Scientific Wealth in Middle East and North Africa: Productivity, Indigeneity, and Specialty in 1981-2013

Middle East Authors' Contribution to the Journal of Arthroplasty’s Publications in the Past 20 years (2000–2020)

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Authorship trends in the Egyptian orthopedic journal (from 2012 to 2020), as an example of a specialized Egyptian medical journals

Background

Authorship trends in medical journals were studied in many disciplines, mostly in western countries' journals. We aimed at studying the authorship trends in the Egyptian Orthopaedic Journal as an example of a specialized Egyptian medical journal.

Results

A total of 397 articles were eligible for analysis. The mean number of authors per article was 2 ± 1 (range from 1 to 6), 161 (40.6%) articles were single authorship. The degree of the first author was reported in 305 (76.6%), the first author carried an M.D. degree in 302 (99%) articles, and in three (1%), the first author carried a master’s degree. No authors with a bachelor's degree were reported. Forty-two institutions contributed to the publications, 14 (33.3%) international and 28 (66.7%) Egyptian national institutions. In 368 (92.7%) articles, all the authors were from the same institution, and 29 (7.3%) articles were published as a cooperation between different institutions with a mean 1.1 ± 0.3 institution per article. International contribution to the journal was found in 21 (5.3%) articles. The orthopedic department from Cairo university was the most contributing department to the journal publications.

Conclusions

The old trend of single authorship prevails in the journal publications with a notable deficiency in young researchers’ contribution to the journal and low incidence of international contribution and poor national institution cooperation.

Comparing the gender diversity and affiliation trends of the authors for two orthopaedics journals from the Arab world

OBJECTIVES

Authorship trends, female authors' contributions, and the collaboration among institutions have been a concern in the medical field. This study primarily aims to report and compare the number of authors per article and the prevalence of female authors by comparing two orthopaedics journals from the Arab world. The secondary objective of this study is to evaluate the characteristics of the authors' affiliations and the pattern in institutions' collaborations and contributions to the published articles.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study reviewed all articles (until July 2020) published in the Archives of the Egyptian Orthopaedic Journal (EOJ) (the official journal of the Egyptian Orthopaedic Association) and the Journal of Musculoskeletal Surgery and Research (JMSR) (the official journal of the Saudi Orthopaedic Association).

RESULTS

We evaluated 383 and 122 articles from the EOJ and JMSR, respectively. The average number of authors per article was significantly higher for JMSR (4.3 ± 1.7) than EOJ (2.0 ± 1.0); p = 0.000. There was a significantly larger number of contributions by female authors in JMSR (75, 14.2%) than EOJ (2, 0.3%); p = 0.000. The average number of institutions per article was significantly larger for JMSR (2.1 ± 1.2) than EOJ (1.1 ± 0.3); p = 0.000. For the JMSR, the incidence of national institutions' cooperation (27.9%) and international institutions' contributions (53.3%) were significantly higher than their counterparts for the EOJ-6% and 4.7%, respectively; p = 0.000.

CONCLUSION

The JMSR showed superiority regarding the number of authors per article and the prevalence of female authors. The incidence of national institutions' cooperation and international contributions were higher in the JMSR compared with the EOJ.

The role of Egyptian State Awards in changing researchers’ performance in the science and technology sector

Egyptians generally pay attention to the State Awards as the most prestigious awards that Egyptian researchers can receive, including the Nile Award, the State Appreciation Award, the State Award of Excellence, and the State Encouragement Award. The current study is an attempt to investigate the role of national awards in the scientific research system, in order to identify the characteristics of Egyptian State Award laureates in science and technology during 2012–5, to determine their international literature, and to explore the implications of receiving a national award using bibliometric indicators. Scopus database was used to extract data, and the statistical software package SPSS was used to analyze. The study sample was 212 laureates, in addition to the control group of 184 researchers who closely matches the academic profiles of the laureates. The performance of the laureates and the control group was compared before and after the award by using four bibliometric indicators and the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test. The laureates produced 13,598 publications from 1958 to 2018. Most of the laureates’ literature (94.35%) were published with coauthors. The Egyptian State Award laureates often collaborate with their Saudi Arabian and American colleagues, more than others. The average values of publications, citations, and citations per publication have increased after receipt of the award, unlike the h-index. Results indicated that receiving the State Award has a negative impact on the laureates’ performance.