Measuring Research Productivity of LIS Departments in the Middle East

The present study measures the research productivity of library and Information science departments in the Middle East. Data were collected from 16 countries whose LIS departments had at least one article indexed in Clarivate Analytics Web of Science between 2014 and 2018. Journals’ Citation Report was also used to collect further data. In measuring research productivity, the number of departments’ articles indexed in the Web of Science database and the size of each department (number of faculties) is considered as output and input, respectively. Findings indicated that Bar Ilan University had the highest research productivity (3.7), followed by Shiraz University (1.17) and Hacettepe University (1.04). Regarding LIS Department Research productivity, Israel, Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait, and Iran ranked first to fifth. The results of this research can contribute to identifying highly productive and influential departments and lay the groundwork for a well-oriented scientific policy and cooperation.