A meta-analysis study of the relationship between research and economic development in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa

This study sought to determine the bidirectional relationship between research output and impact and economic development in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Data was extracted from the African Development Indicators and the Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science citation indexes. A Pearson correlation and a regression analysis were performed to determine the relationships between the variables, as well as the influence of the bibliometrics indicators on the economic development indicators and vice versa. Results revealed high and significant correlation values between some research indicators (i.e. number of research articles, citations, and H -index) and some economic development (i.e. GDP cur and GNI) at p