TEHRAN – Studies show that Iran enters the year 2022 with the 15th rank in science production worldwide and it is expected to make progress over the next years as the coronavirus pandemic is going to ease.

A country’s scientific products are a collection of research, articles, citations, international collaborations, activities of researchers, educational and research institutions of a country.

In reviewing scientific products, various indicators such as publication of articles in prestigious international journals, citations, validity of journals, the level of productivity, and scientific impact of scientists are considered quantitatively and qualitatively.

According to the latest information on science production, Iran is ranked 15th in the world in the international system of Web of Science in 2021, with an h-index of 383, which indicates the quality of Iranian articles registered.

Iran’s scientific position in the Web of Science over the last 5 years shows that the production of conference papers has been on a downward trend during 2020 and 2021 due to the outbreak.

The share of Iranian science production from conference papers has dropped from 7.38 percent in 2017 to 1.26 percent in 2021.

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 22.24 percent in 2017 to 35.6 percent in 2021.

Three groups of engineering, chemistry, and materials science have been the most important research areas in the country over the last 5 years.

In the SCOPUS international regulations, the most important research areas of Iran in the production of science in 2021 have been medicine, engineering, and materials science, respectively.

Iran's scientific partner countries were the United States, China, and Canada in 2021, the United States, Canada, and China in 2020, and the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Web of Science shows that the coronavirus pandemic has negatively affected the percentage of conference papers. The share of Iranian science production from conference papers in the Scopus database in 2021 was estimated at 1.80 percent, which was 6.50 percent in 2017 and 5.85 percent in 2018.

World rankings

Moreover, the SCImago ranking system deals separately with the ranking of countries in science production, ranking Iran as 40th in 2021 in terms of h-index. Also, in terms of the number of articles, Iran's index is 376.

The SCImago rankings show that between 1996 and 2020, the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan are in the top five. Iran also ranked 21st in the world and second in West Asia.

NATURE INDEX also shows that in 2021, considering that the latest update of this international system for science production reports has not been completed yet, Iran’s overall ranking is 35th, which was 33 in 2020.

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