He refused and told me my H-index was low and far off the mark away and I should forget about it until my index becomes 50 . This made me ask myself : Is it a shame to have a lower H-index in academia ?

( The H-index captures research output based on the total number of publications and the total number of citations to those works , providing a focused snapshot of an individual ’ s research performance . For example , if a researcher has 15 papers , each of which has at least 15 citations , the H-index is 15 ).

Being a physician neuroscientist from the African-Arab ( Afrabia ) region , I do not contribute too much as western fellows to the neuroscience field . However , it is unfair to blame me for this regression . When you ask any neuroscientist in the Afrabia diaspora for scientific research , you are really asking an infant to participate in a marathon race .

It is very unfair for us to hold the neuroscientists accountable for greater than their size and for reasons related to the failure of the educational and research system as a whole . In the US for instance , there are more than 4,000 universities , but the number of universities that publish scientific research do not exceed 800 universities . Therefore , more than 3,000 universities issue bachelor ’ s degrees only and do not issue postgraduate degrees or scientific research .

Do you know the reason ? It is because these universities do not have the foundation and the infrastructure with which they can demand the teaching members to conduct scientific research and publish scientific papers .

If we compare with the Afrabia world , we find that in most Arab countries the best universities do not possess the capabilities and infrastructure mainly for scientific research and are like US universities that cannot publish scientific research .

Challenges

Afrabia neuroscientists are facing many challenges specially in infrastructure for scientific research including :

. Researcher salaries : Unfortunately , the vast majority of neuroscientists in the Afrabia world receive shameful salaries . The cost of living is not sufficient for one person to live alone what more a neuroscientist who has a family and children .

In Western universities famous for publishing scientific research , researchers are considered fetching among the highest salaries in society , and they have plenty of benefits related to health , education for their children and government facilities .

This does not include the large amount of teaching responsibilities on the

neuroscience faculty in Afrabia region . If a professor in an Afrabia university is forced to teach two or three courses per semester , how do you expect him / her to have time to follow up on international research , conduct research and supervise postgraduate students ?

. Number of postgraduate students : In the Arab world , the number of students who do scientific research is very small . The professor can hardly find a single student to work with him / her to conduct research and write scientific articles , and thus the professor is forced to work himself / herself in the laboratory . This is certainly very difficult for a professor with a large teaching volume .

On the other hand , in research universities in the US , the professor does not work himself / herself in the laboratory and does not enter the laboratory in the first place , and has many postgraduate researchers and postdocs work in the laboratory to conduct research .

. Physical and moral stimulation : In the Arab world , there is no material motivation for a neuroscientist to do scientific research , but that neuroscientist will still make a special effort although without any compensation . However , in the US , the professor who publishes scientific research gets great privileges such as a much higher salary , a larger laboratory space , a larger number of students , as well as awards from their university , government awards , and awards from various US companies .

. Availability of technical and technological capabilities : US research universities contain enormous technical capabilities so that in most cases the researcher does not need to send samples here and there to reach a specific device , but rather there are hundreds or thousands of devices in the same university for research . Moreover , there are many technicians available who are ready to help .

In the Afrabia world , the researcher has to beg here and there until reaching a specific device that is often outside the university . In most cases , the researcher does not find the dozens of devices he / she needs in the university or outside the university .

Even if the device is found inside the university , in many cases there will be a problem with the device as it would not have been well maintained , and the researcher must wait many years to be able to analyse samples or obtain results . In US research universities , the researcher gets the materials needed within a day or two , no matter how high the price is , while in the Afrabia the researcher has to wait for months or even years .

. Financial support for research : In the

US , there are many forms of financial support that are available for funding the research . There are thousands of government grants that go to universities

BY DR WAEL MY MOHAMED

At the end of the day , we need to strive for ethical perfection in our research and also strengthen our bond with our research fellows . It is a dilemma to get a balance between your H-index and your ethics .”

and thousands of grants that come from US companies that all go to faculty members to hire PhD students and Postdoc and conduct scientific research .

You can imagine the situation in the Afrabia , where neither the government , the private sector or the university itself gives support . So where does the researcher get the money needed to conduct research ?

. Bodies that help establish , support and develop start-ups : In the US , every university contains a specialised body that helps the researcher to protect property rights and establish start-up companies if he / she has financially useful research results . This is in addition to the several governmental agencies that help researchers throughout the US providing the possibilities for establishing start-up companies and the presence of thousands of businessmen and institutions .

The private sector provides grants and huge financial support to researchers who want to establish start-up companies based on their research results , and thus more than a 100,000 start-up companies are established annually based on scientific research results from universities in the US .

Dilemma to strike a balance

In the Arab world , do we have bodies in or outside the universities to help the researcher and provide financial , legal and logistical support so that the results of our research are transformed into material benefit ?

You can imagine with these big problems and factors in the Arab world , how do you ask neuroscientists to publish annually research papers in journals with a high impact factor ? The infrastructure for scientific research in the Afrabia is actually zero or below zero .

This will reflect on the H-index of Afrabia neuroscientists . Some of us are fragile and do not follow research ethics and try to increase our H-index without following ethical standards like fabricating data , betraying their research mates , falsifying research results , etc .

At the end of the day , we need to strive for ethical perfection in our research and also strengthen our bond with our research fellows . It is a dilemma to get a balance between your H-index and your ethics .

So , which is better ; to have good ethics or to have a high H-index ? And what will you do if you were in the shoes of Prof Farag ? — The Health

Dr Wael MY Mohamed is with the Department of Basic Medical Science , Kulliyyah of Medicine , International Islamic University Malaysia ( IIUM ).