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Pakistan & Egypt had highest rise in research output in 2018

This and the news of next gen. A/Cs to be developed and manufactured totally inside Pakistan through Chinese collaboration have really made my day, week and even month :)

Let’s put the defense aside, let’s talk about research in non-defense related stuff.
None of our universities rank under 500, and majority of them don’t have any budget for research.
 
I wonder what we pakistaniz researching and publishing articles on? Knowing pakistan my guess is : Medicine, Warfare, Weapon systems? Islam and comparative religion?
 
I gave a positive rating for this. Even with the turmoil of 2017, Pakistani researchers made headway. I can just imagine the possibilities with multiple years of stable economic growth.
Thanks for the rating mate, yes Pakistanis always were brilliant people, we just need some peace time to realize our potential, havent had that since the 80's yet it seems like we will get a window of peace here, of all the developments going on, this one excites me the most because research industry is a cycle that cannot ever be reversed once a country ignites it.

I wonder what we pakistaniz researching and publishing articles on? Knowing pakistan my guess is : Medicine, Warfare, Weapon systems? Islam and comparative religion?
I heard that recently doctors in punjab created local skin grafts ending our dependency on importing them.
 
I feel proud to see my alma mater QAU ISLAMABAD on the top of the list.:tup:
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beautiful-view-of-qau.jpg
 
Alright, @JamD, @Oscar ... what are the caveats here?
This is probably just a result of division by a small number as this study compares percentage increase, not absolute. This could just as well be statistical noise. That's the realist view.

The optimist view now. I have seen an increasing desire to publish in some colleagues and this MAAAY be a sign of a turning tide.

That being said, there are serious structural problems with how HEC rewards research and what the research culture is. Pervez Hoodbhouys articles on this topic are spot on. The problems he identifies, I have experienced first-hand.

Yes there are maybe 2% professors writing actual publish worthy work but this endeavor needs concentrated structural reforms before well see any actual and consistent growth.
 
This is probably just a result of division by a small number as this study compares percentage increase, not absolute. This could just as well be statistical noise. That's the realist view.

The optimist view now. I have seen an increasing desire to publish in some colleagues and this MAAAY be a sign of a turning tide.

That being said, there are serious structural problems with how HEC rewards research and what the research culture is. Pervez Hoodbhouys articles on this topic are spot on. The problems he identifies, I have experienced first-hand.

Yes there are maybe 2% professors writing actual publish worthy work but this endeavor needs concentrated structural reforms before well see any actual and consistent growth.

Yes some low base effect is present. Nonetheless, its welcome trend and hope it continues however jerky the growth numbers are for next few years.
 
Pakistan has still a long way to go.

There is always a long way to go.

Foloow the ones seeking the truth.
Avoid the ones who find it.

indians unfortunately seem to have stumbled across the ultimate truth and bathed in its filth lol
 
Congratulations, this subcontinent needs more scientists and economists in the decision making process for their respective countries, then we will have a viable and sustainable path for peace and development.
 
Global production of scientific papers hit an all-time high this year, estimates show, with emerging economies rising fastest.


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Things are looking up for Egypt's publications.Credit: Barry Iverson/Alamy

Emerging economies showed some of the largest increases in research output in 2018, according to estimates from the publishing-services company Clarivate Analytics. Pakistan and Egypt topped the list in percentage terms, with rises of 21% and 15.9%, respectively.

China’s publications rose by about 15%, and India, Brazil, Mexico and Iran all saw their output grow by more than 8% compared with 2017 (see ‘Countries with biggest rises in research output’).

Globally, research output rose by around 5% in 2018, to an estimated 1,620,731 papers listed in a vast science-citation database Web of Science, the highest ever (see ‘Research output rose again in 2018’).

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Data: Web of ScienceAnalysis: Institute for Scientific Information, Clarivate Analytics

This diversification of players in science is a phenomenal success, says Caroline Wagner, a science and technology policy analyst at Ohio State University, and a former adviser to the US government.

“In 1980, only 5 countries did 90% of all science — the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan,” she says. “Now there are 20 countries within the top producing group.”

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Data: Web of ScienceAnalysis: Institute for Scientific Information, Clarivate Analytics

The estimates were compiled for Nature by Clarivate, which owns Web of Science, and the analysis focused on 40 countries that have at least 10,000 papers in the database. The whole-year projections are based on the number of research and review papers published between January and August, because there is a time lag between papers being published and them appearing in the database.

Joshua Schnell, a senior adviser at Clarivate based in Rockville, Maryland, says that the results are comparable to annual increases over the past few years, and that the trend is expected to continue into 2019.

[paste:font size="5"]Rising in the ranks

It’s not yet clear what has driven the strong gains by Egypt and Pakistan. One reason could be that both countries started from a low base — near the bottom of the list of top 40 countries in overall numbers of papers, says Robert Tijssen, head of science and innovation studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

The figures might also reflect changes in how the database is curated, which has added more local or national journals to the mix. But some geographical regions, notably in Africa, are still under-represented, says Tijssen.

Increases in funding and international collaborations might also have boosted the rise in publications in Egypt and Pakistan, say Tijssen and Wagner.

In China, the gains follow two decades of strong policy-driven growth in science and higher education, says Tijssen.

Wagner also expects that China might soon overtake the United States to become the largest producer of publications — it is now only about 35,000 papers short. By some measures, China has already overtaken the United States.

The quality of China’s science in terms of citations is also increasing, says Wagner. But for this to continue, the country will need to remain open to global influences, she says. China’s censorship of Internet sources has left scientists complaining of blocked databases and limited Internet searches, she notes.

“As you become more [globally] engaged, you also know what’s at the leading edges of science,” says Wagner. “And that is so important in order to catch the really top-level citations.”

doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-07841-9
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07841-9
 
Wonderful news. On the grand scale of things it's probably not all that much, but the increase is great and it's a step in the right direction.

I hope we look to work with our neighbours on research too. The Indians do a lot of research and if politics allows, we should allow academics to work together on things that benefit humanity equally. Iran in particular has a very big scientific community, especially considering the struggles they face due to US sanctions and bullying. Of course the person doing the most research at the moment is China. Lets hope there is some scope in CPEC to import some of that scientific spirit and culture.
 
The preliminary research is not much beneficial unless it is finished to implement it for generation of new products and services on mass scale this is our problem that most of our research is not finished and remains at early stage due to lack of funding so we not gain much from this
 
The preliminary research is not much beneficial unless it is finished to implement it for generation of new products and services on mass scale this is our problem that most of our research is not finished and remains at early stage due to lack of funding so we not gain much from this

number of research papers are not important , it is quality which matters , where it is vetted at right place ?
 
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