The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have emerged as the primary international and interdisciplinary framework for promoting sustainability and equity. In a time of increasing polarization, politicization, and inequity, the SDGs offer a path toward a unified future where all can thrive. For the SDGs to succeed, however, all industries must embrace and embody their values. Though much of the medical research publication industry already adopts and promotes these values, there are several ways the industry could further support and promote the SDGs.
Why Embrace SDGs in Medical Research and Publication?
Medical research and publication underpin the success of several SDGs—most notably Good Health and Well-Being (SDG #3) and Quality Education (SDG #4). As technology advances and the quantity and availability of research expands through open science and data sharing initiatives, international collaboration and interdisciplinary research has become more attainable and practical than ever before. By dedicating time, funds, and resources into fulfilling the SDGs, the medical research and publication industry can create strong collaborations and partnerships to accelerate accessibility and quality across all dimensions of healthcare.
Current State of SDGs in the Industry
Though there has been progress in many areas of SDG adoption in the medical research and publication industry, there are still obstacles to widespread adoption. The scientific community generally agrees that the SDGs are scientifically robust and will meaningfully contribute toward positive worldwide health and equity—an important first step in their implementation. Many institutions and research organizations have long been addressing disparate elements of the SDGs without overtly aligning with the overall framework. Several individual of the SDGs are already core tenets of medical research, especially Good Health and Well-Being (SDG #3).
Recently, we’ve seen an increased emphasis on viewing the SDGs as an overall framework, with a focus on how the goals intersect. Prioritizing singular goals will still lead to failure of the overall system because each goal relies on a strong, underlying infrastructure to support long-term success. Only through recognizing the complex interactions between goals can we understand medical research’s role in the environment–economic–health nexus (an overarching term describing how sufficient infrastructure and a stable economy are integral for promoting effective healthcare delivery).
Current industry trends toward data sharing and open science initiatives generally support the SDGs, but implementation and sourcing of funding for these initiatives have created their own inequities and burdens. Conversations regarding universal health coverage, a core tenet of SDG #3, have increased over recent years; however, we are still a long way from achieving it. The related push to create publicly accessible materials and layman summaries, a movement occurring in tandem with open science, also helps to increase public recognition of the importance of research and sway the historically science-averse nature of policymakers.
Additionally, improved efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion through the industry have supported the Gender Equality (SDG #5) and Reduced Inequalities (SDG #10) goals. The industry is increasingly supporting diverse hiring practices and study recruitment to help ensure that both study staff and researched populations more accurately reflect global populations; many funding and training programs are specifically tailored to support historically marginalized and underrepresented populations.
Future Directions for SDG Development
There are several ongoing initiatives that will continue to support SDG adoption and growth in the medical research industry:
- Emphasize systems thinking, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the intersectionality of SDGs. The SDGs should be viewed as an overall framework of ideas; overprioritizing single SDGs can lead to instability. Encouraging interdisciplinary research improves the translatability of research into clinical practice and can bridge the gap between theoretical ideas and actionable plans.
- Embrace advocacy and policymaking. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed both strengths and inherent flaws in the current relationship between medical research and policymaking. Improving trust between medical researchers and policymakers is crucial to support evidence-driven public health decisions and legislation.
- Support adoption of a universal SDG taxonomy. Medical research operates with a few fundamental taxonomies, or systems of keywords and controlled vocabulary to organize the increasingly complex web of available research and data. A common example is the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) taxonomy—authors are often required to choose MeSH keywords related to their study during the manuscript submission process. Embracing a universal SDG-based taxonomy will enhance SDG-related research discoverability and organization, directly enabling improved collaboration and usability of data.
- Support data sharing and open science. Though the system has its flaws, as discussed earlier in this post, the open science initiative overarchingly supports the SDGs. Open science initiatives such as Plan S and cOAlition S are crucial in driving the international movement toward open science and building sustainable strategies to ensure no undue pressure is pushed onto researchers or institutions to financially support the initiatives.
