Global disparities and data transparency in editorial boards of prominent Internal medicine journals including allied super specialities: A wake-up call.

Abstract

Background: Global healthcare research suffers from inequalities, favouring high-income countries, which hampers fair healthcare access. Low and lower-middle-income nations face limited participation and editorial bias, posing concerns for research integrity. Potential reasons for this pattern might be the overrepresentation of researchers from the Global North on editorial boards, disparities in the quality of scientific research, lack of support for local research initiatives, and challenges posed by language barriers. The aim of this study was to assess data transparency and representation patterns of low- and lower-middle-income nations on Editorial Boards of prominent Internal Medicine journals.

Methods: The top 50 journals in the "Internal medicine including allied super specialities" subject category were selected based on SCImago journal ranking, journal impact factor, literature research and journal citation report. We examined the editorial boards of these journals using the World Bank Income Criteria.

Results: Out of 2406 editorial board members of leading journals, only 5(0.21%) were from low-income countries (LICs), while lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) and upper-middle- income countries (UMICs) constituted 64(2.67%) and 176(7.31%), respectively. High-income countries (HICs) dominated editorial boards, with 2161(89.8%) representation.

Conclusion: Editorial boards of top Internal Medicine and allied super-specialty journals lack adequate representation from low and lower-middle-income countries. This deficiency has significant implications, affecting knowledge production, policy development, and the overall progress of science and research on a global scale. Urgent measures are required to establish a fair and inclusive scholarly publishing system that caters to researchers from all regions.