title: The contribution of ethnic groups to Malaysian scientific output, 1982-2014, and the effects of the new economic policy.
abstract: Malaysia has three main ethnic communities: Chinese, Indians and Malays. At independence in 1957, the Chinese dominated commercial life, and this led to ethnic tensions and finally riots. As a result in 1969 Malaysia introduced a "New Economic Policy" (NEP) to promote Malays in all areas of activity, and in particular to assist them to obtain basic and higher education. We examined the scientific outputs from Malaysia between 1982 and 2014 and classified the names of Malaysian researchers into one of these three groups and two others. There was a major increase in Malay participation in research, which has risen from 20 % of researchers in 1982-1984 to 65 % in 2012-2014, with corresponding declines in the percentages of Chinese and Indian authors, although their absolute numbers have increased because Malaysian scientific output has increased so rapidly in the last 10 years. The huge increase in Malay researchers contrasts with their presence in the Malaysian population which has remained stable at about 50 % since 1969.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Studies, King's College London, Guy's Hospital, Great Maze Pond, London, SE1 6RT UK.
authors.forename: Grant
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4493-1216
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lewison
authors.affiliation: Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Sameer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Chan-Yuan
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Studies, King's College London, Guy's Hospital, Great Maze Pond, London, SE1 6RT UK ; Evaluametrics Ltd, 157 Verulam Road, St Albans, AL3 4DW UK.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roe
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, King's College London, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS UK.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Webber
keywords: Economic policy; Ethnicity; Malaysia; Onomastics; Scientific output