Bibliometric analysis has found that the rate of participation in HPSR by LIC is out pacing all other economic regions

Since its inception, tremendous effort has been devoted to ensure health policy and systems research (HPSR) continues to support vulnerable populations and resource constrained regions through increased funding, institutional capacity building and knowledge production; yet, participation from the low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) is disproportionately underrepresented in HPSR knowledge production.

This analysis published in “Increasing Health Policy and Systems Research Capacity in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Results from a Bibliometric Analysis” found that publication in HPSR has been increasing slowly and steadily since 1990. Publications that focus on LMIC-relevant issues, typically lag behind HPSR publications. In contrast to these modest progressions, first authors from LMICs have participated exponentially in the life and biomedical sciences (PubMed) since the early 2000s; and thus, while absolute numbers are still low, lead authors from low-income countries (LIC) outpace the publication growth rate in all other economic regions in HPSR. The increasing and meaningful participation by LMIC may be correlated to the expanded capacity in LMIC regions, due in part, to continued support of HPSR.