Arab J Geosci DOI 10.1007/s12517-014-1629-y

ORIGINAL PAPER

Earth and planetary sciences research in the Middle East Essam El-Hinnawi

Received: 7 July 2014 / Accepted: 4 September 2014 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2014

Abstract This paper gives an assessment of research output in earth and planetary sciences in the Middle East. The share of the Middle East in the total number of publications in the world, in the 15 years period from 1996 to 2012, is only 2 %. Five countries in the Middle East: Turkey, Israel, Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia accounted for 87.4 % of the publications during that period. The Hirsch Index of the publications and the ranking of different countries in various subdisciplines of geosciences vary from one country to another in the region. Keywords Scimago . Scopus . Geosciences . Subdisciplines . Hirsch Index

Introduction This paper is not intended to be a historical review of geosciences research in the Middle East, but an assessment of the status of research activities in earth and planetary sciences during the 15-year period from 1996 to 2012. A brief account of the history of geosciences in the Middle East would, however, set the stage for this assessment. Long before geology was taught as a science, geological observations and interpretations were made by intellectuals of the old worlds. Traceable roots of geological investigations go back to the very beginnings of mankind. Ancient Egyptians exploited copper, gold, and other precious minerals and building and ornamental stones. This was, undoubtedly, associated with some knowledge of elementary geological prospecting, mining, and quarrying (see, for example, Nicholson and Shaw 2000; Klemm and Klemm 2008, 2013 for reviews of Ancient Egyptian activities in these fields). Harrell and Brown (1992) E. El-Hinnawi (*) National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt e-mail: [email protected]

described a papyrus map that is considered the oldest surviving geological map in the world, which was drawn during the reign of Ramses IV (1151–1148 BC). In the Middle Ages, intellectuals like Abul Rayhan-Biruni (973–1048) and Ibn Sina (981–1032) described several geological issues in their works: mineralogy, formation of mountains, formation of clouds, origin of earthquakes, sources of water, and other issues that are being studied nowadays with much more advanced methodologies and techniques. The real beginning of geological research in the Middle East started in the late seventeenth century. Said (1990) and Tawadros (2012) summarized the history of geological research in Egypt since the French Expedition (1798–1801). They highlighted the work of early French, German, and British explorers and outlined the establishment of the first geological survey department in the late nineteenth century. In other parts of the Middle East, French, German, and British explorers made valuable contributions to the geology of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and the Gulf States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. More recently, extensive first-class exploration by the US, French and British geological missions was undertaken in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States over the past 50 years. During that time the nonfuel mineral inventory of Saudi Arabia was established. Nowadays, geological survey departments and departments of geology in universities and research centers in the Middle East are undertaking research in different areas of earth and planetary sciences. The database For the present assessment of research in earth and planetary sciences in the Middle East, data were retrieved for the period from 1996 to 2012 from the database of Scimago Lab (http:// www.scimagojr.com/) on 1 June 2014. Scimago Lab is a Spanish organization specialized in scientific information

Arab J Geosci

Assessment results and discussion In the 15-year period, from 1996 to 2012, the total number of publications in earth and planetary sciences in the world was 1,385,909. Figure 1 shows the regional distribution of these publications. Western Europe led the world, with 36 % of the total publications, followed by North America (27 %), Asian region (18 %), Eastern Europe (7 %), and then the remaining regions. The share of the Middle East in the total number of publications was rather small (2 %), a total of 30,263 publications over the 15-year period. Figure 2 shows the distribution of publications among countries of the Middle East during the 15-year period. Five countries in the region accounted for 87.4 % of the total Africa 2% Middle East 2% North America 27%

Asian Region 18% Latin America 4% Pacific Region 4% Eastern Europe 7%

Western Europe 36%

Fig. 1 Regional distribution of publications in earth and planetary sciences (1996–2012); drawn by the author on the basis of data retrieved from Scimago (2014)

Country Rank in the Middle East

0

16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

management (databases, bibliometrics, scientometrics, etc.). Scimago compiles data from different sources, especially from Elsevier’s SCOPUS system which listed about 32,000 journals in all fields of science by the end of 2013. Although the number of earth and planetary science journals is about 1200, many of the papers published in these fields appear also in other scientific journals like American Journal of Science, Science, Nature, Naturwissenschaften, etc. All of these publications were included in Scimago’s database. It should be noted, however, that the SCOPUS list of journals does not include several national and local periodicals. A scrutiny of a random sample of some of these periodicals showed that the number of papers published in the fields of geosciences is rather limited and will not have a significant effect on the general picture to be drawn from the Scimago database. In addition to the compiled number of publications in earth and planetary sciences, data were also retrieved for different subdisciplines of geosciences. The Hirsch Index (h-index) which reflects the citations of the publications (see later) was also compiled.

Number of Publications 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000

10,000

Turkey Israel Iran Egypt Saudi Arabia UAE Jordan Oman Kuwait Lebanon Syria Iraq Qatar Yemen Bahrain Palestine

Fig. 2 Ranking countries in the Middle East according to the number of publications in earth and planetary sciences (1996–2012); drawn by the author on the basis of data retrieved from Scimago (2014)

publications from the Middle East. Turkey occupied the first place, with 30.2 % of the publications, followed by Israel (24.3 %), Iran (15.6 %). Egypt (10.6 %), and Saudi Arabia (6.7 %). The remaining 10 countries and Palestine accounted for 12.6 % of the publications. Figure 3 shows the development in the number of publications since 1996. In 1996, Israel ranked first in the Middle East followed by Turkey, Egypt, and Iran. In 2001, Turkey overtook Israel and ranked first; in 2004, Iran overtook Egypt and became third in the Middle East, and in 2009, it overtook Israel and became second; and finally in 2011, Iran overtook Turkey and became first in 2012. In other words, there was a marked change in the ranking of the leading countries in the Middle East. As of 2012, the ranking has been Iran-TurkeyIsrael-Egypt-Saudi Arabia. The marked increase in the number of publications from Turkey and Iran has been due to restructuring of scientific institutions accompanied by increase in funds allocated to research and development. In Iran, for example, there was a marked increase in allocations for education that reached 5.6 % of GDP in 2007 and an increase in GERD to reach 0.67 % of GDP in the same year (UNESCO 2010). The expansion of higher education in general and graduate studies in particular has in turn improved Iran’s standing in scientific publishing. Although the number of publications has been used as an indicator of scientific productivity, it does not reflect the quality of the scientific research. A better index that has been used is the Hirsch Index, known as the h-index, which measures both the productivity and impact of the published work (Hirsch 2005). The index is based on the distribution of citations received by publications. Thus the h-index reflects both the number of publications and the number of citations per publication. In other words, it reflects the “added” scientific value of the publications. Originally, the h-index was

Arab J Geosci 1100

Fig. 3 Development in the number of publications in the four leading countries in the Middle East in the period 1996 to 2012.; drawn by the author on the basis of data retrieved from Scimago (2014)

1000

Egypt

Iran

Israel

Turkey

Number of publications

900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

2010

2012

Year

developed to measure the scholarly publishing productivity and impact of individual researchers, but the index was rapidly extended to research groups, institutions, and countries, allowing comparative assessments of their performance in certain disciplines and subdisciplines of scientific research (Jacso 2009). Figure 4 shows the ranking of Middle East countries according to the h-index and indicates that Israel comes in the first place, followed by Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and then other countries. Assessment of subdisciplines Figure 5 shows the percentage distribution of publications in different subdisciplines (subject areas) of earth and planetary sciences in the Middle East in the period from 1996 to 2012. It should be noted that the subdisciplines indicated in the figure are those given in the Scimago database. Some authors

Country Rank in Middle East

16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

0

20

40

h-idex 60 80

(including the present one) may not agree with this subdivision. Changing this subdivision would mean changing the entire system of the database which is a complicated task that can only be done by Scimago Lab. However, the present classification gives a fair assessment of research activities in the different subject areas. Generally speaking, research activities are compatible with the global trend. Surprisingly, however, is the low percentage of publications in economic geology and stratigraphy, two of the traditional subdisciplines of geosciences. Although there was a rise in the number of publications in all subdisciplines from 1996 to 2012, the rate of increase was lowest in Economic Geology and Stratigraphy, and highest in % of total publications 0

5

Atmospheric Science

120

140

15

20

6.7

Computers in Earth Sciences

100

10

1.9

Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)

16.8

Israel Turkey Iran

Earth-Surface Processes Economic Geology

9.5 0.9

Egypt Saudi Arabia

Geochemistry and Petrology

11.2

Jordan Oman

Geology

10.9

UAE Lebanon Syria Kuwait Yemen Palestine

Geophysics

13 6

Oceanography Paleontology

Iraq Bahrain

Space and Planetary Science

Qatar

Stratigraphy

Fig. 4 Ranking of countries in the Middle East according to the h-index or value of research in earth and planetary sciences; drawn by the author on the basis of data retrieved from Scimago (2014)

6.6

Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology

4.4 12.1 1

Fig. 5 Percentage distribution of publications in different subdisciplines; drawn by the author on the basis of data retrieved from Scimago (2014)

Arab J Geosci Table 1 Ranks of the five leading countries in the different subdisciplines, according to the number of publications (1996–2012) Subdiscipline

Atmospheric Science Computers in Earth Sciences Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous) Earth-Surface Processes Economic Geology Geochemistry and Petrology Geology Geophysics Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology Oceanography Paleontology Space and Planetary Science Stratigraphy

Rank First

Second

Third

Fourth

Fifth

Israel Turkey Turkey Israel Turkey Turkey Turkey Israel Turkey Israel Turkey Israel Turkey

Turkey Israel Israel Turkey Iran Israel Iran Turkey Iran Turkey Israel Turkey Egypt

Iran Iran Iran Iran Egypt Iran S. Arabia Iran S. Arabia Egypt Egypt Iran Iran

Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt UAE Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Iran Iran Egypt Israel

S. Arabia S. Arabia S. Arabia S. Arabia Oman S. Arabia Israel S. Arabia Israel S. Arabia S. Arabia S. Arabia UAE

Table assembled by the author from data retrieved from Scimago (2014)

Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology, Geochemistry and Petrology, and Earth-Surface Processes. Table 1 gives the ranking of the leading five countries in the Middle East in the different subdisciplines according to the number of publications in the period from 1996 to 2012, and

Table 2 gives the ranking of the leading five countries in terms of the h-index of the publications. Both tables give indication of the focus and excellence of some countries in different selected areas. For example, Israel is distinguished by focus and excellence in the areas of Atmospheric Science, Earth-

Table 2 Ranks of the five leading countries in the different subdisciplines according to the h-index of publications (1996–2012) Subdiscipline

Rank First

Second

Third

Fourth

Fifth

Atmospheric Science Computers in Earth Sciences Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous) Earth-Surface Processes Economic Geology

Israel Turkey Turkey Israel Turkey

Turkey Israel Israel Turkey Egypt Iran

Egypt Iran Iran Iran Oman

Jordan Egypt Egypt Egypt Israel

Geochemistry and Petrology Geology

Turkey Turkey

Israel Israel

Iran Iran

Egypt Egypt

Geophysics Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology Oceanography Paleontology

Israel Turkey Israel Israel

Turkey Iran Turkey Turkey

Iran Israel Egypt Egypt

Egypt Egypt Iran Iran

Space and Planetary Science

Israel

Turkey

UAE

Stratigraphy

Turkey

Egypt Iran

Iran Egypt Israel

Iran S. Arabia S. Arabia Syria Jordan Yemen Iraq S. Arabia S. Arabia Oman S. Arabia S. Arabia Jordan S. Arabia Jordan UAE S. Arabia Lebanon S. Arabia

Table assembled by the author from data retrieved from Scimago (2014)

UAE

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Surface Processes, Geophysics, Oceanography, and Space and Planetary Science. On the other hand, Turkey focuses on the applications of Computers in Earth Sciences, Economic Geology, Geochemistry and Petrology, and Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology.

publications in earth and planetary sciences from the Middle East was 4742, constituting 2.4 % of world publications in these fields in the same year. The five leading countries in the Middle East were Iran, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. They accounted together for 90 % of the publications from the Middle East. All trends and the distribution of subdisciplines remain the same as in this paper.

Conclusions The present assessment indicates that the Middle East region is lagging behind other regions of the world in scientific output in earth and planetary sciences. This can be attributed to several reasons, the most important of which are (a) the shortage of researchers with the skills and knowledge to advance the sciences, (b) the inadequate governance of scientific research in most countries, (c) the low expenditure on scientific research (as percentage of GDP) in most countries of the region (UNESCO 2010), and (d) the general lack of understanding of the importance of geosciences in different sectors of development. Attracting new students in earth and planetary sciences and providing the appropriate training remain a major challenge in most Middle East countries. Postscript In mid-August 2014, Scimago Lab posted the 2013 data on its site. The data accessed by the author on August 18 revealed that in 2013, the total number of

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