Call for Mentees: Publication Mentorship for Women in HPSR 2018 (Funding Opportunity to Publish Research)

Deadline: April 27, 2018

The Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (AHPSR) invites early-career women working in HPSR in low-or middle-income countries (LMICs), who are motivated to publish their research but require guidance and support, to submit a manuscript which has the potential to be published in a peer-review journal. The research should be in topics covering the field of health policy or health systems.

If you’re a woman working on health policy and systems research and are based in a low- or middle-income country, don’t miss out!

The Alliance is committed to supporting institutional capacity for the conduct and uptake of health policy and systems research (HPSR). Peer reviewed publications are important for communicating scientific work, recognition within the research community and career progression. However, women lag behind their male colleagues in publications. Women face unique challenges (e.g. competing professional and personal roles, self-confidence, male-dominated professional environments) which hamper amongst other things, their ability to publish their work.

AHPSR is seeking to address the challenge faced by women in the field of HPSR in publishing their research through initiating a publication mentorship programme. This programme will be carried out by linking women intending to publish, with experienced research mentors, who will be tasked with supporting and guiding the publication. For this programme, AHPSR will partner with selected journals in the field of HPSR, and the published articles will be compiled as special supplements of these journals. The Alliance will cover all costs of publication of articles emanating from this programme.

Eligibility

• Early-career women between the ages of 25 and 35 years;
• Working as a researcher or practitioner (i.e. decision-makers, implementers) in HPSR;
• Holds a Masters or Medical degree;
• Located and resident in a LMIC;
• No previous publications; and
• Requires guidance through a one-to-one mentorship with publishing a draft manuscript in a peer-reviewed journal.

Review Criteria

Candidate submissions will be reviewed by an independent panel of experts including AHPSR Scientific & Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) and Secretariat. Applications will be judged based on:

• Strength of argument in motivation for applying; and
• Quality of manuscripts in terms technical merit, relevance for the field of HPSR and potential for being converted into a peer-reviewed publication.

Application

All submissions must be sent to the alliancehpsr@who.int by the deadline of 27 April, 2018.

Please use the subject: Call for Mentees: Publication Mentorship for Women in HPSR

Submissions in English of not more than 10 pages, should include the following:

• Applicant details: Name and age of the applicant including contact details, current position, institutional affiliation and country location;
• Motivation for applying: In no more than 500 words, the applicant 1) describes the challenges that she experiences in publishing research and specifically the challenges relating to the research submitted for this application and 2) ways in which she expects to benefit from mentorship; and
• Draft manuscript: In no more than 3,000 words, including the background, methods, results and discussion/conclusions of the research project which will be converted into a publication.