The race to establish knowledge economies in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa has placed pressure on academic and research institutions to not only increase research output but the impact of that output. This can make it challenging for academic and public funding mechanisms to objectively decide which research projects and researchers to fund.
In the past, these types of decisions have been made subjectively – based on so called ‘peer review’ whereby a panel or committee of subject matter experts assess research in their respective fields. This method, however, is losing favour as scientific research becomes more complex and specialized, to the extent that personal knowledge is no longer sufficient in assessing the breadth and variety of research produced.
The answer to this increasing need for objective evaluation is bibliometrics. Bibliometrics employs quantitative analysis of publication and citation data, allowing university and government offices to impartially evaluate research output and make informed funding decisions.
This episode of Thomson Reuters MENA Talks speaks with Philip Purnell, the Head of Thought Leadership in the Middle East and North Africa. Philip currently works with academic and governmental research institutions and evaluation bodies across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East on strategies to manage and evaluate research output and performance. In this episode, Philip tackles some of the key questions related to bibliometrics, including: How can we use bibliometrics to identify hot topics and new trends? Can bibliometrics be used to evaluate Arabic research? Is it possible to ‘game the system’ to boost one’s citation count?
