The Department of Relations and Information in the Federal Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research announced on May 19, 2021 that Iraq has achieved an increase in the publication of research in various disciplines in the global SCOPUS database, according to the statistics of 2020. Iraq came - according to the number of Research published in various disciplines in the Scopus database - ranked 45 out of a total of 234 countries in the world, while it was ranked sixth out of a total of 16 countries in the Middle East (after Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel), while It came in third place out of a total of 21 countries at the level of Arab countries, after Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
From the first look at the announced figures regarding Iraq’s position in the quantitative terms in the number of research published within the Scopus database, it can be concluded that it is located in the first quarter and its arrangement is fairly good both at the level of the Middle East, Arab countries or the world, due to the fact that the reasons Convincing and logical when comparing Iraq with the countries that preceded it, because they are large countries and have a better experience and a more stable period compared to Iraq.
But the question is whether Iraq will maintain its rank at the level of the world, the Middle East and the Arab countries, and whether it will change when looking at it from the point of view of using some other well-known quality indicators, including “total reference citations” and “self-referential citations” (Self- Citations), net of citations after 'Without Self-Citation', average number of 'citations per published paper' and 'Hirsch index'?
The use of the other five indicators came to be the impact factor that measures the scientific impact of journals by knowing the repeated use of research and studies published in a journal by research and scientific studies published in other journals during a specified period of time, within the same or other database;
These reference citations are the main criterion in the impact factor and the true measure of the quality and sobriety of the journal.
At the present time, there are many databases that provide information about the scientific output of researchers and the number of citations for their research, including Web of Science and Scopus, as they are companies specialized in issuing and following up on the impact factor of each journal, as a measure of its quality using reference citations.
The Web of Science - formerly known as the Knowledge Network - is considered one of the most important and finest leading citation rules in the world at the present time, which was originally introduced by the Institute for Scientific Information, and is now updated by the company "Clarivate", which was previously Pre-2008 proprietary Thomson Reuters, the world's oldest bibliographic index of references and scientific journals with comprehensive coverage of more than 100 years, the network is the main user of the impact factor in a year by the average number of research citations Published in a journal during a specific time in the past two years only, for registered journals and research indexed within the network only.
While the Scopus database - which was founded in 2004 by "Elsevier" - is one of the most important and largest private databases of abstracts and reference citations from research, books and conference proceedings and provides a comprehensive view of the outputs of international scientific research in various fields for more than 5,000 publishers, and is used by More than 3,000 academic, governmental and institutional institutions.
Where Scopes uses the CiteScore as the impact factor in a year by the average sum of citations in papers (research, books, conferences, chapters) published in the previous four years divided by the sum of research published in the same period.
In addition, many studies have indicated that reference citations are an essential indicator of scientific quality6, and in measuring and evaluating the performance and research excellence of the institution or the individual scientific output of the two teachers in the methodology of most of the leading international classifications of universities and at the level of all different disciplines, including the classification of (Arrow, QS , Semaco, Round, Leiden, Europ, World Ranking Center and US News).
In order to answer the question posed at the beginning, it is necessary to review and rearrange the position of Iraq in the Scopus database using some other quality indicators instead of the quantity indicator (number of published research) only, which shows the following:
According to the criterion of the number of reference citations, Iraq's site falls to the 52nd rank out of a total of 234 at the level of the world, and to the seventh rank out of a total of 16 countries at the level of the Middle East, while it came in the fourth rank out of a total of 21 countries at the level of Arab countries;
Thus, Iraq lags several ranks according to this criterion.
According to the "net self-referential citations" criterion, Iraq came in the 52nd rank out of a total of 234 countries in the world, and in the sixth rank out of a total of 16 countries in the Middle East, while it came in the third rank out of a total of 21 countries at the level of Arab countries with a total of net citations. Reference 4357, and thus Iraq ranked lower according to this criterion;
This is because the higher the number of self-referencing citations, the lower the quality of the research as a result of the frequency of its use by the researchers themselves.
According to the criterion of net reference citations after excluding self-citation, Iraq’s position becomes 62nd out of a total of 234 countries in the world and 8th out of a total of 16 countries in the Middle East, while it came in 7th out of a total of 21 countries at the level of Arab countries with a total of net citations Reference 6368, and according to this criterion, Iraq regresses several places.
According to the criterion of the number of reference citations for each published research, which measures the average of reference citations for each published research during a certain period, Iraq recorded the worst ranking compared to the rest of the indicators to come in 198th rank out of a total of 234 at the world level, and in the last rank out of a total of 16 countries in the East The Middle East, while Iraq's ranking became 19th out of a total of 21 countries at the level of Arab countries, and thus Iraq scored the worst according to this criterion.
According to Hirsch's criterion, which measures the scientific impact of published research, Iraq regresses many ranks to rank 102 out of a total of 234 at the level of the world, while it was ranked 12th out of a group of 16 countries at the level of the Middle East, and ranked 12th out of a total of 21 countries at the level of Arab countries, and thus Iraq fell very many ranks compared to the rest of the countries according to this indicator.
Why focus on the Scopus database and its associated international classifications, and not on the Web of Science and its associated classifications?
The answer lies in the fact that the standards of the latter are much more difficult, and the Iraqi academic institutions at best did not exceed the number of fingers in the hand. Therefore, it would be wise and logical - as a first step - to focus on the Scopus database, in which it is possible to increase the research output by Iraq and take advantage of the opportunity available to improve Ranking Iraq, because its criteria are easier and then focus after a period of time on the Web of Science database.
In light of the above and to answer the question posed at the beginning, Iraq’s position in the ranking has changed and regressed by many ranks and in varying degrees, whether at the level of the world, the Middle East or the Arab countries when using the other five quality standards, where Iraq recorded the worst ranking in the criterion of the number of reference citations per published research and Hirsch's criterion, while regression was lower in the other three criteria.
This is in addition to the failure to take into account the criterion of the depth of diversity and international linkage in academic cooperation with foreign researchers in the published research, or the failure to use any standard that measures the role of this research in addressing the problems of the local community and linking it with different sectors.
Based on all of the above, the concerned authorities must take some of the required steps, including:
The need for the concerned authorities to take into account the five quality indicators (number of reference citations, self-reference citations, citations after excluding self-citation, number of reference citations for each published research, Hirsch criterion), and not only the number of published research in calculating the ranking, so that planning is sound possible and based on reality more.
Reconsider all instructions related to the process of publishing research, incentive systems and scientific promotions, provided that all of them do not increase the number of research published only by Iraqi researchers in Scopus, but take into account all other five indicators of quality.
The need for the concerned authorities to diagnose the actual reasons behind the poor quality of research output in the Scopus database, in order to reduce the gap between Iraq and the countries in the Middle East and the Arab countries.
Starting with practical and practical steps to reduce the rate of self-citation, which has recently increased among researchers, in order to avoid turning it into a phenomenon in Iraqi institutions and becoming impossible to control.
The necessity of establishing work teams, research centers and laboratories to improve the quality of research output, according to the five quality indicators in international databases, Xscops and others.
Holding courses and seminars for academic and teaching staff in universities on how to use the sound research methodology, while making them aware of the role and importance of publishing in the international databases XSCOPS, especially in the humanitarian disciplines.
For pure and applied scientific disciplines, publishing is limited to journals that fall in the first quarter (Q1), with the possibility of adding journals in the second quarter (Q2) for humanities and social sciences majors.