Web Structure and Influence of the Arab Universities of the MENA Zone (Middle East and North Africa): Visualization and Analysis Benjamín Vargas-Quesada* University Professor, Information and Communication Department, University of Granada, Campus Cartuja, Colegio Máximo, 18071 Granada, Spain. (CSIC), Associate unit SCImago Group, Madrid, Spain. E-mail:
[email protected] Tel.: + 34 958 240923; Fax: + 34 958 243490 Cristina Faba-Pérez University Professor, Information and Communication Department, University of Extremadura, Plaza Ibn Marwan, La Alcazaba, 06071, Badajoz, Spain. Khaldoon Mohammad Oglah AL_Dwairi University Professor. Al-Balqa Applied University Al-Salt 19117, Jordan. Félix Moya-Anegón Research Professor, Institute of Policies and Public Property, Superior Council for Scientific Investigation, C/Albasanz, 26-28, 28037, Madrid. Spain. (CSIC), Associate unit SCImago Group, Madrid, Spain. 1.- Introduction The geopolitical zone known as MENA (Middle East and North Africa), occupying so many newspaper front pages last year owing to the “Arab spring” in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria, is at the same time largely ignored by the realm of webometrics, scientometrics, and information visualization. The MENA zone would include all 22 countries whose official language is Arabic, and which also belong to the League of Arab States (http://www.arableagueonline.org): Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Bahrain, Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Syria,