Global science and the muslim world: overview of muslim-majority country contributions to global science

Global science is pluralising. More nations increasingly contribute to scientific endeavours worldwide. Muslim-majority nations are no exception, but their contributions to global science have been understudied. This study produced an overview of scientific papers published by 15 purposefully selected Muslim-majority science systems. Specifically, it examined the quantity and scientific influence of papers published between 1990 and 2020 and provided a research-area-based analysis of trends in paper publications. Findings revealed that the share of Muslim-majority contributions to global science is still modest because systems only published 5.15% of all web of science (WoS) papers globally in the last three decades, although their combined population represents 14.16% of the world population. However, the increasing trend in quantity and scientific influence of publications is promising. The findings also indicated that Turkey-based scientists have the highest number of WoS papers published among the selected systems. Iran has been the fastest growing system, and Saudi Arabia-based scientists have published the highest number of internationally collaborated papers per year since 2012. Regarding scientific influence indicators, relatively smaller but well-funded science, such as Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, come to the fore. The analysis results indicate that six science systems, in alphabetic order, Egypt, Iran, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey, consistently differentiated themselves from others in area-based publication analyses and overall trends, Turkey and Iran being the outliers in the group.