Saudi Arabia continues to enhance its position as a regional leader in scientific research. As reported in Nature Index 2016 Saudi Arabia - published with the 28 April issue of Nature -Saudi Arabia's contribution to high-quality research papers is growing more than any other country in Western Asia. Between 2012 and 2015, Saudi's growth in contribution to the Nature Index was the eighth highest globally.
Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil producer, but in 2008 the country put together a national research plan to shift from an oil-based economy to a knowledge-based economy, spearheaded by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST). The first stage of this plan saw the creation of state-of-the-art research institutes and modern universities.
The Nature Index is built on a country or institution's contribution to about 60,000 high-quality papers each year, and counts both the total number of papers and the relative contribution to each paper. (See 'About the Nature Index' for further details.) Nature Index 2016 Saudi Arabia, analyses, interprets and puts into context Nature Index data to reflect the country's achievements. In 2015, Saudi's output surpassed all its Arab neighbors and many other regional leaders, to achieve the second highest output in the index in Western Asia. The country's contribution has risen by 85% since 2012.
Chemistry accounts for two-thirds of Saudi Arabia's research in the index, and the country's contribution to chemistry papers has tripled since 2012. This growth takes Saudi Arabia ahead in chemistry of several European countries including Finland, Ireland and Portugal.
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and King Abdulaziz University (KAU), both located on the Kingdom's western coast, account for nearly 90% of the country's science output in 2015 as measured by the Nature Index. However, they are pursuing very different strategies with a very large share of article output coming from overseas collaborators in the case of KAU whereas with KAUST a larger share of contribution comes from within the walls of the institution itself.
Strong international collaborations have fueled the country's rise in science output. The United States has remained Saudi Arabia's top collaborator since 2012, but collaborations with China have increased sharply over that period, only slowing down in 2015, making the country Saudi Arabia's second biggest collaborator. Germany and the United Kingdom follow in third and fourth place, respectively.
In comparison, regional and domestic collaborations are very limited in Saudi Arabia. However, the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH&RC) has found success by focusing on these collaborations, helping also to create a domestic base of experienced researchers.
David Swinbanks, Founder of the Nature Index, commented: "The recent rise in output of high quality research from Saudi Arabia is remarkable and built in large part on international collaboration. The challenge for Saudi Arabia now is to build stronger internal collaboration between its institutions to fully realize its potential and become an even stronger research powerhouse."
More information about Nature Index is available at natureindex.com
About the Nature Index
First launched in November 2014, research articles included in the Nature Index are collated from a group of 68 high-quality natural science journals, which were selected by two independent panels of active scientists, chaired by Professor John Morton (University College London) and Dr. Yin-Biao Sun (King's College London).
Responses from over 2,800 individuals to a large scale survey were used to validate the selections. Springer Nature estimates that these 68 journals account for nearly 30% of total citations to natural science journals.
A rolling 12 month snapshot of data from the Nature Index is openly available under a Creative Commons license at natureindex.com, so that users can analyze scientific research outputs themselves. On the index website, an institution's output of articles can be viewed across the 12 month period and broken down by broad subject area. International and domestic collaborations are also shown for each institution.
The Nature Index uses three measures to track affiliation data for individuals:
• Article count (AC) - A country or institution is given an AC of 1 for each article that has at least one author from that country or institution. This is the case whether an article has one or a hundred authors, and it means that the same article can contribute to the AC of multiple countries or institutions.
• Fractional Count (FC) - FC takes into account the relative contribution of each author to an article. The total FC available per paper is 1, and this is shared between all authors under the assumption that each contributed equally. For instance, a paper with 10 authors means that each author receives an FC of 0.1. For authors who have worked with joint affiliations, the individual FC is then split equally between each affiliation.
• Weighted Fractional Count (WFC) - applies a weighting to the FC in order to adjust for the overrepresentation of papers from astronomy and astrophysics. The four journals in these disciplines publish about 50% of all papers in international journals in this field -- approximately five times the equivalent figures for other fields. Therefore, although the data for astronomy and astrophysics are compiled in exactly the same way as for all other disciplines, articles from these journals are assigned one-fifth the weight of other articles.
About Nature Publishing Group (NPG)
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a publisher of high impact scientific information in print and online. NPG publishes journals, online databases and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences.
Focusing on the needs of scientists, Nature (founded in 1869) is the leading weekly, international scientific journal. NPG publishes a range of Nature research journals and Nature Reviews journals, and a range of prestigious academic and partner journals including society-owned publications. Online, nature.com provides over 8 million visitors per month with access to NPG publications and services, including news and comment from Nature, and the leading scientific jobs board Naturejobs.
About Springer Nature
Springer Nature is a leading global research, educational and professional publisher, home to an array of respected and trusted brands providing quality content through a range of innovative products and services. Springer Nature is the world's largest academic book publisher, publisher of the world's most influential journals and a pioneer in the field of open research. The company numbers almost 13,000 staff in over 50 countries and has a turnover of approximately €1.5 billion. Springer Nature was formed in 2015 through the merger of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Springer Science+Business Media. Find out more: www.springernature.com and follow @SpringerNature.
© Press Release 2016
