An international forecast for research output has shown that Pakistan
will be among top 30 countries of the world in research by 2018.
Scimago, an independent research organisation and an international
evaluation and ranking platform, has projected in its recent publication
how the world will perform in research by 2018 based on their past
performance. The top 50 countries are included in the forecast.



China becomes the number one country in the world by 2018 in terms of
research output; however three countries, which stand out and show the
most drastic increase in numbers and rankings are Iran, Malaysia and
Pakistan. Iran moves ahead from number 19 to number 4, Malaysia from 30
to 13, and Pakistan from 43 to 27. The expected output of research in
Pakistan moving up 16 notches, which is the second highest increase
world-wide, is primarily due to the innovative higher education policies
and reforms taking place in Pakistan under the Higher Education
Commission (HEC).



During the last few years, in addition to quality reforms, there has
been a strong resurgence of research and innovation. In particular,
there is a significant growth in the number of PhDs awarded out of
Pakistani universities. The numbers speak for themselves. In the first
55 years since Pakistan's independence, a total of 3281 PhDs were
awarded at Pakistani universities. However, since the establishment of
the HEC in 2002, over 4000 PhDs have been awarded to-date, which is more
than what was awarded in the previous 55 years.



There is a renewed focus on engineering and technology, agriculture,
biological sciences, business education and social sciences, which are
relevant subjects important for the socio-economic development of
Pakistan. There is a zero tolerance policy on plagiarism, where every
research paper, thesis and dissertation must be scrutinised by
anti-plagiarism software before submission. All thesis and dissertation
must be evaluated by at least two foreign referees in academically
advanced countries in the relevant area of research.



Despite having very limited funds, HEC supports many research
initiatives through different types of grants, including split PhDs,
post-doctoral fellowships, foreign faculty programmes, hosting
conferences and to present papers anywhere in the world, to name only a
few. It is primarily due to this new flourishing research culture at the
higher education institutions that the number of international research
publications with impact factor has increased drastically.



While 816 impact factor papers were published in 2002, it has now
increased to over 6300 in 2011, with the largest numbers of publications
in areas of relevance to economic development. And at the rate
Pakistanis are publishing their research papers, Scimago forecasts that
by 2018, the research output will exceed 29,661.



While no university was ranked in the top universities of the world
three years back, according to the most recent QS Asian Universities
Rankings 2012, there are now six Pakistani universities that are ranked
among the top 300 universities. Similarly, according to QS World
Universities Ranking 2011, two Pakistani universities are ranked among
the top 300 technology universities of the world. This is another
achievement and recognition that has been widely acknowledged.
Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/world-affairs/199981-pakistan-among-30-top-countries-2018-iran-4th-research.html#ixzz22RzSRuCb