Patterns of biomedical science production in a sub-Saharan research center

In-depth interviews were conducted with a core group of researchers at the Medical Research Unit of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital from June 2009 to February 2010 in Lambaréné, Gabon. Scientific activities running at the MRU as well as the implementation of ethical and regulatory standards were covered by the interview sessions.The framework of clinical research includes transnational studies and research initiated locally. In transnational collaborations, a sub-Saharan research institution may be limited to producing confirmatory and late-stage data with little impact on economic and social innovation. However, ethical and regulatory guidelines are being implemented taking into consideration the local contexts. Similarly, the scientific content of studies designed by researchers at the MRU, if local needs are taken into account, may potentially contribute to a scientific production with long-term value on social and economic innovation in sub-Saharan Africa.Further research questions and methods in social sciences should comprehensively address the construction of scientific content with the social, economic and cultural contexts surrounding research activities.Scientific production all over the world follows the pattern of core-periphery relationships in which the contribution of the periphery, including developing regions like sub-Saharan Africa, is marginal and depends on structure and infrastructure accessible through collaborative projects lead by institutions and scientists from core regions in Western Europe and North America. Thus, some authors assume that the practice of science in Africa would provide subsidiary sets of data to strengthen institutions, production and social value in the more developed world and would conversely generate research of only limited generalization and of little impact on the economic and social development of the local communities in peripheral regions [1-3].So far, numerous studies addressed the questions related to the contr