TEHRAN – Reviewing the status of universities worldwide shows that the number of Iranian universities has increased in nearly all subject rankings.

At the beginning of its formation, rating systems provided a comprehensive view of institutions and evaluated them from all aspects and as a whole. But in the past few years, many of these systems evaluate and rank institutions in various scientific fields.

This new ranking method has emerged to meet the needs of users who seek to know the position of an institution in a special field.

Some of these systems evaluate broad scientific fields such as humanities and social sciences, technical and engineering, and medicine, and others measure special fields such as chemistry, mathematics, artificial intelligence, anthropology, and nursing in institutions.

Times Higher Education

In the 2023 ranking of the Times Higher Education Institute, which was published in 2022, the names of 66 Iranian institutions were included in the list of the world's top institutions in 10 different scientific fields, and in total, the names of these institutions were repeated 167 times in scientific fields.

These 10 scientific fields include "arts and humanities", "business and economics", "clinical medical sciences, basic medicine and health", "computer sciences", "educational sciences", "biological sciences", "physical sciences", "engineering and technology", "law and psychology" and "social sciences".

Academic Ranking of World Universities

The ranking system of universities based on their academic performance is known as Shanghai. In its latest edition (the year 2022), this ranking system has evaluated and ranked world institutions in various scientific fields.

In this list, there are 34 Iranian institutions, whose names appear in the list of top institutions 143 times in various scientific fields.

The Shanghai ranking of institutions covers 54 scientific fields, including 8 fields in natural sciences, 4 fields in biological sciences, 22 fields in engineering, 6 fields in medical sciences, and 14 fields in social sciences.

QS World domain rankings

Based on the 2023 edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking, seven Iranian institutions have been included in the list of more than 500 top institutions in different scientific fields. The names of these institutions have been repeated 10 times in various scientific fields.

The QS ranking system evaluates the world’s leading institutions in 5 fields arts and humanities, engineering and technology, life sciences and medicine, and social sciences and management.

The evaluation indices of this ranking system are 5 indices of the international research network, the H index of citations, per capita citations to publications, academic reputation, and occupational reputation.

QS World subject rankings

Based on the 2023 edition of the QS World subject ranking, 16 top Iranian institutions have been placed in various scientific fields and the names of these institutions have been repeated 79 times in the list of top institutions in various scientific fields.

The ranking system evaluates the world's leading institutions in 51 scientific fields, from history and linguistics to astronomy and navigation.

University Ranking by Academic Performance

According to the annual report of the University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) in 2022, 41 Iranian institutions have been included in the list of top institutions in scientific fields and their names have been repeated 636 times in this list.

Based on this ranking, the number of repeated names of Iranian institutions in various scientific fields has increased greatly compared to last year.

This ranking system evaluates the institutions of the world in 78 scientific fields and is based on 6 quantitative indicators "number of articles", "references", "publications", "global cooperation", "research impact" and "citation impact".

Scientific articles 

The ranking of scientific institutions is prepared by National Taiwan University. According to this report, in 2022, 19 Iranian institutions were on the list of top 500 institutions in the fields of agriculture, medicine, engineering, biological sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences, and the names of these institutions appear 27 times in various scientific fields of this list.

The performance of Iranian institutions in this ranking has improved compared to last year.

This ranking system focuses on most research outputs and researchers' articles and evaluates the performance of world institutions in 6 areas and based on 8 indicators.

Scientific subject articles

National Taiwan University has identified 18 Iranian institutions in the list of top 500 institutions in various scientific fields in the 2022 subject ranking report of scientific institutions. The names of Iranian institutions have been repeated 96 times in various scientific fields.

The number of Iranian institutions in this list has decreased compared to last year, but the presence of these institutions in various scientific fields has increased.

This ranking focuses more on research outputs and researchers' articles and evaluates the world's leading institutions in 27 scientific fields based on three criteria (research productivity, research impact, and research excellence) and 8 criteria.

U.S. News Rankings

The U.S. News Institute, in addition to the comprehensive ranking, also evaluates and ranks the institutions of the world in various subjects.

In the subject ranking report of the world's best universities, this institution has included 54 Iranian institutions in the list of top institutions in various scientific fields.

Altogether, the names of these 54 institutions have been mentioned 297 times among the world's top institutions in various scientific fields.

Round University Ranking

The Round academic ranking system, in its 2022 report, has identified 11 Iranian institutions in the list of the world's top institutions in various scientific fields, and the names of Iranian institutions have been repeated 54 times in various scientific fields.

Round ranking system evaluates the world's leading institutions in 6 subjects humanities, biological sciences, medical sciences, natural sciences, social sciences, and technical and engineering sciences based on four dimensions.

Examining the status of Iranian universities in subject rankings shows that the number and repetition of the names of Iranian universities have increased in all subject rankings except for the "scientific subject ranking of world universities".

According to the latest statistics of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, 1,452 scientific journals are being published in the country.

Out of all the mentioned journals, 289 are indexed in the Scopus database and 67 journals are indexed in the Web of Science database.