Results of 25 years of Maghrebian scientific medical research in the Grand Maghreb. Bibliometric analysis of the Scimago platform (1996-2020).

Objective: Describe the trend and the characteristics of the positioning of Maghreb medical production and its visibility, at the global, African and Arab level, following an in-depth reading of the Scimago platform, over a period of 25 years (1996-2020 ).

Methods: This is an in-depth reading, centered on the Maghreb, of the Maghreb medical production referenced on the Scimago platform, from 1996 to 2020. The bibliometric extracts were based on the number of published "documents" and the index H: number of articles (h) from a country having received at least h citations. The benchmarking of the productivity and medical visibility of the five Maghreb countries (Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania) was carried out at the global (237 countries), African (59 countries) and Arab (21 countries) level.

Results: Following the first African countries producing the most medical documents (South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria), the position of the Maghreb countries varied from 4 in Tunisia to 36 in Mauritania. In Arab countries, the position of medical production, dominated by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, was 12 and 18, successively in Algeria and Libya. The evolution of medical documents recorded a cross between Tunisia and Morocco in 2014, followed by a deceleration in Moroccan production. In the Maghreb, the h index varied from 154 in Tunisia to 29 in Mauritania.

Conclusion: In addition to its weak position in the world, African and Arab rankings over the past 25 years, Maghreb medical research has been characterized by a major fluctuation. The "Alliance for Excellence" charter of the PRP2S Network, based on the promotion of university essays and electronic journals, constitutes an operational roadmap for the development of the production and visibility of research in the Maghreb.