The Relationship Between the Scientific Activities in Research Laboratories with Webometrics Ranking of Algerian Universities: An Empirical Investigation

Algeria has paid attention to the higher education and scientific research sector through the five-year scientific research and technological development programs (1998-2002, 2008-2012, and 2014-2019). The study aims to evaluate the scientific research activities in Algerian universities within the framework of scientific research programs, to study the relationship of scientific activities by researchers in Algerian research laboratories with Webometrics ranking of Algerian universities. It is eluted what are the scientific activities of Algerian researchers which have the most impact on the ranking of Algerian universities in the Webometrics ranking. We adopted the experimental, exploratory approach by collecting, exploring, and analyzing the correlation between of data from the Algerian university rankings according to the number of researchers in the research laboratories, the number of citations, the number of patents, published papers, and the ranking of each Algerian university in Webometrics ranking, by Spearman's correlation coefficient to test the strength and signification of the correlation between these rankings. The results showed development in the various components of scientific, material, human and financial research, but it is not enough. Also, despite many research laboratories, researchers at these laboratories, and the improvement in the number of internationally published research in each Algerian university, this did not contribute to improving its global Webometrics ranking due to the weakness of the relationship with activities of researchers in Algerian research laboratories. The result showed that the Algerian university is not interested in its virtual presence on the web, which negatively affected its Webometrics ranking. The researchers conclude that to improve the ranks of Algerian universities in various aspects, they must improve their global ranking according to the number of citations. Accordingly, to improve the ranking, international visibility of Algerian universities, decision-makers must adopt indicators of ‘research quality' (number of citations), ‘research production' (publications) in financing and accrediting research laboratories.