Judging by the quantity, how well is Bangladesh faring in research?

The majority of researchers/academicians are familiar with Scopus. 

It was launched in 2004 by Elsevier, a giant publishing house. Scopus includes over 36,000 titles from over 11,000 publishers, nearly 35,000 of which are peer-reviewed journals in the most prominent subjects, including the life sciences, social sciences, physical sciences and health sciences. 

Three different sources covered by Scopus are book series, journals, and trade journals. The four quantitative quality metrics-  h-Index, CiteScore, SJR (SCImago Journal Rank), and SNIP (Source Normalised Impact per Paper) are used to assess each journal listed in the Scopus database to make sure it meets the required standards. 

Thus, considering the number of Scopus-indexed research papers of a country can give a good indication of the quality and scope of research of the said country. 

This article discusses the number/output of Scopus-indexed research papers in Bangladesh and several Asian countries over the past two decades. Again, all of the information I am providing here is based solely on numerical data. No qualitative judgments or analyses have been made. 

I have focused on Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Malaysia and Singapore.

Looking at the first graph (Figure 1), we can see that among these few countries, India has published the highest number of research papers. India is a large country with a large population; therefore, it stands to reason that the number of research papers produced by India is enormous.  

In this way, the whole story cannot be understood and a smaller scale must be considered. So, rather than considering the entire population, let us examine the situation on a smaller scale. Let's analyse the number of papers published per million people (Figure 2). Figure 1 clearly shows that Bangladesh is becoming better. 

In addition to this, other nations' improvement is also obvious. About 631 Scopus-indexed research articles were published in Bangladesh in 2000, whereas there were slightly more than 1,200 papers published in Pakistan- nearly twice as many as there were in Bangladesh. 

As of 2021, about 12,000 research articles have been published in Bangladesh. In Pakistan, on the other hand, 36,000 scientific articles were published in this timeframe. 

According to the International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS), Bangladesh's growth rate was way above Pakistan's. Even before the pandemic, in 2018-19, it was 7.8% compared to Pakistan's 5.8%. 

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves reached a record $45.10 billion in May 2021- more than twice Pakistan's $17.1 billion in June 2021. 

Bangladesh's GDP per capita increased to $2,227 in 2021, up 9% from 2020 beating India by a small margin. Pakistan's per capita income, meanwhile, is $1,543. These indicators clearly demonstrate that Bangladesh is performing better, but the unpleasant reality is that Pakistan is currently at least three times ahead of us in terms of publishing standard academic research articles. 

About 42,000 research papers with Scopus indexing were published in Malaysia in 2021. On a smaller scale, Figure 2 shows that Singapore, a relatively small nation with a very small population, has surpassed the other nations in research even as early as 2000. Malaysia is also well ahead in research despite having a smaller population than Bangladesh, India and Pakistan (Figure 2).

Let's try to interpret Bangladesh's progress mathematically. This can be expressed by a polynomial of three degrees (Figure 3). As long as Bangladesh maintains current progress or does not accelerate its pace beyond the current rate, we will be able to surpass Malaysia's current number of Scopus-indexed research papers 10 years later in 2032.

When it comes to international collaboration, Bangladesh is slightly ahead of some of the countries in this study (Figure 4). The first one here in Singapore. Bangladesh is followed by Pakistan. Foreign collaborations are present in 60% of Bangladeshi research.

In my opinion, foreign assistance is an essential component of a significant portion of the research conducted in our country. There is limited space for conducting research and producing standard research papers in large quantities within our own country at present. We still need to rely heavily on the assistance of foreign researchers and laboratory facilities. 

The extent of India's international collaborations, on the other hand, has decreased. In other words, since they can now do top-notch research domestically, less external aid is required. They have created high-calibre labs and infrastructure. 

Malaysia and Iran fall under the same category. However, despite its political unrest and financial hardship, Pakistan has been able to forge significant international collaboration which has amplified the country's output of standard peer-reviewed scientific papers.

The Scopus database can also be used to explore in depth how Bangladesh is doing in any discipline, in which topics there is more research or in which topics there are less amount of research, impact, citation rate of Bangladeshi research papers, etc. 

As a young researcher, I find it extremely disappointing that we are continuously lagging behind Pakistan in research. We can and should improve. We must not become complacent with our accomplishments. More assistance is needed for the researchers in our country. 

The results of investing in education are far-reaching. The allocation for education and research should be increased in the annual budget. University teachers and students should be encouraged more in research. Like Buet, other universities should also be research-friendly. 

They are making significant investments in research and offering rewards for having research papers published in prestigious or top-ranked journals. To develop new laboratories with top-notch research equipment, more funding should be granted.

And once again, it is important to keep in mind that there should be no corruption and discrimination while providing aid to the researchers in setting up their lab. It is advisable to pay maximum attention so that the deserving person benefits.

Md Abdullah Zaman is a physics lecturer at the Department of Textile Engineering, Northern University Bangladesh.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.