I have worked in science research in both developed and underdeveloped countries. The type of research, infrastructure, resources and money vary greatly between both settings in the expected direction (more of everything in developed settings) but there are fields that have proven productive and successful in less developed countries. These countries tend to be located in tropical settings, and as a consequence one big area of research is tropical diseases such as malaria, dengue, and Chagas disease and others not specifically tropical but with huge numbers of people affected in the tropical areas such as tuberculosis. The access to high numbers of patients, insect vectors that transmit the disease to humans, and often easier and less regulated conditions to work with the infectious agents (biosafety levels 1/2 for tuberculosis for example in underdeveloped labs as opposed to level 3 in more regulated places such as the US or European labs) allow local labs in less developed tropical countries to conduct great research due in part to the abundance of samples. As a consequence, collaborations are established between labs in developed and underdeveloped countries by which samples isolated from patients or insects in less developed areas are sent to developed countries laboratories which can perform more sophisticated analytical assays, animal model experiments (see previous blog entry on this subject if you are interested) and other research that requires more resources. Expensive reagents that come from developed settings' manufacturers are even more expensive when ordered from tropical settings (as there is additional cost for shipping) and these might get stuck at customs and other places before final delivery where they might not be kept at the required low temperature (on ice or dry ice) and therefore lose
Publication of this type of research from less developed settings becomes a tricky issue though. I have experienced first hand how some potentially clinically relevant research can go unpublished when conducted in less developed countries. There are a few factors associated with this reality, which are beginning to be addressed by the global scientific community:
1) One very important determinant of whether important research gets published or not in a high access journal is the very high fees that are required to publish peer reviewed manuscripts in some cases (especially relative to exchange rates and local cost of living in non-USdollar/GBP/Euro economies). This fee goes entirely to the journals (not to the reviewers, which are researchers asked to volunteer for this purpose) and varies depending on the journal status, type of manuscript, number of color figures etc.
2) The time that requires to write a manuscript is another factor to consider when people spend much of the time on the actual research or teaching in research/teaching universities. There is a pressure to publish in some underdeveloped places, but not as high as in developed countries where publishing is required to get promoted and get tenured and grants. The work might get presented in local meetings, or published in local journals which do not have high exposure or be in English language, and usually the results never make it to potentially interested parties in developing diagnostic or treatment kits such as pharmaceutical companies.
3) The language: tropical settings in Latin America, Asia and some places in Africa (francophone countries) would not often present or write their results in English at local meetings. This makes the possible manuscript writing process take much longer and be much more painful for researchers in these areas.
4) In terms of access to information, money is a big factor that restricts journals and publications that underdeveloped settings have access to as they might not have the subscriptions that developed countries' research institutions usually have .... this is in addition to limited internet access, downloading speed and services, and printing capabilities.
Newer journals such as PLOS have surged recently that not only publish high quality peer-reviewed research (valued as such by the scientific community) but are working on 2 important directions to make research more widely available for those interested in reading about it: 1) they are "open access", which means anyone can look at and download any publication (without paying any fees or having to subscribe to the journal) and more importantly for underdeveloped settings' research authors: 2) they have the option to apply for waved or lower fees for publication depending on the country submitting the work, specifically in their "PLOS neglected tropical diseases" (check out link for info for authors in developing countries: http://www.plosntds.org/static/developing;jsessionid=A3E5334790DDEA736A6EA113AF80CEB6).
Open access journals might not be aware of this, but as I writer of reviews on specific research subjects, I look for images to include in our publications (and for this blog!) to use as such or to modify depending on the context, and preferentially use the ones from open access journals without infringing copyright issues - when you want to use materials from other journals, books and websites you usually have to request permission from the publisher, including often paying fees. PLOS and other open access journals only ask that you cite the source, and the authors who publish there agree to these terms.
NOTE: I have no connection with PLOS, and all the statements made here about publishing research from developed versus less developed countries are generalizations (which, as with all generalizations, come with exceptions).
Publication of this type of research from less developed settings becomes a tricky issue though. I have experienced first hand how some potentially clinically relevant research can go unpublished when conducted in less developed countries. There are a few factors associated with this reality, which are beginning to be addressed by the global scientific community:
1) One very important determinant of whether important research gets published or not in a high access journal is the very high fees that are required to publish peer reviewed manuscripts in some cases (especially relative to exchange rates and local cost of living in non-USdollar/GBP/Euro economies). This fee goes entirely to the journals (not to the reviewers, which are researchers asked to volunteer for this purpose) and varies depending on the journal status, type of manuscript, number of color figures etc.
2) The time that requires to write a manuscript is another factor to consider when people spend much of the time on the actual research or teaching in research/teaching universities. There is a pressure to publish in some underdeveloped places, but not as high as in developed countries where publishing is required to get promoted and get tenured and grants. The work might get presented in local meetings, or published in local journals which do not have high exposure or be in English language, and usually the results never make it to potentially interested parties in developing diagnostic or treatment kits such as pharmaceutical companies.
3) The language: tropical settings in Latin America, Asia and some places in Africa (francophone countries) would not often present or write their results in English at local meetings. This makes the possible manuscript writing process take much longer and be much more painful for researchers in these areas.
4) In terms of access to information, money is a big factor that restricts journals and publications that underdeveloped settings have access to as they might not have the subscriptions that developed countries' research institutions usually have .... this is in addition to limited internet access, downloading speed and services, and printing capabilities.
Newer journals such as PLOS have surged recently that not only publish high quality peer-reviewed research (valued as such by the scientific community) but are working on 2 important directions to make research more widely available for those interested in reading about it: 1) they are "open access", which means anyone can look at and download any publication (without paying any fees or having to subscribe to the journal) and more importantly for underdeveloped settings' research authors: 2) they have the option to apply for waved or lower fees for publication depending on the country submitting the work, specifically in their "PLOS neglected tropical diseases" (check out link for info for authors in developing countries: http://www.plosntds.org/static/developing;jsessionid=A3E5334790DDEA736A6EA113AF80CEB6).
Open access journals might not be aware of this, but as I writer of reviews on specific research subjects, I look for images to include in our publications (and for this blog!) to use as such or to modify depending on the context, and preferentially use the ones from open access journals without infringing copyright issues - when you want to use materials from other journals, books and websites you usually have to request permission from the publisher, including often paying fees. PLOS and other open access journals only ask that you cite the source, and the authors who publish there agree to these terms.
NOTE: I have no connection with PLOS, and all the statements made here about publishing research from developed versus less developed countries are generalizations (which, as with all generalizations, come with exceptions).
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