Playing the Rankings Game in Pakistan
"A recently released report by Thomson-Reuters, a Canada based multinational media firm, says, �In the last decade, Pakistan�s scientific research productivity has increased by more than 4 times, from approximately 2000 articles per year in 2006 to more than 9000 articles in 2015. During this time, the number of Highly Cited Papers (HCPs) featuring Pakistan based authors increased tenfold from 9 articles in 2006 to 98 in 2015.�
This puts Pakistan well ahead of Brazil, Russia, India, and China in terms of HCPs. As the reader surely knows, every citation is an acknowledgement by other researchers of important research or useful new findings. The more citations a researcher earns, the more impact he/she is supposed to have had upon that field. Research evaluations, through multiple pathways, count for 50-70 percent of a university�s ranking (if not more).
If Thomson-Reuters has it right, then Pakistanis should be overjoyed. India has been beaten hollow. Better still, two of the world�s supposedly most advanced countries�Russia and China�are way behind. This steroid propelled growth means Pakistan will overtake America in just a decade or two.
But just a little analysis shows something is amiss. Surely a four-fold increase in scientific productivity must have some obvious manifestations. Does one see science laboratories in Pakistani universities four times busier? Are there four times as many seminars presenting new results? Does one hear animated discussions on scientific topics four times more frequently?
Nothing�s visible. Academic activity on Pakistani campuses might be unchanged or perhaps even less today, but is certainly not higher than ten years ago. So where�and why�are the authors of the HCP�s hiding? Could it be that these hugely prolific researchers are too bashful to present their results in departmental seminars or public lectures? The answer is not too difficult to guess."
