This study attempts to analyze the growth and development of publication output in Pakistan during the period 1996-2010.The scientific output of Pakistan has been evaluated by focusing on its publication growth characteristics, research impact and quality, patterns of research collaboration and broad research fields.This bibliometric study also compared the productivity, growth and impact of research output of Pakistan with other 14 selected countries by using many types of bibliometric indicators. Of the world’s total scientific papers of 23313389, Pakistan contributed 38274 papers or 0.16% and ranked 48 among 236 countries of the world. It has been found that publications of Pakistan grew to 682.42% in 2010 as compared to 1996. Pakistan’s relative share in the scientific output in the world has increased from 0.08% in 1996 to 0.32% in 2010 . Pakistan stands fifteenth in research output, thirteenth in average citation per paper, fifteenth in h-index within the group of countries selected for comparison. 30.84% of Pakistan’s total papers involved international collaboration. Comparing the ratio of scientific output to GDP, Pakistan stands fourteenth place among 15 selected countries and in terms of the number of publications in relation to the size of the population, Pakistan ranked at the bottom with 207 publications per one million Population . In terms of GERD/GDP ratio Pakistan stood at fourteenth position.
