Comparative bibliometric study of the scientific production in Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) in 1996-2009 using Scopus

This paper is a bibliometric study of the publication patterns of academic and research scientists of Maghreb countries: Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The comparative study of the scientific production in the countries of Maghreb is made using Scopus data during the period 1996-2009. Results show that the total scientific production of Tunisia is higher than that of both Morocco and Algeria, even though the population in Tunisia is only one third of that of Morocco and Algeria. Scientometric analysis is furthermore related to the population to each country. The study deals also to introduce the Hirsch index called h-index of the most published authors according to the Scopus database. Ten of the most published authors of each country are listed and their corresponding h-index values were given.