Dear Centre leaders,
Greetings from the INDEPTH Training and Resource Centre. We hope you had a fruitful week. We have the following items for your kind attention
Countdown: INDEPTH AGM 2017 a few weeks to go – 33/43 centres will attend
What Centre Leaders say about INDEPTH Network
INDEPTH loses a friend
Revisiting the INDEPTH Monograph Series
1. Countdown: INDEPTH AGM 2017 a few weeks to go – 33/43 centres will attend
This year the INDEPTH Annual General Meeting will be held from 11-12 December 2017 in Dubai, UAE and we are happy to inform that the leaders and representatives from the following member centre will attend. We will regretfully miss 10 centres this year. We hope that everyone will be able to attend ISC 2018 which in which we will celebrate INDEPTH’s 20th Anniversary (INDEPTH@20).
1
AHRI
South Africa
2
Kintampo
Ghana
3
Agincourt
South Africa
4
Bandafassi
Senegal
5
Bandim
Guinea Bissau
6
Cross River
Nigeria
7
Dabat
Ethiopia
8
Dikgale
South Africa
9
Dodowa
Ghana
10
Filabavi
Vietnam
11
Iganga/Mayuge
Uganda
12
Kaya
Burkina Faso
13
Kersa
Ethiopia
14
Kilite Awlaelo
Ethiopia
15
Kombewa
Kenya
16
Magu
Tanzania
17
Nahuche
Nigeria
18
Nairobi
Kenya
19
Nanoro
Burkina Faso
20
Navrongo
Ghana
21
PiH
Papua New Guinea
22
Purworejo
Indonesia
23
Ouagadougou
Burkina Faso
24
Gilgel Gibe
Ethiopia
25
Chokwe
Mozambique
26
Karongo
Malawi
27
Harar
Ethiopia
28
Manhica
Mozambique
29
Mbita
Kenya
30
Ballabgarh
India
31
Mlomp
Senegal
32
Niakhar
Senegal
33
Butajira
Ethiopia
2. What Centre Leaders say about INDEPTH Network
We are developing a webpage on comments leaders of INDEPTH member centres have about their Network. We would like to encourage all centre leaders to leave us a word. These will be put together for INDEPTH’s 20th anniversary celebration next year.
See what your colleagues are saying about INDEPTH by clicking on "What Centre Leaders Say": Please send your comments to felicia.manu@indepth-network.org who handles our communications activities.
3. INDEPTH loses a friend
We are saddened to inform of the death of Mr. Raphael Isingo (Kisesa statistician, Magu HDSS, Tanzania). He passed away in early hours of last Wednesday, 22nd Nov., 2017. He had been unwell in the last two years and he died in the Muhimbili hospital in Dar es Salaam. News about burial place and dates etc. will be communicated in due course. On behalf of the entire membership of the Network we wish to express our deepest condolences to our friends in Magu HDSS, Tanzania. May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace.
Because the above three books turned out to be huge undertakings that required several funded workshops over several months and also for the fact that the monographs were not considered peer-reviewed products, the INDEPTH Scientific Advisory Committee advised a discontinuation of the Monograph Strategy and urged the Network to focus on peer-reviewed papers in international journals.
We agreed with the SAC but landed on the minefield of authorship issues -- who should be authors. We developed policies in 2008 and recently in 2015 which you can find on the website: Click to view
We encouraged Working Groups, Projects and member centres to focus on peer-reviewed papers.
You have been excellent in doing so to the extent we can now count at least 400 papers by the Network annually. See the lists we present in our annual reports: click to view
But we have faced two main problems:
Many centres still do not add their INDEPTH affiliation when they publish. As a result a search for INDEPTH on PubMed doesn't yield the publication success we have achieved as a collective; and
Working groups and Projects still need a long time to be able to publish papers.
The Impact
The impact of the above two problems is that INDEPTH's scientific productivity is not projected effectively to the international community.
The suggested solutions
A. Use INDEPTH affiliation
A solution that's dictated by the first problem above is our continued appeal to centre leaders to encourage their staff and colleagues to add INDEPTH to their affiliations when they publish papers, especially those based on the HDSS platform which has benefited in diverse ways from INDEPTH support (participating in iSHARE2 and other network activities)
B. Revisiting the INDEPTH Monograph Series Strategy
Without neglecting the peer-reviewed articles, we think that INDEPTH should bring back the INDEPTH Monograph Series and commission member centres to host specific topics in areas they are very strong in. We will ask the SAC to assist us with a generic call for proposals so that centres can apply to host an INDEPTH Commission. This will be similar to the Lancet Commissions:
Please send your comments to: Prof Osman Sankoh at:osman.sankoh@indepth-network.orgThey will assist us as we develop the Work Plan for 2018.
