Article Figures & Data
Figures
- Figure 1
- The total number of medical research publications in: A) all Arab countries combined versus B) the world per year between 2017-2022. Data for 2023 is not displayed; it only represents the first quarter of the year. The number of publications in the first quarter of 2023 in Arab countries = 4,245 vs. all world countries = 124,521.
- Figure 2
- The total number of medical research publications in Arab world countries and their impact relative to the world. Countries ranked from left to right in ascending order by their impact relative to the world. Impact relative to the global average is equal to the country’s citation impact divided by the world citation impact baseline (World citation impact = 12.02). This metric provides insight into relative research performance. If the value is >1, it suggests that the publications are performing better than the global average. Conversely, if the value is <1, the publications are performing lower than the global average.
Tables
- Table 1
- Total medical research production by all Arab countries from January 2017 to March 2023 (countries ranked in descending order by publications per one million people [world ranking is out of 159 countries; population size >1,000,000 people]).
Arab world country ranking World country ranking Countries Publications per one million* Publications (n)† Publications’ World share (%)‡ Publications’ Arab world share (%)§ Population (n)§ Times cited (n) Citation impact** 1 26 Qatar 2,844 7,646 0.171 6.29 2,688,235 153,793 20.11 2 36 Lebanon 1,295 7,240 0.162 5.96 5,592,631 152,345 21.04 3 37 Saudi Arabia 1,232 44,288 0.993 36.46 35,950,396 565,165 12.76 4 40 United Arab Emirates 1,057 9,900 0.222 8.15 9,365,145 163,704 16.54 5 45 Bahrain 763 1,117 0.025 0.92 1,463,265 37,021 33.14 6 48 Kuwait 673 2,860 0.064 2.35 4,250,114 59,770 20.9 7 49 Jordan 635 7,079 0.159 5.83 11,148,278 114,667 16.2 8 55 Tunisia 541 6,638 0.149 5.46 12,262,946 87,072 13.12 9 56 Oman 536 2,425 0.054 2.00 4,520,471 41,448 17.09 10 60 Egypt 373 40,790 0.914 33.58 109,262,178 484,400 11.88 11 71 Palestine 264 1,301 0.029 1.07 4,922,749 37,831 29.08 12§§ 96§§ Morocco 99 3,679 0.082 3.03 37,076,584 61,401 16.69 12§§ 96§§ Libya 99 669 0.015 0.55 6,735,277 16,105 24.07§§ 14 99 Iraq 95 4,157 0.093 3.42 43,533,592 74,378 17.89 15 117 Algeria 58 2,576 0.058 2.12 44,177,969 65,037 25.25 16 128 Sudan 42 1,921 0.043 1.58 45,657,202 18,865 9.82 17 136 Syria 34 717 0.016 0.59 21,324,367 7,646 10.66§§ 18§§ 139§§ Yemen 30 1,003 0.022 0.83 32,981,641 29,434 29.35 18§§ 139§§ Djibouti 30 33 0.001 0.03 1,105,557 278 8.42§§ 20 144 Mauritania 21 96 0.002 0.08 4,614,974 936 9.75§§ 21 154 Somalia 10 176 0.004 0.14 17,065,581 789 4.48§§ - - Arab World†† 266 121,485 2.72 - 456,520,777 1,455,870 11.98 - - World 566 4,462,205‡‡ - - 7,888,408,686†† 53,647,524 12.02 ↵* Publications per one million is publications number divided by country’s population multiplied by 1,000,000.
↵† Source: Essential Science Indicator. Includes Web of Science content indexed from January 2017 to March 2023.
↵‡ Publications’ world share is country’s publications number divided by total publications by all countries across the world multiplied by 100.
↵§ The Arab world share is country’s publications number divided by total publications by the Arab world in aggregate multiplied by 100.
↵§ Source: World Bank Databank (most recent year 2021).
↵** Citation impact is times cited divided by publications number from the same country.
↵§§ Equal ranking was assigned due to having identical number of publications per one million people.
↵§§ The total number of publications from these countries are less than 1,000; thus, citation impact might not be accurate.
↵†† Comoros is one of the 22 Arab world countries; however, its population size is less than one million people, hence, it was removed from this table. Publications per one million = 33; publications number = 27; publications world share = 0.0006%; publications Arab world share = 0.02%; population size = 821,625; times cited = 767; and citation impact = 28.41.
↵‡‡ Including all publications count from all countries worldwide (total = 207 countries); Source: Essential Science Indicator. Includes Web of Science content indexed from January 2017 to March 2023.
↵†† Source of the total world population size: World Bank Databank (most recent year 2021).
- Table 2
- Top 20 target medical research journals for researchers in Arab countries have published their work (ranked in descending order by number of publications in the journal with at least one author affiliated with one of the Arab countries, out of a total of 4261 journals).
Ranks Journal names Publication sources Publications (n) Times cited (n) JIF quartile Journal IF* 5 year IF Citation impact† 1 Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences Saudi Arabia 1,852 16,266 Q2 4.05 4.25 8.78 2 PLOS One United States of America 1,828 18,911 Q2 3.75 4.07 10.35 3 Scientific Reports England 1,812 23,790 Q2 5.00 5.52 13.13 4 International Journal of Biological Macromolecules Netherlands 1,381 35,078 Q1 8.03 7.63 25.40 5 BioMed Research International United States of America 827 6,321 Q3 3.25 3.77 7.64 6 Saudi Medical Journal Saudi Arabia 772 3,650 Q4 1.42 2.12 4.73 7 Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy France 746 14,528 Q1 7.42 6.58 19.47 8 Bioorganic Chemistry United States of America 740 13,341 Q1 5.31 5.32 18.03 9 Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal Saudi Arabia 713 6,897 Q2 4.56 5.09 9.67 10 Frontiers in Microbiology Switzerland 609 10,194 Q1 6.06 6.84 16.74 11 Pharmaceutics Switzerland 608 5,577 Q1 6.53 7.23 9.17 12 Healthcare Switzerland 565 1,600 Q2 3.16 3.46 2.83 13 Antibiotics-Basel Switzerland 538 3,755 Q1 5.22 5.40 6.98 14 Journal of Infection and Public Health England 521 7,300 Q1 7.54 6.21 14.01 15 Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology France 519 4,665 Q2 5.06 4.62 8.99 16 Frontiers in Pharmacology Switzerland 519 7,737 Q1 5.99 6.46 14.91 17 Life Sciences England 493 6,791 Q1 6.78 6.04 13.77 18 Pharmaceuticals Switzerland 480 2,376 Q1 5.22 5.71 4.95 19 Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience United States of America 473 1,930 Q2 3.12 3.88 4.08 20 Natural Product Research England 467 3,129 Q3 2.49 2.51 6.70 - Table 3
- Top 10 target Arab medical research journals for researchers in Arab countries (ranked in descending order by number of publications, out of a total of 43 journals).
Rank Journal names Publication sources Total publications (n)* Publications from Arab countries (n) % Of publications from Arab countries† Times cited (n) JIF quartile Journal IF‡ 5 year IF Citation impact§ 1 Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences Saudi Arabia 2,900 1,852 63.86 26,068 Q2 4.05 4.25 8.99 2 Current Pharmaceutical Design United Arab Emirates 2,671 237 8.87 27,484 Q3 3.31 3.55 10.29 3 Current Medicinal Chemistry United Arab Emirates 2,066 89 4.31 26,343 Q2 4.74 5.05 12.75 4 Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry United Arab Emirates 1,320 179 13.56 9,090 Q3 2.47 2.84 6.89 5 Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal Saudi Arabia 1,047 713 68.10 12,069 Q2 4.56 5.09 11.53 6 Saudi Medical Journal Saudi Arabia 988 772 78.14 4,515 Q4 1.42 2.12 4.57 7 Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry United Arab Emirates 854 81 9.48 8,429 Q2 3.74 4.06 9.87 8 Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology United Arab Emirates 846 95 11.23 5,812 Q3 2.83 2.78 6.87 9 Current Drug Targets United Arab Emirates 837 40 4.78 8,746 Q3 2.94 3.60 10.45 10 Endocrine, Metabolic & Immune Disorders - Drug Targets United Arab Emirates 793 129 16.27 4,108 Q4 2.39 2.47 5.18 Note: Arab countries that have at least one medical research journal: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, Iraq, Morocco, Kuwait, Algeria, Bahrain, and Libya; Arab countries that do not have any medical research journals indexed in Web of Science: Sudan, Oman, Palestine, Syria, Djibouti, Comoros, Yemen, Mauritania, and Somalia.
JIF: journal impact factor, Q: quartile, IF: impact factor
↵* Publications from all world countries (including Arab countries).
↵† The number of publications from Arab world researchers divided by the total number of publications from the same journal.
↵‡ Journal impact factor source: Journal Citation Reports (2021).
↵§ Citation impact is times cited divided by publications number from the same journal.
- Table 4
- Proportion of national contribution and citation times for the most productive institutions in Arab countries from January 2017 to March 2023 (ranked descending by times cited).
Rank Institution names* Organization types Countries Times cited Publications per institution Publication per country % National contribution† Citation impact‡ H-index 1 King Saud University Academic Saudi Arabia 169,433 11,973 44,288 27.03 14.15 119 2 Cairo University Academic Egypt 139,094 9,289 40,790 22.77 14.97 106 3 King Abdulaziz University Academic Saudi Arabia 136,934 7,479 44,288 16.89 18.31 117 4 American University of Beirut Academic Lebanon 104,920 3,681 7,240 50.84 28.50 99 5 Mansoura University Academic Egypt 83,875 4,448 40,790 10.90 18.86 85 6 Ain Shams University Academic Egypt 83,644 4,743 40,790 11.63 17.64 92 7 Qatar Foundation Nonprofit Qatar 70,901 2,839 7,646 37.13 24.97 95 8 Alexandria University Academic Egypt 56,258 4,192 40,790 10.28 13.42 69 9 King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences Academic Saudi Arabia 56,211 3,268 44,288 7.38 17.20 87 10 Hamad Medical Corporation Health Qatar 45,882 2,347 7,646 30.70 19.55 77 ↵* Most productive institutions in the Arab world were ranked based on the total number of publications for the period between January 2017 and March 2023 and limited to the top 20.
↵† Number of publications per institution divided by the total number of publications from the same country.
↵‡ Citation impact is times cited divided by publications number from the same institution.
