During the symposium “Improving the international ranking of Arab universities and the role of the Arab Citation Impact Factor (ARCIF)”, held under the patronage of His Excellency, the Minister of Culture.

Al-Khazendar, who is also the founder of the largest academic and scientific database in the Arab world, explained that “ARCIF is a regional standard by international standards, capable of measuring the relative importance of scientific and academic journals issued by Arab universities and scientific bodies, both in Arabic and other languages. ” Al-Khazendar went on to describe how ARCIF provides a solution by scientific measurements to “the marginalization of Arab academic production, which stems from Western dominance in the field.”

Al-Khazendar went on to say that one of the challenges facing the Arab academic effort is the lack of confidence in what is produced, which is what called for a mechanism to evaluate and measure it scientifically according to international standards.

The Assistant Secretary General of the Union of Arab Universities Khamis Hamidi then said in a speech during the symposium that the efforts to create academic benchmarks constitute a basis for improving the level and ranking of Arab universities globally. Dr. Hamidi pointed out that the ARCIF initiative has also raised hope in having some Arab contribution to the global humanitarian effort.

From a broader perspective, the Executive Director of the ESCWA Technology Centre, Reem Al-Najdawi, presented a vision of the complex challenges faced by the Arab region, which have led to a number of specialized programs to develop Arabic content in response to challenges and to reach a more hopeful horizon.

Najdawi went on to explain the results of a report prepared by the ESCWA Center for Technology in cooperation with the National Council for Scientific Research which revealed the absence of “community research” to identify the commonalities between community needs and research objectives.

Najdawi went on to explain the results of a report prepared by the ESCWA Center for Technology in cooperation with the National Council for Scientific Research which revealed the absence of “community research” to identify the commonalities between community needs and research objectives.

Najdawi pointed to the report on the “promotion policies”, indicating that “most universities focus on publication in international journals, and do not give value to the relationship of university research meeting the needs of the community.”

Al-Najdawi expressed the aspiration of ESCWA to work and cooperate with e-Marefa and other prestigious academic institutions to contribute to the development of the Arab scientific community and to direct research which addresses the pressing issues of the region in Arabic.

Shortly afterwards, the representative of the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in the Arab States, Dr. Anas Bouhalal, spoke on the importance of indicators in the evaluation of Arab universities and academic / research products issued by them. Dr. Bouhalal stressed the importance of academic measurement indicators in the rehabilitation of Arabic research producttion, calling for the integration of efforts to achieve higher goals while praising ARCIF for its role to play in this. Buhallal sees an “integrative model” in properly tending to the Arab academic landscape, “rather than the competitive approach with our Western counterparts”.

A consultant for ARCIF and e-Marefa as well as a knowledge management expert, Dr. Najeeb Al-Shorbaji, shared a presentation of the efforts exerted to create the Impact Factor of ARCIF. Indicating that it was based on a large amount of data operated by e-Marefa, the largest academic database in the Arab world. Dr. Al-Shorbaji pointed out that the analysis of the data showed the nature of the problems that Arab scientific journals may face, their impact on projects and then how to address them.

Dr. Al-Shorbaji went on to explain that the Impact Factor reflects the extent to which new research is linked to previously published research and if it is cited within a given period of time; which in turn shows the average annual number of citations of articles published recently in a journal, according to the equations of calculation supported by global indicators.

ARCIF includes data and results of 60 interdisciplinary and unique academic disciplines spread across 18 Arab countries, provided by their original sources and within transparent criteria.

ARCIF’s reports are presented through an overview of citations, a comparison of journals, as well as information on the authors, in accordance with international standards.

The closing session of the symposium witnessed a brief presentation of the ARCIF annual report for the year 2018, in preparation for its detailed full release.

From the opening ceremony

Pictures from releasing the Arab Citation & Impact Factor (Arcif)