TEHRAN – The University of Tehran University, with a score of 189, and the Sharif University of Technology, with a score of 179, are among the top universities in the Hirsch Index released by Web of Science.

The h-index was developed by J.E. Hirsch and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America in 2005, which reflects the productivity of authors based on their publication and citation records.

It is based on a list of publications ranked in descending order by the Times Cited. The value of h is equal to the number of papers (N) in the list that has N or more citations. This metric is useful because it discounts the disproportionate weight of highly cited papers or papers that have not yet been cited. 

The h-index reflects the productivity of authors based on their publication and citation records.There are 58 Iranian universities on the list, among which, Tehran University and the Sharif University of Technology placed first and second, followed by Tarbiat Modares University.

The index shows the quality of scientific outputs and research productivity at the level of universities and research and technology institutions of the country.

Also, according to the 2022 list of Highly Cited Researchers revealed by Clarivate, 12 Iranian researchers are among the most cited researchers.

Earlier in November, the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) database listed 841 Iranian researchers among the top one percent of most cited researchers in the world.

The highest number of researchers were included in the engineering category amounting to 229 scientists, followed by clinical medicine with 140, and the multidisciplinary category with 150 people.

On October 26, Stanford University listed 1,870 Iranian researchers among the top 2 percent of the most-cited scientists in the world, which has grown significantly compared to past years.

Despite U.S. sanctions, the international activities of Iranian scientists have increased year by year, so that more than 35 percent of Iranian articles in Scopus have been multi-national projects, the deputy science minister, Peyman Salehi, has said.

Science diplomacy is the use of scientific collaborations among nations to address common problems and build constructive international partnerships.

In 2021, Iranian scientists published more than 77,000 scientific articles in the Scopus database, ranking 15th worldwide.

The country also ranked 15th and 16th in the world in terms of scientific references.

FB/MG