Saudi universities lose highly cited researchers after payment schemes raise ethics concerns

The number of top researchers affiliated with universities in Saudi Arabia has dropped sharply, months after the institutions were revealed to be enticing eminent scientists abroad to declare a Saudi affiliation—often in exchange for cash—in a bid to boost their rankings. Saudi Arabian universities now boast affiliations with just 76 of the world’s most cited researchers, compared with 109 in 2022, according to an analysis released Friday by the Barcelona, Spain–based research consultancy Siris Academic. The decrease could cause some Saudi institutions to fall in global rankings of universities. The drop appears to be the result of universities and research institutions in Europe and elsewhere raising concerns about scientists listing affiliations with Saudi institutions in exchange for payment or relatively minor consulting commitments. (Such arrangements are often not tightly regulated by universities.) Tighter scrutiny from Clarivate, the publishing analytics company that compiles an annual list of highly cited researchers (HCRs), also appears to have played a role. “Now that the scam is discovered, it will be less and less effective,” says Domingo Docampo, a mathematician at the University of Vigo. The practice has a long history. In 2011, Science reported that some Saudi universities were paying top scientists around the world to declare that they had a second affiliation at a Saudi institu...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research