Why Research From Lower- and Middle-Income Countries Matters to Evidence-Based Intervention: A State-of-the-Science Review of ACT Research as an Example

Although psychological problems are global, research mostly comes from high-income countries, biasing understanding by underrepresenting cultural and contextual diversity. Studies from low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) are less cited and poorly indexed due to language barriers and biases. In this review of ACT in LMIC, machine learning was used to identify key topics, analyze sample size, and citations. Many topics detected in LMIC disappear if that literature is ignored; sample size does not explain the lack of indexing. Affirmative actions are required to produce, index, and use research.