southsouth collaboration on hivaids prevention and treatment research when birds of a feather rarely flock together background southsouth collaboration on health and development research is a critical mechanism for social and economic progress it allows sharing and replicating experiences to find a southern solution to meet shared health challenges such as access to adequate hivaids prevention and treatment this study aimed to generate evidence on the dynamics of southsouth collaboration in hivaids research which could ultimately inform stakeholders on the progress and nature of collaboration towards increased research capacities in low and middleincome countries lmicmethods bibliometric and social network analysis methods were used to assess the 10year 20062015 scientific contribution of lmic through the analysis of scientific publications on hivaids prevention andor treatment five dimensions oriented the study knowledge production coauthorship analysis research themes mapping research types classification and funding sourcesresults publications involving lmic have substantially increased overtime despite small expression of southsouth collaboration research themes mapping revealed that publication focus varied according to collaborating countries income categories from diagnosis opportunistic infections and laboratorybased research lmic single or lmiclmic to human behavior and healthcare drug therapy and mother to child transmission lmichic the analysis of research types showed that southsouth collaborations frequently targeted social sciences issues funding agencies acknowledged in southsouth collaboration also showed diverse focus lmicbased funders tended to support basic biomedical research whereas internationalhicbased funders seem to cover predominantly social sciencesoriented researchconclusions although the global environment has fostered an increasing participation of lmic in collaborative learning models southsouth collaboration on hivaids prevention andor treatment research seemed to be lower than expected stressing the need for strategies to foster these partnerships the evidence presented in this study can be used to strengthen a knowledge platform to inform future policy planning and funding decisions contributing to the development of enhanced collaboration and a priority research agenda for lmics