Minister of Higher Education: Under President El-Sisi, Egypt is achieving a leap in the international ranking for scientific publication for the year 2020

Prof. Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research said that within the framework of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research's plan to encourage scientific publishing in universities and research centers and its reflection on the development of the higher education and scientific research system in Egypt, Egyptian universities and research centers have witnessed a remarkable growth in scientific publishing for the year 2020 Where the scientific research index issued by the Egyptian Observatory for Science, Technology and Innovation - the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology - according to the international database SCOPUS showed that during this year nearly 32 thousand papers have been published and the numbers are still increasing as it is expected to continue to increase the published research until June 2021.

The minister referred to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's support and interest in achieving a breakthrough in the field of scientific research based on the realization of Egypt's vision for sustainable development 2030, pointing out that Egypt during the era of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi made a remarkable development in the field of scientific publishing, and Egypt made a leap in the international ranking of scientific publishing To become for the first time in the 27th position internationally, with a growth rate of 25%, and with an improvement of five centers at once over the ranking during 2019, and with this improvement, Egypt occupies the first place in Africa, followed by South Africa, and is ranked second in the Arab world after the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (24th).

Regarding the quality of published research, the FWCI Citation Index issued by the SCOPUS International Database showed that the Citation Index rose from 1.17 in 2019 to 1.3 in 2020, which is higher than the global average, which is estimated to be the correct one.

It is worth noting that Egyptian researchers had published 68% of their scientific research in the top 50% of scientific journal lists in terms of quality.

This qualitative improvement was reflected in changing the rules for promotions in universities and research centers by defining controls that would improve scientific publishing and quality of research, as well as focusing on publishing in the axes determined by the National Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2030 related to the state’s plan and achieving sustainable development goals.

In the same context, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research is interested in stimulating distinguished scientific publishing through rewards for scientific publishing and honoring universities and research centers of their children who have published in distinguished scientific periodicals, in addition to the role of science, technology and innovation donors who have been able through funding research projects serving the state’s plan to increase Scientific publication at large rates, starting from 2018, with a total of 22,000 papers, and continuing to 2020, with a total of 32,000 papers, which can be increased.

With regard to international cooperation in published research, we find that Egypt has jumped to nearly 55% (17,500 research) for the year 2020 compared to 50.5% (13,000 research) for the year 2019, with an increase of 4,500 research papers with a quality that surpasses the global average, and this is a reflection of the Ministry's efforts Supporting international cooperation initiatives and Egypt's participation in more effective roles in international scientific organizations.