Physiotherapy research remains markedly under-represented in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)2,6. As highlighted in a recent editorial authored by editors from more than ten leading physiotherapy journals, only a limited share of published research originates from LMICs, despite these settings being home to approximately 85% of the global population6. As a result, evidence produced in high-income settings may not be easily applicable elsewhere and often requires careful cultural and contextual adaptation1,3,4. However, the lack of locally generated research means that clinicians in LMICs often rely on external evidence to guide patient care, which can reduce relevance and external validity and ultimately decrease the chances of successful treatment outcomes5,7.

Symposium Structure

The symposium will be chaired by the moderator, who will frame global disparities in physiotherapy research and guide the audience through a cohesive narrative linking lived experience, capacity building, and publication systems. The moderator will facilitate interaction among speakers, promote audience engagement, and conclude with a synthesis emphasising practical implications, transferable strategies, and future directions to strengthen research excellence in LMICs.

Speaker 1 will provide a first-hand account of conducting, leading and publishing physiotherapy research in a low-resource setting, highlighting challenges such as funding constraints, mentorship gaps, infrastructure limitations and publication barriers, as well as adaptive strategies and locally driven solutions that enable progress.

Speaker 2 will focus on capacity-building approaches in African contexts, including training models, mentorship networks, institutional partnerships and sustainable research development initiatives, and will illustrate how contextually responsive, locally led strategies can enhance research skills, leadership and outputs.

Speaker 3 will offer a global publishing perspective, discussing how editors, reviewers, authors, readers and policymakers can support physiotherapy research from LMICs through inclusive editorial practices, reducing peer-review bias, promoting ethical authorship, strengthening dissemination pathways and advancing policy-relevant research translation.

The moderator will summarise and lead discussion of the three speakers’ content, during which the audience can contribute further suggestions through an interactive Word Cloud facility. Then there will be 10 minutes of Q&A with consideration of the Word Cloud suggestions.

Summary

This interactive symposium will examine how to promote excellence in physiotherapy research in low- and middle-income countries through coordinated and sustained efforts at the individual, institutional and policy levels. Presentations will move from the experiences of conducting and publishing research in resource-limited settings to scalable, contextually appropriate capacity-building models, and ultimately to the vital role of journals, reviewers, readers and policymakers in fostering more equitable knowledge creation and sharing. The focus will include addressing structural barriers, strengthening local research leadership, and supporting culturally relevant and methodologically sound research. The moderated discussion will highlight: practical and actionable strategies; ethical and mutually beneficial partnerships; and inclusive publishing practices that encourage sustainable research development, improve external validity and promote meaningful global knowledge exchange.

1. Anane-Binfoh N, et al. Barriers to decolonizing global health: identification of research challenges facing investigators residing in low- and middle-income countries. Lancet Glob Health. 2024;12(2):e234–e243.
2. Cieza A, et al. Global estimates of the need for rehabilitation based on the Global Burden of Disease study 2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Lancet. 2020;396(10267):2006–17.
3. Dakhil ZA, et al. Challenges in clinical research in low- and middle-income countries: early career cardiologists’ perspective. Glob Heart. 2024;19(1):1293.
4. Franzen SRP, et al. Barriers to clinical research in Africa: a quantitative and qualitative survey of clinical researchers in 27 African countries. PLoS One. 2017;12(9):e0184226.
5. Kelaher M, et al. Under-representation of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the research literature: ethical issues arising from a survey of five leading medical journals—have the trends changed? BMJ Glob Health. 2023;8:e011238.
6. Sharma S, et al. Research from low- and middle-income countries will benefit global health and the physiotherapy profession, but it requires support. Phys Ther. 2024;104(1):pzad123.
7. Shumba CS, et al. Not enough traction: barriers that aspiring researchers from low- and middle-income countries face in global health research. J Glob Health Rep. 2021;5:e2021010.