Fourth Fifth International Conference on Science and Technology Metrics (STMet 2024)
Military Conflicts and Their Effects on Science: A Bibliometric Perspective
Ruggero Gilyarevskii, Alexander Libkind, Natalia Kotel'nikova, Anna Zolotova, Valentina Markusova Leading Researcher The All-Russian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (VINITI) of the RAS, Moscow 125119, Russian Federation
Abstract: This pilot study aims to explore the impact of military conflict on research productivity (RP), domestic and international
collaboration by analyzing bibliometric indicators in seven selected countries. Five of these countries Iran, Israel, Russia,
Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, and have been directly involved in military conflicts, while the other two Egypt and Türkiye function as
buffer zone states. The analysis covers the five year period from 2020 to 2024. Metadata for 553,370 records were downloaded
from Web of Science and InCites.
Although all seven countries contributed a relatively small share of global publications, Saudi Arabia increased its output
1.8-fold and achieved a significant rise in research impact. The other four countries directly involved in military conflicts
reduced their share of global RP.
Countries directly involved in conflicts generally showed stagnation or modest declines in domestic collaboration (DS) and
research impact, although Saudi Arabia’s strong international collaboration (IC) contributed to its notable increase in
publications and CNCI, despite being conflict-involved. Buffer-zone countries (Egypt and Türkiye) demonstrate growth in
both RP and impact, benefiting from strengthened international partnerships and relatively stable domestic collaboration
networks. Russia remained the only country with CNCI consistently below the global average. Across all countries, IC had a
stronger influence on citation performance than DC, with multilateral networks involving four or more countries expanding
noticeably by 2024. These patterns underscore the complex role of military conflict in constraining domestic research
systems while simultaneously promoting selective international collaboration.
Keywords: Military Conflict, Country, Research Productivity,Domestic and International Collaboration, Category Normalized Citation Impact, Web of Science, Incites Military Conflicts and Their Effects on Science: A Bibliometric Perspective
