Biomedical publications in an unstable region: the Arab world, 1988–2002

• Published in: The Lancet (British edition) 2003-11, Vol.362 (9397), p.1766-1766
• Main Authors: Tadmouri, Ghazi Omar, Bissar-Tadmouri, Nisrine
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Africa, Northern; Arab people; Arabs - statistics & numerical data; Bibliometrics; Biomedical research; Biomedical Research - economics; Biomedical Research - statistics & numerical data; Developing Countries; Economics; GDP; Gross Domestic Product; MEDLINE; Middle East; Population; Population number; Publishing - economics; Publishing - statistics & numerical data; R&D; Research & development
• ISSN: 0140-6736; 1474-547X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(03)14868-4

Since the 1950s, Arabs have made little progress in health-related areas for several reasons: the Arab-Israeli conflict, the catastrophic health and economic situation in Palestine and Somalia, the embargoes on Iraq and Libya, and the major wars that erupted in the past few decades, mainly in Lebanon (1975-91), Kuwait (1990), and Iraq (1980-88, 1991, and 2003). Annual MEDLINE publication data, normalised for population size, for some Arab countries reflect the instability of the region (figure, bottom). In Kuwait, a sharp drop in publications was seen in 1992, followed by a gradual rise starting from 1993 after the Iraqi invasion and the liberation war. The same type of rise was seen for Lebanon after the end of the Lebanese war in 1992. In Iraq, however, a negligible output of biomedical research has been seen because of the consecutive wars in which Iraq was involved in the past 25 years and the dedication of the GDP budget to military spending. In Saudi Arabia, the unvarying publication trend is due to the economic burdens caused by the consecutive Gulf wars. We conclude that regional conflicts have been major reasons for the deterioration of biomedical output in the Arab world.