Science research in Kuwait—a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Review of the scientific output of the State of Kuwait on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its independence. Prior to 1970, only about 100 publications were credited to Kuwaiti institutions. The majority of these papers were medical reports published in local journals. In contrast, the 1970s and 1980s witnessed a steady growth with an average doubling time of three years. In 1983, 185 publications were credited to Kuwaiti institutions, and 80% of these appeared in international jour nals. This represents 1.1 articles per 10000 populations, a respectable figure in comparison to Third World standards While Third World countries put more emphasis on research in the life sciences, the distribution of research publications of Kuwait closely match that of the World's scientific publica tions as a whole as seen from the Science Citation Index. 59% of all Kuwaiti authored articles are in the life sciences as against 55% of the international literature. 62.6% of Kuwaiti publications appeared in journals with impact factors ranging from 0- < 1 as against 46.6% of the international literature, and 3.3% of Kuwaiti publications appeared in journals with impact factor > 4 as against 65% of the international litera ture. Furthermore, 43% of Kuwaiti publications were not cited at all as against 25% of the international literature, and Kuwa iti publications averaged 1.8 citations per publication over a 5 year period as against a world average of 4.8 and a Latin American average of 2.9. Overall, the average citedness of papers published from Kuwait comes close to matching that of India, but is inferior in comparison with the standards set by the scientifically ad vanced countries. On the positive side Kuwaiti science appears to be steadily improving.