Research output and performance in Central Asia a bibliometric study

The Central Asian region is made up of a rich diversity in cultures and each country has faced its own challenges and opportunities but a common theme today is that they all to shift towards knowledge-based economies and a key component of that is research and development. This study sought to evaluate output and impact of published research using bibliometric indicators to determine whether these indicators were influenced by the number and activity of researchers in each country and whether their collaboration with the international research community influenced the impact in their field. The findings showed that Turkey´s dominant position has been compromised by the improvement of several regional countries including Iran and that international collaboration improves the proportion of papers cited globally but does not increase the number of citations received. The findings show that integration with the global research community is not consistent across the region with some countries remaining more isolated than others.