Has Authorship in the Decolonizing Global Health Movement Been Colonized?

Area of Science:

• Global Health Equity
• Decolonization Studies
• Health Systems Research

Background:

• Decolonization in global health addresses historical power imbalances and inequities.
• The movement seeks to dismantle supremacist mindsets and unequal structures within global health initiatives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze author demographics in publications focused on decolonizing global health.
• To examine author representation in global health partnerships between low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs).

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional analysis of 197 publications from major databases (Medline, CAB Global Health, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science) up to November 2022.
• Author country affiliations were categorized by income bracket (LMIC vs. HIC).
• Author gender was determined using first names and the genderize.io software.

Main Results:

• Publications predominantly featured authors affiliated with HICs (70.0%).
• Only 7.6% of publications exclusively included authors from LMICs.
• Over half of the authors were identified as female (54.0%), with HIC-affiliated females most frequently in first author positions (51.8%).

Conclusions:

• Research on decolonizing global health is largely dominated by authors from HICs.
• The underrepresentation of LMIC authors limits essential contextual insights for the decolonization movement.
• Addressing this demographic disparity is crucial for advancing equitable global health research and practice.