Syrian medical, dental and pharmaceutical publication in the last decade: A bibliometric analysis

Background: Scientific research has an essential role in building up the basics of public health and clinical care. As a developing country, Syria has a limited contribution to scientific research. Besides, the current Syrian crisis has inflicted severe damage to the infrastructure of the country, which, in turn, negatively affected the scientific sphere. This study examines the scientific publishing in Syria from 2011 until 2020. It aims to define the real and deep reasons for the slow-down in publication to get over them, push Syria to keep track of the latest updates, and take its place in scientific research.

Methods: We conducted a bibliometric analysis of articles published in (PubMed and Scopus) Databases from 1/1/2011 until 26/12/2020, using the following search terms (("Syrian Arab Republic") OR (Syria) OR (Syrian)) limiting the search to (Affiliation) fields.

Results: Syrian medical, dental and pharmaceutical institutions published 1403 papers from 2011 until 2020. There were only 55 papers in 2011, and a peak with 180 papers in 2018. Besides, publications in the last 4 years were 1.135 times more than publications in the last 6 years.

Conclusion: We noticed a peak in quantity of Syrian medical, dental and pharmaceutical publications in the last decade. Accordingly, we recommend enhancing research skills, paying more attention to the quality of researches, and holding research workshops and Evidence Based conferences to enhance the scientific endeavor.