Abstract
Background: Research output provides an insight into the development of the scientific capability of a country. Budget allocation for research and development (R&D) is directly proportional to the research output of a country. While developed countries spend a significant percentage of their GDP on R&D, developing countries do not have enough resources to invest in R&D. Countries in the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Nations has received significantly less attention from outside the region in studying R&D and research publication scenario of the region. The research output of BIMSTEC countries was analyzed using various metrics in this paper. Methods: Data on citation per paper, Field Weight Citation Impact (FWCI), paper per researcher, collaborative publications, and output in top 10 percent journals was extracted from one of the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, Scopus and its affiliate SciVal, for a period of 6 years between 2012-2017. Percentage of R&D spend, researchers per million population, and total scientific output were extracted from World Bank data. Results: India and Thailand have a higher quantum of publications compared to other countries. Subjects like clinical, technology, Computer Science have a larger publication number as compared to other subject areas like Social Science, Arts, Education, Law, and Physiology. The researcher population and research spend of a nation have an evident implication on the publication though no direct relation can be derived. Conclusion: Huge disparities in terms of percentage of research spent, research output, papers per researcher, and output with national and international authorship differ for countries. Higher research spent and publication count are not positively correlated with better FWCI.
Highlights
The formation of the South Asian Association of Regional Conference (SAARC) was a landmark step in developing economic and regional integration in this area but the outcomes in terms of strengthening regional cooperation even after three decades were not satisfactory.[1]. This forced the regional members to look for an alternative option and the search led to the commencement of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)
With the rising interest on the BIMSTEC nations, this paper aims to discuss the outcomes of the BIMSTEC nations as a group in terms of research output such as the number of publications, citations per paper, spend on research and development (R&D), Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) across different subject areas and international collaborations
To measure the quality of the publication, the most common parameter considered is the number of citations
Summary
The formation of the South Asian Association of Regional Conference (SAARC) was a landmark step in developing economic and regional integration in this area but the outcomes in terms of strengthening regional cooperation even after three decades were not satisfactory.[1]. In 2004, Nepal and Bhutan became members of this group and the group was renamed to its present name BIMSTEC.[2] It fosters socio-economic linkages between South Asia and South-East Asia and includes 1.5 billion people constituting around 22% of the global population with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 2.7 trillion economy. It started with cooperation in six sectors: trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism, and fisheries. Conclusion: Huge disparities in terms of percentage of research spent, research output, papers per researcher, and output with
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