BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH IN THE MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES: UPDATE AND INSIGHT USING SCIMAGO JOURNAL RANK INDICATOR
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 of
modern society. The impact factor (IF) was developed in the 1960s by Eugene Garfield of the
Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in the USA. It has been extensively used for more than 40
years. The SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator belongs to this new family of indicators based
on eigenvector centrality was introduced since 2007. The SJR indicator is a size-independent
metric aimed at measuring the current '˜average prestige per paper' of journals for use in research
evaluation processes. Methods: We present the status of the biomedical scientific research in the
Middle Eastern countries through the newly developed SJR indicator showing some of the
proposed ways that clearly can be applied for enhancing and development of that field in the
Middle Eastern countries. Results: During the period from 1996 to 2008, Northern America,
Western Europe and Asiatic region are the major contributors of the scientific research
Worldwide. In the Middle East, the prominent two main Arab countries are Egypt and Saudi
Arabia, nevertheless, they need more planned strategies for optimal contribution to their Middle
East, Arab region and the World, despite the tangible achievements of the Arab states in the higher
education and scientific research during the last decade. Conclusion: The SJR is seemingly
satisfactory for ranking the countries for their scientific contribution and impact.
Keywords: Biomedical Research, Middle East, SJR
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