5 years later
Authors: None The Lancet Global Health
Journal: The Lancet Global Health (2018)

A lot can happen in 5 years. In many parts of the world, so much can happen that a child's reaching that milestone age is a cause for celebration. In 5 years, a medical student can receive her basic training and start treating patients. 5-year action plans are common components of global health programmes, this timeframe being considered adequate to optimise the use of available funds and implement strategies. 5 years is also the amount of time granted a newly-elected WHO Director-General to reform the institution, set priorities, and orient the global health agenda to make a difference. And how about 5 years in the life of a global health journal? This month, The Lancet Global Health is celebrating its 5th birthday. In this time, we had aimed to establish a consistent editorial line, deliver a service that is appealing to authors, convince a loyal readership of the value of our content, and build a good reputation through the careful curating of novel and impactful research. There are numbers to show that we have made good progress. We continue to receive a steady flow of manuscripts—close to 1600 in 2017—from which to extract high quality, compelling content. As an open access journal, we don't have subscribers but we know that about 300 000 people have asked to receive our table of contents every month, and we are proud of our 30 000-strong Twitter community. We have seen some of our content make the news in mainstream media or referred to as landmark research at global health conferences—a testament to the quality and impact of our authors' work. From what we gather from submissions and social media activity, The Lancet Global Health Blog has become a popular medium, with a steady pipeline and varied readership. And finally, we can consistently count on skilled and dedicated peer reviewers interested in evaluating our submissions—their expertise and guidance so fundamental in selecting and perfecting the research articles we publish. We are deeply thankful to all those who, along a manuscript's journey from submission to publication, have made all this possible. Our content has evolved in the last 5 years, as have the priorities of global health. The articles with most impact in terms of reads and citations have been of two types: those that establish robust baselines for global health issues—panoramas of disease prevalence and incidence, or mortality by cause and population groups; and those that bring to the forefront topics that are neglected or not often reported on: in essence, the core of The Lancet Global Health's remit. In this issue, we publish Comments from five of our International Advisory Board members, who reflect on the field's evolution over the past 5 years, and from their own personal vantage points, confirm the relevance of our focus. Yan Guo evokes how innovative tools to tackle infectious diseases, including genomics, have had no impact where implementation has been inadequate. In the same vein, Buddha Basnyat regrets that for lack of the right focus, on simple things like maintenance of diagnostic tools and public engagement, so many communicable diseases remain a threat in South Asia. And, as Nora Groce points out, important issues such as global disability have emerged as priorities—but again, action is still needed. We hope that The Lancet Global Health's continued interest in applicable, change-oriented research can contribute to bringing solutions to these issues. Global and national panoramas are useful, but as S V Subramanian points out, to reduce inequalities and truly advance the health agenda, markers of health at the global level should also be considered at the individual level, where inequalities reside. We will continue to document inequalities and publish studies offering solutions to reduce them. Finally, Lincoln Chen evokes the rise of China as a global health player and the need for better quality in its role in development assistance. The Lancet Global Health has been and will keep documenting these major shifts and their impact. So what next for The Lancet Global Health? As we embark on the next leg of our journey, we anticipate that we'll continue to grow, in the volume of our publications, and the diversity of our format: our first Commission, on high-quality health systems, will be published in September. We may increase other media output, podcasts in particular, and explore giving our diverse audience a chance to access our content in languages other than English. Whatever happens in the next 5 years, we will strive to offer our contributors and our readers an open-minded environment in which to gather food for thought and building blocks for action. Communicable diseases and the genome revolutionThe greatest global health achievements in the previous century are population-level interventions, including reductions in child mortality and vaccine-preventable diseases, and these achievements have contributed to shifts in the major causes of death.1 Chronic, non-infectious causes of death are prevalent and increasing, not only in affluent countries but also in low-income and middle-income countries.2 When The Lancet Global Health was launched in 2013, lower respiratory diseases, viral hepatitis, and AIDS were the only three remaining communicable and neonatal causes of death among the top ten worldwide, and viral hepatitis was the only one that had seen an increase in incidence since 1990. Full-Text PDF Open AccessSouth Asia today: William Osler's world with antibioticsIn the past 5 years, The Lancet Global Health has reported seminal Articles about typhoid, typhus, tuberculosis, and antimicrobial resistance. This Comment will address these common problems in a different perspective over a longer time frame in south Asia. Typhoid and typhus fevers are the first two chapters in William Osler's The Principles and Practice of Medicine, published in 1892.1 It is disheartening that well over a century later, south Asia continues to have a large burden of these diseases, despite antibiotics. Full-Text PDF Open AccessGlobal disability: an emerging issueOver the 5 years since the launch of The Lancet Global Health, there has been a growing and long overdue shift in how people with disabilities are included in the global health landscape—the result of a combination of social, technological, and political factors. However, a critical juncture has been reached; aspirational words and well-intended policies must be quickly translated into action or this unique opportunity might be missed. Full-Text PDF Open AccessSick countries and sick individuals: reassessing the inferential targets in global health researchIn 2008, 5 years before the launch of The Lancet Global Health, the number of publications with the keyword “global health” in PubMed was approximately 4950. This number increased to over 8800 per year in 2012. Since 2013, the annual count of publications has increased to 22 800 in 2017. At face value, this trend suggests that The Lancet Global Health with its open access model might have served as a catalyst for research productivity and visibility in the field of global health. Full-Text PDF Open AccessNew opportunities for China in global healthIn the 5 years since the launch of The Lancet Global Health, China has emerged as a major player in global health. In April, 2018, a new International Development Cooperation Agency (IDCA) was launched in China,1 after deliberation by the country's 19th party congress in October, 2017, and endorsement by the National People's Congress in March, 2018. Similar to the US Agency for International Development and the UK Department for International Development, China's IDCA will be responsible for coordinating and managing the country's foreign aid policy, both financing and implementation. Full-Text PDF Open AccessImproving the availability of health research in languages other than EnglishIn the July Editorial,1 The Lancet Global Health looked back on its first 5 years of publication and suggested that it might “explore giving our diverse audience a chance to access our content in languages other than English” in the future. We applaud the aims of The Lancet Global Health to increase access to health research, news, and analysis in languages other than English. English is the common language of science, and yet, although estimates vary, only around 5% of the world's population has English as a first language,2 and one in five to one in 14 people are estimated to speak English as a second language (some of whom might not understand even basic English). Full-Text PDF Open Access