Today marks the launch of the new Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research publications database. The database currently contains around 600 outputs from Alliance grantees or from work commissioned or undertaken by the Alliance. The outputs include journal articles, project documents, manuals and guides, news and commentary, annual reports, flagship reports, research issues and briefing notes. The database will serve as an open repository of knowledge products aimed at strengthening health systems, underpinned by the Alliance’s principles of equity, collaboration, systems thinking and leadership.
Understanding our authors – a focus on equity
The database currently includes 332 peer-reviewed publications by our grantees. In recent years the Alliance has focused on creating opportunities for, and strengthening the capacity of women in LMICs as future research leaders. In 2014, we instituted a policy requiring a 50/50 gender split in teams applying for our grants. Since the policy was instituted, the gender distribution of authors of our publications has shown improvements (see Figures 1 and 2). For example, recent articles by Ijeoma Nkem Okedo-Alex, Noorjehan Joosub and Nilushka Perera are the outcome of a specialised mentorship support programme for early-career women researchers.
Figure 1: Since our gender equity policy has been in place, the number of female authors has reached near parity
Number of all authors each year disaggregated by gender
Share of publications each year by gender of first author
Similarly, the Alliance’s programmes to promote research leadership from low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) are also bearing fruit with increasing numbers of LMIC authors and first authors in our publications – see figures 3 and 4.
Figure 3: The number of LMIC authors on Alliance publications is increasing
Figure 4: The Alliance almost always has a good representation of lead authors from LMICs
The journal articles in the database cover research that uses a wide range of methodological approaches, from systematic reviews, to evaluations, qualitative methods, randomised controlled trials (RCTs), mixed methods, rapid reviews, scoping reviews and more. We have classified the articles by topic and methods used.
- Overcoming health-systems constraints to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (2004)
- The utilisation of health research in policy-making: concepts, examples and methods of assessment (2003)
- Staffing remote rural areas in middle- and low-income countries: A literature review of attraction and retention (2008)
- Implementation research: what it is and how to do it (2013)
- Barriers and facilitators to the implementation of lay health worker programmes to improve access to maternal and child health: qualitative evidence synthesis (2013)
The database will be updated periodically. Please contact us if you notice any publications supported by the Alliance that are not on the list.