#AfricanNeuroscience [Thread]
Ever wondered what #Neuroscience research looks like in #Africa? For 3 years, we have been working on profiling the neuroscience research landscape in the continent’s 54 countries. Very excited to share our latest work: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
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Ever wondered what #Neuroscience research looks like in #Africa? For 3 years, we have been working on profiling the neuroscience research landscape in the continent’s 54 countries. Very excited to share our latest work: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
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Why is this important?
#Africa has real potential in #Neuroscience, but needs help to rise from its current position! To do this, we need accurate data that reflects the heterogeneity of research across the continent's 54 countries.
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#Africa has real potential in #Neuroscience, but needs help to rise from its current position! To do this, we need accurate data that reflects the heterogeneity of research across the continent's 54 countries.
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Such data is lacking, as previous estimates about research outputs from #Africa are mostly inaccurate, partly because it is difficult to tell whether the research was, in fact, conducted within Africa or outside the continent in collaboration with #Africanscientists
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In 2017, I assembled a team of 19 like-minded scientists (@MosabAli20, @babasaraki01, @ygarbawala1, @AminAbdulbasit..) & 2 fantastic mentors @NeuroFishh/@neuroluci to profile #African #Neuroscience. We retrieved all of Africa's 12,326 Neuroscience output over the past 21.
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From this, we uniquely verified that only 5,219, on average only ~5 per country & year, were driven by #African Labs. From here, we extracted metrics such as the journal & citations, detailed information on funding, collaborations and the techniques and model systems used.
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To put this in a global context, we also extracted the same info from randomly selected publications over the past 21 years from the #UK, #UnitedStates, #Australia, #Japan and #Brazil. We link these metrics to demographic data and indicators of mobility and economy.
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Key findings:
i) Africa's #Neuroscience output since 1997 has been dominated by #Egypt, #SouthAfrica, #Nigeria, #Morocco and #Tunisia. Although outputs from other countries are also on the rise.
ii) Neurodegeneration & injury is the dominant research theme in #Africa.
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i) Africa's #Neuroscience output since 1997 has been dominated by #Egypt, #SouthAfrica, #Nigeria, #Morocco and #Tunisia. Although outputs from other countries are also on the rise.
ii) Neurodegeneration & injury is the dominant research theme in #Africa.
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iii) Sadly, no #African country used any genetically modified model (#GMO) systems (including cell culture or mice) in more than 1% of their #Neuroscience publications in the past 21 years. Most countries used none at all.
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iv) There is a rare usage of 'advanced' techniques/equipment in #African Labs. 'Advanced' here includes fluorescence #microscopy, electron microscopy, #molecular biology or cell culture work.
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v) West-African countries have invested heavily in the use of endemic #medicinal plants, most notably #Cameroon, #Nigeria & #Ghana. In contrast, many other countries, including Africa's leading science powerhouses of #Egypt & #SouthAfrica are more focussed on other topics
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vii) Nevertheless, though dominated by the 'Global North' (here: UK, USA, Japan, Australia, mean of ~77 citations per paper), also researchers from most #African regions published at least a small fraction of papers in the top bracket (citations ≥ 95).
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viii) There is a low level of long distance intra-African collaboration.
ix) Although many did not declare their funding source, of those who did, most #AfricanNeuroscience research was supported by international rather than domestic agencies, except for #SouthAfrica.
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ix) Although many did not declare their funding source, of those who did, most #AfricanNeuroscience research was supported by international rather than domestic agencies, except for #SouthAfrica.
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x) The vast majority of international funding was from the #UnitedStates and the #UK. By agency, @NIH was the top funder of #AfricanNeuroscience research, followed by @wellcometrust.
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Overall, our unique dataset has enabled us to gain accurate and in-depth info on the current state of #AfricanNeuroscience research. This, in turn, allow us to make actionable recommendations on how African research might best be supported in the future.
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If interested in the analysis of individual countries, our dataset can be found here github.com/BadenLab/Afric….
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Finally, you may also be interested in our in-depth analysis of this data on #Nigerian #Neuroscience which was published by @EJNeuroscience and accessible via: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…
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