Geographical distribution of biomedical publications from the Gulf Corporation Council countries

Objective: It was our purpose to perform a geographical analysis for the nu mber of biomedical and clinical research publications from the six countrie s of the Gulf Cooperation Council over the past decade (1990-1999). Methods: Medline was searched with the aid of the Internet provider PubMed. By using the advanced search option, entries were based on the country nam e for each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and the time period co nsidered. Results: The number of Medline-listed biomedical research papers published in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries over the last 10 years totaled 6, 960 and increased by 14% over the past decade. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia followed by Kuwait was by far the most prolific and accounted for 67 and 16 % of publications. The research output from the United Arab Emirates and Om an grew steadily over the past decade, while it appeared to plateau for bot h Bahrain and Qatar. Conclusion: Taking into account that Gulf Cooperation Council countries hav e a relatively shore-history of research, the data show that the Gulf Coope ration Council countries are very prolific in terms of Medline-indexed biom edical research publications.