Introduction

Scientific publishing is a central mechanism for producing, validating, and circulating scholarly knowledge. Peer-reviewed journals do more than disseminate research: through editorial selection, expert evaluation, and the public documentation of results, they contribute to the cumulative organization of knowledge. Their proliferation, linguistic diversification, and digital transformation have intensified the need for transparent, context-sensitive evaluation mechanisms.

Journal evaluation now combines quantitative and qualitative indicators. Citation counts, journal-level impact measures, publication regularity, disciplinary position, editorial governance, and international visibility are frequently mobilized together, although none of these indicators can, in isolation, establish scientific quality. Scopus and Web of Science have helped standardize international comparisons; their global authority has also renewed debate about the unequal visibility of journals published outside dominant scholarly languages and publishing centres.

Within this asymmetrical environment, regional infrastructures can document bodies of scholarship that global databases cover only partially. Arcif was developed to measure the visibility and citation performance of Arab scholarly journals while applying explicit selection and classification criteria. Its first annual report was issued in 2018. The initiative therefore provides a relevant observatory for examining Arab-language and regionally anchored publishing, provided that its indicators are interpreted within their own perimeter and are not treated as direct equivalents of Scopus or Web of Science metrics.

Algerian universities have invested heavily in journal digitization, particularly through the Algerian Scientific Journals Platform (ASJP), and Algerian journals have occupied a prominent place in successive Arcif reports. The 2025 report allows us to examine the relationship between this numerical expansion and several dimensions of measurable influence: accreditation, disciplinary distribution, quartile classification, citations, journal impact factors, author visibility, and institutional performance. The central question is therefore: to what extent have Algerian scientific journals consolidated their position in the 2025 Arcif indicators, and what does this position reveal—and not reveal—about the quality, reach, and internationalization of scholarly publishing in Algeria?

To answer this question, the study pursues six complementary objectives. It first identifies the quantitative and qualitative indicators used by the Arab Impact Factor and Reference Citations (Arcif) and situates them within broader trends in Arab scholarly publishing. It then analyses the position of Algerian journals in the 2025 report, determines the disciplinary fields in which they obtain their strongest impact indicators, and assesses the volume of citations received by Algerian research at the Arab level. Finally, it discusses the future challenges facing Algerian scientific publishing.

1. Conceptual and methodological framework

The interpretation of the bibliometric position of Algerian scientific journals requires a framework that combines conceptual clarification with methodological specification. Concepts such as scientific publishing, impact factor, and citation determine what is being measured, while the characteristics of the Marefa database, the Arcif system, and the extraction protocol define the conditions under which these measurements can be interpreted. Bringing these two dimensions together avoids separating the meaning of the indicators from the procedures used to collect and analyse them.

This section therefore establishes the conceptual and methodological foundations of the study. It first defines the principal notions mobilized in the analysis and then presents the documentary sources, the bibliometric system, the data-extraction procedures, the verification operations, and the methodological limitations. This combined framework provides the basis for interpreting the results without attributing to Arcif indicators a scope that exceeds their actual function.

1.1. Conceptual framework

The conceptual framework clarifies the principal notions used to interpret the position of Algerian scientific journals in the 2025 Arcif report. Such clarification is necessary because scientific publishing, impact factor, and citation refer to related but distinct dimensions of scholarly activity. Scientific publishing concerns the processes through which knowledge is validated and disseminated; the impact factor provides a journal-level measurement based on citations; and citation records relationships of reference and documented use among publications.

These concepts must nevertheless be approached with caution. None of them, considered separately, provides a complete measure of scientific quality. Their relevance depends on the disciplinary context, the characteristics of the database, the period examined, and the calculation methods applied. The conceptual framework is therefore organized around three complementary notions:

1. Scientific publishing. Scientific publishing refers here to the organized dissemination of research through editorial channels that make results accessible, citable, and open to verification and scholarly discussion. It is not limited to the act of publication: it includes selection, peer review, bibliographic normalization, archiving, and circulation within a research community (Al-Shaher, 2021, p. 552).

2. Impact factor. A journal impact factor is a ratio between citations received during a defined window and citable items published during the corresponding period. Initially developed by Eugene Garfield and Irving H. Sher to assist journal selection, it is a journal-level indicator rather than a direct measure of the intrinsic quality of every article or author (Cross, n.d.). In this article, “impact factor” refers specifically to the Arcif calculation unless another system is expressly named.

3. Citation. A citation is a formal reference connecting a new publication to an earlier source. Citations enable source tracing and can be aggregated for bibliometric analysis, but their meaning depends on discipline, document type, database coverage, citation window, and self-citation practices (Rizq, 2019, p. 1129). Citation frequency is therefore interpreted here as an indicator of recorded use or visibility, not as automatic proof of scientific excellence.

Taken together, these three notions establish the interpretative boundaries of the study. Scientific publishing designates the broader process within which journals operate, whereas impact factors and citations provide only partial and database-dependent measurements of their visibility and use. The analysis will consequently distinguish editorial volume, recorded citation impact, and scientific quality rather than treating them as interchangeable dimensions.

1.2. Materials and methods

This study adopts a descriptive bibliometric design combined with analytical interpretation. Its documentary corpus comprises the official Arcif 2025 report and the related Arcif pages devoted to journal selection, quartile classification, journals, authors, and institutions. Data concerning Algeria were extracted at seven levels: accredited journals, disciplinary rankings, Q1 journals, journal citations, journal impact factors, cited authors, and institutional citations. Because the unit of analysis varies according to the indicator examined, it is specified for each component of the methodological framework.

The methodological approach rests on three complementary components: the Marefa database, which constitutes the documentary infrastructure of the study; Arcif, considered as a regional system for measuring impact and reference citations; and an extraction and verification protocol designed to ensure the reliability and comparability of the data. The scope of the analysis and its limitations are also explicitly defined to prevent interpretations that extend beyond the coverage and measurement framework of Arcif.

1. Data source: the Marefa database. Marefa is an Arab digital database containing nearly seven million records, including the full texts of articles, studies, and research publications issued by more than 700 research and academic institutions and publishing houses across 20 Arab countries. Its collections include scholarly journals, statistical and digital reports, books, book reviews, Arab reviews of international university dissertations, university theses, and conference papers. The database is supplemented by a range of information banks and specialized intelligent databases. It was established in 2009 by the Alam Al-Marefa Digital Content Institution, based in Amman, Jordan (Marefa, n.d.).

2. Arcif as a regional bibliometric system. Arcif is a regional system designed to measure the impact and reference citations of Arab academic and scientific journals. Development of the project began in December 2013. Its documentary infrastructure comprises more than 4,300 scientific journal titles published in Arabic, English, and/or French across various disciplines and 20 Arab countries, excluding Djibouti and Comoros. This extensive dataset provides the basis for calculating the Arcif impact factor.
   Arcif constitutes a methodological instrument for assessing the volume and measured impact of Arab scientific journals that satisfy its scientific and international standards. It applies explicit, objective, and quantitatively measurable criteria to journals published in Arabic and other languages represented within its coverage. Its database also supports reference-citation analysis, making it possible to assess the recorded use of journal articles and to analyse citation data relating to authors and institutions (World Knowledge Digital Content Foundation, 2025).

3. Extraction protocol, verification, and limitations. The extraction protocol comprised four operations: first, the identification of all Algeria-level totals reported by Arcif; second, the transcription of the principal tables concerning journals, authors, and institutions; third, the arithmetic verification of percentages and citation averages; and fourth, the comparison of indicators calculated using different denominators. Percentages were recalculated whenever the denominator rectlis was available. Apparent transcription inconsistencies were corrected only when the other reported values made the intended figure unambiguous. No inferential statistical test was applied because the documentary corpus consists of an annual administrative and bibliometric report rather than a probabilistic sample.
   The study remains bounded by Arcif’s coverage, definitions, and calculation methods. It does not independently evaluate peer-review procedures, editorial ethics, article-level quality, or the causal effects of ASJP and national academic-promotion policies. Equivalence with other bibliometric databases is also excluded: Arcif factors and quartiles must not be interpreted as equivalent to Scopus CiteScore quartiles or Journal Citation Reports impact factors. These methodological limitations govern the interpretation of all the results presented in the following sections.

The methodological framework thus ensures that the reported indicators are analysed within a clearly delimited documentary and computational perimeter. The verification procedures strengthen the internal consistency of the extracted data, while the stated limitations prevent descriptive bibliometric results from being transformed into unsupported evaluations of editorial quality or causal explanations of Algerian publishing performance.

The conceptual and methodological components developed in this section are inseparable. The conceptual framework defines what scientific publishing, impact factors, and citations mean within the study, whereas the methodological framework specifies where the data come from, how they were extracted and verified, and within which limits they can be interpreted. Their integration makes it possible to distinguish the realities documented by the indicators from broader claims that the available data cannot establish.

Accordingly, the results presented in the following section will be interpreted as measurements produced within the Arcif perimeter. They provide evidence concerning the numerical presence, disciplinary distribution, quartile position, citation visibility, and institutional representation of Algerian journals and researchers. They do not, by themselves, demonstrate the intrinsic quality of individual articles, the effectiveness of peer-review procedures, or equivalence with the classifications produced by international databases.

2. Results

The results are organized according to the successive levels of analysis used in the Arcif 2025 report. They first describe Algeria’s position in terms of the number of accredited journals and disciplinary representation, before examining quartile distribution, journal citations, impact factors, cited authors, national citation performance, and institutional rankings. This progression makes it possible to move from the overall structure of Algerian scholarly publishing to the journals, authors, and universities that contribute most visibly to its measured impact.

Each indicator is interpreted strictly within the Arcif perimeter. The analysis therefore distinguishes the volume of accredited publishing, disciplinary concentration, citation visibility, journal-level impact, author representation, and institutional performance. These dimensions are complementary but not interchangeable: a high number of journals or authors does not necessarily entail a correspondingly high normalized citation impact, just as a favourable Arcif ranking cannot, by itself, establish the intrinsic quality of individual articles or editorial procedures.

2.1. Scale of Arab journal production and Algeria’s position

The Arcif 2025 report examined approximately 5,500 Arab scholarly journals issued by about 1,500 university or research institutions located both within and outside the Arab world. Of these journals, 1,272 met the accreditation criteria and were included in the ranking. The selected titles were published in Arab countries as well as in several non-Arab countries hosting Arabic-language scholarly publishing. These figures demonstrate both the scale of the initial documentary universe and the selectivity of the Arcif accreditation perimeter (World Knowledge Digital Content Foundation, 2025).

Arcif evaluates journals according to 31 criteria covering four broad dimensions: compliance with recognized technical and scientific publishing standards; the general framework and quality of editorial content; Arab and international diversity; and reference-citation analysis. Accreditation therefore depends on a combination of formal, editorial, organizational, and bibliometric requirements rather than on citation performance alone.

Within this framework, Algeria ranked first by number of accredited journals, with 426 titles. Algerian journals thus accounted for approximately 33.5% of the 1,272 journals included in the 2025 report. Compared with the 913 titles then hosted on the Algerian Scientific Journals Platform, the Arcif-accredited set represented approximately 46.7% of the journals available on ASJP, rather than exactly one half.

This result documents the exceptional scale of Algeria’s scholarly-journal infrastructure within the Arcif perimeter. The Algerian presence is particularly substantial in the humanities and social sciences, law and political science, education, economics and management, and media and communication. Numerical leadership must nevertheless be distinguished from disciplinary position, citation intensity, and international visibility, which are examined through the subsequent indicators.

2.2. Disciplinary distribution of Algerian journals

The disciplinary distribution provides a more differentiated view of Algeria’s position. The Arcif report identifies the countries and journals achieving the strongest results within disciplines in which a sufficiently large number of journals obtained an Arcif factor. Although Algeria ranked first by total number of accredited journals, its leading disciplinary positions were concentrated in a limited number of fields.

Algeria occupied fourth place in literature and the humanities, within a disciplinary set comprising 252 journals. It ranked fifth in law, among 125 journals, and fifth in political science, among 71 journals. Algerian journals therefore obtained prominent positions in three disciplinary areas, even though the national publishing landscape represented in Arcif extends across nearly 30 disciplines.

This distribution reveals a contrast between the breadth of Algerian journal production and the concentration of its highest disciplinary rankings. Algeria’s numerical presence is extensive, but its most visible comparative performance remains anchored primarily in the humanities and social sciences, law, and political science. Table 1 identifies the leading Algerian journal in each of these disciplinary categories.

Table 1. Ranking of the Leading Algerian Journals According to Disciplinary Distribution

Discipline	Journal Title	Ranking	Average Discipline Impact Factor	Publisher
Literature and Humanities (Interdisciplinary)	Journal of Human and Society Sciences	04	0.178	Mohamed Khider University of Biskra, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Law	Journal of Legal Studies and Research	05	0.257	Mohamed Boudiaf University of M’Sila, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Laboratory of Studies and Research in Law, Family and Administrative Development
Political Sciences	Journal of Legal and Political Research	05	0.321	Mohamed Lamine Debaghine University Sétif 2, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Laboratory of Studies and Research on Colonial Massacres

Source : Marefa database, 2025. https://search.emarefa.net/ar/arcif

The three journals identified in Table 1 occupy fourth or fifth place in their respective disciplinary classifications. Their positions confirm the visibility of Algerian journals in fields that are strongly represented within the country’s university publishing system. They do not, however, indicate comparable leadership across all disciplines covered by Algerian journals.

2.3. Algerian journals in the Q1 category

Arcif distributes journals within each disciplinary field across four quality categories or quartiles. Q1 corresponds to the highest category, Q2 to the upper-middle category, Q3 to the middle category, and Q4 to the lower category. These quartiles organize comparative performance within the Arcif system and should not be regarded as direct equivalents of the quartiles produced by Scopus or the Journal Citation Reports.

The Arcif quartile classification combines five weighted criteria: the total number of citations received by the journal, accounting for 40% of the score; the average Arcif factor obtained across the three most recent reports, accounting for 30%; disciplinary position, accounting for 15%; the journal’s compliance with its publication schedule, accounting for 5%; and its date of establishment and continuity, accounting for 10%.

Table 2. Arcif Q Category Standards

Criterion	Weight
Total number of citations obtained by the journal	40%
Arcif factor value (average of the last 3 reports)	30%
Discipline	15%
Commitment to publication dates	05%
Date of establishment and continuity of the journal (seniority)	10%

Source: Marefa database, 2025. https://search.emarefa.net/ar/arcif

The 2025 report lists 41 Algerian journals in Q1 among the country’s 426 accredited titles. These journals represent 9.62% of the Algerian set included in Arcif. Algeria consequently ranked second among Arab countries by number of Q1 journals, after Egypt.

This result indicates that a substantial group of Algerian journals occupies the highest comparative category within the Arcif system. Its interpretation must nevertheless reflect the composite nature of the classification. Q1 status results not only from citation performance but also from disciplinary position, publication regularity, and journal continuity. It cannot therefore be presented as direct evidence that every journal concerned has improved its peer-review procedures, editorial ethics, or article-level scientific quality, none of which was independently evaluated in the present study.

Table 3. Algerian Scientific Journals in the Q1 Category

Discipline	Journal Title	Publisher
Literature and Humanities (Interdisciplinary)	Journal of Human and Society Sciences	Mohamed Khider University of Biskra, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
	Journal of Social Empowerment	Ammar Thlidji University of Laghouat, Faculty of Social Sciences, Laboratory of Social Empowerment and Sustainable Development in the Desert Environment
	Researcher Journal in Humanities and Social Sciences	Kasdi Merbah University Ouargla
	Journal of Law and Human Sciences	Ziane Achour University of Djelfa, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences
	Journal of Literature and Social Sciences	Mohamed Lamine Debaghine University Sétif 2
	Journal of Human Sciences	Mohamed Khider University of Biskra
	Studies and Research Journal	Ziane Achour University of Djelfa
	Journal of Human Sciences	Mentouri Brothers University Constantine 1
	Academy Journal for Social and Human Studies	Hassiba Benbouali University of Chlef
	Scientific Horizons Journal	Tamanrasset University
Islamic Studies	Journal of Islamic Sciences and Civilization	Research Center in Islamic Sciences and Civilization in Laghouat
	Al-Ihyaa Journal	Batna 1 University, Faculty of Islamic Sciences
Social Sciences (Interdisciplinary)	Journal of Human and Society Sciences	Mohamed Khider University of Biskra
	Journal of Social Empowerment	Ammar Thlidji University of Laghouat
	Researcher Journal in Humanities and Social Sciences	Kasdi Merbah University Ouargla
Economics, Finance and Business Administration (Interdisciplinary)	North African Economics Journal	Hassiba Benbouali University of Chlef
	Ijtihad Journal for Legal and Economic Studies	Tamanrasset University
	Journal of Economic, Management and Commercial Sciences	Mohamed Boudiaf University of M’Sila
Sports Sciences and Physical Education	Al-Tahadi Journal	Larbi Ben M’hidi University of Oum El Bouaghi
	Sports System Journal	Ziane Achour University of Djelfa
Political Sciences	Politics and Law Notebooks	Kasdi Merbah University Ouargla
	Journal of Legal and Political Sciences	University of El Oued
Philosophy	Al-Hikma Journal for Philosophical Studies	Kanouz Al-Hikma Publishing and Distribution Foundation, Algeria
Law	Journal of Legal Studies and Research	Mohamed Boudiaf University of M’Sila
	Researcher Journal for Academic Studies	Batna 1 University
	Judicial Ijtihad Journal	Mohamed Khider University of Biskra
	Politics and Law Notebooks	Kasdi Merbah University Ouargla
	Journal of Legal Studies	University of Saida
	Algerian Journal of Legal Sciences	University of Algiers 1
	Academic Journal for Legal Research	Abderrahmane Mira University of Béjaïa
	Journal of Legal and Political Sciences	University of El Oued
	Journal of Law and Political Sciences	Abbes Laghrour University of Khenchela
	Journal of Research in Contracts and Business Law	Mentouri Brothers University Constantine 1
	Professor Researcher Journal for Legal and Political Studies	Mohamed Boudiaf University of M’Sila
	Labor and Employment Law Journal	Abdelhamid Ibn Badis University of Mostaganem
Comparative Languages and Literature	Al-Maqri Journal for Theoretical Linguistic and Classification Studies	Mohamed Boudiaf University of M’Sila
Arabic Language and Literature	Al-Khitab Journal	Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou
	Linguistic Practices Journal	Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou
	Issues in Language and Literature Journal	Tamanrasset University
	Arabic Language Journal	Supreme Council of the Arabic Language, Algeria
	Al-Omda Journal in Linguistics and Discourse Analysis	Mohamed Boudiaf University of M’Sila

Source: Marefa database, 2025. https://search.emarefa.net/ar/arcif

The distribution presented in Table 3 confirms that Algerian Q1 journals are not evenly represented across disciplines. Law accounts for a particularly large number of titles, while literature and the humanities, interdisciplinary social sciences, economics and management, political science, Islamic studies, philosophy, sports sciences, comparative literature, and Arabic language and literature are also represented.

Some journals appear in more than one disciplinary category because their editorial scope crosses disciplinary boundaries. The number of entries in the table must therefore not be interpreted automatically as the number of distinct journal titles. The table documents disciplinary classification, whereas the figure of 41 refers to the number of Algerian journals classified in Q1.

2.4. Algerian journals ranked by citations

Citation analysis examines the relationships created when publications refer to earlier documents. It can therefore be used to study recorded scholarly use, influence, and position within a documentary network. Its results remain database-dependent, however, because citation counts are shaped by database coverage, disciplinary citation practices, publication language, document age, citation window, and patterns of self-citation.

Total citations measure the cumulative number of references received by the articles indexed for a journal. They permit comparisons within a consistent database and measurement framework, but raw totals tend to favour older or more prolific journals. Average citations per article partially correct for differences in publication volume by relating the number of citations to the number of indexed articles. Neither indicator, considered separately, proves the scientific quality of the articles concerned.

In the Arcif 2025 data, The Researcher Journal in Humanities and Social Sciences, published by Kasdi Merbah University of Ouargla, ranked first nationally and seventh in the Arab citation ranking. It recorded 5,627 citations across 1,027 articles, corresponding to approximately 5.48 citations per article. The publication count was verified against the citation total and reported average: the figure of 10,275 articles appearing in the source manuscript was corrected to 1,027 because the former would have produced an average of approximately 0.55 rather than 5.48 citations per article.

Table 4. Ten Leading Algerian Scientific Journals by Number of Reference Citations

Journal Name	Number of Citations	Number of Articles	Average Citation per Article	Publisher	Arab Ranking	National Ranking
The Researcher Journal in Humanities and Social Sciences	5627	1,027	5.48	University of Ouargla	07	01
Academy for Social and Human Studies	2634	529	4.98	University of Chlef	20	02
Politics and Law Notebooks	2435	484	5.03	University of Ouargla	24	03
Researcher Journal	2292	297	7.72	University of Ouargla	32	04
Studies and Research	2025	697	2.91	University of Djelfa	36	05
Ijtihad Journal for Legal and Economic Studies	2023	475	4.26	University of Tamanrasset	37	06
Journal of Human Sciences	2004	684	2.93	University of Biskra	40	07
Journal of Social Studies and Research	1843	356	5.18	University of El Oued	46	08
Al-Bashair Economic Journal	1807	538	3.36	University of Béchar	48	09
Journal of Legal and Political Sciences	1633	474	3.45	University of El Oued	54	10

Source: Marefa database, 2025. https://search.emarefa.net/ar/arcif

The ten journals listed in Table 4 received between 1,633 and 5,627 citations and occupied Arab ranks ranging from seventh to fifty-fourth. Nine of the ten were positioned among the first fifty journals in the reported ranking, while the tenth occupied rank 54. The results therefore demonstrate substantial citation visibility within the Arcif database, although the intensity of this visibility varies across journals.

The comparison between total citations and average citations per article also reveals that output volume and citation intensity do not produce identical rankings. The Researcher Journal in Humanities and Social Sciences recorded the highest total number of citations, whereas Researcher Journal obtained the highest average among the ten listed titles, with 7.72 citations per article. Citation leadership must therefore be interpreted through both cumulative volume and publication-normalized performance.

2.5. Impact factors of Algerian journals

The Arcif journal factor relates citations received during the reference year to citable items published during the defined preceding window. It is a journal-level comparative measure whose interpretation requires attention to disciplinary differences, database coverage, and the period used in the calculation. Like other journal metrics, it must not be employed as a proxy for the quality of an individual article or author.

The Arcif impact factor was developed to compare Arab scholarly journals within the same disciplinary fields and measurement system. It applies to journals satisfying the scientific and technical standards defined by Arcif (World Knowledge Digital Content Foundation, 2025, p. 75). Its value must therefore be interpreted within this specific regional and documentary perimeter.

All 426 accredited Algerian journals received an Arcif factor, but Egyptian journals occupied the leading positions in the upper part of the overall Arab ranking. The highest-ranked Algerian title was the Journal of Psychological and Educational Sciences, published by the University of El Oued. It occupied 101st place in the Arab ranking, with an Arcif factor of 0.8516.

For this journal, the calculation combines 21 citations received in 2023 by articles published in 2022 and 88 citations received by articles published in 2021, producing a total of 109 citations. These citations are divided by the 128 articles published across the two years—47 in 2022 and 81 in 2021—giving an Arcif factor of 109 ÷ 128 = 0.8516.

Table 5. Ten Leading Algerian Scientific Journals by Arcif Impact Factor

Journal Name	Arab impact factor	Publisher	Arab Ranking	National Ranking
Journal of Psychological and Educational Sciences	0.8516	University of Echahid Hamma Lakhdar-el-Oued	101	01
Algerian Journal of Mass Media and public Opinion Research	0.7843	Amar Telidji University of Laghouat, Faculty of Human Sciences, Islamic Sciences and Civilizations, Department of Media and Communication	107	02
The Challenge	0.7822	Larbi Ben M’hidi University-Oum el-Bouaghi, Institute of Science and Techniques of Physical and Sports Activities	109	03
The Algerian Communication Journal	0.7727	University of Algiers 3 Ibrahim Sultan Cheibout, Faculty of Information Sciences and Communication	110	04
Journal of North African Economies	0.7393	Hassiba Benbouali University of Chlef, Faculty of Economics Commercial and Management Sciences. Laboratory of Globalization and North African Economies	115	05
Journal of Economic and Management Researches	0.7297	University Centre of Maghnia, Institute of Economic, Commercial, and Management Sciences	119	06
Economy and Environment Review	0.6854	Abdelhamid Ibn Badis University of Mostaganem, Faculty of Economics, Business and Management Sciences, STRATEV Laboratory	132	07
Journal of Human and Society Sciences	0.6771	Mohamed Khider University of Biskra, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences	134	08
Sports System Journal	0.6721	Ziane Achour University of Djelfa, Institute of Sciences and Techniques of Physical and Sports Activities, Sports System in Algeria Laboratory	137	09
Forum for Economic Studies and Research Journal	0.6667	Ziane Achour University of Djelfa, Faculty of Economics, Commerce and Management Sciences, Department of Economics	138	10

Source : Marefa database, 2025. https://search.emarefa.net/ar/arcif

The ten leading Algerian journals obtained Arcif factors ranging from 0.6667 to 0.8516 and occupied Arab ranks 101 to 138. Their disciplinary diversity includes psychology and education, media and communication, sports sciences, economics and management, environmental studies, and the humanities and social sciences.

The comparison with the citation ranking highlights an important difference between cumulative visibility and impact measured over a defined publication window. A journal may accumulate a large number of citations over time without occupying the same position in the impact-factor ranking. Conversely, a journal with a smaller cumulative publication record may obtain a relatively strong factor if its recent articles receive citations at a higher rate. The two indicators must therefore be interpreted as complementary rather than interchangeable.

2.6. Cited Algerian authors

Author-level citations indicate the recorded uptake of publications, but they do not necessarily express approval, originality, or intrinsic scientific quality. Author rankings must therefore be interpreted in relation to publication volume, the geographical distribution of citing researchers, database coverage, and self-citation practices.

Arcif constructs its ranking of influential authors through a composite indicator. Total citations account for 40 % of the score ; the number of articles published by the author in Arcif-accredited journals accounts for 10 % ; the number and geographical distribution of researchers citing the author’s publications account for 30 % ; and self-citations account for the remaining 20 %. The resulting order is therefore not based exclusively on raw citation totals.

Algeria ranked first in the Arab world by number of cited authors represented in the Arcif database, with 26,834 authors. Algerian researchers also appeared among the most influential authors in economics, finance and business administration, as well as in media and communication. These results demonstrate broad author representation and substantial regional citation visibility. They do not, on their own, establish an equivalent level of international influence beyond Arcif’s coverage.

Table 6. Ten Most-Cited Algerian Authors in the Arcif Ranking

Name	Affiliated Institution	Number of Articles	Number of Citations	Arab Ranking	National Ranking
Mohammed Fallag	University of Chlef	45	187	48	01
Mohammed Al-Sassi Chaib	University of Ouargla	26	187	48	02
Hadda Ferouhat	University of Ouargla	07	182	51	03
Sharifa Boualchaour	University of Skikda	11	177	56	04
Ahmed Boubakr Salami	University of Ouargla	26	174	62	05
Mansour Ben Zahi	University of Ouargla	18	165	74	06
Soulef Mechri	University of El Oued	18	165	74	07
Nabil Boufelih	University of Chlef	14	154	98	08
Samia Ibraim	University of Oum El Bouaghi	37	153	100	09
Ahmed Gharbi	University of Algiers 03	29	152	101	10

Source : Marefa database, 2025. https://search.emarefa.net/ar/arcif

The ten Algerian authors listed in Table 6 occupied Arab ranks ranging from 48 to 101 within a total population of 97,482 ranked authors. Their citation totals ranged from 152 to 187, while their publication output varied considerably, from seven to 45 articles.

The table also reveals an institutional concentration. Four of the ten authors—not three—were affiliated with Kasdi Merbah University of Ouargla : Mohammed Al-Sassi Chaib, Ahmed Boubakr Salami, Mansour Ben Zahi, and Hadda Ferouhat. The remaining researchers were affiliated with the universities of Chlef, Skikda, El Oued, Oum El Bouaghi, and Algiers 3. This distribution suggests that Algeria’s author-level visibility is geographically dispersed but that the University of Ouargla occupies a particularly prominent position at the head of the national ranking.

2.7. Algeria’s position in the Arab country ranking by citations

The country-level indicator provides a broader perspective than the preceding author ranking. It aggregates the articles and citations associated with authors affiliated with institutions in each country, whether the articles were published inside or outside that country. It therefore measures the citation visibility attributed to national institutional affiliations within the Arcif database rather than the performance of journals published exclusively within national borders.

According to the Arcif 2025 report, Algeria ranked second among Arab countries by number of citations, after Egypt. Authors affiliated with Algerian institutions accounted for 44,748 articles and 120,498 citations. The ratio between these two totals produces an average of approximately 2.69 citations per article.

This result combines two distinct dimensions. The total of 44,748 articles reflects the substantial volume of research output associated with Algerian institutions, while the 120,498 citations document the recorded use of that output within Arcif’s coverage. The average of 2.69 citations per article provides a partial normalization by publication volume and makes it possible to distinguish cumulative citation strength from the size of the national publication base.

Algeria’s second-place ranking is consistent with the extensive presence already observed at the journal and author levels : the country ranked first by number of accredited journals and first by number of cited authors represented in Arcif. However, the three indicators do not measure the same phenomenon. Journal accreditation reflects the number of titles meeting Arcif’s criteria ; author representation indicates the breadth of the national research population recorded in the database ; and the country citation ranking concerns the cumulative reception of publications attributed to authors affiliated with Algerian institutions.

The national average must also be interpreted cautiously. It combines disciplines with markedly different publication and citation practices and may conceal considerable variation among journals, authors, and institutions. Moreover, it is not directly comparable with citation averages calculated from Scopus or Web of Science because the databases differ in coverage, language distribution, document selection, citation window, and indexing procedures.

Algeria’s position therefore demonstrates substantial regional citation visibility within the Arcif perimeter, but it does not by itself establish uniform performance across the national research system. To identify the institutions contributing most strongly to this country-level result, the analysis must move from the aggregated national indicator to the distribution of articles and citations among Algerian universities.

2.8. Algerian institutions ranked by citations received by affiliated authors

The institutional ranking disaggregates Algeria’s national citation performance by identifying the universities whose affiliated authors accumulated the largest numbers of articles and citations. It therefore complements the country-level indicator presented in Section 3.7 and makes it possible to examine the internal distribution of Algeria’s recorded research visibility.

Kasdi Merbah University of Ouargla occupied the leading national position and ranked eighth among Arab universities. Its affiliated authors produced 1,831 articles that received 7,965 citations, corresponding to an average of 4.35 citations per article. Mohamed Khider University of Biskra ranked second nationally and tenth at the Arab level, with 2,164 articles, 6,926 citations, and an average of 3.20 citations per article.

Table 7. Leading Algerian Institutions by Citations Received by Affiliated Authors

University	Number of Articles	Citations	Average Citation per Article	Arab Ranking
Kasdi Merbah University Ouargla	1831	7965	4.35	08
Mohamed Khider University Biskra	2164	6926	3.20	10
University of Algiers 03 Ibrahim Sultan Cheibout	2266	6138	2.71	16
Hassiba Benbouali University Chlef	1729	5678	3.28	19
Batna 01 Hadj Lakhdar University	2081	5649	2.71	20
Mohamed Boudiaf University M’Sila	2160	5633	2.61	21
Blida 02 Ali Lounici University	1813	4667	2.57	29
University of Martyr Hamma Lakhdar El Oued	1513	4649	3.07	30
Abdelhamid Ibn Badis University Mostaganem	1519	3968	2.61	37
Abou Bekr Belkaid University Tlemcen	1584	3698	2.33	46

Source : Marefa database, 2025. https://search.emarefa.net/ar/arcif

The ten institutions listed in Table 7 collectively accounted for 18,660 articles and 54,971 citations, corresponding to a weighted average of approximately 2.95 citations per article. These institutions therefore represented about 41.7 % of the 44,748 articles and approximately 45.6 % of the 120,498 citations attributed to Algeria in the country-level ranking. Their share of citations was thus slightly higher than their share of articles, indicating that the leading institutions contributed disproportionately to the country’s recorded citation visibility.

The institutional hierarchy does not correspond exactly to publication volume. The University of Algiers 3 recorded the largest number of articles among the ten institutions, with 2,266 publications, but ranked third nationally by citations, with 6,138 citations and an average of 2.71 citations per article. Kasdi Merbah University of Ouargla published fewer articles but achieved both the highest citation total and the highest citation average. This contrast confirms that productivity and citation intensity constitute related but distinct dimensions of institutional performance.

Four institutions obtained averages exceeding three citations per article : Kasdi Merbah University of Ouargla, with 4.35 ; Hassiba Benbouali University of Chlef, with 3.28 ; Mohamed Khider University of Biskra, with 3.20 ; and the University of El Oued, with 3.07. The remaining institutions recorded averages ranging from 2.33 to 2.71 citations per article. These differences show that the contribution of Algerian universities to national citation performance cannot be assessed through publication volume alone.

The Arab ranks occupied by the ten Algerian institutions ranged from eighth to forty-sixth. Two universities—Ouargla and Biskra—were positioned among the ten leading Arab institutions, while six Algerian institutions appeared among the first thirty. The results therefore demonstrate both the breadth of Algeria’s institutional representation and the particularly strong contribution of a smaller group of universities.

This concentration must nevertheless be interpreted within the limits of the indicator. The ranking attributes publications and citations through author affiliation, but it does not independently measure the quality of research governance, funding, collaboration networks, peer-review practices, or societal impact. It identifies the institutions most visible in the Arcif citation record rather than establishing a comprehensive hierarchy of university research quality.

2.9. Synthesis of the results

The results reveal a strong but internally differentiated Algerian presence in the Arcif 2025 report. Algeria ranked first by number of accredited journals, with 426 titles, and first by number of cited authors represented in the database, with 26,834 researchers. It also ranked second among Arab countries by citations received, with 120,498 citations attributed to 44,748 articles. At the institutional level, Kasdi Merbah University of Ouargla and Mohamed Khider University of Biskra ranked among the ten leading Arab universities.

These indicators nevertheless reveal a contrast between numerical scale and normalized impact. Algerian journals constitute approximately one third of all titles accredited by Arcif, but only 41 of the country’s 426 journals—9.62%—were classified in Q1. Moreover, the highest-ranked Algerian journal occupied 101st place in the overall Arcif impact-factor ranking. Algeria’s extensive publishing infrastructure therefore produces substantial regional visibility without yet translating into equivalent leadership across all disciplinary and impact indicators.

The findings also demonstrate that citation performance is concentrated. A limited number of journals account for the highest national citation totals, while the ten leading universities produced approximately 41.7 % of Algeria’s articles and received about 45.6 % of its citations. Kasdi Merbah University of Ouargla occupies a particularly prominent position across journal, author, and institutional indicators.

The combined evidence thus supports three principal findings. First, Algeria possesses the largest accredited journal infrastructure represented in Arcif. Second, this infrastructure generates substantial author, institutional, and country-level citation visibility. Third, numerical leadership, citation volume, disciplinary position, Q1 status, and impact factor do not coincide automatically. These dimensions must be interpreted jointly but separately.

The results consequently document a form of regional bibliometric leadership grounded primarily in scale, continuity, and broad institutional participation. They also identify the limits of that leadership : uneven disciplinary performance, a relatively restricted proportion of Q1 journals, a gap between publication volume and normalized impact, and a concentration of citations among particular journals and universities. These patterns provide the empirical basis for the discussion of the relationship between numerical expansion, measured impact, and the internationalization of Algerian scholarly publishing.

3. Discussion : numerical leadership, measured impact, and internationalization

The results reveal a substantial but internally differentiated Algerian presence in the Arcif 2025 report. Algeria’s position is supported by the size of its accredited journal base, the number of Q1 titles, the broad representation of cited authors, its second-place position in the Arab country ranking by citations, and the presence of several Algerian universities among the most highly ranked institutions. These indicators demonstrate the consolidation of a national scholarly-publishing infrastructure whose regional visibility is no longer marginal.

This position must nevertheless be interpreted by distinguishing the dimensions measured by Arcif. The number of accredited journals reflects the scale and continuity of the publishing system ; Q1 classification indicates comparative performance within the Arcif disciplinary and bibliometric framework ; citation totals document recorded scholarly use ; average citations and impact factors partially normalize this use according to publication volume or a defined citation window ; and institutional rankings attribute publications and citations to authors’ affiliations. None of these indicators, considered separately, constitutes a comprehensive measure of scientific quality.

3.1. Numerical leadership and consolidation of the publishing infrastructure

With 426 accredited journals among the 1,272 titles included in the Arcif 2025 report, Algeria accounts for approximately one third of the journals represented in the database. This result confirms the scale of the country’s scholarly-publishing infrastructure and its capacity to maintain a large number of journals that satisfy Arcif’s accreditation requirements. The continuity of Algeria’s leading numerical position over five consecutive years further suggests that this presence is not merely circumstantial.

This numerical expansion can be related to the institutionalization of digital scholarly publishing in Algeria. The Algerian Scientific Journals Platform has plausibly facilitated journal hosting, standardized access to articles, the organization of editorial workflows, and the discoverability of national research. By bringing a large number of journals together within a common digital environment, ASJP has also contributed to the visibility and accessibility of publications that might otherwise have remained dispersed across institutional or locally maintained websites.

The relationship between ASJP and Algeria’s Arcif position must nevertheless be formulated cautiously. The present study does not compare journals before and after their integration into ASJP, nor does it examine differences between journals according to their duration of presence on the platform. It therefore cannot isolate the causal effect of ASJP on accreditation, citations, or impact factors. The platform constitutes a plausible enabling infrastructure, but demonstrating its independent effect would require longitudinal data, journal-level comparisons, and indicators of editorial activity before and after digital integration.

Numerical leadership should consequently be interpreted as evidence of infrastructural capacity, institutional participation, and continuity rather than as proof of homogeneous scientific performance. A large accredited journal base creates favourable conditions for the circulation of research, but it does not guarantee that all journals possess the same editorial resources, disciplinary influence, citation visibility, or international reach.

3.2. Q1 representation and the limits of quartile-based interpretation

The presence of 41 Algerian journals in Q1 represents another significant result. These titles constitute 9.62% of the 426 Algerian journals accredited by Arcif and place Algeria second among Arab countries by number of Q1 journals. This ranking indicates that a substantial group of Algerian journals performs favourably within the comparative framework established by Arcif.

The meaning of Q1 status depends, however, on the composite construction of the Arcif classification. Total citations account for 40% of the score, the average Arcif factor across the three most recent reports for 30%, disciplinary position for 15%, journal continuity for 10%, and compliance with publication schedules for 5%. Q1 classification therefore combines bibliometric performance with organizational continuity and publication regularity. It cannot be reduced to citation impact alone.

Nor can Q1 status directly demonstrate improvements in peer review, scientific integrity, or editorial ethics. Such conclusions would require evidence concerning reviewer selection, evaluation procedures, rejection rates, revision practices, processing times, conflict-of-interest policies, plagiarism detection, research-ethics requirements, retraction procedures, and the transparency of editorial decisions. These variables are not measured directly by the Arcif indicators examined in this study.

The Q1 result is thus best understood as evidence of comparative performance within the Arcif system. It identifies journals that combine favourable citation, disciplinary, continuity, and publication-regularity indicators. It does not authorize an automatic inference from quartile position to the intrinsic quality of every article published by the journals concerned.

3.3. Disciplinary concentration and uneven development

The disciplinary results qualify Algeria’s overall numerical leadership. Although Algerian journals cover nearly 30 disciplines, the country’s strongest comparative positions are concentrated in literature and the humanities, law, and political science. Algeria ranked fourth in literature and the humanities and fifth in both law and political science. The Q1 distribution likewise shows substantial representation in the humanities and social sciences, legal studies, economics and management, media and communication, Arabic language and literature, and related disciplines.

This concentration reflects the particular strength of Algerian publishing in fields in which language, national research agendas, local legal and institutional contexts, and regionally grounded objects of study play an important role. Arcif provides a particularly relevant space for measuring the circulation of such research because it includes a substantial body of Arabic-language and regionally published scholarship that global databases may cover only partially.

The association between this disciplinary configuration and national academic-promotion policies is plausible. Classification systems and career requirements may encourage researchers to publish in accredited national or Arabic-language journals, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. However, the Arcif report does not provide the data required to demonstrate this relationship. Establishing a causal link would require an analysis of promotion regulations, researchers’ publication strategies, journal submission patterns, disciplinary evaluation practices, and changes over time.

The concentration of leading positions in a limited number of fields also points to uneven development across the national journal system. Algeria’s extensive journal base has not produced equivalent disciplinary influence everywhere. The challenge is therefore not simply to increase the number of titles but to strengthen editorial and bibliometric performance across a broader range of disciplines while preserving the fields in which Algerian journals already possess a strong regional position.

3.4. Citation visibility at journal and author levels

The citation results demonstrate substantial recorded use of Algerian publications within the Arcif perimeter. Algeria ranked first by number of cited authors represented in the database, with 26,834 authors. Algerian researchers also appeared prominently in economics, finance and business administration, media, and communication. This broad representation indicates that Algerian scholarship circulates across a significant regional documentary space.

At journal level, the leading Algerian titles also recorded substantial citation totals. The Researcher Journal in Humanities and Social Sciences received 5,627 citations and ranked seventh in the Arab citation ranking. The ten leading Algerian journals recorded between 1,633 and 5,627 citations, with marked differences between total citations and average citations per article. These differences confirm that cumulative visibility and citation intensity are not identical.

A prolific or long-established journal may accumulate a large number of citations because it has published more articles over a longer period. By contrast, average citations per article partially correct for publication volume and may highlight journals whose smaller output receives comparatively more frequent citation. Both measurements are informative, but neither can be interpreted independently of publication age, disciplinary citation practices, database coverage, or the composition of the indexed corpus.

The same caution applies to author rankings. Arcif’s composite indicator combines total citations, publication volume, the geographical distribution of citing researchers, and self-citation. The resulting ranking therefore captures several dimensions of recorded influence rather than citation totals alone. It identifies authors who are visible within Arcif’s network, but it does not provide a direct assessment of originality, methodological rigor, or the scientific validity of their publications.

Open access may have contributed to the visibility of Algerian journals and authors by reducing barriers to consultation and facilitating the circulation of publications. However, the independent effect of open access is not measured in the present study. A more conclusive analysis would require comparisons between access models, download data, citation trajectories, journal age, publication language, disciplinary practices, and indexing history.

3.5. Country-level visibility and institutional concentration

At the country level, Algeria ranked second among Arab countries by number of citations, after Egypt. Authors affiliated with Algerian institutions accounted for 44,748 articles and 120,498 citations, corresponding to an average of approximately 2.69 citations per article. This result demonstrates a combination of high publication volume and substantial regional citation visibility.

The institutional results show that this national performance is broadly distributed but also partly concentrated among a group of leading universities. The first ten Algerian institutions all ranked among the top fifty of the 1,271 institutions included in the Arcif ranking. Kasdi Merbah University of Ouargla occupied eighth place in the Arab ranking, while Mohamed Khider University of Biskra ranked tenth. Six Algerian institutions appeared among the first thirty.

These positions demonstrate the citation visibility of publications attributed to authors affiliated with the institutions concerned. They should not, however, be described as direct evidence of the scientific value of all their publications. A citation records scholarly use or reference, but it may reflect confirmation, criticism, methodological reuse, contextual relevance, or participation in a particularly active research field. Citation counts must therefore be interpreted as indicators of documented uptake rather than as certificates of intrinsic quality.

The ten leading Algerian institutions collectively produced 18,660 articles and received 54,971 citations. They accounted for approximately 41.7% of the articles and 45.6% of the citations attributed to Algeria in the country ranking. Their share of citations was thus slightly greater than their share of publications, indicating that these universities contributed disproportionately to Algeria’s recorded citation visibility.

Institutional performance also varied according to the indicator considered. The University of Algiers 3 recorded the largest publication volume among the ten institutions, whereas Kasdi Merbah University of Ouargla obtained both the highest citation total and the highest average number of citations per article. Publication output and citation intensity therefore produce different institutional hierarchies.

The concentration observed at the institutional level is also visible in the author ranking. Four of the ten leading Algerian authors were affiliated with Kasdi Merbah University of Ouargla. This convergence across journal, author, and institutional indicators suggests the presence of particularly productive and visible research environments. Further investigation would nevertheless be required to determine whether these results reflect disciplinary specialization, journal hosting, research-team organization, collaboration networks, publication language, institutional support, or other factors.

3.6. The gap between volume and normalized impact

The principal tension emerging from the results lies between numerical leadership and normalized impact. Algeria ranked first by number of accredited journals and by number of cited authors represented in Arcif. It also ranked second at the country level by citations received. Nevertheless, the highest-ranked Algerian journal occupied only 101st place in the overall Arcif impact-factor ranking.

This contrast does not invalidate Algeria’s numerical achievements. Rather, it shows that the different indicators capture distinct stages of scholarly visibility. A large accredited journal base expands the capacity to publish and disseminate research. Broad author representation increases the number of scholars whose work can enter citation networks. High cumulative citation totals demonstrate recorded use. Journal impact factors, however, relate citations to a recent publication window and therefore provide a more normalized indication of short-term citation performance.

Numerical leadership has thus not yet translated into equivalent leadership at the upper end of the impact-factor distribution. The Algerian system appears particularly strong in scale, continuity, and institutional breadth, but more uneven in its capacity to convert this extensive infrastructure into high normalized impact across journals and disciplines.

Several factors may contribute to this gap: differences in journal age, publication volume, disciplinary citation cultures, metadata quality, language of publication, international discoverability, reference practices, publication regularity, and inclusion in multiple databases. The present data do not permit the independent effect of each factor to be measured. They nevertheless show that increasing the number of journals alone cannot ensure stronger positions in normalized impact rankings.

The relevant policy objective is therefore not numerical contraction but qualitative consolidation. The issue is not to oppose quantity and quality mechanically, since a broad national publishing infrastructure can support disciplinary diversity, local research agendas, early-career researchers, and Arabic-language scholarship. The challenge is to ensure that this infrastructure is accompanied by stronger editorial standards, reliable metadata, sustainable publication schedules, and wider scholarly circulation.

3.7. From regional consolidation to internationalization

Five consecutive years of numerical leadership suggest that Algeria has developed a durable capacity to maintain journals that meet Arcif’s formal and technical requirements. Regional consolidation is an important achievement because it strengthens the circulation of scholarship concerned with Arab societies, languages, institutions, and research questions that may remain underrepresented in global databases.

Internationalization should not, however, be reduced to the replacement of Arabic or French by English, nor to the pursuit of international indexing as an end in itself. It involves the capacity to make research discoverable, readable, verifiable, and citable across institutional, linguistic, and geographical boundaries. A journal may remain regionally grounded while adopting editorial and technical practices that enable broader circulation.

Several areas of consolidation emerge from the results. Journals need complete and interoperable metadata, stable publication schedules, persistent identifiers such as DOIs, reliable author affiliations and ORCID identifiers, internationally readable titles and abstracts, transparent peer-review procedures, clearly documented publication-ethics policies, and durable digital archiving. Bibliographic references must also be standardized and technically exploitable so that citations can be correctly identified by indexing systems.

Multilingual dissemination can support this process when it responds to disciplinary and readership needs. Arabic-language scholarship should retain its full scientific legitimacy, particularly in fields whose concepts, sources, and objects are regionally grounded. High-quality English and French titles, abstracts, and keywords can nevertheless increase discoverability without displacing the language of the article. Internationalization is therefore better understood as an expansion of circulation than as linguistic substitution.

Selective entry into Scopus, Web of Science, the Directory of Open Access Journals, and other recognized databases may also contribute to broader visibility. Such inclusion requires more than formal application: it depends on publication regularity, editorial transparency, metadata quality, citation practices, international authorship and readership, digital preservation, and demonstrable adherence to ethical standards. The objective should therefore be to prepare journals whose editorial maturity corresponds to the requirements of these databases rather than to pursue indexing indiscriminately.

Regional consolidation and internationalization are consequently complementary rather than interchangeable objectives. Arcif strengthens the visibility of Arab scholarly publishing within a regional bibliometric space, while international databases can extend the circulation of selected journals to wider research communities. Success in one system does not guarantee success in another, because their coverage, criteria, languages, and citation environments differ.

3.8. Interpretative synthesis

The Arcif 2025 results demonstrate that Algeria has established a leading regional position based on the scale of its accredited journal infrastructure, the breadth of author representation, substantial citation totals, and the visibility of several universities. This position is supported by a large and diversified institutional base rather than by a small number of isolated journals.

The findings also reveal the limits of this leadership. Q1 journals account for less than one tenth of the Algerian titles accredited by Arcif; leading disciplinary positions remain concentrated in a limited number of fields; the country’s first journal appears at rank 101 in the overall impact-factor classification; and a significant proportion of institutional citation visibility is concentrated among a group of leading universities. Algeria’s position is therefore characterized by strong numerical and institutional breadth but more moderate performance at the upper end of normalized impact.

These results do not support a simple opposition between quantitative expansion and scientific quality. Numerical growth has created the infrastructure necessary for broader knowledge production and circulation. The next stage consists in converting this extensive publishing capacity into more consistent editorial quality, stronger citation performance, wider disciplinary visibility, and greater international discoverability.

The Algerian case consequently illustrates a transition from infrastructural expansion to qualitative consolidation. Its regional leadership is established in terms of volume and representation, while its future development will depend on the capacity of journals and institutions to strengthen editorial governance, metadata quality, peer-review transparency, multilingual accessibility, digital preservation, and responsible international indexing. This consolidation must preserve the regional and linguistic functions of Algerian scholarly publishing while enabling its strongest journals to participate more fully in global scientific communication.

Conclusion

This study examined the position of Algerian scientific journals in the 2025 Arcif report by distinguishing several dimensions that are often conflated in bibliometric assessments : the scale of the accredited journal system, disciplinary representation, quartile classification, cumulative citations, journal impact factors, author visibility, country-level citation performance, and institutional ranking. The results provide a clear answer to the research question. Algerian scholarly publishing has consolidated a leading regional position in terms of volume, breadth of participation, and recorded citation visibility, but this numerical leadership has not yet produced equivalent leadership at the upper end of the normalized impact distribution.

The scale of the Algerian presence is considerable. Algeria accounts for 426 of the 1,272 journals accredited by Arcif, representing approximately one third of the indexed titles. It also has 41 journals classified in Q1 and ranks first by number of cited authors represented in the database, with 26,834 authors. At the country level, publications attributed to researchers affiliated with Algerian institutions received 120,498 citations across 44,748 articles, placing Algeria second among Arab countries. The institutional results confirm this visibility : the ten leading Algerian universities all appear among the first fifty institutions in the Arcif ranking, while Kasdi Merbah University of Ouargla and Mohamed Khider University of Biskra rank among the Arab top ten.

These achievements nevertheless remain unevenly distributed. Algeria’s strongest disciplinary positions are concentrated in literature and the humanities, law, and political science, despite the much broader disciplinary coverage of its journals. The 41 Q1 titles represent only 9.62 % of the 426 Algerian journals accredited by Arcif. Moreover, the highest-ranked Algerian journal occupies 101st place in the overall Arcif impact-factor ranking. At the institutional level, the ten leading universities account for approximately 41.7 % of Algeria’s articles and 45.6 % of its citations. The results therefore reveal a publishing system characterized by extensive numerical and institutional capacity, alongside more concentrated and comparatively moderate normalized impact.

The study consequently demonstrates that journal numbers, accreditation, Q1 status, citation totals, citation averages, and impact factors measure distinct aspects of scholarly publishing. A large accredited journal base reflects infrastructural capacity and continuity ; author and institutional rankings document visibility within a defined citation network ; and journal impact factors measure recent citation performance relative to publication output. None of these indicators can independently establish the intrinsic quality of articles, the rigor of peer-review procedures, compliance with research ethics, or broader scientific and societal influence. Algeria’s Arcif position should thus be understood as evidence of regional bibliometric consolidation rather than as a comprehensive measure of scientific excellence.

The findings have several implications for editorial and research policy. The priority should no longer be the continued multiplication of journal titles, but the consolidation of journals capable of maintaining regular publication, selective editorial policies, transparent peer-review procedures, reliable and interoperable metadata, persistent identifiers, standardized references, accurate author affiliations, and durable digital preservation. High-quality multilingual titles, abstracts, and keywords could improve discoverability while preserving Arabic and French as legitimate languages of scientific production. International indexing should similarly be pursued selectively, according to journal maturity and disciplinary relevance, rather than treated as an undifferentiated objective.

This study remains bounded by the coverage, definitions, and calculation procedures of Arcif. Its descriptive design does not establish causal relationships between Algeria’s performance and ASJP, academic-promotion regulations, open-access policies, ministerial initiatives, or institutional investment. It also does not compare the same journals across multiple databases or normalize every indicator according to discipline, journal age, publication language, or citation window. The results must therefore be interpreted as measurements produced within the Arcif documentary perimeter.

Future research should construct longitudinal datasets from successive Arcif reports to determine whether Algeria’s numerical leadership is accompanied by sustained growth in normalized impact. Matched samples of journals should also be compared across Arcif, Scopus, Web of Science, DOAJ, and Google Scholar, with controls for discipline, journal age, publication volume, language, open-access status, and indexing duration. Complementary qualitative research could examine peer-review practices, editorial resources, metadata workflows, international collaboration, and authors’ publication strategies. Such a research design would make it possible to determine more precisely whether Algeria’s extensive regional publishing infrastructure is being converted into durable, diversified, and internationally visible scholarly influence.