TEHRAN – Eight Iranian scientists have been listed among the top two percent of the scientists with the greatest impact in technology in 2021 worldwide, according to Stanford University and global indicators.

Stanford University has created a database to introduce and present the information of more than 100,000 prominent scientists in the world and provide information to scientists in 22 scientific fields and 176 sub-disciplines.

Eight Iranians are among the top two percent of scientists in the world, who are selected based on indicators such as the number of articles published, the number of scientific works done, the extent of their impact and articles, and the number of citations to their published articles.

The development of international scientific partnerships and diplomacy is one of the main policies of Iran. Each year, Stanford University's research team selects the most influential scientists in their fields, one percent, and two percent, according to scientometric criteria. Based on a study conducted by Stanford University scientists on the Scopus data, a list of highly cited scientists in all disciplines as well as the top two percent of scientific fields was identified and introduced, and this year eight Iranian top scientists have been included.

The selected scientists and professors in this list include Ahmad Reza Dehpour, Mostafa Ghanei, Morteza Izadi, Majid Saeedi, Seyed Fazel Nabavi, Seyed Mohammad Nabavi, Azadeh Manai, and Sedigheh Asgari, IRNA reported on Friday.

Iran’s significant contribution to world’s scientific growth

The share of Iranian articles with international participation has had significant growth of 209 percent during an eight-year period (2013-2020), becoming the Islamic world’s leading country in science diplomacy, according to the Scopus International Citation Database.

This improvement is not limited to the number of articles and the country’s share in terms of top articles (the quality) grew from 0.95 percent in 2013 to 4.28 percent in 2020, which indicates a 350 percent growth in the production of the world’s top articles, he explained.

The growth has not been limited to the field of research and has been very significant in the field of technology; for instance, the creation of 13 science and technology parks, 4,553 technology units, and 1,653 new knowledge-based companies during the last eight years could provide employment for 34,707 university graduates.

In November 2020, scientific studies and analyses extracted from the Scopus International Citation Database showed that the rate of scientific contributions of Iranian researchers to the world increased from 17 percent in 2011 to 31 percent in 2020, becoming the world’s leading country in science diplomacy with 14 percent growth.

The development of international scientific partnerships and diplomacy is one of the main policies of Iran, which is also emphasized by the country's higher education system, Mohammad Javad Dehghani, head of the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC), said.

One of the most important indicators of scientific participation is the share of the latest joint international scientific findings in the total scientific publications of the country, he added.

FB/MG