Evolution of health policy and systems research (HPSR) capacity in West Africa and authorship pattern: A bibliometric analysis from 2015 to 2024

The generation of HPSR evidence in West Africa has historically been driven by external institutions, with limited leadership from local researchers. Recent investments, including the establishment of the West African Network of Emerging Leaders in Health Policy and Systems Research (WANEL), aimed to strengthen local research capacity. The objective of this study was to assess how authorship patterns and publication outputs have evolved over the past decade. We conducted a bibliometric analysis using PubMed to identify peer-reviewed publications authored by 103 WANEL members between 2015 and 2024. We analysed the frequency of publication overtime by study type, research domain, authorship order, institutional affiliation, and collaboration patterns. Overall, WANEL members produced 1,027 publications during the study period, of which 617 (60.1%) were HPSR-related. Of these, 62.9% (388) had West African first authors, mostly from Nigeria (47.0%) and Ghana (17.5%), while contributions from Francophone countries remained limited (6%). First-author institutions were predominantly in West Africa (62.9%), indicating a remarkable shift toward southern-led research. However, intra-network collaboration appeared quite low: only 62 (10%) of HPSR publications were co-authored by multiple WANEL members. Thematic analysis showed service delivery (49.1%) dominated research focus, followed by financing (12.6%) and information systems (11.2%). A growing regional research capacity and ownership is observed; this is depicted by the increased West African leadership in HPSR publication. Persistent disparities call for more persistence, increasing targeted investments in underrepresented contexts and stronger cross-country partnerships, for a more equitable and sustainable HPSR ecosystem in West Africa.