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

Abstract

Abstract 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.