Science and research in Iran: A scientometric study

Interdisciplinary Science Reviews

Volumn 28, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 26-37

  Wilson, Concepción S ^a   Osareh, Farideh ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES   (Australia)

^b SHAHID CHAMRAN UNIVERSITY OF AHVAZ   (Iran)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCTS (GDP);

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; EDUCATION; SOCIAL ASPECTS; STATISTICS; SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT;

PROFESSIONAL ASPECTS;

EID: 0345377869     PISSN: 03080188     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1179/030801803225010322     Document Type: Review

References (67)

1. R. BARRÉ: in World Science Report 1998, 22-30; 1998, Paris, UNESCO/Elsevier.
2. C. S. WAGNER, I. BRAHMAKULAM, B. JACKSON, A. WONG and T. YODA: Science and Technology Collaboration: Building Capacity in Developing Countries?, MR-1357·0-WB; 2001, Santa Monica, CA, Rand Science and Technology (www.rand.org/publications/ MR/MR1357.0/MR1357.0.pdf) (hereafter Rand).
3. Iran came into the SDC class. The other SDCs were Uzbekistan, Latvia, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Moldova, Pakistan, Turkey, Armenia, Colombia, Macedonia, Venezuela, Mauritius, Benin, Yugoslavia FR, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Egypt, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, and Indonesia.
4. Rand, pp. 11-18 (see Note 2).
5. World Development Indicators; 2000, Washington, DC, World Bank (hereafter WDI 2000). For GDP per capita, see www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2000/pdfs/tab1_1.pdf.
6. WDI 2000 (see Note 5). For numbers of scientists and engineers in R&D per million population, see www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2000/pdfs/tab5_12.pdf.
7. NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD: Science and Engineering Indicators - 2000; 2000, Arlington, VA, National Science Foundation (hereafter NSB 2000). Values are based on average counts of S&T journal articles from the SCI database published in the three years 1995-97.
8. WDI 2000 (see Note 5). For expenditures on R&D as a percentage of GDP, see www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2000/pdfs/tab5_12.pdf.
9. Number of scientific research institutions (universities, institutes, etc.) per million population. See Research Centers Directory, 27th edn; 2001, Detroit, MI, Gale Research Co. (available online to subscribing institutions at galenet.gale.com/a/acp/db/rcsd).
10. US patents are totals filed in 1997-99 by citizens of a given country (see Patent Counts by Country/State and Year, All Patents, All Types, Jan 1, 1977-Dec 21, 1999; 2000, Washington, DC, USPTO); EPO patents are totals filed in 1992-94 (see Second European Report on Science and Technology Indicators; 1998, Luxembourg, European Commission (europa.eu.int/comm/research/rtdinf19/19e04.html)).
11. Total number of US F-1 and J-1 student visas issued minus three quarters the number of student visas converted to US permanent resident status in 1998 (see 1998 Statistical Yearbook; 1998, Washington, DC, US Immigration and Naturalization Service (www.ins.gov/ graphics/aboutins/statistics/imm98.pdf)).
12. Statistical Yearbook; 2000, Paris, UNESCO (hereafter UNESCO 2000). For the USA and Chile, see portal. unesco.org/uis/TEMPLATE/html/SandTec/Table_III_3_America.html; for France, see portal.unesco.org/uis/TEMPLATE/html/SandTec/Table_III_3_Europe.html; for Japan, see portal.unesco.org/uis/TEMPLATE/ html/SandTec/Table_III_3_Asia.html.
13. National Annual Budget; 1994, Tehran, Budget and Planning Organisation.
14. R. MALEKZADEH, A. MOKRI and P. AZARMINA: 'Medical science and research in Iran', Archives of Iranian Medicine, 2001, 4, 27-39 (pearl.sums.ac.ir/AIM/0141/malekzadeh0141.html).
15. World Development Indicators 2002; 2002, Washington, DC, World Bank (www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2002) (hereafter WDI 2002).
16. BUDGET AND PLANNING ORGANISATION: National Atlas of Iran: Higher Education, 1st edn, Vol. 8; 1998, Tehran, National Mapping and Geographical Organization Publishers and Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (www.khuisf.ac.ir/Highe%20Education%20in%20Iran/ higher_education_in_iran.htm).
17. R. MALEKZADEH et al.: 'Medical science and research in Iran', p. 30 (see Note 14).
18. A. VAFAI: 'Higher education in Iran: dilemmas and strategies', Sharif: Science & Research of Sharif University (Quarterly), 1999, 15, 20.
19. R. KOENIG: 'Iran's scientists cautiously reach out to the world', Science, 2000, 290, (5496), 1484-1487.
20. Comparative Statistics on the Functioning of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education 1979-1998; 1998, Tehran, Bureau of Statistics of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (hereafter MHME 1998).
21. 'National report on higher education in Iran released', Sharif: Science & Research of Sharif University (Quarterly), 1997, 14, 44-51.
22. R. MALEKZADEH et al.: 'Medical science and research in Iran', p. 32 (see Note 14).
23. 'National report on higher education in Iran released', p. 49 (see Note 21).
24. MHME 1998 (see Note 20).
25. R. KOENIG: 'Iran's scientists cautiously reach out to the world', p. 1486 (see Note 19).
26. A. M. ROUHI: 'In Iran, hope springs eternal for science: despite hardships, most Iranian scientists remain highly motivated', Chemical & Engineering News, 1998, 76, (35), 28-35.
27. 'Journey to Iran', News from ICTP, 2000, (93), 6-7 (www.ictp.trieste.it/̃sci_info/News_from_ICTP/News_93/features_Iran.html).
28. WDI 2000 (see Note 5). For numbers of scientists and engineers in R&D per million population, see www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2000/pdfs/tab5_12.pdf (Note 5).
29. UNESCO 2000 (see Note 12). For Iran's R&D personnel, see portal.unesco.org/uis/TEMPLATE/html/SandTec/Table_III_2_Asia.html.
30. WDI 2002 (see Note 15).
31. UNESCO 2000 (see Note 12). For Iran's R&D personnel, see portal.unesco.org/uis/TEMPLATE/html/SandTec/Table_III_2_Asia.html.
32. WDI 2002 (see Note 15).
33. See for example C. S. WILSON: 'Informetrics', Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 1999, 34, 107-247, and A. F. J. VAN RAAN (ed.): 'Science and technology indicators: special topic issue', Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 1998, 49, 3-81.
34. See for example C. S. WILSON: 'Informetrics', Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 1999, 34, 107-247, and A. F. J. VAN RAAN (ed.): 'Science and technology indicators: special topic issue', Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 1998, 49, 3-81.
35. F. OSAREH and C. S. WILSON: 'A comparison of Iranian scientific publications in the Science Citation Index: 1985-1989 and 1990-1994', Scientometrics, 2000, 48, 427-442, and 'Collaboration in Iranian scientific publications', Libri, 2002, 52, (2), 88-98.
36. F. OSAREH and C. S. WILSON: 'A comparison of Iranian scientific publications in the Science Citation Index: 1985-1989 and 1990-1994', Scientometrics, 2000, 48, 427-442, and 'Collaboration in Iranian scientific publications', Libri, 2002, 52, (2), 88-98.
37. The Rand study is based on the National Science Board's report Science and Engineering Indicators - 2000 (see Note 7).
38. It should be noted that whereas all publications in the SCI database have entries in the publication year field, not all have geographical locations or addresses; this is especially the case in earlier years, when journal publishing practices were not as rigorous as they are now in providing institutional addresses of authors. Investigations carried out for another study suggest that as many as 5% of publications give no geographical location or address.
39. NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD: Science and Engineering Indicators - 2002; 2002, Arlington, VA, National Science Foundation (hereafter NSB 2002). For the number of scientific publications for Iran from 1986 to 1999, see Appendix Table 5-41, p. 3.
40. F. OSAREH and C. S. WILSON: 'Collaboration in Iranian scientific publications' (see Note 34).
41. R. MALEKZADEH et al.: 'Medical science and research in Iran', p. 34 (see Note 14).
42. 'ICT at a glance', in WDI 2002 (see Note 15).
43. Rand, p. 24 (see Note 2).
44. For US scientific collaboration with Iran for 1986 and 1999, see NSB 2002, Appendix Table 5-48, p. 2 (Note 37).
45. Rand, p. 30 (see Note 2).
46. See Rand, pp. 41-42 (Note 2) and the papers cited in Note 34.
47. Table 4 ignores publications cited as 'in press', which rank either first or second in terms of numbers of citations received. This large number of 'in press' citations found in SCI's cited work field may be explained, in part, by delays in mostly US and European journal issues reaching developing countries. One can speculate that Iranian researchers have a network of international colleagues who provide them with preprints or written confirmation of works accepted for publication which are 'in press'.
48. The journal impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year.... The impact factor is calculated by dividing the number of current citations to articles published in the two previous years by the total number of articles published in the two previous years.' For an essay on impact factors from ISI, see sunweb.isinet.com/isi/hot/essays/journalcitationreports/7.html.
49. F. OSAREH and C. S. WILSON: 'Collaboration in Iranian scientific publications', p. 88 (see Note 34).
50. The University of New South Wales Web of Science for 1994 onwards allowed a cited author search for at least the seventh named author on a publication.
51. We have not seen this measure of an author's degree of 'internationality' used elsewhere, and further study will be required to be certain that the measure is sound. For example, publications need to be examined in more detail to combine this scientometric (quantitative) indicator with a qualitative approach such as 'content analysis'.
52. R. MALEKZADEH et al.: 'Medical science and research in Iran', p. 35 (see Note 14).
53. NSB 2002 (see Note 37). For regional and country portfolios of scientific articles in 1999 and 1986, see Appendix Table 5-43, p. 3.
54. R. MALEKZADEH et al.: 'Medical science and research in Iran', p. 36 (see Note 14).
55. A. M. ROUHI: 'In Iran, hope springs eternal for science', p. 28 (see Note 26).
56. W. W. GIBBS: 'Lost science in the Third World', Scientific American, 1995, 273, (2), 76-83.
57. A. M. ROUHI: 'In Iran, hope springs eternal for science', p. 31 (see Note 26).
58. A. M. ROUHI: 'In Iran, hope springs eternal for science', pp. 28-29 (see Note 26).
59. Rand, pp. 29, 39 (see Note 2).
60. Rand, pp. 82-83 (see Note 2).
61. A. M. ROUHI: 'In Iran, hope springs eternal for science', p. 33 (see Note 26).
62. A. M. ROUHI: 'In Iran, hope springs eternal for science', p. 30 (see Note 26).
63. W. GLÄNZEL and A. SCHUBERT: 'Double effort = double impact? A critical view at international co-authorship in chemistry', Scientometrics, 2001, 50, 199-214.
64. NSB 2002 (see Note 37).
65. A. M. ROUHI: 'In Iran, hope springs eternal for science', pp. 31-32 (see Note 26).
66. 'Journey to Iran', pp. 6-7 (see Note 27).
67. A. M. ROUHI: 'In Iran, hope springs eternal for science', p. 28 (see Note 26).