BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH IN THE MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES: UPDATE AND INSIGHT USING SCIMAGO JOURNAL RANK INDICATOR

Authors

  • Faris QB Alenzi
  • Mahmoud Lotfy
  • Wasam Nasif
  • Mohamed El- Shahat
  • Hasan Abusini
  • Mohamed Alenazi
  • Fawwaz A Alenazi
  • Waleed G Tamimi
  • Mohamed L Salem

Abstract

Background: There is a dire need in the Arab world and Middle Eastern countries to reform thehigher education, research policy and planning for improving the quality to meet the needs ofmodern society. The impact factor (IF) was developed in the 1960s by Eugene Garfield of theInstitute for Scientific Information (ISI) in the USA. It has been extensively used for more than 40years. The SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator belongs to this new family of indicators basedon eigenvector centrality was introduced since 2007. The SJR indicator is a size-independentmetric aimed at measuring the current ‘average prestige per paper’ of journals for use in researchevaluation processes. Methods: We present the status of the biomedical scientific research in theMiddle Eastern countries through the newly developed SJR indicator showing some of theproposed ways that clearly can be applied for enhancing and development of that field in theMiddle Eastern countries. Results: During the period from 1996 to 2008, Northern America,Western Europe and Asiatic region are the major contributors of the scientific researchWorldwide. In the Middle East, the prominent two main Arab countries are Egypt and SaudiArabia, nevertheless, they need more planned strategies for optimal contribution to their MiddleEast, Arab region and the World, despite the tangible achievements of the Arab states in the highereducation and scientific research during the last decade. Conclusion: The SJR is seeminglysatisfactory for ranking the countries for their scientific contribution and impact.Keywords: Biomedical Research, Middle East, SJR

References

Garfield E. The history and meaning of the journal impact factor.

JAMA 2006;295:90–3.

Garfield E. How can impact factors be improved? BMJ

;313:411–3.

Garfield E. Citation analysis as a tool in journal evaluation.

Science 1972;178:471–9.

Schöpfela J, Prostb H. Le JCR facteur d’impact (IF) et le

SCImago Journal Rank Indicator (SJR) des revues françaises:

une étude (comparative comparison of SCImago Journal Rank

Indicator (SJR) with JCR journal impact factor (IF) for French

journals). Psychologie Française 2009;54(4):287–305.

Flisher AJ. Does the impact factor have too much impact? S Afr

Med J 2009;99(4):226–8.

Kurmis AP. Understanding the limitations of the journal impact

factor. J Bone Joint Surg 2003;85-A:2449–54.

Whitehouse GH. Impact factors: facts and myths. Eur Radiol

;12:715–7.

Lankhorst GJ, Franchignoni F. The ‘impact factor’ –an

explanation and its application to rehabilitation journals. Clin

Rehabil 2001;15:115–8.

Seglen PO. Why the impact factor of journals should not be used

for evaluating research. BMJ 1997;314:498–502.

Campbell P. Escape from the impact factor. Ethics Sci Environ

Polit 2008;8:5.

Hobbs R. Should we ditch impact factors? BMJ 2007;334:569.

Falagas, ME, Kouranos VD, Arencibia-Jorge R,

Karageorgopoulos DE. Comparison of SCImago journal rank

indicator with journal impact factor. FASEB J 2008;22:2623–8.

SCImago Research Group. Description of SCImago Journal

Rank Indicator. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from

http://www.scimagojr.com/SCImagoJournalRank.pdf and the

SJR indicator: A new indicator of journals’ scientific prestige.

Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0912/

4141.pdf

bin Tareef A. Scientific research in Jordanian higher education

institutions: an evaluation of the status and obstacles. J

Instructional Psychol June 2009.

Badr AZ, EI-Nazer H, EI-Tayeb M. Practical solutions of

scientific research problems in Egypt. J Egypt Wom Dermatol

Soc 2009;6:1–2.

A decade of higher education in the Arab States: achievements &

challenges. Regional report for UNESCO regional bureau for

education in the Arab States, Beirut, Lebanon, June 29, 2009. pp

–58.

Published

2010-09-01

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 3 (2010): JOURNAL OF AYUB MEDICAL COLLEGE, ABBOTTABAD

Section

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

License

Journal of Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad is an OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL which means that all content is FREELY available without charge to all users whether registered with the journal or not. The work published by J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad is licensed and distributed under the creative commons License  CC BY ND Attribution-NoDerivs. Material printed in this journal is OPEN to access, and are FREE for use in academic and research work with proper citation. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad accepts only original material for publication with the understanding that except for abstracts, no part of the data has been published or will be submitted for publication elsewhere before appearing in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. The Editorial Board of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad makes every effort to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of material printed in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. However, conclusions and statements expressed are views of the authors and do not reflect the opinion/policy of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad or the Editorial Board.

USERS are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

AUTHORS retain the rights of free downloading/unlimited e-print of full text and sharing/disseminating the article without any restriction, by any means including twitter, scholarly collaboration networks such as ResearchGate, Academia.eu, and social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and any other professional or academic networking site.

Most read articles by the same author(s)