Decolonising global health: transnational research partnerships under the spotlight by David S. Lawrence and Lioba A. Hirsh
Abstract: There are increasing calls to decolonise aspects of science, and global health is no exception. The decolonising global health movement acknowledges that global health research perpetuates existing power imbalances and aims to identify concrete ways in which global health teaching and research can overcome its colonial past and present. Using the context of clinical trials implemented through transnational research partnerships (TRPs) as a case study, this narrative review brings together perspectives from clinical research and social science to lay out specific ways in which TRPs build on and perpetuate colonial power relations. We will explore three core components of TRPs: participant experience, expertise and infrastructure, and authorship. By combining a critical perspective with recently published literature we will recommend specific ways in which TRPs can be decolonised. We conclude by discussing decolonising global health as a potential practice and object of research. By doing this we intend to frame the decolonising global health movement as one that is accessible to everyone and within which we can all play an active role.
Race equity in health research: Good for the public and the workforce: Professor Mala Rao OBE established the Ethnicity and Health Unit, under the Department of Primary Care and Public Health, at Imperial College London and NIHR ARC Northwest London to apply an evidence-based approach to addressing ethnic health inequalities. In this blog she explores the scale of the problem in the research arena and issues a rallying call for action.
Challenging Colonial Practices in Research: A Guide for PhD Researchers, by Sze, J.S., Cosmopolis, C., Hubbard, E.R.C., Mani, S., and Wang, M.M.H.
This guide was written by a group of PhD researchers at the University of Sheffield, who wrote this guide to facilitate the critical evaluation of conducting PhD research and help other PhD researchers navigate the difficulties of doing a PhD while challenging colonial practices, as they found such a guide lacking when trying to learn about these issues themselves.
Decolonising Toolkit by De Montfort University Leicester: This toolkit aims to provide a range of resources to help colleagues to engage in and work towards creating an anti-racist institution. The toolkit has been collaboratively created by staff across the university and will support both academic and professional services colleagues.
For research staff, the toolkit offers a framework for applying a decolonising lens to our research. The toolkit also provides foundational resources to help all colleagues better understand decolonisation within higher education.
Critically Appraising for Antiracism: This tool was developed by Information Specialist Ramona Naicker in response to witnessing how racial bias can influence study outcomes and conclusions. Not only can racial bias impact a study’s internal and external validity, it can also deeply damage communities of minoritised ethnic populations who already suffer from health and social inequalities. This tool aims to support appraisers in identifying racial bias, and support future researchers in overcoming these limitations.
Those who participate in, consume, and appraise research have a role to play in its recalibration; to reflect on previous practices with antiracism perspectives, and actively engage to produce more inclusive research. For more information, visit https://www.criticallyappraisingantiracism.org/
The Centre for Ethnic Health Research (CEHR): works to address inequalities, associated with ethnicity, in health care access and health outcomes. They do this by supporting individuals and organisations to involve and understand the needs of ethnic minority and underserved communities when planning and undertaking research and healthcare delivery.
Citing Africa podcast - Critical investigations into knowledge production, hosted by the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa
The Citing Africa podcast investigates knowledge production about and from the African continent. It explores the structural factors shaping the type of information we value, how these inform ideas within universities and international organisations, and what this means for debates on decolonisation.
Topics discussed on the podcast include journal publishing, international research funding, differences between African Studies and other Area Studies, hegemonic ideas within international organisations and the application of postcolonial theory to global health, digital sectors and social policy.
African Journals OnLine (AJOL) is the world's largest and preeminent platform of African-published scholarly journals. AJOL is a Non-Profit Organisation that (since 1998) works to increase global & continental online access, awareness, quality & use of African-published, peer-reviewed research. Millions of monthly downloads by site users from nearly every country in the world are an indication of the need and widespread use of the AJOL initiative. More than half of the repeat users are from Africa.
African Minds is an open access, not-for-profit, publisher of scholarly books. African Minds publishes predominantly in the social sciences and its authors are typically African academics or those with a close affinity with the continent. African Minds offers innovative approaches to those frustrated by a lack of support from traditional publishers.
Asian Online Journals (AOJ) publishes scholarly and peer reviewed journals. The journals provide forum and encourages scientists, researchers, academics, engineers, and practitioners in all aspects to share their professional and academic knowledge in the fields computing, engineering, science humanities, social sciences, management, economics, medical science, and related disciplines. Asian Online Journals also aims to reach a large number of audiences worldwide with original and current research work completed on the vital issues of the above important disciplines. All the journals of AOJ adopt an open access model that rapidly disseminates an author's work worldwide and increases its impact. The journals permit all readers to view, download and print the full-text of all published articles without any subscription or restrictions.
East View’s book and monograph offerings are drawn primarily from Russia and other countries of Eastern Europe and the former USSR. We are the largest exporter of professional and scientific book publications from Russia. Recently we have expanded into the distribution of e-books and printed matter from China, the Middle East, and elsewhere.
The objective of SciELO Social Sciences English Edition is to contribute to the promotion of international access to Latin American scientific journals in Social Sciences. Its main characteristic is to make available English full texts, at no charge to the public, in order to increase Latin America Social Sciences visibility and accessibility. In the first phase the site will include 30 journals, from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The Journals Online (JOLs) project aimed to provide increased the visibility, accessibility and quality of peer-reviewed journals published in developing countries so that the research outputs produced in these countries can be found, shared and used more effectively.
The Cochrane Library - List of LMIC filters: Filters for MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), and CENTRAL (Cochrane Library) to help identify studies relevant to LMIC. Filters are based on the World Bank list of countries (2021), classified as low-income, lower-middle-income or upper-middle-income economies: https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups
Trip Database filter on LMIC: Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) Filter: Following on from their work with Ariadne Labs to make Trip available to a number of countries across Africa, they recently ran a webinar to highlight Trip to local champions. One question they received related to local content, ie evidence relevant to the African context. While not the same they were able to highlight their LMIC filter, which was enthusiastically received.