TEHRAN –According to the latest data released by Scopus and Web of Science (WoS), Iran is placed among the top twenty nations in terms of medical science publications.

The country is ranked 16 in Scopus and 17 in WoS.

China and the United States are ranked first and second by both databases, respectively.

The reports show that the number of Iranian articles has increased over the past years, and the number of articles indexed in Scopus is slightly higher than that of WoS.

Moreover, the WoS database has reviewed Scientific productions of medical sciences in Iran in more detail over the last decade.

Accordingly, clinical medicine has the largest share with 81,354 in scientific output.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences has the highest number of published works, 37,166.

Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences; Iran Medical Sciences University; Tabriz University of Medical Sciences; and Shiraz Universities of Medical Sciences, ranked second to fifth, respectively.

Meanwhile, Iran is ranked second among Islamic countries in terms of indexed scientific production in both databases.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia ranked first and third, respectively.

Global rankings of medical universities

SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR) 2024 placed 197 Iranian universities among the top institutions in the world compared to 194 universities in 2023.

In the latest ranking, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (5) was among the top ten institutions in West Asia. 

The Research ranking of Tehran University of Medical Sciences was 175 in the world.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences ranking improved from 486, in 2023, to 452 in 2024 marking it the top university in Iran.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences held first position in Medicine, 2nd in Dentistry, 5th in pharmacology, Toxicology, and Pharmaceutics in West Asia. It was also ranked 34th in Dentistry globally.

The 14th edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings by Subject 2024 included 17 Iranian universities in 17 subject entries, compared with 16 universities in 2023.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences (358), Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (451- 500), and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (501 – 550) in Life sciences and Medicine; were among the top universities.

A total of 435 Iranian institutions were among 11,989 institutions ranked in Webometrics world ranking 2024.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences (445), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science (606), Iran Science and Technology (890), Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (920), Iran Medical Sciences University (940), were among top ten universities in the country.

According to the results of the 2023-2024 edition of the University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP), 71 Iranian institutions were included in the ranking compared to 64 institutions in the 2022-2023 edition.

URAP World Ranking is based on six academic performance indicators including number of articles, citations, total document, scientific productivity, research impact, and international collaboration.

Tehran University of Medical Science (with a global rank of 277), and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science (with a global rank of 436) were ranked second and third nationwide.

The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2024 listed 36 Iranian universities among the world’s top 1,000 institutions, compared with 29 universities in 2023.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 included 1,904 universities across 108 countries and regions.

The ranking is based on 18 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across five areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.

Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and Iran Medical University were in the range of 601-800.

In July 2023, from among 72 universities of medical science in the country, 12 universities were on the Leiden list. Tehran, Shahid Beheshti, and Tabriz universities ranked first to third among the Iranian universities, IRNA reported.

In Total, 46 Iranian universities were among the 1,411 top universities in the world.

Among Islamic countries, Iran ranked first, followed by Turkey and Egypt with 36 and 13 universities respectively, ISNA reported.

Research is represented in publications, and carefully collected data about these publications forms the basis for the Leiden Ranking. This basis also ensures the independence of the Leiden Ranking, since there is no reliance on data submitted by the universities themselves. 

Top 1% most cited researchers

In November 2023, over 900 Iranian researchers were recognized among the world's top one percent most-cited researchers in 2023, the head of the Islamic World Science Citation (ISC) Institute said.

“The Ministry of Science, Research and Technology represents 40 percent, and the Ministry of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education accounts for 48 percent of the most-cited Iranian researchers,” ISNA quoted Ahmad Fazelzadeh as saying.

A total of 938 top researchers affiliated with Iranian organizations were identified, showing a 12 percent increase compared to the previous year (March 2022–March 2023).

MT/MG