Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2009 Apr 17:9:26.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2288-9-26.

Arab nations lagging behind other Middle Eastern countries in biomedical research: a comparative study

Hani T S Benamer  1 , Omran Bakoush
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Arab nations lagging behind other Middle Eastern countries in biomedical research: a comparative study

Hani T S Benamer et al. BMC Med Res Methodol. .

Abstract

Background: Analysis of biomedical research and publications in a country or group of countries is used to monitor research progress and trends. This study aims to assess the performance of biomedical research in the Arab world during 2001-2005 and to compare it with other Middle Eastern non-Arab countries.

Methods: PubMed and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-expanded) were searched systematically for the original biomedical research publications and their citation frequencies of 16 Arab nations and three non-Arab Middle Eastern countries (Iran, Israel and Turkey), all of which are classified as middle or high income countries.

Results: The 16 Arab countries together have 5775 and 14,374 original research articles listed by PubMed and SCI-expanded, respectively, significantly less (p < 0.001) than the other three Middle Eastern countries (25,643 and 49,110). The Arab countries also scored less when the data were normalized to population, gross domestic product (GDP), and GDP/capita. The publications from the Arab countries also have a significantly lower (p < 0.001) citation frequency.

Conclusion: The Arab world is producing fewer biomedical publications of lower quality than other Middle Eastern countries. Studies are needed to clarify the causes and to propose strategies to improve the biomedical research status in Arab countries.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The total number of original biomedical research articles indexed in SCI-Expanded and affiliated to 16 Arab nations and three non-Arab Middle Eastern countries per million population (dark grey) and per $100 million GDP (light grey).
Figure 2
Figure 2
The number of SCI-indexed original biomedical research publications from 16 Arab and three non-Arab Middle Eastern countries per GPD/capita (US $).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Tadmouri GO, Bissar-Tadmouri N. Biomedical research in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (1982–2000) Saudi Med J. 2002;23:20–24. - PubMed
    1. Tadmouri GO, Bissar-Tadmouri N. Biomedical publications in an unstable region: the Arab world, 1988–2002. Lancet. 2003;362:1766. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(03)14868-4. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bakoush O, Al-Tubuly AA, Ashammakhi N, Elkhammas EA. PubMed Medical Publications From Libya. Libyan J Med. 2007;2:125–128. http://2657.indexcopernicus.com/fulltxt.php?ICID=870338 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hefler L, Tempfer C, Kainz C. Geography of biomedical publications in the European Union, 1990–98. Lancet. 1999;353:1856. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(99)01278-7. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Deleu D, Northway MG, Hanssens Y. Geographical distribution of biomedical publications from the Gulf Corporation Council countries. Saudi Med J. 2001;22:10–12. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources