From Frustration to Publication: My Journey in Global Health Research
Top is the Graphical Abstract and bottom is a screenshot of the Gavi feature
In May 2024, an article I co-authored was featured in a piece by Gavi. This post serves as a reminder that a published manuscript can be worth years of work and publishing is a journey. Now, let us rewind to January 2021, for the details of how this feature came to be.
January 2021
This journey started in January 2021 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic while I was a Master's student. As an African in the diaspora, I was getting quite frustrated with news and people constantly questioning why African countries had not seen the worst of the pandemic. It was a complete disregard for the numerous outbreaks that had occurred, the systems put in place, and the experiences people gained that they could bring to the fight against COVID-19.
The first piece I drafted was actually an opinion piece. This focused on measures that African countries had taken to combat COVID-19 and local developments countries put in place to combat supply chain disruptions. I pitched this to two sites for publication, but I never heard back.
Hearing about many discussions about the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which launched in January 2021, and recognizing the impact of disruptions to global trade on the continent, I was interested in adding a piece about this agreement to the article, specifically when it came to medical supplies. As a student with many deadlines, I asked my friend Awa Darboe for research assistance.
May 2021
She gladly supported and provided many of the article's case studies. In May 2021, I expanded the piece; it went from almost 1,000 words to 3,000 words. At this time, I also changed my goal, which was now to get it published in a peer-reviewed journal. I reached out to a professor from a course, Dr. Alain Labrique, for assistance, leading to many revisions. One highlight was that the writing style needed to be changed for a peer-reviewed journal. Dr. Labrique also suggested working with a peer, so I reached out to Dr. Ukeme Essien, whom I met at the African Public Health Network at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. We spent the next couple of months finalizing the draft.
"This process had many ups and downs. At some points, I was so tired of reviewing the manuscript and needed a break before I had the energy to review it again."
April 2022
In April 2022, I realized that the call for Health Systems Global for the 7th Health Systems Research Conference in Colombia would close soon. I thought that this manuscript would fit the theme, The politics and policies of health systems and I submitted an abstract. This abstract was accepted and I had the opportunity to present at Health Systems Research in Colombia.
May 2022
Dr. Ukeme and I went through several meetings and revised back and forth. At this time, I was studying at King's College London and had to balance the time difference and academic commitments. By May 2022, we had finalized the draft after several revisions. This process had many ups and downs. At some points, I was so tired of reviewing the manuscript and needed a break before I had the energy to review it again.
June 2022
In June 2022, I created a list of peer-reviewed journals to send this article to. I had done this based on the impact factor, journal scope, and type of articles were accepted. Recognizing that this article was 3,000 words in length and it was a commentary-style article, I needed a journal that could take a longer commentary. Once this list of journals was complete, I sent the article to the first journal on the list, which was rejected.
Since this was summer and I was also working on my dissertation, I enjoyed the summer and finished my data analysis and writing before I touched this manuscript again.
August to December 2022
At the end of August, I submitted the abstract to another journal on the list, the Journal of Global Health. For this submission, authors submit abstracts, and if the journal is interested, they ask for the full manuscript. After submitting the manuscript in August, the journal requested we submit the manuscript as a commentary. For this journal, a viewpoint had to be 1,500 words. As the original manuscript was 3,000 words, Dr. Ukeme and I shortened this manuscript to fit the word count, and I submitted the article.
In October, we received a peer review of the article. The changes were made and the article was accepted for publication. Following this acceptance, we received the article format template which we had to adhere to. Once this was received, the proofs were sent, and this was the final step before publication in December 2022.
In November 2022, I also presented my research at the Health Systems Research (HSR) Conference in Bogotá, Colombia.
January to October 2023
Following the publication in the Journal of Global Health and the presentation, I wanted to publish the longer version of the manuscript that was originally drafted in May 2022. During this time, I sent the article to 3 different journals, which all rejected it. One journal gave constructive feedback on other journals to consider based on the type of article, which was very useful.
I also had an experience sending a manuscript to a journal and not hearing back after almost 10 months. Recognizing the lengthy wait, I withdrew the manuscript.
November 2023
In November, I submitted my manuscript to Public Health Challenges. The article went through 2 rounds of peer review and then it was accepted. A main comment was that the manuscript had old information as it was drafted in May 2022 and it was now November 2023, and nothing had been updated. I was grateful that Dr. Ukeme assisted with updating the article and supported me with it the whole time. While updating the manuscript, I came across a picture from Gavi, the vaccine alliance, which we were considering using. As per the webpage guidelines, I emailed the team to see if I had permission to use the image within the manuscript.
March 2024
In March 2024, the manuscript was finally accepted! I was very happy considering the manuscript had been in the works since January 2021. In order to get it published, the licensing agreement needed to be signed and I needed to review the proof.
May 2024
On May 7, 2024, the article was finally published in Public Health Challenges. This was another exciting moment, particularly as we had been working on this manuscript for so long. I had contacted Gavi earlier; they inquired if I could share the manuscript with them when it was published, and so I did. Someone from the team followed up and said they wanted to write a piece about it and they wanted some direct quotations from the co-authors. This all led to our feature in Gavi.
Publishing this particular manuscript was a lengthy process with many starts and stops. I am glad my co-authors and I persevered and that we have a publication and feature in Gavi. I started with an opinion piece that became 2 peer-reviewed articles, an oral presentation, and a feature in Gavi.
Along this journey, peers and professors became co-authors and I also learned the importance of reaching out for assistance!
The process taught me valuable lessons about academic writing, peer collaboration, and the importance of perseverance in research. This illustrates how a single idea can grow into impactful contributions and the power of determination and teamwork in academic publishing.
