Authorship affiliations in original articles submitted to the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease

To ascertain whether the first (principal) and last (senior) authors of articles are affiliated to an organisation belonging to the study country in an analysis of high- and upper-middle-income countries, and low- and lower-middle-income countries.

Prospective review of all original articles (n = 911) submitted to the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IJTLD) from June 2006 to May 2008.

In 81% of the submitted articles both the first and the last authors were affiliated to the country of the study. Slightly more articles from low (10%) than from lower-middle-income, high- and upper-middle-income countries (all 4%) had neither the first author nor the last author affiliated to the study country. For 17% of articles from low-income countries the senior author was not from the study country.

Although acceptance of articles for publication in the IJTLD is not dependent on this criterion, we find that a substantial proportion of authors from low- and middle-income countries were listed as principal and senior authors in articles submitted.