T he medical research papers emanating from the Arab World medical institutions is really low in number and low in quality.Moreover, the quality and quantity has not changed over the years as exemplified by the nephrology output from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).It has stayed unchanged in number over the last 10 years (approximately 45 per year) and the percentage of those published in cited, indexed journals remained static at approximately 50%. 1 Moreover, the majority of papers are retrospective (78.2%) and clinically based (82.8%). 1 Less than 0.5% of Arab papers appear in the 200 highest impact-factor journals. 2The KSA followed by Kuwait was by far the most prolific and accounted for 67 and 16% of publications. 3The same findings regarding the low quality and quantity of research papers from the rest of the Arab World can be found.Lack of resources, incentives and funds have been repeatedly expressed as underlying causes of poor research and research output. 4n absolute number of publications, KSA and Egypt have the highest output accounting for 58.4% of the Arab World publications.Looked at in relation to the population density, Kuwait followed by United Arab Emirates (UAE) come top.If on the other hand, one analyzes research output in relation to gross domestic project (GDP), Jordan comes top followed by Lebanon. 5 Kuwait produces 4.38 per million population (PMP) as compared to 341.33 in North America, 136.88 in Europe 12.81 in Asia, 10.8 in South America and Caribbean region and 3.5 in Africa.
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A 2004 study studied this question.