TEHRAN – The International Statistical Institute issued a report on May 31 putting Iran’s scientific community in 21st place in the ISI rankings, which represents a breakthrough for the country's scientific establishment.

Islamic World Science Citation Database (ISC) Director Jafar Mehrad made the announcement on Tuesday, ISNA reported.
Iran’s highest previous ISI ranking was 24th, he said and expressed hope that Iranian scientists would continue to make progress.
Recently, a report published by the Royal Society science academy found that Iran has had the fastest rate of increase in scientific publications in the world, and its scientific output rose 18-fold between 1996 and 2008, from 736 published papers to 13,238.
The Iranian government has committed to a comprehensive plan for science including boosting R&D investment to 4 percent of GDP by 2030, compared with just 0.59 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006, the report added.