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

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: 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. DESIGN: 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. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSION: 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.