Scientific development in African countries

A scientometric approach 1996–2009

This report presents findings from a bibliometric analysis of the 26 most productive African countries in Scopus between 1996-2009. Data is presented examining changes in the scientific research output of these countries, and comparison made with global patterns across 27 scientific knowledge domains. In addition to the regional context, these findings allow consideration of international trends and identification of strengths and weakness to inform future decision-making processes. Similar to an earlier study on Latin American countries, this report focuses on the INASP Partner Countries and addresses six key questions:>

• How have research publication patterns changed over the last ten years in the selected countries?
• What is the number of research publications produced per country per year?
• What are the top research institutions in Africa, as ranked by publication output?
• What is the breakdown of research publications by subject area?
• How has this research been cited by others in their research publications?
• What are the changing patterns of international research collaboration, as indicated by multi-author publications with different country affiliation per author?

This was a collaboration between the Cuban Ministry of Higher Education, the National Center for Scientific Research and INASP.