In almost all basic and clinical specialties, and despite the notable gap between research output in high and low-income Arab countries in some research fields (Sibai et al., 2017), the research output of the Arab World lags far behind other regions (Bayoumy et al., 2016; Zyoud, 2016). It would help if you learned that seven Arab countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Sudan) produced only 1,773 articles on cancer research from 2000 through 2013 (Hamadeh et al., 2017). In sports and exercise medicine, the contribution of the Arab countries constituted only 0.49 % of the global sport and exercise medicine literature (Fares et al., 2017). As a whole, the Arab World produced 189 articles/ one million population, which is estimated to be about a quarter of the value of other world countries (Rassi et al., 2018).
It’s miserable, and it’s not without cause. Romani et al. (2016) noted that the weak infrastructure constitutes the main obstacle against research development. Another significant effect is related to a lack of appropriate training and professional supervision. In their systematic review on ADHD research in the Arab World, Alkhateeb and Alhadidi (2016) highlighted the inferior methods and procedures that limited the value and generalizability of research findings. In the field of spine surgery research, Baeesa et al. (2017) also noted that inadequate levels of evidence characterized Arab research output, which failed to achieve progress through 15 years.
The exciting study of El Obaid et al. (2016) addressed another vital issue. They studied the public perceptions and attitudes towards medical research in a sample of United Arab Emirates citizens. The study noted fear of breach of confidentiality as the primary concern of the participants. They recommended better research materials and more effective communication with the broader community to improve participation in clinical research. Of course, the cultural and societal characteristics of Arab communities are also involved. Even for Arab-Americans, one study identified significant barriers against community participation in research (Timraz et al., 2017).
Another significant hurdle that significantly affects the quality of Arab research output is inappropriate prioritization. In most Arab countries, the institutional research plan is not based on clear concepts the consider the needs of the local communities or the capabilities of the research infrastructure. The studies of Al-Yateem et al. (2017), Jamaluddine et al. (2016), and Naja et al. (2017) discussed this point in school nursing, genetics, and nutrition. They identified specific research gaps and suggested some new strategies. One elegant study highlighted the astonishing mismatch between the disease burden of some clinical conditions and the published researches on these conditions (Albarqouni et al., 2018).
Probably, the notion that the international Arab immigration wave that was caused by the conflicts in Palestine, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen resulted in a dramatic increase of published articles on Arab refugees (Sweileh, 2018) may sum up how and why the Arab World came to this point.

References
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