ABSTRACT
In policy-making and planning in science and technology, decisions are often made based on past performances and on perceptions of emerging trends of importance to a country's over-all development process. Policy and planning decisions for science and technology are either based on ad hoc considerations or undervalued among competing claims from many other development projects and activities which may produce quicker and more visible results. There is a need for dependable indicators which reflect more closely the situation in the concerned countries as effective policy tools in decision-making and planning in science and technology. The principal aims in developing science and technology indicators are to assess a country's scientific and technological capacity, monitor the progress, evaluate the performance as well as forecast the future trends. The usefulness or relevance of particular science and technology indicators is sometimes tested through correlation analysis among them and with related social and economic indicators.
