Despite progress, Bangladesh still lags behind neighbours in research publications

Infographic: TBS

Research is creating new knowledge: famous US astronaut Neil Armstrong once said, but by this definition Bangladesh is still behind neighbouring India and Pakistan although it generated a higher number of publications last year.

The number of publications by Bangladeshi researchers has been increasing gradually over the past couple of years, and researchers in the country published 12,843 scientific papers in 2022.

However, Bangladesh is still far behind India and Pakistan, despite having similar economic and social indicators.

Indian researchers last year published 2.62 lakh papers, Pakistan 40,838, Sri Lanka 3,939, Nepal 3,487, Afghanistan 719 and the Maldives 133, according to the research database Scopus.

The top three subject areas of publications by Bangladeshis in 2022 were engineering, medicine and computer science, while environmental science retained fourth largest position with 1,979 publications.

Online magazine Scientific Bangladesh published the annual report on scientific documents based on the publications of Scopus-indexed international journals till 6 January this year.

The documents counted in the report apart from articles are conference papers, reviews, book chapters, letters, errata, notes, editorials, data papers, books, short surveys and others.

"We are now working on topics that India and Pakistan prioritised nearly 24 years ago," Saleh Hasan Naqib, a scientist and physics professor of Rajshahi University, told The Business Standard.

He said universities mainly lead in scientific research in a country, but a corrupt teacher recruitment process in Bangladesh ruins the prospect.

"Besides, political profile instead of academic and research excellence is considered in our universities to pick up the teacher leadership. Subsequently, they [politically influential teachers] do not play any role in creating research-oriented educational institutions," he added.

He also noted other key challenges such as the lack of research funding and poor management.

In 2022, the National Natural Science Foundation of China appeared as the top funding sponsor for Bangladeshis publications, according to the database.

"The majority of the top 15 funding bodies were from foreign countries last year. As a result, it is unclear how much our local issues got covered in those researches," Monir Uddin Ahmed, editor of Scientific Bangladesh, told The Business Standard.

He also called for focusing on research quality rather than quantity.

To portray the research publication scenario, Scientific Bangladesh gleaned their data from the citation and abstract based research database Scopus, which includes peer-reviewed literature, scientific journals, books and conference proceedings as well.

Top seven journals that published the highest number of articles by Bangladeshi researchers are: Heliyon, Plos One, Sustainability Switzerland, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Scientific Reports, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and IEEE Access.

According to Resurchify – a global information portal, the impact factor of Heliyon is 3.92, and Plos One is 3.58.

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.

The number of publications by Bangladeshis was 11,447 in the 2021, 9,116 in 2020 and 8,301 in 2019.

"As our publications continue to grow, we will be well positioned in upcoming years," AA Mamun, scientist and a physics professor of Jahangirnagar University, told The Business Standard.

He said though many articles are getting published in local journals, those are not considered Scopus-indexed. "Many of our local journals lack quality. To be indexed by Scopus, we have to meet various criteria, including regular publication, easy online access, peer review, and citation scopes."

There are now 166 journals on Bangladesh Journals OnLine (BanglaJOL), a database of journals published in Bangladesh and managed by the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences.

In 2022, Dhaka University retained the top research position with 1,293 publications, slightly more than last year, according to the Scopus.

Daffodil International University has risen to the second highest contributor, while North South University to the 5th.

Three private universities have obtained a place in the top ten institutes with Brac University in 10th position for the first time.

The Bangladesh University of Science and Technology (BUET) has retained the third position with 777 publications, Jahangirnagar University 4th with 655. Rajshahi University has slipped to the 6th position from 2nd.

According to the Scopus database, Talha Bin Emran, a faculty of the pharmacy department at BGC Trust University, retained the top position last year with 167 publications. He published 92 articles in the 2021.

Tahmeed Ahmed, executive director of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (Icddr,b) secured the 2nd position last year with 103 articles.

Among the top 15 contributors, a large number of publications came from two private universities – Daffodil International University and North South University, according to the report.