tools to mine the scientific literature and to evaluate research across disciplines.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Analysis of Costs and Strategies for Using Academic Research in a Private Dental College to Develop Commercially Viable Products

ABSTRACTBackground & objectives The study had two aims. 1) Analysis of research projects done in our institution from 2014-2019 to identify products with a potential for commercialization and 2) To understand the effect of product-development variables on research projects to improve the quality of future commercialization-oriented trials.Methods 338 clinical trials were grouped into 188 projects under the headings irrigants, diagnostic devices, surgical devices, biomaterials and gels. Trials per project, capital, material costs, labour and the cycle times per trial were calculated. To understand the effect these variables, five hypotheses were generated to test whether greater number of trials, successes, higher capital, more investigators per trial and a longer trial duration will result in a product worthy of commercialization.Results 22 projects had products with a potential for commercialization. Except labour and cycle time (p>0.05), all variables showed significant differences across all projects. Three products were identified as having potential for actual commercialization. It was observed that greater number of trials (χ2=4.6793; p=0.030528) and successes (χ2=20.8134; p<0.00001) in a project along with a higher capital (χ2=12.2662; p=0.000461) will generate a product worthy of commercialization.Interpretation & conclusions The results seem to suggest that in trials for commercialization, emphasis must be placed on implementing multiple, well-designed clinical trials on a device or product to successfully identify whether it is commercialization-worthy or not. Due attention must be given to the financial aspects of the projects as deficiencies may result in negative impact on the flow and outcomes of a clinical trial.Competing Interest StatementThis study is supported by a grant (DST/NSTMIS/05/222/2017-18) under the National Science & Technology Management Information System (NSTMIS), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. Dr Rama Raju holds a patent on a low-cost oral cancer detection device. Dr R Viswa Chandra has patents pending on a butyrate inactivated recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) gel and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) impregnated collagen membranes. View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Nationwide survey on the barriers to converting turfgrass lawns to pollinator-friendly native wildflowers.

The abundance and diversity of insect pollinators around the world is declining and habitat loss is a leading cause. Turfgrass lawns cover a vast area in North America and provide a great opportunity for habitat restoration to native wildflowers by the general public. Efforts to encourage the public to replace lawns with wildflowers could be improved by a better understanding of the thoughts and opinions of the public about lawns. We conducted a nationwide online survey to understand what barriers are most important in preventing people from converting a 6 x 6 ft portion of turfgrass lawn to native wildflowers. We also collected data on a variety of demographic factors to see if those influence survey responses. Over 3200 people took survey across the US. We found that ‘Maintenance time’ and ‘Not knowing what to do’ were the most important barriers to creating wildflower habitat. Age was the most important demographic factor impacting results with young people significantly more likely to select multiple barriers in the survey. For example, people aged 18-34 were 4.3 times more likely to indicate ‘Maintenance cost’ would prevent them from creating a wildflower plot than those age 65 or older. Those who had already created a wildflower plot, or those who were members in a native plant or pollinator organization were less likely to select barriers across the board, except for external barriers related to homeowners associations, neighbors, and local governments. This shows that these are persistent concerns even for those that are otherwise keen to create wildflower habitat. Our results suggest that outreach promoting pollinator-friendly native plant gardens should focus on clear and simple methods, small plots that will not take too much time and less likely to provoke neighbors or authority figures.View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

20 years of African Neuroscience: Waking a sleeping giant

Understanding the function and dysfunction of the brain remains one of the key challenges of our time. However, an overwhelming majority of brain research is carried out in the Global North, by a minority of well-funded and intimately interconnected labs. In contrast, with an estimated one neuroscientist per million people in Africa, news about neuroscience research from the Global South remains sparse. Clearly, devising new policies to boost Africa’s neuroscience landscape is imperative. However, the policy must be based on accurate data, which is largely lacking. Such data must reflect the extreme heterogeneity of research outputs across the continent’s 54 countries distributed over an area larger than USA, Europe and China combined. Here, we analysed all of Africa’s Neuroscience output over the past 21 years. Uniquely, we individually verified in each of 12,326 publications that the work was indeed performed in Africa and led by African-based researchers. This step is critical: previous estimates grossly inflated figures, because many of Africa’s high-visibility publications are in fact the result of internationally led collaborations, with most work done outside of Africa. The remaining number of African-led Neuroscience publications was 5,219, on average only ~5 per country and year. From here, we extracted metrics such as the journal and citations, as well as detailed information on funding, international collaborations and the techniques and model systems used. We link these metrics to demographic data and indicators of mobility and economy. For reference, we also extracted the same metrics from 220 randomly selected publications each from the UK, USA, Australia, Japan and Brazil. Our unique dataset allows us to gain accurate and in-depth information on the current state of African Neuroscience research, and to put it into a global context. This in turn allows us to make actionable recommendations on how African research might best be supported in the future.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗