Global oncology authorship and access patterns.

Abstract

Background: Global Oncology is a movement to improve equitable access to cancer control and care, recognizing challenges due to economic and social factors between high, middle, and low-income countries (HIC, MIC, LIC). Access to local, regional, and global cancer data and analysis is a major driver for building a global oncology community. The JCO Global Oncology (JCO GO) online open access journal was established in 2015 with the mission to be the voice of research relevant to populations with limited resources. To assess its goals of encouraging global interaction and increasing MIC and LIC engagement, we analyzed authorship and accessing data. Method(s): Logged views of articles published in 2018 were identified by DOI, using Google Analytics during the period 01/01/2018 to 06/30/2019. The country of origin of all authors and the location of downloads were classified according to the 218 economies listed in The World Bank Data (WBC) of 2019. Result(s): 132 articles were published in JCO GO in 2018 with 88152 views, from which the accessing nation was identified for 99%. Views originated from 180 countries: 35% HIC, 51% MIC, and 14% LIC. The most common accessing countries were: USA (37%), India (14%), United Kingdom (3%), Brazil (3%), and Ethiopia (3%). Corresponding authors came from 34 nations: 60% HIC, 32% MIC, and 8% LIC. The most common economies involved in any authorship were: USA (47%), India (10%), Brazil (5%), Mexico (4%), and Nigeria (3%). Reader origin did not differ according to corresponding author WBC. Article authorship was exclusively from one economic category in 49%: 23% HIC 16% MIC, 2% LIC. For 59% of articles, authorship came from mixed economies: 42% HIC + MIC, 11% HIC + LIC, 0% MIC + LIC, 6% HIC + MIC + LIC. Conclusion(s):JCO GO 's reach extends to over 80% of the world's economies. The majority of articles have authors from mixed WBC countries. Areas identified to address are: low level of LIC corresponding authorship; few papers from authors across all economies; no papers from only LMICs authors; low percentage of views by LIC. This information provides focus for global oncology authorities to target interventions to reduce the academic segregation of LICs, such as global oncology funding opportunities, mentorship and policies to encourage interactions and develop MIC and LIC leaders.