J Korean Med Sci.  2021 Jun;36(25):e169. 10.3346/jkms.2021.36.e169.

Peer Reviewers in Central Asia: Publons Based Analysis

• Ahmed S
• Yessirkepov M

• KMID: 2516987
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2021.36.e169

Abstract

Background
The five Central Asian republics comprise of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Their research and publication activities are gradually improving but there is limited data on how good their peer reviewing practices are.
Methods
We have use the Publons database to extract information on the reviewers registered including the number of verified review, Publons award winners, and top universities in the domain of peer reviewing. This has been analysed overall and country wise.
Results
Of 15,764 researchers registered on Publons, only 370 (11.7%) have verified records of peer-reviewing. There are 8 Publons award winners. There is great heterogeneity in the number of active reviewers across the five countries. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan account for more than 90% of verified reviewers. Only Kazakhstan has more than 100 active reviewers and 6 Publons award recipients. Amongst the top 20 reviewers from Central Asia, half of them are from the Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. Three countries have less than 10 universities registered on Publons.
Conclusion
Central Asia has a good number of peer reviewers on Publons though only a minority of researchers are involved in peer reviewing. However, the heterogeneity between the nations can be best dealt with by promoting awareness and international networking including e-learning and mentoring programs.

Keyword

Central Asia; Peer Review; Publications; Publons; Universities

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Distribution of total researchers (A) versus researchers with at least 1 verified review (B).

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  Fig. 2 Country-wise distribution of number of reviewers (A) with at least 1 verified review within the last 12 months (B) with more than 1 verified review and (C) with at least 1 verified review.

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  Fig. 3 Scatterplot of number of publications versus total verified reviews for top 10 Universities from Central Asia with the lower panel zooming in on the X-axis between 0 to 350. Note that Turkmenistan has no universities registered on Publons while Tajikistan has 2 and Kyrgyzstan has 7 only.

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