Research and Publication Experiences of College of Health and Medical Sciences, Haramaya University, from January 2008-April 2018

Abstract

Background: College of Health and Medical Sciences (CHMS), Haramaya University (HU), has been undertaking
various research activities following thematic approaches. So far, there are no organized documents that clearly show
the trend or pattern of research and publication works of the college. This review is, therefore, aimed to identifying,
organizing and synthesizing the research and publication experiences of the college, so as to assist in the analysis of
gaps from January 2008-April 2018.
Methods: Record reviews were done to identify the researches of Master and PhD students. Similarly, institutional
(HU) repository searches were undertaken to retrieve staff research grants. Published and unpublished literature search
was accomplished online from different databases or interfaces. In addition, few publications were retrieved by direct
contact of staff/departments and search from HU website. Data were synthesized by considering subthemes or topics,
year initiated or published, publishing journals, and designs of the works. Descriptive statistics were employed to
present the data in tables and figures.
Results: This review identified 588 Master, 24 PhD, 125 staff grant researches and 335 publications. Main topics
addressed by the staff research (30.4%) and published articles (20.6%) were areas of infectious diseases. Most of the
staff research (90.4%) and published articles (80.6%) had applied cross sectional designs. Overall, the research
developments of the college has shown linear increased trends over years with little fluctuations during certain periods.
Conclusions: Despite the little fluctuations, the research and publication experiences of the college have been almost
constantly rising over the last ten years. Infectious diseases were the key areas studied and cross sectional design was
the common method applied. With the studies, important public and clinical health findings were identified.
Therefore, decision and policymakers are advised to consult these researches and researchers are recommended to
focus on stronger methodologies that includes unaddressed aspects.