Medicine & Health

World Health Report 2012: No Health Without Research

Published June 8, 2016 Partnered Collections, Special Issues

In 2011, PLOS Medicine in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) on the theme of “No Health Without Research", intended to coincide with the release of the 2012 World Health Report by WHO. The collection's theme is oriented around the fact that decisions on healthcare are still made without a solid grounding in research evidence, and an impetus is required for this state of affairs to change. Articles below include examples previously published in PLOS journals in these specific areas of interest, along with articles submitted in response to the call for papers, and evaluated by a PLOS Medicine & WHO panel appropriate to the collection theme. The WHO panelists were Robert F. Terry and Tikki Pang.

Image Credit: Permission kindly granted by WHO for use of their logo; image compilation by PLOS.

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Editorials
Symposium
Reviews
Guidelines and Guidance
Policy Platform
Health in Action
Essays
Viewpoint
Policy Forums
Perspective
The PLOS Medicine Debate
Research Articles

Editorials

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Permission kindly granted by WHO

PLOS Medicine The World Health Report 2012 That Wasn’t
September 25, 2012 The PLOS Medicine Editors
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Permission kindly granted by WHO

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Unleashing “Civilian Power”: A New American Diplomacy through Neglected Tropical Disease Control, Elimination, Research, and Development
June 28, 2011 Peter Hotez
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Permission kindly granted by WHO

PLOS Medicine WHO/PLoS Collection “No Health Without Research”: A Call for Papers
January 25, 2011 Tikki Pang, Robert Terry, The PLOS Medicine Editors
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10.1371/journal.pntd.0001133

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases New Antipoverty Drugs, Vaccines, and Diagnostics: A Research Agenda for the US President’s Global Health Initiative (GHI)
May 31, 2011 Peter Hotez

Symposium

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Permission kindly granted by WHO

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Franchising Rabies Vaccine Delivery: The Case of Indian Immunologicals
April 26, 2011 Hassan Masum, Hima Batavia, Natasha Bhogal, Kim Le, Peter A. Singer

Reviews

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10.1371/journal.pmed.1000406

PLOS Medicine A Research Agenda to Underpin Malaria Eradication
January 25, 2011 Pedro L. Alonso, Graham Brown, Myriam Arevalo-Herrera, Fred Binka, Chetan Chitnis, Frank Collins, Ogobara K. Doumbo, Brian Greenwood, B. Fenton Hall, Myron M. Levine, Kamini Mendis, Robert D. Newman, Christopher V. Plowe, Mario Henry Rodríguez, Robert Sinden, Laurence Slutsker, Marcel Tanner
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001130

PLOS Medicine Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision: Translating Research into the Rapid Expansion of Services in Kenya, 2008–2011
November 29, 2011 Zebedee Mwandi, Anne Murphy, Jason Reed, Kipruto Chesang, Emmanuel Njeuhmeli, Kawango Agot, Emma Llewellyn, Charles Kirui, Kennedy Serrem, Isaac Abuya, Mores Loolpapit, Regina Mbayaki, Ndungu Kiriro, Peter Cherutich, Nicholas Muraguri, John Motoku, Jack Kioko, Nancy Knight, Naomi Bock
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10.1371/journal.pntd.0001261

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases The NIH-NIAID Filariasis Research Reagent Resource Center
November 29, 2011 Michelle Michalski, Kathryn Griffiths, Steven Williams, Ray Kaplan, Andrew Moorhead

Guidelines and Guidance

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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001099

PLOS Medicine Setting Research Priorities to Reduce Global Mortality from Childhood Pneumonia by 2015
September 27, 2011 Igor Rudan, Shams El Arifeen, Zulfiqar Bhutta, Robert Black, Abdullah Brooks, Kit Chan, Mickey Chopra, Trevor Duke, David Marsh, Antonio Pio, Eric Simoes, Giorgio Tamburlini, Evropi Theodoratou, Martin Weber, Cynthia Whitney, Harry Campbell, Shamim Qazi
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001096

PLOS Medicine Research Priorities for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Humanitarian Settings
September 20, 2011 Wietse Tol, Vikram Patel, Mark Tomlinson, Florence Baingana, Ananda Galappatti, Catherine Panter-Brick, Derrick Silove, Egbert Sondorp, Michael Wessells, Mark van Ommeren
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1000380

PLOS Medicine Setting Implementation Research Priorities to Reduce Preterm Births and Stillbirths at the Community Level
January 4, 2011 Asha George, Mark Young, Abhay Bang, Kit Yee Chan, Igor Rudan, Cesar G. Victora, Mickey Chopra, Craig Rubens, and the GAPPS expert group on community based strategies and constraints
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1000389

PLOS Medicine Setting Research Priorities to Reduce Almost One Million Deaths from Birth Asphyxia by 2015
January 11, 2011 Joy E. Lawn, Rajiv Bahl, Staffan Bergstrom, Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Gary L. Darmstadt, Matthew Ellis, Mike English, Jennifer J. Kurinczuk, Anne C. C. Lee, Mario Merialdi, Mohamed Mohamed, David Osrin, Robert Pattinson, Vinod Paul, Siddarth Ramji, Ola D. Saugstad, Lyn Sibley, Nalini Singhal, Steven N. Wall, Dave Woods, John Wyatt, Kit Yee Chan, Igor Rudan

Policy Platform

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Permission kindly granted by WHO

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Research and Capacity Building for Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases: The Need for a Different Approach
May 31, 2011 Thomas Kariuki, Richard Phillips, Sammy Njenga, Paul R. Klatser, Ole F. Olesen, Riccardo Porro, Sarah Lock, Maria H. Cabral, Martina Gliber, Detlef Hanne

Health in Action

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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001089

PLOS Medicine Strengthening the Informed Consent Process in International Health Research through Community Engagement: The KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme Experience
September 13, 2011 Mwanamvua Boga, Alun Davies Davies, Dorcas Kamuya, samson kinyanjui, Ester Kivaya, Francis Kombe, Trudie Lang, Vicki Marsh, Bibi Mbete, Albert Mlamba, Catherine Molyneux, Stephen Mulupi, Salim Mwalukore
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1000231

PLOS Medicine Laboratory Capacity Building in Asia for Infectious Disease Research: Experiences from the South East Asia Infectious Disease Clinical Research Network (SEAICRN)
April 6, 2010 Heiman F. L. Wertheim, Pilaipan Puthavathana, Ngoc My Nghiem, H. Rogier van Doorn, Trung Vu Nguyen, Hung Viet Pham, Decy Subekti, Syahrial Harun, Suhud Malik, Janet Robinson, Motiur Rahman, Walter Taylor, Niklas Lindegardh, Steve Wignall, Jeremy J. Farrar, Menno D. de Jong
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1000293

PLOS Medicine Developing ANDI: A Novel Approach to Health Product R&D in Africa
June 29, 2010 Solomon Nwaka, Tshinko B. Ilunga, Jorge Santos Da Silva, Emiliano Rial Verde, Doan Hackley, Raymond De Vré, Tom Mboya-Okeyo, Robert G. Ridley
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1000349

PLOS Medicine A Field Training Guide for Human Subjects Research Ethics
October 5, 2010 Maria W. Merritt, Alain B. Labrique, Joanne Katz, Mahbubur Rashid, Keith P. West, Joan Pettit
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1000331

PLOS Medicine AIDS Vaccine for Asia Network (AVAN): Expanding the Regional Role in Developing HIV Vaccines
September 21, 2010 Stephen J. Kent, David A. Cooper, Mean Chhi Vun, Yiming Shao, Linqi Zhang, Nirmal Ganguly, Budiman Bela, Hiko Tamashiro, Rossana Ditangco, Supachai Rerks-Ngarm, Punnee Pitisuttithum, Nguyen Van Kinh, Alan Bernstein, Saladin Osmanov, for the AIDS Vaccine for Asia Network investigators and supporters

Essays

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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001143

PLOS Medicine The Role of Group Dynamics in Scientific Inconsistencies: A Case Study of a Research Consortium
December 13, 2011 Judith Rosmalen, Albertine Oldehinkel
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001016

PLOS Medicine Towards Open and Equitable Access to Research and Knowledge for Development
March 29, 2011 Leslie Chan, Barbara Kirsop, Subbiah Arunachalam
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300td.org, flickr

PLOS Medicine Closing the Gaps: From Science to Action in Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in Africa
June 29, 2010 Sara Bennett, Freddie Ssengooba
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300td.org, flickr

PLOS Medicine Improving Implementation: Building Research Capacity in Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health in Africa
July 6, 2010 James Whitworth, Nelson K. Sewankambo, Valerie A. Snewin
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http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000308

PLOS Medicine Evidence-Based Priority Setting for Health Care and Research: Tools to Support Policy in Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health in Africa
July 13, 2010 Igor Rudan, Lydia Kapiriri, Mark Tomlinson, Manuela Balliet, Barney Cohen, Mickey Chopra
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Permission kindly granted by WHO

PLOS Medicine Scaling Up Global Health Interventions: A Proposed Framework for Success
June 28, 2011 Gavin Yamey
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001209

PLOS Medicine Where There Is No Health Research: What Can Be Done to Fill the Global Gaps in Health Research?
April 24, 2012 Martin Mckee, David Stuckler, Sanjay Basu
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Tsetse Fly (Top Left): Tam Nguyen, Wikimedia Commons; Hand (Top Right): cosmo flash, Flickr; Petri Dish (Bottom Left): Microrao, Wikimedia Commons; Hookworm (Bottom Right): CDC's Public Health Image Library, Wikimedia Commons.

PLOS Medicine Innovation and Access to Medicines for Neglected Populations: Could a Treaty Address a Broken Pharmaceutical R&D System?
May 15, 2012 Suerie Moon, Jorge Bermudez, Ellen 't Hoen
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001228

PLOS Medicine Clinical Trials Have Gone Global: Is This a Good Thing?
June 12, 2012 Trudie Lang, Sisira Siribaddana
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001312

PLOS Medicine Who Sets the Global Health Research Agenda? The Challenge of Multi-Bi Financing
September 25, 2012 Devi Sridhar

Viewpoint

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Permission kindly granted by WHO

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Clinical Research in Resource-Limited Settings: Enhancing Research Capacity and Working Together to Make Trials Less Complicated
June 29, 2010 Trudie A. Lang, Nicholas J. White, Tran Tinh Hien, Jeremy J. Farrar, Nicholas P. J. Day, Raymond Fitzpatrick, Brian J. Angus, Emmanuelle Denis, Laura Merson, Phaik Yeong Cheah, Roma Chilengi, Robert Kimutai, Kevin Marsh

Policy Forums

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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001185

PLOS Medicine Guidance for Evidence-Informed Policies about Health Systems: Rationale for and Challenges of Guidance Development
March 6, 2012 Xavier Bosch-Capblanch, John Lavis, Simon Lewin, Rifat Atun, John-Arne Rottingen, Daniel Dröschel, Lise Beck, Edgardo Abalos, Fadi El-Jardali, Lucy Gilson, Sandy Oliver, Kaspar Wyss, Peter Tugwell, Regina Kulier, Tikki Pang, Andy Haines
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001186

PLOS Medicine Guidance for Evidence-Informed Policies about Health Systems: Linking Guidance Development to Policy Development
March 13, 2012 John Lavis, John-Arne Rottingen, Xavier Bosch-Capblanch, Rifat Atun, Fadi El-Jardali, Lucy Gilson, Simon Lewin, Sandy Oliver, Pierre Ongolo-Zogo, Andy Haines
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001126

PLOS Medicine Responsible Governance for Mental Health Research in Low Resource Countries
November 22, 2011 M. Taghi Yasamy, Pallab K. Maulik, Mark Tomlinson, Crick Lund, Mark Van Ommeren, Shekhar Saxena
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001135

PLOS Medicine What Research Is Needed to Stop TB? Introducing the TB Research Movement
November 29, 2011 Christian Lienhardt, Marcos Espinal, Madhukar Pai, Dermot Maher, Mario Raviglione
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Permission kindly granted by WHO

PLOS Medicine Priorities for Research on Equity and Health: Towards an Equity-Focused Health Research Agenda
November 1, 2011 Piroska Ostlin, Ted Schrecker, Ritu Sadana, Josiane Bonnefoy, Lucy Gilson, Clyde Hertzman, Michael Kelly, Kjellstrom Tord, Ronald Labontè, Olle Lundberg, Charles Muntaner, Jennie Popay, Gita Sen, Ziba Vaghri
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001073

PLOS Medicine Building the Field of Health Policy and Systems Research: Framing the Questions
August 16, 2011 Kabir Sheikh, Lucy Gilson, Irene Agyepong, Kara Hanson, Freddie Ssengooba, Sara Bennett
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001079

PLOS Medicine Building the Field of Health Policy and Systems Research: Social Science Matters
August 23, 2011 Lucy Gilson, Kara Hanson, Kabir Sheikh, Irene Agyepong, Freddie Ssengooba, Sara Bennett
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001081

PLOS Medicine Building the Field of Health Policy and Systems Research: An Agenda for Action
August 30, 2011 Sara Bennett, Irene Akua Agyepong, Kabir Sheikh, Kara Hanson, Freddie Sseengooba, Lucy Gilson
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001068

PLOS Medicine Assessing and Strengthening African Universities’ Capacity for Doctoral Programmes
September 13, 2011 Imelda Bates, Richard Phillips, Ruby Martin-Peprah, Gibson Kibiki, Oumar Gaye, Kamija Phiri, Harry Tagbor, Sue Purnell
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Permission kindly granted by WHO

PLOS Medicine The Global Health System: Linking Knowledge with Action—Learning from Malaria
January 19, 2010 Gerald T. Keusch, Wen L. Kilama, Suerie Moon, Nicole A. Szlezák, Catherine M. Michaud
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Permission kindly granted by WHO

PLOS Medicine The Global Health System: Lessons for a Stronger Institutional Framework
January 26, 2010 Suerie Moon, Nicole A. Szlezák, Catherine M. Michaud, Dean T. Jamison, Gerald T. Keusch, William C. Clark, Barry R. Bloom
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001000

PLOS Medicine Defining Research to Improve Health Systems
November 16, 2010 Jan Remme, Robert Terry, Taghreed Adam, Catherine D'Arcangues, Francisco Becerra-Posada, Michael Devlin, Charles Gardner, Abdul Ghaffar, Joachim Hombach, Jane Kengeya, Anthony Mbewu, Michael Mbizvo, Zafar Mirza, Robert Ridley, Fabio Zicker, Tikki Pang
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1000411

PLOS Medicine Registering New Drugs for Low-Income Countries: The African Challenge
February 1, 2011 Mary Moran, Nathalie Strub-Wourgaft, Javier Guzman, Pascale Boulet, Lindsey Wu, Bernard Pecoul

Perspective

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Permission kindly granted by WHO

PLOS Medicine The Challenge of Discharging Research Ethics Duties in Resource-Constrained Settings
March 15, 2011 Jerome Amir Singh

The PLOS Medicine Debate

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Tsetse Fly (Top Left): Tam Nguyen, Wikimedia Commons; Hand (Top Right): cosmo flash, Flickr; Petri Dish (Bottom Left): Microrao, Wikimedia Commons; Hookworm (Bottom Right): CDC's Public Health Image Library, Wikimedia Commons.

PLOS Medicine Are Patents Impeding Medical Care and Innovation?
January 5, 2010 E. Richard Gold, Warren Kaplan, James Orbinski, Sarah Harland-Logan, Sevil N-Marandi

Research Articles

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10.1371/journal.pone.0028773

PLOS ONE The Ethics Police?: IRBs’ Views Concerning Their Power
December 13, 2011 Robert klitzman
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1001154

PLOS Medicine Trends in Compulsory Licensing of Pharmaceuticals Since the Doha Declaration: A Database Analysis
January 10, 2012 Reed Beall, Randall Kuhn
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Permission kindly granted by WHO

PLOS ONE Identifying Trustworthy Experts: How Do Policymakers Find and Assess Public Health Researchers Worth Consulting or Collaborating With?
March 5, 2012 Abby Haynes, Gemma Derrick, Sally Redman, Wayne Hall, James Gillespie, Simon Chapman, Heidi Sturk
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Permission kindly granted by WHO

PLOS ONE A Collaboratively-Derived Science-Policy Research Agenda
March 9, 2012 William (Bill) Sutherland, Laura Bellingan, Jim Bellingham, Jason Blackstock, Robert Bloomfield, Michael Bravo, Victoria Cadman, David Cleevely, Andy Clements, Anthony Cohen, David Cope, Arthur Daemrich, Cristina Devecchi, Laura Diaz Anadon, Simon Denegri, Robert Doubleday, Nicholas Dusic, Robert Evans, Wai Feng, Charles Godfray, Paul Harris, Sue Hartley, Alison Hester, John Holmes, Alan Hughes, Mike Hulme, Colin Irwin, Richard Jennings, Gary Kass, Peter Littlejohns, Theresa Marteau, Glenn McKee, Erik Millstone, William Nuttall, Susan Owens, Miles Parker, Sarah Pearson, Judith Petts, Richard Ploszek, Andrew Pullin, Graeme Reid, John Robinson, Louise Shaxson, Leonor Sierra, Beck Smith, David Spiegelhalter, Jack Stilgoe, Andrew Stirling, Christopher Tyler, David Winickoff, Ron Zimmern, Keith Richards
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10.1371/journal.pone.0027868

PLOS ONE Access to Scientific Publications: The Scientist’s Perspective
November 17, 2011 Yegor Voronin, Askar Myrzahmetov, Alan Bernstein
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10.1371/journal.pone.0027263

PLOS ONE Trends in Health Policy and Systems Research over the Past Decade: Still Too Little Capacity in Low-Income Countries
November 22, 2011 Taghreed Adam, Saad Ahmad, Maryam Bigdeli, Abdul Ghaffar, John-Arne Røttingen
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10.1371/journal.pntd.0001351

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Impact of Health Research Capacity Strengthening in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: The Case of WHO/TDR Programmes
October 11, 2011 Happiness Minja, Christian Nsanzabana, Christine Maure, Axel Hoffman, Susan Rumisha, Olumide Ogundahunsi, Fabio Zicker, Marcel Tanner, Pascal Launois
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10.1371/journal.pone.0022696

PLOS ONE Repeated Assessments of Informed Consent Comprehension among HIV-Infected Participants of a Three-Year Clinical Trial in Botswana
October 27, 2011 Lelia Chaisson, Nancy Kass, Bafanana Chengeta, Unami Mathebula, Taraz Samandari
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10.1371/journal.pone.0018657

PLOS ONE Who Shares? Who Doesn’t? Factors Associated with Openly Archiving Raw Research Data
July 13, 2011 Heather Piwowar
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10.1371/journal.pone.0021704

PLOS ONE The Use of Research Evidence in Public Health Decision Making Processes: Systematic Review
July 26, 2011 Lois Orton, Ffion Lloyd-Williams, David Taylor-Robinson, Martin O'Flaherty, Simon Capewell
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10.1371/journal.pone.0022897

PLOS ONE Lessons from History for Designing and Validating Epidemiological Surveillance in Uncounted Populations
August 3, 2011 Peter Byass, Osman Sankoh, Stephen Tollman, Ulf Högberg, Stig Wall
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10.1371/journal.pone.0023994

PLOS ONE Impact of Increasing Capacity for Generating and Using Research on Maternal and Perinatal Health Practices in South East Asia (SEA-ORCHID Project)
September 7, 2011 The SEA-ORCHID Study Group The SEA-ORCHID Study Group, Tari Turner
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10.1371/journal.pone.0003274

PLOS ONE Research Ethics Training in Peru: A Case Study
September 26, 2008 A. Roxana Lescano, David L. Blazes, Silvia M. Montano, Zoe Moran, Cesar Naquira, Edwin Ramirez, Reidar Lie, Gregory J. Martin, Andres G. Lescano, Joseph R. Zunt
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10.1371/journal.pone.0001696

PLOS ONE Relation between the Global Burden of Disease and Randomized Clinical Trials Conducted in Latin America Published in the Five Leading Medical Journals
February 27, 2008 Pablo Perel, J. Jaime Miranda, Zulma Ortiz, Juan Pablo Casas
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10.1371/journal.pone.0010610

PLOS ONE Development of and Access to Products for Neglected Diseases
May 12, 2010 Joshua Cohen, Maria Staroselsky Dibner, Andrew Wilson
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10.1371/journal.pmed.1000368

PLOS Medicine Strategies for Increasing Recruitment to Randomised Controlled Trials: Systematic Review
November 9, 2010 Patrina H. Y. Caldwell, Sana Hamilton, Alvin Tan, Jonathan C. Craig
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10.1371/journal.pone.0016878

PLOS ONE Geographical Representativeness of Published and Ongoing Randomized Controlled Trials. The Example of: Tobacco Consumption and HIV Infection
February 9, 2011 Nizar Ahmad, Isabelle boutron, Agnes Dechartres, Pierre Durieux, Philippe Ravaud
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10.1371/journal.pone.0016837

PLOS ONE NIH Disease Funding Levels and Burden of Disease
February 24, 2011 Leslie Gillum, MD, MPH, Christopher Gouveia, BA, E Dorsey, MD, MBA, Mark Pletcher, MD, MPH, Colin Mathers, PhD, Charles McCulloch, PhD, S. Johnston
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10.1371/journal.pone.0020776

PLOS ONE Reduction of Severe Acute Maternal Morbidity and Maternal Mortality in Thyolo District, Malawi: The Impact of Obstetric Audit
June 3, 2011 Thomas van den Akker, Jair van Rhenen, Beatrice Mwagomba, Kinke Lommerse, Steady Vinkhumbo, Jos van Roosmalen