Little more than eight thousand (8140)Scientific publications published in 2020 were in the Scopus database with at least one author with Bangladeshi affiliation as seen on 2 January 2021. This number is almost 2000 higher than the number for the year 2019(6363) seen at a similar time.
Most of the publications are in English(8,135). There are few publications in Chinese(4),French(2),Spanish(2)and Malay(1). Out of 8140 publications, 7,186 are finally published and 954 articles are still in Press. The top three subject areas of publications are Medicine (2,173), Engineering(1,824), and Computer Science (1581).
1.Top 15 researchers
a) Bangladeshi, NBR, and Foreigners
A large number of “Top 15” researchers are foreigners or working in abroad and publishing with researchers affiliated with Bangladeshi institutes. Among the top three researchers, Dr Asiri is not a Bangladeshi, Saudi Arabian, but he has published 55 documents as co-author with Bangladesh affiliated researchers in 2020 (45 in 2019).
From the name, we can easily recognize other foreign researchers.
b) Top Ten Bangladeshi Researchers
The majority of the top ten researchers are from ICDDR, B. None of the top researchers are coming from Old public universities. But why?
2. Top Ten Journals and Proceedings
CiteScore of Top Ten Journals & proceedings by Year
3.Top 15 Research Organizations
University of Dhaka (DU) has retained the highest position with 760 (100 more than last year) and Bangladesh University of Science and Technology(BUET) retained the second position with 510 ( more than 100 less than 2019) publications. ICDDR,B is in the fifth position with 418 documents from the third position in 2019. Rajshahi University is in the 3rd position with 465 publications from fourth in 2019 with 330 Publications.
Jahangir Nagar university has secured the fourth position with 437 publications from the 5th position in 2019 with 250 publications.
North South University has recovered its position in the top ten and Daffodil International University(235,8th) has retained its position in the top ten.
4.Top 15 Public Universities
5.Top Agriculture Universities and Research Institutes
6.Top Medical and Health-Related Universities and Research Institutes
7.Top Engineering and Technology Universities
8.Top 10 Science and Technology Universities
9.Top 15 Private Universities
10.Top 15 foreign Universities and Institutes
Bangladeshi researchers are either working in those universities and institutes in deputation or collaborating with researchers from these universities.
11. BCSIR vs BAEC
Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) and Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission are two multidisciplinary governmental research organizations. They have a large number of scientific officers(SO. SSO. PSO and CSOs) but it is not reflected in the number of publications. Both BCSIR and BAEC researchers should use only BCSIR and BAEC as an affiliation,respectively.
12.Top 15 collaborative countries
Are Bangladeshi researchers collaborating with those countries or just Bangladeshi researchers doing PhD, Postdoctoral in those countries and putting their Bangladeshi affiliation in the publications?
13.Collaboration with SAARC and other neighboring countries
Joint publications with SAARC countries are not big. This reflects that we are not doing enough research with our neighbors on our common problems.
14.Document types
The number of books has increased from 3(2019) to 10 in 2020. The number of book chapter is 151, more than double last year(61).
15.Research Subject Area
Medicine has taken the first position from engineering in 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic COVID related publications, which belong to medicine, have increased significantly. Hence Medicine surpassed engineering this year.
Computer Science is the third major subject area as before.
16. Funding sponsorship
The majority of the top 15 funding bodies are from abroad. So how many of the researches of the publications were done in Bangladesh and related to problems of Bangladesh? A major concern to dig deep.
a) Top foreign funding bodies
b) Top national funding bodies
As a funding body, the University of Dhaka is poor. Out of 760, only 16 publications’ research is funded by the University of Dhaka. Why is this discrepancy? The same applies to most of the other universities.
17. Patent
Only one patent in 2020, ICDDR, B is part of the multinational patent application. The number of Patents reflects the extent of applied research. Only one patent in 2020 reflects our poor performance in applied research or technology, technique, process, or method development.
18. Publications by South Asian countries
Name of the country |
Total Publications |
Patents |
| Afghanistan – | 293 | 0 |
| Bangladesh- | 8,140 | 1 |
| Bhutan | 214 | 0 |
| Indian | 199261 | 276 |
| The Maldives | 91 | 0 |
| Nepal | 2688 | 0 |
| Pakistan | 28,612 | 0 |
| Sri Lanka | 2705 | 1 |
Concluding remarks
Though publications are increasing, in small number though, this far from enough for the scientific advancement of the country. In comparison to India and Pakistan, our publications are very few. While Indian Researchers published more than 199000 and Pakistani researchers published more than 28000 documents, Bangladeshi researchers have published only 8000 with only one patent.
Moreover, the majority of the publications are from NRB researchers. Research fund is also coming mostly from foreign funding bodies. This means that our own research organizations are not publishing enough documents and reflects that more and more Bangladeshi are going abroad for research purposes.
Measures should be taken so that publication from 1. our own research works with 2. our own fund in 3. our research organizations increases and research is commercialized.
