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Basic science in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Author

Listed:
  • Morteza Mehrdad

    (Shahid Beheshti University)

  • Akbar Heydari

    (Scientometry Group, Ministry of Science Research and Technology)

  • Mohammad Nabi Sarbolouki

    (Scientometry Group, Ministry of Science Research and Technology)

  • Shapour Etemad

    (Scientometry Group, Ministry of Science Research and Technology)

Abstract

The population of Iran has nearly doubled in less than 25 years, while the number of university students has increased more than 10 times and 720 Ph. D. degrees have been awarded in basic science in the past 10 years. Despite the great difficulties that the Iranian scientists have been facing for more than two decades (as a consequence of a social revolution, 8 years of a destructive war imposed by Iraq, excessive brain drain, discriminatory practices by some international journals in publishing the Iranian articles, and unfair sanctions imposed by the industrialized countries) Iran's science is still thriving and the current number of yearly scientific publications exceeds 1500. When normalized with respect to the number of researchers and the research budget, the Iranian scientists seem to outperform most of their counterparts in the advanced industrialized nations. Main reason: total engagement in truncated research activities (basic or applied) leading solely to pure publications; lack of infrastructure for developmental research activities leading to new technologies. The average impact factor of the papers in various fields of basic science seems quite satisfactory considering the difficult conditions the Iranian scientists are working under. Should the research budgets and conditions improve and the unfair sanctions currently imposed by the world politics be eliminated, a far better contribution to the world science can be expected.

Suggested Citation

  • Morteza Mehrdad & Akbar Heydari & Mohammad Nabi Sarbolouki & Shapour Etemad, 2004. "Basic science in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 61(1), pages 79-80, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:61:y:2004:i:1:d:10.1023_b:scie.0000037364.65282.4d
    DOI: 10.1023/B:SCIE.0000037364.65282.4d
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Hajar Sotudeh, 2012. "How sustainable a scientifically developing country could be in its specialties? The case of Iran’s publications in SCI in the 21st century compared to 1980s," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(1), pages 231-243, April.
    2. Hajar Sotudeh, 2010. "Are Iranian scientists recognized as their productivity enhances? A comparison of Iran’s impact to global norms in different subfields of Science Citation Index during 2002–2005," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 83(1), pages 39-54, April.
    3. Mohammad A. Abolghassemi Fakhree & Abolghasem Jouyban, 2011. "Scientometric analysis of the major Iranian medical universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 87(1), pages 205-220, April.
    4. Goya Harirchi & Göran Melin & Shapour Etemad, 2007. "An exploratory study of the feature of Iranian co-authorships in biology, chemistry and physics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 72(1), pages 11-24, July.
    5. Anastassios Pouris, 2007. "Is fundamentalism a threat to science? Evidence from scientometrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 71(2), pages 329-338, May.

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