A Pubmed-based quantitative analysis of biomedical publications in the SAARC countries: 1985-2009. | [Journal of College of Physicians and Surgeons--Pakistan : JCPSP • 2012]

Author(s):

1. Md. Anwarul Azim Majumder: Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Medical Sciences University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, Bradford, United Kingdom

2. Sami F. Shaban: Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University Al-Ain, UAE

3. Sayeeda Rahman: Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Medical Sciences University of Bradford West Yorkshire, Bradford, United Kingdom

4. Nuzhat Rahman: Department of Nutrition Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham AL USA

5. Moslehuddin Ahmed: Department of Community Medicine, Uttara Adhunik Medical College Dhaka, Bangladesh

6. Khalid A. Bin Abdul-Rahman: Department of Medical Education, College of Medicine Al-Imam University Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

7. Ziauddin Islam: Tobacco Control Cell, Ministry of Health Government of Pakistan, Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract:

Objective: To conduct a geographical analysis of biomedical publications from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries over the past 25 years (1985-2009) using the PubMed database. Study Design: A qualitative study. Place and Duration of Study: Web-based search during September 2010. Methodology: A data extraction program, developed by one of the authors (SFS), was used to extract the raw publication counts from the downloaded PubMed data. A search of PubMed was performed for all journals indexed by selecting the advanced search option and entering the country name in the affiliation field. The publications were normalized by total population, adult illiteracy rate, gross domestic product (GDP), secondary school enrollment ratio and Internet usage rate. Results: The number of PubMed-listed papers published by the SAARC countries over the last 25 years totalled 141,783, which is 1.1% of the total papers indexed by PubMed in the same period. India alone produced 90.5% of total publications generated by SAARC countries. The average number of papers published per year from 1985 to 2009 was 5671 and number of publication increased approximately 242-fold. Normalizing by the population (per million) and GDP (per billion), India (133, 27.6%) and Nepal (323, 37.3%) had the highest publications respectively. Conclusion: There was a marked imbalance among the SAARC countries in terms of biomedical research and publication. Because of huge population and the high disease burden, biomedical research and publication output should receive special attention to formulate health policies, re-orient medical education curricula, and alleviate diseases and poverty.

Page(s): 560-564

DOI: DOI not available

Published: Journal: Journal of College of Physicians and Surgeons--Pakistan : JCPSP, Volume: 22, Issue: 9, Year: 2012

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