Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Mental health research in developing countries
Story in Medical News Today (UK) - "For the first time, editors from leading medical journals are joining the World Health Organization (WHO) in an effort to spur the publication of more mental health research from developing countries. Currently, the overwhelming majority of mental health studies published in leading journals are from the developed world, with just 2% from and about developing countries. In an attempt to reverse this trend, WHO and 42 editors representing mental health and public health journals such as the British Journal of Psychiatry, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, British Medical Journal, the Lancet, and others, have agreed a Joint Statement aimed at reducing the substantial barriers that impede publication of mental health research from low- and middle-income countries." See also, at the World Health Organization web site, the page Mental Health Research in Developing Countries and the joint statement, The Role of Scientific Journals (Adobe Acrobat format).