Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
Aim. The study aimed to explore the progress of social science research carried out by Pakistan for the duration of 59 years.
Method: This retrospective study was carried out on the data retrieved from the Scopus database to determine the research output in the area of social science by Pakistani authors from 1961 to December 2019. The word “Pakistan” has been written in the main search box and “Affiliation” has been selected in the subsequent box. The targeted time duration was selected, further, the social sciences documents were selected and downloaded for data-analysis. Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and SPSS were used to calculate and analyze the data.
Result: Pakistani author wrote 9,292 papers on social sciences with an average of 157.49 papers per year, three-fourth of the papers were published in the last ten years of study. These publications received 56,252 citations with an average of 6.05 citations per paper. One-fourth of the total documents were published in the ten most preferred journals and Pakistan Development Review has been on the top with 1067 documents. The Scopus further divided these documents into 24 sub-categories, computer sciences found a most favorite area followed by art and humanities. Pakistani authors collaborated with 134 countries of the world, the United States has a topmost choice for international research collaboration. In the analysis of the authorship pattern, the single author pattern dominated.
Conclusion: The establishment of new universities and up-gradation of the social sciences departments, provision of national digital library and starting of doctorate programs are the key factors of promising growth of publications was found during the last ten years of study. Still, we need to do more innovative research with the corporate sector for the betterment of the society.