Revisiting the INDEPTH Monograph Series?

INDEPTH started in 2002 with the Monograph Series and published our first

Population and Health in Developing countries:  Available here

And in 2004 we published our second

INDEPTH Model Life Tables for Sub-Saharan Africa:  Available here

And in 2005 our third

Measuring Health Equity in Small Areas: Available here

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: INDEPTH Policies

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: INDEPTH Annual Reports

But we have faced two main problems:

1. 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
2. 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:  http://www.thelancet.com/commissions

Please send your comments to: Prof Osman Sankoh at:  Osman.sankoh@indepth-network.org  They will assist us as we develop the Work Plan for 2018.