Bangladesh's scientific papers grow in 2024, yet 3rd in S Asia
However, last year’s figure is just 385 more than that of 2023
Despite an upward trend in scientific publications by Bangladeshi researchers in recent years, 2024 saw a slowdown in growth compared to previous years.
Last year, Bangladesh with 15,413 scientific publications, ranked third again in South Asia, after India and Pakistan, according to a report published in the online magazine Scientific Bangladesh. The magazine recently released its annual report on scientific documents, drawing from publications in Scopus-indexed international journals until 4 January this year.
However, last year's figure is just 385 more than that of 2023.
In 2023, the number of scientific publications by Bangladeshi researchers was 15,028, which was 2,185 more than that of 2022. The number of publications by Bangladeshis was 12,843 in 2022, 11,447 in 2021, 9,116 in 2020 and 8,301 in 2019.
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But Dr Monir Uddin Ahmed, editor of Scientific Bangladesh, while speaking to The Business Standard on the matter, opined that the growth has not slowed down but has rather steadied.
He said the number of scientific publications received a boost during the Covid-19 pandemic globally as well as in Bangladesh. Now since research in diverse fields has been completed, the numbers have come down, he added.
Moreover, despite having comparable economic and social indicators, the number of scientific publications from Bangladesh last year was nearly three times lower than that of Pakistan.
Last year, Indian researchers published 3.34 lakh papers, Pakistan 42,353, Sri Lanka 4,107, Nepal 3,997, Afghanistan 770, Bhutan 267, and the Maldives 184, as reported by the Scopus research database. In 2023, Indian and Pakistani researchers published 2.92 lakh and 39,922 papers respectively.
According to Scimago Journal and Country Rank data based on Scopus, in the 2023 global country ranking, Bangladesh ranked 54th while India and Pakistan ranked 3rd and 26th respectively. Among countries in the Asiatic region, the country ranked 13th, just behind Vietnam.
The eminent researchers identified insufficient government sponsorship, a shortage of physical resources and limited funds within the country as the primary factors contributing to the country's backwardness in research.
Besides, the faulty recruitment system of university teachers is a major barrier to producing dedicated researchers, they opined.
Speaking on the matter, Dr Monir Uddin Ahmed told TBS, "Based on scientific and technological capacity, countries are divided into four groups: scientifically advanced countries, scientifically proficient countries, scientifically developing countries and scientifically lagging countries."
"At present, Bangladesh is one of the 66 scientifically lagging countries," he said.
"Without significant scientific progress, Bangladesh cannot achieve national security, food safety, environmental protection, cybersecurity, biosafety, climate resilience, health security, military strength and border safety and financial stability.
"Scientific advancement is also essential for creating job opportunities for the young and meeting the material needs of a growing population," added Ahmed, who is also a faculty member of Qassim University, Saudi Arabia.
Bangladesh in scientific publications last year
According to Scopus, in 2024, Dhaka University retained the top research position with 1,500 publications. The figure had been 1,410 in the previous year.
Daffodil International University has also retained second position with over 1,100 publications while the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) has obtained third position with around 900 publications. Rajshahi University ranked fourth.
The ranking placed Brac University at 5th, Jahangirnagar University at 6th, Bangladesh Agricultural University at 7th, North South University at 8th, Chittagong University at 9th and Khulna University at 10th.
The primary subject areas for publications by Bangladeshis in 2024 comprised engineering, computer science, medicine, environmental science and social science.
The report encompasses various document types beyond articles, including conference papers, reviews, book chapters, letters, errata, notes, editorials, data papers, books, short surveys and others.
There was no patent in 2024 and publications in textile research appeared for the first time last year.
Among the top 15 funding agencies last year, 11 were foreign agencies.
Among the national funding agencies, the Ministry of Science and Technology is the top (overall 2nd) agency, Buet is the only University and Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) has appeared as a funding agency among the top 15.
To portray the research publication scene, Scientific Bangladesh collected data from the citation and abstract based research database Scopus.
Top journals that published the highest number of articles by Bangladeshi researchers are Heliyon, Plos One, Scientific Reports, IEEE Access, Health Science Reports, Sustainability Switzerland, RSC Advances, Environmental Science and Pollution Research.
According to Resurchify – a global information portal – the impact factor of Heliyon was 4, and 3.11 of Plos One.
The impact factor, also known as Journal Impact Factor (JIF), is a metric used to evaluate the relative importance of a journal. It is determined by calculating the average number of citations received by selected articles in that journal within the last few years.
According to the Scopus database, Abu Reza Md Towfiqul Islam, on the faculty of the Department of Disaster Management, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, secured the top position by publishing 96 articles.
M Khalid Hossain from the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission and Akbar Hossain from the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute, Dinajpur, have appeared as the second and third productive researchers respectively.
