A call to action to reform academic global health partnerships

Power imbalances are embedded across funding opportunities, research management and coordination, knowledge production and transfer, access to training resources and most technical and political aspects of global health.1 The current pandemic, which has further highlighted these inequities, is an opportunity to acknowledge and rectify these gaps.2 The changes needed include ensuring that partnerships between HIC and LMIC institutions are equitable and that benefits from those arrangements accrue equally to all parties. Overcoming the research to policy gap is critical to addressing health challenges.3 However, knowledge generated and reported in scientific publications is largely inaccessible to LMIC researchers even when they play a significant role in the research process.4 HIC research institutions should provide free access to their academic libraries to their LMIC partners. [...]research findings must be shared with equity, fairness, and respect for the work of LMIC and HIC collaborators. Research has shown that LMIC representation in first and last author positions is low, even when all necessary data almost exclusively has been collected and produced by local staff in their own country.9 Whenever needed, HIC institutions should provide senior support and training in article writing as well as ensure fair and equitable authorship of research papers between participating scientists from LMICs and HICs.