A bibliometric-based evaluation on environmental research in the Arab world

Sh H Zyoud,A E Al-Rawajfeh,H Q Shaheen,D Fuchs-Hanusch,S H Zyoud

doi:10.1007/s13762-016-1180-3

Abstract

The Arab world’s environment is among the most vulnerable and harsh ones across the globe. This entails much efforts to mitigate the potential environmental risks. Analysing contributions of Arab scholars in environmental research in terms of quantity and quality can bring up insights on their endeavours in this regard. Bibliometric techniques are proposed to conduct such this analysis over publications originated from Arab world in a leading environmental journal “Science of the Total Environment”. Research productivity is being used as quantitative indicator, while citation rates and Hirsch index (h-index) are being used as qualitative indicators. The research outputs were compared with those obtained from non-Arab Middle Eastern countries (Iran, Turkey and Israel). Worldwide research productivity was 17,258 documents, while that from Arab countries, Iran, Turkey and Israel were 215, 34, 83 and 87 documents, respectively. The h-index of Arab world research was 31, and total citations were 3616 with an average of 16.8. The highest share of publications was recorded by Saudi Arabia (53 documents; 24.7%). Egypt and Saudi Arabia had highest h-index with 15 for each one. American University of Beirut in Lebanon was the highest productive institution (16; 7.4%). The most collaborated country with Arab world was France (29; 13.5%). In the conclusion, the study reveals a clear gap in terms of research productivity between Arab countries and other Middle Eastern countries, precisely Israel and Turkey. More research efforts through optimizing investments in environmental research, developing regional experiences and fostering international collaboration are required to eliminate these lags.

Highlights

Human beings were able for thousands of years to be engaged in inventive transformations of humanized environments by symbiosis or creative partnership with nature (Dubos 1976)
To restrict the search for research output belongs to Arab world, all Arab countries under the umbrella of Arab League: Egypt; Algeria; Morocco; Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; Sudan; Mauritania; Tunisia; Djibouti; Saudi Arabia; Bahrain; Kuwait; United Arab Emirates; Comoros; Oman; Qatar; Yemen; Iraq; Jordan; Palestine; Lebanon; Syrian Arab Republic; and Somalia, are employed as country keys and affiliation countries in the advance search that offers by Scopus database during the defined time period
The present study is a complementary work to the aforementioned studies and is inspired by the need to examine research activities concerned with environmental science in a region which is subject to severe environmental risks

Summary

Introduction

Human beings were able for thousands of years to be engaged in inventive transformations of humanized environments by symbiosis or creative partnership with nature (Dubos 1976). A great acceleration and intensification in this process has been witnessed since the nineteenth century. These human activities have grown increasingly with significant deterioration of environment as a consequence (2017) 14:689–706 interventions into environment and strict ecological constraints that conform with human nature should manage the scientific technologies and industry (Dubos 1976). This will contribute in mitigating the stresses on the environment and sustaining the human well-being which based on the integrity of economic, sociopolitical and environmental conditions (Holdren 2008)

Methods

Results

Conclusion