Research output, impact, and collaboration among Middle Eastern academics based on citations in the Scopus database

To investigate the scientific productivity, impact, and collaboration of 16 Middle Eastern countries in the Scopus database from 1999 to 2008. Design/Methodology/Approach: A total of 444,715 documents published between 1999 and 2008 and indexed in Scopus were examined. The criterion for selection was an institutional affiliation of at least one contributor with an institute located in the region. Turkey was the most productive country in the Middle East, while the highest number of citations and self citations were received by Israeli researchers. 14.67 percent of records and 7.74 percent of citations belonged to Iranians. The number of citations received by Iranian publications was 0.27, ranking thirteenth in the region. Yemen showed the highest number of collaborative projects. Collaborative work with other countries constituted 23.1 percent of Iranian publications. Only 3% of publications in Scopus have been produced by Middle Eastern countries, those receiving 2.4 percent of citations.