Impact of GDP, Spending on R&D, Number of Universities and Scientific Journals on Research Publications among Asian Countries

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 8; no. 6; p. e66449
• Main Authors: Meo, Sultan Ayoub, Al Masri, Abeer A., Usmani, Adnan Mahmood, Memon, Almas Naeem, Zaidi, Syed Ziauddin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 20.06.2013
• Subjects: Asia; Author productivity; Bibliometrics; Biomedical Research - economics; Diabetes; Economic development; Economic growth; GDP; Gross Domestic Product; Hernandia sonora; Hirsch index; Humans; Industrial research; Innovations; Medical research; Medicine; Per capita; Periodicals as Topic - statistics & numerical data; Physiology; R&D; Research & development; Research & development expenditures; Research Support as Topic - statistics & numerical data; Researchers; Science; Science Policy; Scientific papers; Scientometrics; Social and Behavioral Sciences; Social sciences; Universities - statistics & numerical data; Asia; Saudi Arabia; Riyadh Saudi Arabia
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066449

This study aimed to compare the impact of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, spending on Research and Development (R&D), number of universities, and Indexed Scientific Journals on total number of research documents (papers), citations per document and Hirsch index (H-index) in various science and social science subjects among Asian countries. In this study, 40 Asian countries were included. The information regarding Asian countries, their GDP per capita, spending on R&D, total number of universities and indexed scientific journals were collected. We recorded the bibliometric indicators, including total number of research documents, citations per document and H-index in various science and social sciences subjects during the period 1996-2011. The main sources for information were World Bank, SCI-mago/Scopus and Web of Science; Thomson Reuters. The mean per capita GDP for all the Asian countries is 14448.31±2854.40 US$, yearly per capita spending on R&D 0.64±0.16 US$, number of universities 72.37±18.32 and mean number of ISI indexed journal per country is 17.97±7.35. The mean of research documents published in various science and social science subjects among all the Asian countries during the period 1996-2011 is 158086.92±69204.09; citations per document 8.67±0.48; and H-index 122.8±19.21. Spending on R&D, number of universities and indexed journals have a positive correlation with number of published documents, citations per document and H-index in various science and social science subjects. However, there was no association between the per capita GDP and research outcomes. The Asian countries who spend more on R&D have a large number of universities and scientific indexed journals produced more in research outcomes including total number of research publication, citations per documents and H-index in various science and social science subjects.