Editorial: The growth of Tropical Medicine and International Health: A developing-country perspective

Abstract

Tropical Medicine and International Health's (TMIH) uniqueness is that it is published on behalf of five European institutions located in Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. When it was launched in 1996, the news was received with cautious optimism, though most observers were happy that well‐established institutions in Europe were able to come together to publish a journal that would focus significantly on the field of tropical medicine and international health, as clearly reflected in the journal's name. Most developing country scientists were concerned about the workability of such a laudable project. Ten years down the line, however, TMIH has demonstrated that the project has worked well. I would therefore like to congratulate the architects of this union and the various teams who have worked hard over the years to ensure the success of the Journal, and to improve its impact factor.

As stated on its website, TMIH's scope includes infectious and non‐infectious diseases, parasitology, clinical diseases and medicines of the tropics, epidemiological theory and fieldwork, medical entomology, tropical public health and community medicine at all levels from village practice, and international policy. These topics are of direct relevance to the health problems of developing countries. Hence, TMIH is contributing to priority setting and helping to galvanize health research in developing countries. As Momen (2004) states, ‘scientific journals play a central role in the dissemination of research results; at the same time, the importance of scientific publication in advancing the careers of research scientists has given them – particularly the top international journals – increased possibilities to influence priorities.’

TMIH's growth in the last 10 years was very significant especially for scientists in the developing world. Glover and Bowen (2004) look at the bibliometric profile of TMIH and examine the subject content in relation to disease coverage and geographical distribution of the authorship of papers published by TMIH between 1996 and 2003. Their analysis presents Africa with the second largest representation with 517 authored papers, second to Europe having 564 papers. Combined with Asia, developing countries altogether have a 69.9% representation. In terms of citations of papers, the authors conclude that ‘African‐authored papers have been cited most with 3512 citations.’ In terms of ratio of citations to papers by region, Africa is the second highest with a citation rate of 6.793, second to papers featuring UK authors with 8.079.