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Information in this document is the property of COMSTECH and may not be copied without the written consent of COMSTECH (www.comstech.org)


The work on the Science Profile is in progress.

At present it covers eight OIC countries.

These eight include:

the first seven countries in order of the total volume

of the published scientific research in 2016, namely

i. Iran ii. Turkey iii. Saudi Arabia

iv. Malaysia v. Egypt vi. Pakistan vii. Tunisia

&

viii. Kazakhstan (the host country of the 1st OIC

Summit on Science and Technology).


The Editor acknowledges the contributions of the following COMSTECH staff to the Science Profile (Part 1)

Development of Methodology and

Compilation of Report Sabica Batool Kazmi (MS)

Collection and Sorting of WoS Data and Secretarial Support M. Jamil

Development of Macros Title Designs Ikram Abbasi

Analysis of Different Subjects

Life Sciences (Category A) Sabica Batool Kazmi (MS)

Life Sciences (Categories B and C) Khazima Muazim (MS)

Chemistry Hina Andleeb (Ph.D Scholar)

Materials Science, Nano Science and Tech. Hina Andleeb (Ph.D Scholar)

Physics Dr. S. K. Hasanain, S. Batool (MS)

Mathematics Dr. S. K. Hasanain, Ikram Abbasi

Engineering M. Haris Akram (B.E. MS)

Earth Sciences Dr. S. K. Hasanain, Ikram Abbasi

The Editor also acknowledges Dr. M. Qasim Jan (Advisor COMSTECH) for advice on

Earth Sciences Section.


Science Publications Profile (2014-2016)

Table of Contents

Section I: Introduction ..................................................................................................................1

Section II: Methodology ................................................................................................................2

Section III: The fields Studied and the WoS Categories covered within each field .......................5

Section IV: List of the data compiled and analysed for each country and each field ....................7

Section V: Assessing the quality of published work ......................................................................7

Concluding Remarks .........................................................................................................................9

Relevant Indicators for Science & Technology .............................................................................. 10

IRAN (Country Profile)

I. Life Sciences ....................................................................................................................... 12

- Life Sciences Category A (Agriculture and Environment) .............................................. 12

- Life Sciences Category B (Biology and Biological Sciences) ........................................... 16

- Life Sciences Category C (Pharmacological Research) ................................................... 20

II. Chemistry ............................................................................................................................ 27

III. Material Science and Nanotechology ................................................................................ 34

IV. Physics ................................................................................................................................ 40

V. Mathematics ....................................................................................................................... 46

VI. Engineering ......................................................................................................................... 52

VII. Earth Sciences ..................................................................................................................... 58

1 Information in this document is the property of COMSTECH and may not be copied without the written consent of COMSTECH (www.comstech.org)

Science Profile of Islamic Countries Analysis of Publications

Summary

The current document is a part of an ongoing effort to prepare a comprehensive Science Profile

of the OIC countries. The work presented here examines the research activities of the various

Islamic countries based on an analysis of the data of their research publications in different

fields. The targets in particular are to identify their respective areas of focus, strengths,

weaknesses, international linkages, more active institutions etc. In this context we use standard

scientometry indicators to assess the significance and quality of the research. Secondary focus is

on getting an idea of the impact of the scientific research and the economic activities of

respective countries. We emphasize that our analysis does not attempt to rank countries or

institutions. We identify a number of parameters that shed light from both quantitative and

qualitative aspects and it is up to the experts in respective disciplines to draw conclusions about

relative merit, to the extent that such data, or parameters derived from it, can be used to make

such inferences. It is suggested for science policy makers and funding bodies who refer to this

report that publication numbers, citations, impact factors, while useful in comparing the output

within a discipline should not be used to make comparisons, particularly of quality, between

various disciplines. It is also suggested that due importance should be given to the discussions

on the Nature Science Index to understand the extent of contributions of OIC institutions in high

value publications.

Section I: Introduction

A. Range and Scope of Study:

When evaluating the work spread over 57 countries and over the vast horizon of science and

technology within a limited time certain priorities had to be established. In the current report,

which constitutes Part I of the complete Science Profile of OIC countries we are reporting on the

following countries selected on the basis defined in the following:

1. The top seven countries identified on the basis of the total number of publications in

various discipline of Science and Technology that are defined in detail later.

a. Iran

b. Turkey

c. Saudi Arabia

d. Malaysia

e. Egypt

f. Pakistan

g. Tunisia

2. Kazakhstan: The host country of the 1st Summit of the OIC on Science and Technology,

being held at Astana, 9-11, September, 2017.

The second part of this report (to be published later) will continue with the three remaining

countries of the top ten, viz. Algeria, Nigeria and Indonesia. Additionally, it will include the

detailed analysis of the following countries selected to represent different geographical

regions of the OIC:

a. Uganda and Cameroon (West and Central Africa)

b. Azerbaijan (Central and western Asia)

c. Morocco, Lebanon and UAE (MENA)

d. Bangladesh (South East Asia)


The third part of the report will cover the remaining OIC countries.

B. Extent of data analysed in this study

Our data and its analysis has typically been confined to the following period and major fields:

a. The period 2014-2016, (except for the case of Pakistan where the data is for the

period 2013-2016).

b. The fields of research covered under:

1. Life Sciences

2. Chemistry

3. Materials Science and Nanotechnology

4. Physics

5. Mathematics

6. Engineering

7. Earth Sciences

(Medical research is not included in our analysis)

C. Targets

We have tried to ensure that for each country and each discipline we are able to,

1. present an accurate quantitative picture of research work in various disciplines

taking special care to avoid repetition or multiple counting i.e. avoiding counting

the same publications under different disciplines, as is very common in most

such analyses.

2. Obtain an idea of the qualitative nature/scientific significance of the publications

based on high impact publications, citations and other means wherever

available.

3. Correlating the scientific output with the patents awarded in each discipline as

an indicator of the impact of research on economic activity.

Section II: Methodology

A. Databases used: Due to accessibility for us as well as the general familiarity of the

scientific community with the Web of Science (WoS) and its terminologies we have

utilized it as our main data base. Our WoS search is limited to articles and reviews and

we do not take into account proceedings, letters, books etc. (Limited amount of data on

Conference Proceedings has been included for the field of Engineering). Additional data

where available has been derived from the Nature Science Index while Statnano database

has been referred to for some details e.g. nano-related commercial activity Economic

indicators have been obtained from the World Bank Database and the UIS (UNESCO

Institute of Statistics).

B. Classification of publications into various disciplines:

This is the most challenging part of the work and we have taken elaborate steps to

ensure that publications are classified sensibly and uniquely. To appreciate the

significance of this step it is essential to understand the way the Web of Science

classifies a particular publication. Firstly we note that all publications in the WoS data

base are classified by it on the basis of the classification(s) of the journal it is published in.


All fields of research (e.g. chemistry, physics, mathematics etc) are further sub-divided into sub-

specializations. There are two different sets of these sub-divisions, one known as the Web of

Science Categories while the other is known as Research Areas. The former is a more detailed

division of a particular subject into sub-divisions while the latter is a more condensed version

with several WoS categories often being grouped under one Research Area.

Each journal is classified by WoS into one or more Categories and one or more Research Areas.

In case the journal is classified under multiple categories (or Research Areas) there is a

hierarchy of classifications. For example, a particular journal A may be classified as follows:

physics, materials science, chemistry. In this example, whether one searches for publications in

physics or chemistry or materials science, the same paper would be counted by WoS in the

search for each of these categories and hence leads to multiple counting of the same publication.

This is where the general error in enumerating publications in different Categories or Research

Areas creeps in.

To address this problem viz. to ensure that each publication is counted only once, irrespective of

the many categories it may be classified in, we have used the methodology described here. The

data of the publications from a country in a particular field (say Physics) are down loaded from

the WoS data base by selecting the relevant categories for the field (e.g. physics, optics,

spectroscopy etc. for physics). This data is downloaded in an HTML format and then imported

into MS Word. Macros are especially designed in MS Word by our team to extract the required

information from the data imported from the HTML files. For each publication the information

is collected under seven heads and transferred eventually to an excel data base for further

analysis. These seven heads are: 1. title of publication,2. journal name, 3. authors, 4. institutes, 5.

times cited, 6. publication year, 7. web of science categories and research areas. The WoS

categories information of the publication is used to identify the very first classification (in case of

multiple classifications) and the paper is so classified, while the remaining information is used

for other cataloguing and analyses purposes. The flow chart shown on the following page

depicts this process schematically.

In the example quoted earlier for multiple classification, the said paper which was classified by

WoS as physics, chemistry, materials science would be classified by us only under physics, as that

is its first classification. In case of a single classification of a journal there is of course no

ambiguity about where the particular paper belongs. Articles that have e.g. the classification

chemistry, physics, materials science would be classified as a chemistry publication and analysed

there.

While our detailed analysis is confined to the publications selected as detailed above, we also

give the total number of publications under a web of science category irrespective of the level

where the category appears in the classification of a publication. This is done to enable a check

between our numbers and those provided by other analysts for the same subject categories

where 1st place selection is not adopted.

The above compiled data includes the name of the publishing journal, and using this the impact

factor of the said journal is picked by the software from a separate database and included in the

information of the said paper. (Publications for which no Impact Factor was available were

excluded from the later analysis, though counted towards the total number of publications in a

category). Thus the information about the institution, impact factor, discipline and sub-

discipline, citations received, etc. are all available and can be compiled.


Run MACRO on all HTML files to extract

required info for seven data fields

TI SO AA TC PY WC SC

Articles sorted according to 1st place WoS category

Articles with X at 1st place classification -> selected for analysis

under X

Articles with X at 2nd or lower place -> analyzed elsewhere under respective 1st

place WC

Flowchart: Schematic Representation of Methodology

Import results into excel file

Parameters Selection: Step 1:

Country, Publication period SCI Expanded ESCI

Step 2: Articles/reviews only

Step 3: Select WoS Categories (WC) for each Field

Record of Distinct Publications having subject ‘X’ as sole category

or as one of its WC

Download HTML Files

Macro extracts 7 WoS *data fields for each article in word file. *Data fields: Title (TI), Journal name (SO), Author address (AA), Times cited (TC), Year published (PY), WoS Category (WC), Subject category (SC).


A consequence of sorting publications by 1st place classification, we noticed, is that many

publications emanating e.g. from Mathematics departments end up being classified as

Engineering or Mechanics or Thermodynamics or physics, depending on the primary

classification of the journal they are published in. We stress however that to the best of our

knowledge no publications are lost in this process of identifying the primary category as

described above. They are sometimes diverted to categories that the researcher may not

immediately identify himself with. e.g. a mathematician may find his publication listed under

engineering and a physicist may find his listed under chemistry.

We have preferred to use the WoS Categories for separation of a field into sub-fields for almost

all cases except for the case of Biology and its related disciplines where the WoS Research Areas

have been used for classification of publications. This was necessary since the number of WoS

Categories for Life Sciences was too large to be accommodated. Due to the diversity of subjects

covered under Life Sciences we have divided this field into three sub-categories and each is

analysed separately. The classification for these three sub-categories follows the Glanzel and

Schubert Classification1*. Details of the WoS Categories or Research Areas covered under each of

the focused fields are detailed in the next Section.

Section III: The fields Studied and the WoS Categories covered within each field

1. Physics

WoS Categories:

Astronomy and astrophysics; Physics, Particles and Fields; Optics; Spectroscopy; Physics,

Condensed Matter; Physics, Applied; Physics, Multidisciplinary; Physics, Atomic Molecular

and Chemical Physics, Fluids and Plasmas; Physics Mathematical; Physics Nuclear.

2. Chemistry

WoS Categories:

Physical Chemistry; Analytical Chemistry; Applied Chemistry; Inorganic & Nuclear

Chemistry; Organic Chemistry; Medicinal Chemistry; Polymer Science; Electrochemistry;

Crystallography; Multidisciplinary Chemistry

3. Mathematics

WoS Categories:

Mathematics; Applied Mathematics; Mathematics Interdisciplinary Applications; Statistics

and Probability.

4. Life Sciences

Category A: Agriculture and Environment

Category B: Biology and Biosciences

Category C: Pharmacological Research

Category A: Agriculture and Environment WoS Research Areas:

Agriculture, Biodiversity & Conservation, Demography, Entomology, Environmental

Sciences & Ecology, Fisheries, Food Science & Technology, Forestry, Marine & Freshwater

Biology, Oceanography, Veterinary Sciences

1* A new classification scheme of science fields and sub-fields designed for scientometric evaluation purposes.

W. Glanzel and A. Schubert, Scientometrics, 56 No.3. (2003) 357-367


Category B: Biology and Biosciences Wos Research Areas:

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Biophysics, Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology, Cell

Biology, Developmental Biology, Evolutionary Biology, Genetics & Heredity, Immunology,

Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Mathematical & Computational Biology, Microbiology,

Mycology, Parasitology, Reproductive Biology, Toxicology, Virology, Plant Sciences, Zoology

Category C: Pharmacological Research WoS Research Areas:

Integrative & Complementary Medicine, Legal Medicine, Pharmacology & Pharmacy,

Research & Experimental Medicine

5. Engineering

Engineering Electrical

WoS Categories:

Electrical/Electronics, Telecommunications, Automation Control System, Robotics,

Communication

Computer Science WoS Categories: Computer Science Theory Methods, Computer Science Information System, Computer

Science Artificial Intelligence, Computer Sciences Interdisciplinary, Computer Science

Software Engineering, Computer Science Cybernetics, Computer Science Hardware

Architecture

Mechanical Engineering WoS Categories Engineering Mechanical, Engineering Manufacturing, Engineering Industrial, Metallurgy

Engineering,, Engineering Aerospace, Marine Engineering, Ocean Engineering,

Thermodynamics, Instrumentation, Mechanics

Chemical Engineering WoS Categories Chemical Engineering, Energy Fuels

Civil and Structural Engineering WoS Categories: Civil Structural, Engineering Civil, Construction Building Technology, Transportation,

Transportation Science

Petroleum Mineral/ Mining Engineering WoS Categories Engineering Geological, Engineering Petroleum, Mineralogy, Mining Mineral Processing

6. Earth Sciences

WoS categories: Geology, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Mineralogy, Palaeontology, Geosciences

Multidisciplinary, Geography, Geography Physical

7. Materials Science, Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

WoS Categories: Biomaterials, Ceramics, MS Characterization & Testing, MS Coating & Films, Composites,

MS Multidisciplinary, MS Paper & Wood, MS Textiles); Nanoscience and nanotechnology


Section IV: List of the data compiled and analysed for each country and each field

The data for each country has been collected and analysed for each of the fields identified in

Section III, as described below.

1. Identification of total number of publications in a Web of Science category; separation into

1st place (A) and lower place classification. (as described in Section II). All subsequent

analysis performed on the set of publications (A).

2. Determination of year wise number of publications for the years 2014-2016 and average

growth rate.

3. Separation of publications into their various sub-fields (WoS categories or WoS Research

Areas) and identification of more active sub-fields

4. Impact Factor wise distribution of the publications and average impact factor per

publication.

5. Impact Factor wise analysis for each sub-field and identification of sub-fields with higher

I.F. publications

6. Identification of the ten most published-in journals for the field; their respective sub-

fields, and Impact Factors.

7. Identification of the ten highest Impact Factor journals in which publications have taken

place and the sub-fields they correspond to.

8. List of the ten highest Impact Factor papers published; the publishing journals and their

respective impact factors, the numbers of citations received by these papers and the

contributing institutions from the specific country.

9. Distribution of publications with respect to the numbers of received citations

10. Identification of institutions publishing the larger number of publications

11. Identification of a country’s main international collaborations in general, and the

collaborations within OIC countries, in particular.

12. Nature Science Index Data for Physics, Chemistry, Life Sciences and Earth Sciences

categories and estimating the country’s own contribution to elite publications

13. Discussion of International Patents awarded, if any, in areas of relevance to the subject

(2013-2015)

14. A summarized general discussion on both quantitative and qualitative aspects

Section V: Assessing the quality of published work

Before proceeding further, we stress that publication numbers, citations, impact factors,

while useful in a limited sense should not be used to make comparisons of quality

between various disciplines. Nor can the quality of scientific research be adequately

gauged by such parameters alone. In general, the more esoteric the area of research, the

less it is populated and consequently its related journals have lower impact factors and

publications therein also acquire lesser citations etc. This does not in general diminish the

quality of the research. But as a general rule, publishing in higher impact journals is a

more competitive and challenging proposition. Similarly, in general, higher numbers of

citations for a publication testify to the originality or significance of the work for a wider

audience. Thus average Impact Factors or average numbers of citations per paper have

different significance for different fields and even sub-fields and this must be borne in

mind when drawing inferences from the data.


Within the afore mentioned limitations two criteria have been adopted by us to gauge the

significance of publications. They are as follows:

a. Using the WoS indices: The first relies on the WoS indices, such as the impact factor of the

journals being published in and the frequency of publications in such journals. A

breakdown of the publications into various impact factor ranges has been presented for

each sub-discipline. Similarly, the WoS data has been analysed in terms of the number of

times a publication has been cited and the data for each country and discipline has been

analysed in terms of the number of publications that fall within various ‘times cited’

ranges.

b. Utilizing the Nature Science Index:

To compensate to some extent for the heavy reliance on quantitative factors obtained

from the WoS data base we have also used the Nature Science Index (NSI) as an indicator

of the qualitative standing of the published work. The NSI takes into consideration only

those publications appearing in an elite set of 68 journals that have been identified by

leading scientists as the most credible and important in their respective fields. These

journals and the associated categories are divided into the following four groups:

a. Physical Sciences

b. Life Sciences

c. Chemistry

d. Earth and Environmental Sciences

As such the NSI does not evaluate the work done in the fields of Mathematics or

Engineering. A list of the journals included in the NSI is available on the Nature Science

Index Website. Some details of the NSI assessment parameters are given here.

The Nature Index consists of 3 parts viz.

a. Article Count (AC),

b. Fractional Count (FC)

c. Weighed fractional Count (WFC).

A brief explanation of these indices is as follows:

A. Article Count (AC): The number of publications from a country or institute appearing in

the chosen set of journals over a given period of time. Each distinct publication is

counted as one, if one or more contributing authors are from a given country,

irrespective of the number of collaborating institutions and scientists.

B. Fractional Count (FC): It is used to estimate the contribution of the authors of a given

institution or country to the publications in which their names appear in Nature’s

selected journals.” It takes into account the percentage of authors from an institution or

country and the number of affiliated institutions per article. For computational purposes

all authors are considered to have contributed equally to the article. The maximum

combined FC for any article is 1.0”.

C. Weighed fractional Count (WFC): This count is generated from the FC by weighing the

articles in the selected Astrophysics and Astronomy journals by 0.2 to take into account

the relatively higher number of publications in these selected journals.

D. The ratio of FC to AC, i.e. ratio of Fractional Count to Article Count for the publications of

a given country in a given field has been used by us as estimating the contribution of a


given country’s authors to the said publications. e.g. An AC of 50 and FC of 30 would

yield FC/AC ratio equal to 0.6 and would indicate that the contribution of the said

country to these 50 publications is about 60% on the average.

Hence the NSI and the parameters derived from it give us an idea of the highest significance

work emanating from a country, defined as work that is published in this elite set of

journals. It also gives us, most importantly, an estimate of the actual contribution of the

concerned country in those publications. This becomes particularly important in the case of

publications emerging from very large international collaborations as e.g. in most cases in

experimental high energy physics and many cases in genetics.

Concluding Remarks

It is hoped that this effort on the part of COMSTECH will serve the desired purpose of

enabling researchers and policy makers in OIC countries to assess the status of their

research. Hopefully it will enable them to place the quantity and quality of work emanating

from their respective countries in a comparative context, both with respect to other OIC

countries and indeed with more scientifically developed countries. It is also hoped that

detailed information about institutions publishing in higher quality journals will enable

their counterparts in other OIC countries to form collaborations of mutual benefit. It is also

hoped that an objective reading of the Report will encourage researchers to note the

general disconnect between academic research and indigenization of technology in OIC

countries.

While we have made careful efforts to check the correctness of our data and its analysis, in

an enterprise of such extant and complexity some errors may still have escaped our notice.

We remain open to corrections in case any such errors are pointed out to us.

Dr. S. Khurshid Hasanain COMSTECH, Islamabad

(September 2017)


Relevant Indicators for Science & Technology

Source: ISI Web of Science

Publication trend of top publishing ten OIC countries over the past eleven years.

Country bars shown red are the countries analyzed in the current report. Note: Values are quoted as

percentages of GDP hence reflect the relative significance accorded to R&D by respective countries.

Turkey

Iran

Egypt Malaysia

S. Arabia

Pakistan

Tunisia

Nigeria Algeria

Indonesia 0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

20

06

20

07

20

08

20

09

20

10

20

11

20

12

20

13

20

14

20

15

20

16

Pu

blic

atio

sns

Topt Ten OIC Countries for Scientific Research Papers, 2006-2016

Turkey Iran

Egypt Malaysia

S. Arabia Pakistan

Tunisia Nigeria

Algeria Indonesia

0.1

5

0.0

7

0.2

1

0.1

0

0.0

4

0.2

0

0.6

8

0.5

8

0.1

3

0.0

8 0.3

3

0.0

4

0.4

3

0.1

7

0.3

0

0.1

3

1.2

6

0.6

7

0.7

1

0.4

2

0.2

2

0.1

7

0.2

9

0.4

7

0.0

7

0.5

4

0.2

7

0.1

2

0.6

4

1.0

1

0.4

8

0.2

0

0.7

0

0.00

0.30

0.60

0.90

1.20

1.50

Alb

ania

Alg

eria

Aze

rbai

jan

Bah

rain

Bru

nei

Dar

uss

alam

Bu

rkin

a Fa

so

Egyp

t

Gab

on

Gam

bia

, Th

e

Ind

on

esia

Iran

Iraq

Jord

an

Kaz

akh

stan

Ku

wai

t

Kyr

gyz

Re

pu

blic

Mal

aysi

a

Mal

i

Mo

rocc

o

Mo

zam

biq

ue

Nig

eria

Om

an

Pak

ista

n

Qat

ar

Sau

di A

rab

ia

Sen

egal

Togo

Tajik

ista

n

Tun

isia

Turk

ey

Uga

nd

a

Uzb

ekis

tan

Un

ited

Ara

b E

mir

ates

Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D (GERD), as % of GDP of 33 OIC Countries

Source : UNESCO,UIS Note: The graph reflects data from the latest available


Relevant Indicators for Science & Technology

Publications according to NATURE Index Data (1st November 2015 to October 2016)

# Indicators Iran Turkey Saudi Arabia Malaysia Egypt Pakistan Tunisia Kazakhstan

1 AC 235 339 456 123 147 162 19 24

2 FC 106.49 74.34 102.25 10.71 13.7 32.8 3.15 7.99

3 WFC 87.11 62.78 98.34 9.75 10.21 29.28 2.57 6.04

AC: Article Count Source: Nature Science

Index

FC: Fractional Count

WFC: Weighted Fractional Count

(These terms are defined in the Introduction of the Report)

11

5,4

44

11

1,6

01

80

,88

6

75

,06

2

74

,69

5

51

,54

4

31

,09

9

21

,17

7

15

,98

0

11

,40

0

11

,33

0

7,3

31

5,6

42

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000 Number of Full Time Researchers, 2015 or Latest

Ref: UNESCO, UIS -STI (Oct. 2016)


Economic Indicators 1. Population (millions) 79.47

2. GDP ($ millions) 415,339

3. Gross Expenditure on R&D (% of GDP) 0.33

4. Tertiary Expenditure (% of GDP) 0.86

5. Researchers per Million HC 1,250

6. Natural Sciences Researchers HC 15,611

7. Engineering and Technology Researchers HC 24,858

8. Medical & Health Science Researchers HC 20,173

9. Agricultural Sciences Researchers HC 11,090

10. High-technology exports (current US$) millions 652.6

11. High-tech exports (% of manufactured exports) 4.12

12. Tertiary Enrolment 4,802,721

13. Total Patents Granted by Technology (2015) 35

Publications in Selected Fields

Research Areas / Subjects Total

Publications

Distinct

Publications

Life Sciences 24,697 20,120

Cat-A 7,089

Cat-B 9,632

Cat-C 3,399

Chemistry 18,971 16,257

Material Science and Nano-sciences 10,399 6,171

Physics 11,347 5,947

Mathematics 5,405 4,128

Engineering 30,225 25,444

Earth Sciences 2,494 1,650

TOTAL 103,538 79,717


Total publications in life sciences

(24,697)

Distinct publications in life sciences (20,120)

Category A: 7,089

(Agriculture and environment)

Category C: 3,399

(Pharmacological research)

Category B: 9,632

(Biology & biological siences)

Publications in life sciences lower than 1st place in research area (4,577)

Analyzed under

respective field at 1st

place

I. Life Sciences

- Life Sciences Category A (Agriculture and Environment)

The scheme used for identifying the publications that are selected as belonging to the domain of

Life Sciences Category A is shown in Scheme 1.1.1. This category and its various sub divisions have

been defined in the introduction. Searching in the Web of Science (WoS) we find a total of 7,089

publications from Iran in the period 2014-2016 that have any of these sub-division as the 1st listed

WoS category.

Scheme 1.1.1: Scheme for Identifying the Publications in the Field of Life Sciences.

A summary of the data for Category A is as follows:

The total number of publications increases from 2,105 in 2014 to 2,687 in 2016, exhibiting

a medium level average increase of almost 28% (Figure 1.1.1).

Figure 1.1.1: Year wise Trend of Publications in Category A

The largest share of publications is in the category “Agriculture” which accounts for 33% of

all publications (Figure 1.1.2). The next most active areas are those of “Environment and

Ecology” with about 30%, and “Food Sciences” with about 14.5%.

2105 2297

2687

0

400

800

1200

1600

2000

2400

2800

3200

2014 2015 2016

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Years


Figure 1.1.2: Research Area wise Publications in Category A

The journals in which publications have appeared have impact factors (I.F.) lying between

zero and 18. In all 461 publications are in journals for which I.F. were not available at the ISI

list of impact factors. Of the remaining, 41% lie in the I.F. range 0-1; 31% lie between 1-2;

12% lie between 2-3, while only about 8.5% have I.F>3. (Figure 1.1.3).

About 1.93% (137) of total publications belong to very high impact journals which is an

indicator of quality work published from Isfahan University, Tehran University, Mashhad

University, Tarbiat Modares University, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan University of

Medical Sciences.

Figure 1.1.3: Impact Factor wise Distribution of Publications

The average impact factor for Life Sciences Category A publications is calculated to be 1.40

which is on the lower side, comparatively.

The table 1.1.1. illustrate the distribution of publication in various categories with respect

to I.F. The publications in the highest range (5-18) are mainly contributed by Agriculture

(48), environmental sciences & ecology (46), followed by food science & technology (39).

From Table 1.1.1., Iran is publishing a significant number of articles in both national and

international journals specially in the area of agriculture. In terms of quality work

2333 2153

1023

437 396 379 157 79 66 60 6

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500 N

o. o

f P

ub

licat

ion

s

Research Areas

2910

2232

872

477

131 6 0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

0 <n< 1 1 ≤n< 2 2 ≤n< 3 3 ≤n< 4 4 ≤n< 7 7 ≤n< 18

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns

Impact Factor(n) 461 Publications belong to Journals having no Impact Factor

Avg. Impact Factor: 1.40


environmental sciences & ecology is an area which publishes 9% of its total publications in

medium to high impact journals (2-18).

Table 1.1.1: Publications w.r.t. Sub-fields and Impact Factor (n)

Sub-fields 0<n<1 1≤n<2 2≤n<3 3≤n<4 4≤n<7 7≤n<18

Agriculture 1044 832 238 109 48 -

Biodiversity & Conservation 2 42 7 24 2 1

Entomology 167 175 6 2 - - Environ. Sci. & Ecology 599 610 369 215 41 5

Fisheries 310 83 7 36 1 -

Food Sci. & Tech. 293 357 173 85 39 -

Forestry 77 59 20 1 - -

Marine & Freshwater Bio. 26 27 8 5 - -

Oceanography 43 12 3 5 - -

Veterinary Sciences 327 33 9 - - -

Zoology 4 2 - - - -

The largest number of papers for the top categories lie in the impact factor ranges 0-1

and 1-2, almost equally.

Overall the largest number of publications (259) appears in the Journal of Agriculture with

I.F. 0.816, followed by 180 in the Iranian Journal of Fisheries Sciences with I.F. of 0.393.

Almost same numbers (178) are in a journal of environmental science with I.F. of 1.633.

(Table 1.1.2).

Table 1.1.2: Top Ten Journals w.r.t Number of Published Items

# Journals I.F. Articles

1 Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology 0.816 259

2 Iranian Journal of Fisheries Sciences 0.393 180

3 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 1.633 178

4 Journal of Environmental Health Science and Engineering 0.129 165

5 Journal of Food Science and Technology-Mysore 1.241 153

6 International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology 2.344 151

7 Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science 1.118 114

8 Iranian Journal of Veterinary Research 0.167 100

9 International Journal of Environmental Research 0.992 95

With regard to publications in the highest impact journals, these are mostly in the fields of

Environment, Ecology, Climate Change, with a large number (9) in Food Science (Table

1.1.3).

Table 1.1.3: Top Ten Journals w.r.t Impact Factor


1 Nature Climate Change 17.184 1

2 Ecology Letters 10.772 1

3 Environmental Health Perspectives 8.443 1

4 Land Degradation & Development 8.145 2


5 Conservation Letters 7.126 1

6 Water Research 5.991 4

7 Remote Sensing of Environment 5.881 3

8 Global Ecology and Biogeography 5.840 1

9 Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 5.492 9

10 Environmental Science & Technology 5.393 3

The top ten highest impact papers are contributed by various institutions including research centres and universities as shown in Table 1.1.4. The major high impact papers are largely from the area of Water Research and problems related to Environment.

Table 1.1.4: List of Ten High Impact Papers (Showing Iranian Institutions Only)

# Title, Year, Journal (I.F.), Citations. Affiliations from Iran

1. Effects of long-term variability on projections of twenty-first-

century dynamic sea level, 2015, NATURE CLIMATE

CHANGE (17.184), 14.

Univ Isfahan, Dept Phys,

Esfahan.

2. Evolutionary consequences of ecological factors: pollinator

reliability predicts mating-system traits of a perennial plant,

2016, ECOLOGY LETTERS (10.772), 1.

Univ Tehran, Tehran, Iran

3.

Environmental Pollution: An Under-recognized Threat to

Children's Health, Especially in Low- and Middle-Income

Countries, 2016, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

PERSPECTIVES (8.443), 4.

Mashhad Univ Med Sci;

Ghaem Hosp; Mashhad,

Iran.

4. Quantitative Mapping and Assessment of Environmentally

Sensitive Areas to Desertification in Central Iran, 2016,

LAND DEGRADATION & DEVELOPMENT (8.145), 14.

Isfahan Univ Technol;

Esfahan, Iran.

5.

The impact of development plans on hydrological changes in

the shazand watershed, iran, 2016, LAND DEGRADATION &

DEVELOPMENT (8.145), 4.

Tarbiat Modares Univ,

Mazandaran Prov.; Gorgan

Univ Agr Sci & Nat

Resources, Golestan Provin.

6.

Protecting the Forests While Allowing Removal of Damaged Trees may Imperil Saproxylic Insect Biodiversity in the

Hyrcanian Beech Forests of Iran, 2016, CONSERVATION

LETTERS (7.126), 1.

Res Inst Forests & Rangelands, Tehran; Agr &

Nat Resources Res Ctr.

Mazandaran, Iran.

7.

The investigation of the LED-activated FeFNS-TiO2

nanocatalyst for photocatalytic degradation and

mineralization of organophosphate pesticides in water,

2014, WATER RESEARCH (5.991), 24.

Tarbiat Modares Univ,

Tehran; Alborz Univ Med

Sci,, Karaj, Iran.

8. Laccase immobilized manganese ferrite nanoparticle:

Synthesis and LSSVM intelligent modeling of decolorization,

2014, WATER RESEARCH (5.991), 18.

Inst Color Sci & Technol,

Tehran, Iran.

9. A review on polyamide thin film nanocomposite (TFN)

membranes: History, applications, challenges and

approaches, 2015, WATER RESEARCH (5.991), 54.

Islamic Azad Univ,

Gachsaran, Iran

10. Long-term inactivation of bacteriophage PRD1 as a function of

temperature, pH, sodium and calcium concentration, 2016 , WATER

RESEARCH (5.991), 0.

Zanjan Univ Med Sci, Zanjan, Iran

Iran.


With regard to the distribution of publications in terms of received citations, (Figure 1.1.4)

we find almost 45% with zero citations up till the time of our search (May 2017); 31% with

citations between 1 and 2; 14% with citations between 3 and 5; and about 9% with citations

between 5 and 20. There are 56 papers (<1%) with citations between 20 and 100.

Average citation per paper is 2.08 which is on the low side, comparatively.

Figure 1.1.4: Distribution of Publications w.r.t. Number of Citations Received

As noted earlier the large number of zero citations can be partly attributed to many of the

papers published in 2016 (2687) some of whom may not have received citations as yet.

There is a small fraction (~3%) that has been cited over 10 times and can be considered as

having created received high level of attention.

- Life Sciences Category B (Biology and Biological Sciences)


Life sciences is shown in Scheme 1.1.1. This field, its categories and sub-fields have been defined in

section of introduction. Searching in the Web of Science (WoS) we find a total of 9,632 publications

from Iran in the period 2014-2016 that have any of these sub-divisions as the 1st listed WoS

category.

A summary of the data refined & analyzed for category B (Biology and Biosciences) is as follows:

The total number of publications increases from 2,585 in 2014 to 4,009 in 2016, exhibiting

a high growth rate of 55% (Figure 1.1.5).

Figure 1.1.5: Year wise Trend of Publications in Category B

The largest share of publications is in the category “Biochemistry and Molecular Biology”

which accounts for 31% of all publications (Figure 1.1.6). The next most active areas are

those of Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology 13.5%, Plant Sciences 11.9%,

Microbiology 7% and Cell Biology 5.6%, respectively.

2184

1013

464 186

56 0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

1-2 3-5 5 < n ≤ 10 10 < n ≤ 20 20 < n ≤ 100 No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns

Excluding zero citations received by (3186) Times Cited

2585 3038

4009

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

2014 2015 2016

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Years


Figure 1.1.6: Research Area wise Publications in Category B


zero and 35. In all, 1016 publications are in journals for which I.F. were not available at the

ISI list of impact factors. Of the remaining, 28.7% lie in the I.F. range 0-1; 47% lie between

1and 3; 10% lie between 3 and 5; while 2.6% lie in the range 5<I.F.<35 (Figure 1.1.7).


Considering the preceding data on distribution of publications with respect to I.F. we find

that about 13.5% of the publications are in journals with I.F. higher than 3 is an indicator of

a smaller volume of work being published in higher impact journals.

The average impact factor for Life Sciences Category B publications is calculated to be 1.87

which is on the lower side, comparatively.

Table 1.1.5 illustrate the distribution of publications in various categories with respect to

I.F. The publications in the highest ranges (5-35) are mainly contributed by Biophysics

(88), Biochemistry and Mol. Bio. (50), Genetics (34), Immunology (23) and Biotechnology

(20).

The maximum number of papers for Biochemistry and Mol. Bio. are in the I.F. range 1-2; for

Biotechnology and Microbiology for the range 2-3; for Plant Sciences 0-1; for Microbiology

0-1, and for Cell Biology in the range 1-2, respectively.

2987

1304

1152 674 541 540 482 434 385 292 284 137 106 99 90 76 32 17

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500 N

o. o

f P

ub

licat

ion

s

Research Areas

2772 2667

1885

857

175 99 132 18 11 0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

0 <n≤1 1 <n≤2 2 <n≤3 3 <n≤4 4 <n≤5 5 <n≤ 7 7 <n≤10 10 <n≤20

20 <n≤35

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns





Sub-fields 0<n≤1 1<n≤2 2<n≤3 3<n≤4 4<n≤5 5<n≤7 7<n≤10 10<n≤35

Biochem & Mol. Bio 350 870 632 537 41 36 8 6

Biotech & App.

Microbio 303 195 404 42 17 2 16 2

Plant Sciences 518 425 75 62 29 7 2 2

Microbio 488 45 83 7 32 - 2 1

Cell Bio 58 282 102 51 32 4 7 1

Immunology 106 200 155 28 13 17 4 2

Zoology 417 56 6 - - - - -

Life Sciences &

Biomed 99 232 47 4 2 2 2 -

Parasitology 224 69 81 10 - - 1 -

Biophysics 41 26 54 81 - - 88 -

Genetics & Heredity 15 79 122 12 3 17 2 15

Toxicology 34 52 42 9 - - - -

Virology 10 45 40 5 4 - - -

Mycology 32 35 9 1 - 12 - -

Math & Comp. Bio 72 10 8 - - - - -

Reproductive Bio - 32 8 - - - - -

Developmental Bio 5 5 13 6 - 2 - -

Evolutionary Bio

9 4 2 2 - - -

Overall the largest number of publications (456) appears in a local journal of Microbiology

with I.F. of 0.655. The next largest number (204) is in an international journal in the field of

Biochemistry with I.F. of 3.138, followed by 189 papers in a multidisciplinary journal in the

areas of cell biology, biochemistry etc. The next high numbers are in a journal of plant

sciences (187) with I.F. of 0.313 and a local journal of parasitology with impact factor of

0.686 (Table 1.1.6).



1. Jundishapur Journal of Microbiology 0.655 456

2. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 3.138 204

3. Cell Journal 1.275 189

4. Journal of Essential Oil Bearing Plants 0.313 187

5. Iranian Journal of Parasitology 0.686 178

6. Zootaxa 0.994 165

7. Cellular and Molecular Biology 0.605 117

8. Biomed Research International 2.134 101

9. Journal of Plant Nutrition 0.510 95

10. Journal of Chromatography A 3.926 90


With regard to publications in the highest impact journals, largest number of papers

appears in the fields of Genetics, Biochemistry, Biophysics, Immunology, and biotechnology

(Table 1.1.7).



1. Nature Genetics 31.616 9

2. Cell 28.710 1

3. Immunity 24.082 1

4. Science Translational Medicine 16.264 1

5. Clinical Microbiology Reviews 16.187 1

6. Molecular Cell 13.958 1

7. Molecular Biology and Evolution 13.649 1

8. Molecular Psychiatry 13.314 1

9. Trends in Biotechnology 12.065 2

10. Journal of Experimental Medicine 11.240 1

The top ten highest impact papers are all from the field of Genetics and contributed by

various institutions in particular Shahid Beheshti and Isfahan Universities, as shown in

Table 1.1.8.



1. Identification of low-frequency and rare sequence variants

associated with elevated or reduced risk of type 2 diabetes,

2014, NATURE GENETICS (31.616), 89.

Shahid Beheshti Univ .

Tehran.

2. JAGN1 deficiency causes aberrant myeloid cell homeostasis

and congenital neutropenia, 2014, NATURE GENETICS

(31.616), 21.

Isfahan Univ Med Sci.

Esfahan; Univ Tehran Med

Sci. Tehran, Iran.

3. Mutations in PLK4, encoding a master regulator of

centriole biogenesis, cause microcephaly, growth failure

and retinopathy, 2014, NATURE GENETICS (3.1616), 41.

Najmabadi Pathol &

Genet Ctr, Tehran.

4. A common variant mapping to CACNA1A is associated with

susceptibility to exfoliation syndrome, 2015, NATURE

GENETICS (31.616), 11.

Shahid Beheshti Univ Med

Sci,; Labbafinejad Med Ctr,

Tehran.

5. Biallelic mutations in SNX14 cause a syndromic form of

cerebellar atrophy and lysosome-autophagosome

dysfunction, 2015, NATURE GENETICS (31.616), 16.

Mashhad Med Genet

Counseling Ctr, Mashhad,

6. Association analyses identify 38 susceptibility loci for

inflammatory bowel disease and highlight shared genetic

risk across populations,2015, NATURE GENETICS

(31.616), 135.

Shariati Hosp, Digest Dis

Res Inst, Tehran; Emam

Hosp, Tehran, Iran


With regard to the distribution of publications in terms of received citations, we find almost 41% with zero citations up till the time of our search (May 2017); about 30% with citations between 1 and 2; 15% with citations between 3 and 5; 8.3% with citations between 5 and 10; and 5% with citations between 10 and 400 (Figure 1.1.8). There are 4 papers with citations between 100 and 400.

Average citation per paper is found to be 2.62 which is on the lower side as compared to other OIC countries.


papers published in 2016 that may not have received citations as yet. There is a significant

fraction (~5%) that has been cited over 10 times indicating that a significant fraction of the

total published articles has received serious attention.

Figure 1.1.8: Publications w.r.t. Number of Citations Received

- Life Sciences Category C (Pharmacological Research)


Biosciences Category C is shown in Scheme 1.1.1. This category and its various sub divisions have

been defined in the introduction. Searching in the Web of Science (WoS) we find a total of 3,399

publications from Iran in the period 2014-2016 that have any of these sub-divisions as the 1st listed

WoS category.

A summary of the data for Category C is as follows:

2933

1499

800 445

40 4 0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

1 <n≤2 3 <n≤5 5 <n≤10 10 <n≤30 30 <n≤100 100 <n≤400

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns


7. Variants with large effects on blood lipids and the role of

cholesterol and triglycerides in coronary disease, 2016,

NATURE GENETICS ( 31.616), 19

Shahid Beheshti Univ Med

Sci, Tehran

8. The genetics of blood pressure regulation and its target

organs from association studies in 342,415 individuals,

2016, NATURE GENETICS (31.616), 11.

Isfahan Univ Med Sci,

Esfahan

9. Genome-wide analysis identifies 12 loci influencing human

reproductive behavior, 2016, NATURE GENETICS

(31.616), 2.

Isfahan Univ Med Sci,

Esfahan

10. Multilayered Genetic and Omics Dissection of Mitochondrial

Activity in a Mouse Reference Population,2014, CELL

(28.710), 49

Shiraz Univ Med Sci,

Shiraz


The total number of publications increases from 645 in 2014 to 1,818 in 2016, exhibiting a

very high level average increase of almost 182% (Figure 1.1.9).

Figure 1.1.9: Year wise Trend of Publications in Category C

The largest share of publications is in the category “Pharmacology & Pharmacy” which

accounts for 52% of all publications (Figure 1.1.10). The next most active areas are those of

“Research and Experimental Medicine” about 41%, and “Integrative & Complementary

Medicine” with about 6.14%.

Figure 1.1.10: Research Area wise Publications in Category C


zero and 20. In all 1281 publications are in journals for which I.F. were not available at the

ISI list of impact factors and are considered as zero I.F. Of the remaining, 7.5% lie in the I.F.

range 0-1; 37% lie between 1and 2; 10.65% lie between 2-3, while only about 7.2% have

I.F>3 (Figure 1.1.11).

The largest number of papers are published in the Impact Factor range between 1 to 2

which shows a large volume of work being published in medium impact journals.


645

936

1,818

-

400

800

1,200

1,600

2,000

2014 2015 2016

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Years

1772

1382

209 36

0

500

1000

1500

2000

Pharmacology & Pharmacy

Research & Experimental Medicine

Integrative & Complementary

Medicine

Legal Medicine No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Research Areas

257

1255

362 217

27 0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

0 <n< 1 1 ≤n< 2 2 ≤n< 3 3 ≤n< 5 5 ≤n< 20

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns




The average impact factor for Life Sciences Category C publications is calculated to be 1.80

which is of medium level comparatively.

Table 1.1.9 illustrate the distribution of publications in various categories with respect to

I.F. The publications in the highest ranges (5-20) are mainly contributed by Pharmacology &

Pharmacy.

The largest number of papers for the top categories lie in the impact factor ranges from

1-2 and 2-3.


Sub-fields 0<n<1 1≤n<2 2≤n<3 3≤n<5 5≤n<20

Pharmacology & Pharmacy 177 649 223 213 27

Research & Experimental Med. 17 447 135 4 -

Integrative & Complementary Med. 42 148 - - -

Legal Medicine 21 11 4 - -

Overall the largest number of publications (385) appears in the Iranian Journal of

Pharmaceutical Research with I.F. 1.352, followed by 366 in the Iranian Journal of Basic

Medical Sciences with I.F. of 1.220. In the field of Pharmaceutical Research (102) are

published in Daru-Journal of Pharmaceutical sciences with I.F. of 1.654 (Table 1.1.10).

Table 1.1.10 shows that large part of the work in pharmacy and medical sciences is mainly

published in local Iranian journals.

Table 1.1.10: Top Ten Journals w.r.t. Number of Published Items


1 Iranian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research 1.352 385

2 Iranian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences 1.220 366

3 Daru-Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 1.654 102

4 European Journal of Pharmacology 2.730 72

5 International Journal of Pharmaceutics 3.994 57

6 Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy 2.326 54

7 Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research 0.543 51

8 Life Sciences 2.685 49

9 Complementary Therapies in Medicine 1.935 30

10 Current Pharmaceutical Design 3.052 32

With regard to publications in the highest impact journals, these are mostly in the fields of

Pharmacy and pharmacology, with maximum publications (11) on drug delivery systems.

(Table 1.1.11).



1 Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 15.606 1

2 Trends in Pharmacological Sciences 11.840 1

3 Pharmacology & Therapeutics 11.000 1

4 Drug Resistance Updates 7.950 1

5 Drug Discovery Today 5.625 7


6 Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery 5.434 11

7 Critical Reviews in Therapeutic Drug Carrier Systems 5.367 2

8 British Journal of Pharmacology 5.259 1

9 Biochemical Pharmacology 5.091 2

10 Antiviral Research 4.909 1

The top ten highest impact papers are contributed by various institutions including research centres and universities as shown in Table 1.1.12. The major high impact papers are largely from the area of drug discovery, designing and delivery.

Table 1.1.12. List of Ten Hhigh Impact Papers (Showing Iranian Institutions Only)


1

Bacteriophages and phage-inspired nanocarriers for

targeted delivery of therapeutic cargos, 2016,

ADVANCED DRUG DELIVERY REVIEWS (15.606), 5.

Iran Univ Med Sci, Tehran;

Pasteur Inst Iran, Tehran;

Beheshti Univ, Tehran, Iran.

2

Tightrope or Slackline? The Neuroscience of

Psychoactive Substances, 2016, TRENDS IN

PHARMACOLOGICAL SCIENCES (11.840), 0.

Shefa Neurosci Res Ctr, Tehran,

Iran.

3

Targeting the mevalonate cascade as a new

therapeutic approach in heart disease, cancer and

pulmonary disease, 2014, PHARMACOLOGY &

THERAPEUTICS (11.000), 30.

Islamic Azad Univ, Tabriz;

Zahedan Univ Med Sci,

Zahedan; Shiraz Univ Med Sci,

Shiraz, Iran.

4

Could drugs inhibiting the mevalonate pathway also

target cancer stem cells?, 2016,

DRUG RESISTANCE UPDATES (7.950), 6.

Isfahan Univ Med Sci, Esfahan;

Shiraz Univ Med Sci, Shiraz,

Iran.

5 Cubosomes: remarkable drug delivery potential,

2016, DRUG DISCOVERY TODAY (5.625), 7.

Zanjan Univ Med Sci, Zanjan,

Iran

6

Cancer stem cells, cancer-initiating cells and methods

for their detection, 2016

DRUG DISCOVERY TODAY (5.625), 7.

Shiraz Med Univ, Ctr Hlth

Policy Res, Shiraz, Iran.

7

Alternative carriers in dry powder inhaler

formulations, 2014, DRUG DISCOVERY TODAY

(5.625), 6.

Tabriz Univ Med Sci, Tabriz;

Student Res Comm, Res Ctr

Pharmaceut Nanotechnol,,

Tabriz. Iran

8

The use of cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors for

improvement of efficacy of radiotherapy in cancers,

2014, DRUG DISCOVERY TODAY (5.625), 4.

Mazandaran Univ Med Sci, Sari,

Iran.

9

DrugMiner: comparative analysis of machine

learning algorithms for prediction of potential

druggable proteins,2016, DRUG DISCOVERY TODAY

(5.625), 3.

Tabriz Univ Med Sci, RCPN,

Tabriz; Univ Tehran Med Sci,

Tehran, Iran

10

Injectable hydrogel-based drug delivery systems for

local cancer therapy, 2016, DRUG DISCOVERY

TODAY (5.625), 1.

Stem Cell Technol Res Ctr,

Tehran; Univ Tehran Med Sci,

Sch Adv Technol Med, Tehran,

Iran.

With regard to the distribution of publications in terms of received citations, (Figure 1.1.12)

we find almost 51% with zero citations up till the time of our search (May 2017); 24.9%

with citations between 1 and 2; 13% with citations between 3 and 5; and about 2.6% with

citations between 5 and 20. There are 22 papers (<1%) with citations between 20 and 35.


Average citation per paper is found to be 1.95 which is on the lower side, comparatively.

Figure 1.1.12: Publications w.r.t. Number of Citations Received


papers published in 2016 (1818) some of whom may not have received citations as yet.

There is a small fraction (~3%) that has been cited over 10 times and can be considered as

having received high level of attention.

Institutions and International Collaboration of Iran in the field of Life Sciences i.e.,

Cat- A, Cat-B, Cat-C are analyzed cumulatively.

With regard to the no. of publications authored or co-authored by faculty of an institution

(Figure 1.1.13), Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences including all branches appears

at the top with 20% of its publications followed by Tehran University of Medical Science

with (sole or joint) authorship in about 12% of the total publications. University of Tehran

(11.6%), Tarbiat Modares University (7.3%), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science

(5.9%), Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (4.5%), Shiraz University (4.2%), Ferdowsi

University Mashhad (4.1%) are the top contributors.

Figure 1.1.13: Institutions with Largest Number of Publications.

In terms of international collaborations in all three categories, Iran has the largest number

of publications with USA, followed by Germany, Australia, Canada and Malaysia (Figure

1.1.14, Left). The extent of collaborations is generally small being a maximum of 4.9% for

the US.

847

453

240 88

17 5 0

200

400

600

800

1000

1 -2 3 -5 5 -10 10 <n≤ 20 20 <n≤ 30 30 <n≤ 35 No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns


4025

2349 2277

1484 1205

918 849 834 752 727

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Institutions


With regard to Iran’s collaborations within OIC states (Figure 1.1.14, Right) its main partner

in these categories is Malaysia with which it shares in 1.91% of all publications, while it has

significantly less collaborations with the other OIC countries e.g. Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi

Arabia and Egypt. etc

Figure 1.1.14: International Collaborations (Left) and OIC States (Right)

Nature Science Index:

Considering the data for Life Sciences (Table 1.1.13) it is noticeable from Iran’s FC/AC ratio of

almost 0.14, that Iran’s own scientists are contributing a comparatively high share of about 14% in

its elite publications. The table also shows that the University of Tehran is contributing the highest

number of high quality publications in elite journals but with less Iranian contribution. It is

apparent from the consideration of AC and FC of Tarbiat Modares University that a large part of its

high quality work is mainly contributed by Iranian scientists in collaborative ventures, while that of

Isfahan University is generally more local in its contributions. However in Biology the prominence of

these institutions, viz. UT, TMU, FUM, IUT and SUT is evident both in terms of quality.

Table 1.1.13: Iran: Nature Science Index – Biology (2016)

Iran Article Count (AC) Fractional Count (FC)

Life Sciences 27 3.87

Top Institutions contributing to Nature Index- Biology

Tarbiat Modares University (TMU) 2 1.03

University of Tehran (UT) 5 0.77

Isfahan University of Technology (IUT) 1 0.5

Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM) 1 0.33

Sharif University of Technology (SUT) 1 0.04

Source: https://www.natureindex.com/

Patents Granted:

The scope of Iran’s industrial research in the field of Life Sciences is reflected in the data given in

Table 1.1.14. A relatively small number of patents are mainly granted in the area of Medical

Sciences (12), followed by Pharmacy (11) in the three year period i.e., from 2013 to 2015).

Table 1.1.14: Iran: List of Patents Granted by Technology

# Life Sciences Technology 2013 2014 2015 Sum

1 Category B Biotechnology - - 1 1

2 Category C Pharmaceuticals 2 5 4 11

3 Category C Medical technology 5 4 3 12 Source: http://www.wipo.int/istats/

977

469 440 413 386

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Countries

386

177

62 52 44

0

100

200

300

400

500

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Countries

https://www.natureindex.com/

http://www.wipo.int/


Discussion:

Iran’s research in this area (Agriculture & Environment) of Life Sciences that covers more

applied areas, such as agriculture and environment, has shown a good average increase of

about 28% in the past three years. While about 9% publications are in journals with good

and high impact factor range, there is a large proportion (48%) of papers with low (<1) or

non-available impact factors. Agriculture, and Environment and Ecology respectively, are

clearly the most active areas of publication with the higher impact publications being

contributed mostly by the latter. While Islamic Azad Universities as a group have the

largest share of publications, University of Tehran is the leading single institution. There

are a very large proportion of publications (45%) with zero citations, and 3% of total

publications have received good citation between 10 and 100.

Iran’s research in the area of Biosciences has shown a rapid increase with about 55%

increase in the past three years. However there is clearly a large proportion of publications

in journals with near zero or low impact factor range of <1. This is reflected in the average

I.F. of 1.87. The number of publications in the range IF>3 is significant (13.5%) but on the

low side. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is clearly the most active area of research

and its presence is also noticeable in the publications in the higher impact journals. The top

publications in terms of impact factor are predominantly in the field of Genetics. We note

that while there are a very large proportion of publications (41%) with zero citations,

there are on the other hand about 5% publications that have between 10 and 400 citations.

This suggests a wide range in the importance and topicality of the themes being pursued..

Islamic Azad University appears on top with largest no. of publications however we note

that it is an umbrella under which a number of campuses operate in different cities. As

individual entities Tehran University of Medical Sciences and University of Tehran are

most productive in this category.

Iran’s research in the area of Pharmacological Research, that covers more applied areas,

such as Pharmacology & Pharmacy, has shown a very high average increase of about 182%

in the past three years. While about 7.2% publications are in journals with good and high

impact factor range, there is a large proportion (45%) of papers with low (<1) or non-

available impact factors. “Pharmacology & Pharmacy” and “Research & Experimental

Medicine” respectively, are clearly the most active areas of publication with the higher

impact publications. While Tehran University of Medical Sciences have the largest share of

publications, while Islamic Azad University as a group is the second leading institution in

this area of research. We note that while there is a very large proportion of publications

(51%) with zero citations, there are about 3% publications that have between 10 and 35

citations.

Iran’s collaborations in Life Sciences are on the low side with the largest being that with US

(4.9%), while within OIC Malaysia shares in about 2% of the total publications.


II. Chemistry

The scheme for identifying the publications that are selected as belonging to the domain of

Chemistry and its various sub divisions is defined in Scheme 1.2.1. Searching in the Web of Science

(WoS) we find a total of 18,971 publications from Iran in the period 2014-2016 that are listed

under the various categories of Chemistry. Using our criterion of assigning a publication to the 1st

listed category, a total of 16,257 distinct publications are identified as belonging to any of the fields

of Chemistry as outlined in Scheme 1.2.1. The remaining 2,714 publications are counted and

analysed against their respective 1st position WoS categories.

Scheme 1.2.1: Scheme for Identifying the Publications in the Field of Chemistry

The following data is based on above scheme.

The total number of publications in Chemistry are shown in Figure 1.2.1, increasing from

4,746 to 5,964, exhibiting a good growth rate of 25.6% in the 3-year period.

Figure 1.2.1: Year wise Trend of Publications in Chemistry

The largest share of publications is in the category “Multidisciplinary Chemistry” (5920)

which accounts for 36.5% of all publications. The next most active areas are those of

Physical Chemistry (3531), Analytical Chemistry (1411), Applied Chemistry (1285) and

Polymer Chemistry (1099), with 21.7%, 8.6%, 8% and 6.7% shares of total publications,

respectively (Figure 1.2.2).

4,746

5,547 5,964

-

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

2014 2015 2016

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Years

Total Publications in Chemistry

(18,971)

Distinct publications in Chemistry at 1st Place in

WC (16,257)

Selected for further analysis

Publications in chemistry lower than 1st place in WC

(2,714)

Analyzed under respective field at

1st place


Figure 1.2.2: Research Area wise Publications in Chemistry

The journals in which publications have appeared have impact factors lying between zero

and 38.8 (Figure 1.2.3). In all, 616 publications are in journals for which I.F. were not

available at the ISI list of impact factors. Of the remaining, 30% lie in the rage of I.F. 3 and 5;

47% lie in the range of I.F. 1 and 3 while 16.5% lie in the range 0<IF<1.


About 2.0% of publications have I.F. lying between 5 and 10, while 66 (0.4%) publications

have I.F. higher than 10 (Figure 1.2.3). Considering the preceding data on distribution of

publications w.r.t I.F. it is evident that about one third of all Chemistry publications are in

journals with I.F. of 3 and higher which is an indicator of the work being published in higher

impact journals and a significant number (2.4%) in the very high impact journals.

The average impact factor for all Chemistry publications is calculated to be 2.39 comparable

to the most of other OIC countries.

Table 1.2.1 illustrates the distribution of publications in various categories of Chemistry

with respect to Impact Factor. The publications in the highest ranges are mainly contributed

by Chemistry Multidisciplinary, Physical Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry. The maximum

number of papers for Multidisciplinary Chemistry are in the I.F. range 1-2, for Physical

5920

3531

1411 1285 1099 1057 774 661 449 70

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Research Areas

2681

5058

2616

3291

1594

335 53 13

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

0 <n≤ 1 1 <n< 2 2<n< 3 3 <n< 4 4 <n< 5 5 <n< 10 10 <n< 20 n> 20

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns

Impact Factor (n) 616 Publications belong to Journals having no Impact Factor



Chemistry in the range 3-4, for Analytical Chemistry in the range 4-5, and for

Electrochemistry in the I.F. range of 4-5.


Sub-fields 0<n≤1 1<n<2 2<n<3 3<n<4 4<n<5 5<n<10 10<n<20 n>20

Chemistry,

Multidisciplinary 1068 2246 126 1782 386 97 39 9

Chemistry, Physical 263 773 942 1097 194 155 5 1

Chemistry, Analytical 194 273 343 39 515 43 - -

Chemistry, Applied 174 321 369 134 247 7 - -

Polymer Science 174 739 57 100 1 23 - 3

Chemistry, Inorganic &

Nuclear 380 354 230 - 84 - 9 -

Chemistry, Organic 221 135 348 26 13 9 - -

Chemistry, Medicinal 100 89 145 47 1 1 - -

Electrochemistry 67 109 53 66 153 - - -

Crystallography 40 19 3 - - - - -

Considering the data of (Table 1.2.2) the largest number of publications (1442) appears in

RSC Advances with an I.F. of 3.29, while the next higher number appears in Journal of

Iranian Chemical Society with impact factor of 1.3. Both are multidisciplinary journals. The

third largest publications (499) are in the Journal of Molecular Liquids with an I.F. of 2.7, in

the field of Physical Chemistry.

Table 1.2.2: Top Ten Journals w.r.t. Number of Published Items


1 RSC Advances 3.289 1442

2 Journal of the Iranian Chemical Society 1.300 503

3 Journal of Molecular Liquids 2.740 499

4 Research on Chemical Intermediates 1.833 395

5 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 4.179 361

6 International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 3.205 277

7 Applied Surface Science 3.150 266

8 Journal of Alloys and Compounds 3.014 250

9 Analytical Methods 1.915 193

10 Sensors and Actuators B-Chemical 4.758 181

With regard to publications in the highest impact journals, largest number of papers appear

in the fields of Multidisciplinary, Physical and Polymer Chemistry, respectively (Table

1.2.3).

Table 1.2.3: Top Ten Journals w.r.t. Impact Factor


1 Nature Materials 38.891 1

2 Chemical Reviews 37.369 3

3 Chemical Society Reviews 34.090 2

4 Progress in Polymer Science 27.184 3

5 Energy & Environmental Science 25.427 4

6 Advanced Materials 18.960 6

7 Advanced Energy Materials 15.230 5


8 Nano Letters 13.779 6

9 ACS Nano 13.334 12

10 Nano Today 13.157 1

The top ten highest impact papers are on the themes of advanced materials, nanomaterials,

energy materials and polymers (Table 1.2.4).

A large number of institutions contribute to the top ten highest impact papers e.g.

University of Tehran, Pyam-e-Noor, IASBS Zanjan, Sharif University, Shiraz University

Tarbiat Modares and Univ of Maragheh etc (Table 1.2.4).


# Title, Year, Journal (I.F.), Citations. Institutions

1. Unjamming and cell shape in the asthmatic airway epithelium; 2015, NATURE MATERIALS (38.891), 30.

University of Tehran, Tehran

2. Chemistry of alpha-Oxoesters: A Powerful Tool for the Synthesis of Heterocycles; 2015, CHEMICAL REVIEWS (37.36), 27.

Univsity of Maragheh, Maragheh; Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

3.

Manganese Compounds as Water-Oxidizing Catalysts: From the Natural Water-Oxidizing Complex to Nanosized Manganese Oxide Structures; 2016, CHEMICAL REVIEWS (37.36), 37.

IASBS, Dept Chem, Zanjan; Center Climate Change & Global Warming, Zanjan, Iran.

4. Influence of Ancillary Ligands in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells; 2016, CHEMICAL REVIEWS (37.36), 7.

University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran.

5. Graphene-based materials for flexible supercapacitors; 2015, CHEMICAL SOCIETY REVIEWS (34.09), 141.

Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

6.

Smart micro/nanoparticles in stimulus-responsive drug/gene delivery systems; 2016, CHEMICAL SOCIETY REVIEWS (34.09), 68.

Univ of Medical Sciences; Sharif Univ Technology; Shahid Beheshti Univ; Kharazmi Univ; Islamic Azad Univ Tehran; Univ of Tehran; Esfahan Univ.

7.

State-of-the-art membrane based CO2 separation using mixed matrix membranes (MMMs): An overview on current status and future directions; 2014, PROGRESS IN POLYMER SCIENCE (27.18), 114.

University of Tehran, Tehran; Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran.

8.

Modification of polythiophene by the incorporation of processable polymeric chains: Recent progress in synthesis and applications; 2015, PROGRESS IN POLYMER SCIENCE (27.18), 38.

Tabriz University, Tabriz; Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

9. Recent development in the synthesis of polymer nanocomposites based on nano-alumina; 2015, PROGRESS IN POLYMER SCIENCE (27.18), 6.

Isfahan University of Technology, Esfahan, Iran.

10. Upgrading of lignin-derived bio-oils by catalytic hydrodeoxygenation; 2014, ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE (25.42), 153.

Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

With regard to the distribution of publications in terms of received citations (Figure 1.2.4), we

find almost 29% with zero citations up till the time of our search (May 2017); 37.4% with

citations between 1 and 3; 23.5% with citations between 4 and 10; 7% with citations between

11 and 20; and 2.8% with citations between 21 and 40. There are 82 papers with citations that

exceed 40 including 5 with citations exceeding 100.


Average citation per paper is 4.19 which is comparable to that for most of other top OIC

countries.


papers published in 2016 that may not have received citations as yet. There is a significant

fraction (~10%) that have been cited over 10 times indicating that a significant fraction of the

total published articles has received serious attention.


In terms of the institutions publishing the largest number of papers Islamic Azad University

appears at the top with about 21% (3449) of the total publications. Tehran University (7% -

1132), Isfahan University (4.8% - 784) and Amir Kabir and Tarbiat Modares both at 4.6%

(750 & 747 publications respectively), are the remaining top publishers (Figure 1.2.5).

Figure 1.2.5: Institutions with Largest Number of Publications

Iran’s international collaborative work as measured by the number of foreign institutional

affiliations appearing in the publications, gives the following picture for the top ten

collaborators: USA (3.02%), Malaysia (1.9%), Germany (1.63%), Canada (1.4%), Italy

(1.3%), Spain (1.26%), Australia (1.2%) (Figure 1.2.6, Left).

With regard to Iran’s collaborations within OIC countries the top ranked partner is Malaysia

(306) followed by Turkey (111), Saudi Arabia (87), Pakistan (51), Iraq (49), and Egypt (21)

(Figure 1.2.6, Right).

6074

3812

1172

449 77 5

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

1 <n≤ 3 3 <n≤ 10 10 <n≤ 20 20 <n≤ 40 40 <n≤ 100 n> 100

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns

Times Cited Excluding zero citations received by (4668)

3449

1132 784 750 747

0 500

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000

Islamic Azad Univ

Univ Tehran Isfahan Univ Technology

Amirkabir Univ Tech

Tarbiat Modares Univ

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns

Institutions


Figure 1.2.6: International Collaborations (Left) and OIC States (Right)


- With regard to Iran’s work in Chemistry as evaluated by the Nature Science Index the data are

shown in Table 1.2.5.

Table 1.2.5: Iran: Nature Science Index – Chemistry (2016)

Iran Article Count

(AC)

Fractional Count

(FC)

Chemistry 38 18.56

Top Institutions contributing to Nature Science Index

Tarbiat Modares University 5 3.66

Sharif University of Technology 10 3.61

Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch 6 3.08 Source: https://www.natureindex.com/

Iran has a total Article Count of 38 and a Fractional Count of 18.56. The ratio FC/AC=0.48 indicates

that for publications in Nature’s elite set of journals, Iran’s local contribution can be estimated to

be about 48% which is comparatively high. The most prominent institutions publishing in this list

are Tarbiat Modares, Sharif University and Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch.

Discussion:

- Research in Chemistry is spread over a number of fields with physical, analytical, applied,

polymer and inorganic being the strongest. The work is distributed over a wide range of impact

factors but about one third of all publications have impact factors between 3 and 5 which is

indicative of publications in the more competitive and more cited journals. It is also noticeable that

66 publications are in the very high impact range, IF>20.

- The average impact factor per paper for Iran (2.39) is on the medium side for the field of

chemistry. Iran’s publications in the highest impact journals are focused on advanced materials

with the emphasis being in nanomaterials for various applications. This is not surprising

considering Iran’s strong focus on Nanosciences.

- We note that about 10.5% publications have more than 10 citations in this brief period which is

indicative of research that has attracted considerable attention.

- Iran’s collaborative work with other countries is on the smaller side with the largest share being

that with the US, which is about 3% of all the publications. Within OIC countries the major

collaborator is Malaysia which shares in about 2% of the total publications.

492

306 266

230 208 206 187

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns

Countries

306

111 87

51 49 21 10

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns

Countries



- “Islamic Azad University” appears at the top in terms of number of publications but we note that

this is an umbrella under which a number of campuses operate in different cities. As individual

entities University of Tehran, Amir Kabir and Sharif University to be the most productive in

Chemistry.

- Finally, we can see in Table 1.2.6 the data for the patents granted in the period (2013-2015) for

the various areas of Chemistry including organic chemistry (3 patents), macromolecular chemistry

(3), food chemistry (1), materials chemistry (2). There are a significant number (11) of patents in

pharmaceuticals. While the field of pharmaceuticals is analyzed elsewhere under the main heading

of Biosciences, these patents may also be considered as having a relevance to chemistry through

the field of medicinal chemistry. The overall number of chemistry related patents is however small.

Table 1.2.6: Iran: List of Patents Granted by Technology

# Technology 2013 2014 2015 Total

(2013-2015)

1 Organic fine chemistry 3 - - 3

2 Macromolecular chemistry, polymers 1 - 2 3

3 Food chemistry 1 - - 1

4 Basic materials chemistry 1 1 - 2

5 Pharmaceutics 2 5 4 11

Total 8 6 6 20

Source: http://www.wipo.int/istats/

http://www.wipo.int/


III. Material Science and Nanotechnology

The scheme for identifying the publications that are selected as belonging to the domain of Material

Science and Nano-sciences is defined in Scheme 1.3.1. Searching in the Web of Science (WoS) we

find a total of 10,399 publications from Iran in the period 2014-2016 that are listed under Material

Science or Nanoscience categories, irrespective of the position where these categories appears in

the classification of a particular paper. Using our criterion of assigning a publication to the 1st listed

category, in the case of multiple WoS categories (WC) for a given publication, we find a total of

6,171 publications that are identified as belonging to either Materials Science or Nanosciences. The

remaining 4,228 publications have Material Science or Nanoscience in a lower position (2nd, 3rd

etc.) and are counted and analysed against their respective 1st position WoS categories. Details of

the publications in Materials Science or Nanoscience are available in the following pages.

Scheme 1.3.1: Scheme for Identifying the Publications in the Field of Material Science and

Nanotechnology.

A summary of the data is as follows:

There is a steady growth in the total number of publications in Material Science and Nano-

sciences in the given period, increasing from 1,836 to 2,831, exhibiting a good overall

increase of almost 30% for this period (Figure 1.3.1).

Figure 1.3.1: Year wise Trend of Publications in Material Science and Nanotechnology

The largest share of publications is in the category “Materials Science Multidisciplinary”

(2928) which accounts for about 47% of all publications. (This area Includes work that

has a general or Multidisciplinary approach to the study, nature & behaviour of Materials

e.g. Ceramics, Composites, Alloys, Metals, Metallurgy, Nanotechnology, Nuclear Materials,

adhesion & adhesives) (Figure 1.3.2).

Total Publications in Material Science & Nanotechnology

(10,399)

Distinct publications in Material Science &

Nanotechnology at 1st place in WC (6,171)


Publications Material Science & Nanotechnology lower than 1st

place in WC (4,228)

Analyzed under respective field

at 1st place

1,836 1,954

2,381

-

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

2014 2015 2016

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Years


The second most active area is that of Nanosciences and Nanotechnology with 971 or 16%

of the publications. (We reiterate that there may be many other published works in this

area, but we are considering only those that are published in journals with Nanoscience

and technology as their primary categorization) (Figure 1.3.2).

Ceramics, composites, biomaterials, textiles are the next most active areas in this category

(Figure 1.3.2).

Figure 1.3.2 Research Area wise Publications in Material Science and Nanotechnology

Of the total publications, 1048 or almost 17% were published in journals with impact

factor lying between 0 and 1, while 2073 or about 34% were published in journals with

I.F. between 1 and 2, while 31% were in journals with I.F. between 2 and 3. It is noticeable

that there is a very significant number, almost 16% of the total, that are published in the

high impact factor range between 3 and 10. There are 184 publications in Journals having

no available Impact Factor (Figure 1.3.3).

The average impact factor for all Chemistry publications is calculated to be 2.03 which is

comparatively on the high side.


Table 1.3.1 illustrate the distribution of publications in various categories of Materials

Science with respect to Impact Factor. We note that the publications in the top 3

categories are distributed over a wide range of impact factors with the publications in the

highest range of 5-10 being contributed exclusively by Multidisciplinary Material Science

2928

971 677

471 389 314 167 144 110

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

No

. of

Pu

bli

cati

on

s

Research Areas

1048

2073 1898

873

95 0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

0 <n< 1 1 ≤n< 2 2<n< 3 3 <n< 5 5 <n< 10

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns




and Nanoscience areas. We note that in the areas of Composites, Coatings and

biomaterials, respectively, the publications are also in relatively higher range.


Sub-fields 0<n≤1 1<n≤2 2<n≤3 3<n≤5 5<n≤10

M.S, Multidisciplinary 479 1035 1002 308 45

Nanosci. & Nanotech. 124 359 295 45 50

M.S, Ceramics 110 133 432 - -

M.S, Composites 110 118 49 194 -

M.S, Biomaterials 4 68 - 298 -

M.S, Textiles 90 221 - - -

M.S, Coatings & Films 6 65 96 - -

M.S, Paper & Wood 54 59 - 28 -

M.S, Characterization & Testing 71 15 24 - -

Considering the data for the number of publications appearing in various journals (Table

1.3.2) the largest numbers (404) appear in Ceramics International with an I.F. of 2.758

while the next higher (289) appears in Materials Science journals covering a variety of

materials areas, with impact factors higher than 2.5.

For nanoscience and technology publications, the most popular journal appears to be

Physica E (221) while one can expect that many of the publications in the Journal of

Magnetism and Magnetic Materials are also related to magnetic nanomaterials (Table

1.3.2).



1 Ceramics international 2.758 404

2 Materials & Design 3.997 289

3 Materials Science & Engineering C-Materials for Biological Applications 3.420 280

4 Materials Science and Engineering A-Structural Materials Properties

Microstructure and Processing 2.647 246

5 Physica E-Low-Dimensional Systems & Nanostructures 1.904 221

6 Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 2.357 220

7 Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance 1.094 181

8 Composite Structures 3.853 180

9 Applied Physics A-Materials Science & Processing 1.444 170

10 Materials Letters 2.437 115

With regard to publications in the ten highest impact journals, largest number of papers

appear in the fields of 2D materials and interfaces, corrosion, nanomedicine, and

materials chemistry (Table 1.3.3).



1 2D Materials 9.611 1

2 International Materials Reviews 7.914 2

3 ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 7.145 39

4 Nanomedicine-Nanotechnology Biology and Medicine 5.671 8

5 ACS Photonics 5.404 3


6 Corrosion Science 5.154 34

7 Journal of Materials Chemistry C 5.066 6

8 Acta Materialia 5.058 2

9 Journal of Materials Chemistry B 4.872 14

10 International Journal of Nanomedicine 4.320 17

Most of the top ten high impact factor papers are in the field of nanoscience ranging over a

wide range of themes. These cover nanomaterials for a variety of applications, synthesis, as

well as more fundamental aspects, respectively (Table 1.3.4).



1.

Generic epitaxial graphene biosensors for ultrasensitive detection of cancer risk biomarker, 2014, 2D MATERIALS (9.610), 10.

Res Inst Petr Ind, Tehran, Iran.

2.

Application of mechanical alloying/milling for synthesis of nanocrystalline and amorphous materials, 2014, INTERNATIONAL MATERIALS REVIEWS (7.914), 9.

Isfahan Univ Technol, , Esfahan, Iran.

3.

Analysis of radial breathing-mode of nanostructures with various morphologies: a critical review, 2015, INTERNATIONAL MATERIALS REVIEWS (7.914), 5.

Shiraz Univ, Shiraz; Shahid Beheshti Univ Med Sci, Tehran; Inst Res Fundamental Sci IPM, Tehran, Iran.

4.

Designing 3D Highly Ordered Nanoporous CuO Electrodes for High-Performance Asymmetric Supercapacitors, 2015, ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES (7.145), 46.

Shahid Univ, Tehran, Iran.

5.

Lithium Storage Properties of Pristine and (Mg, Cu) Codoped ZnFe2O4 Nanoparticles, 2014, ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES (7.145), 34.

Shahid Chamran Univ, Ahwaz; Malayer Univ, Malayer, Iran.

6.

Synthesis of a Novel Highly Oleophilic and Highly Hydrophobic Sponge for Rapid Oil Spill Cleanup, 2015, ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES (7.145), 18.

Bu Ali Sina Univ, Hamadan, Iran.

7.

Hierarchical Co3O4/Co(OH)(2) Nanoflakes as a Supercapacitor Electrode: Experimental and Semi-Empirical Model, 2015, ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES (7.145), 18.

Sharif Univ Technol, Tehran; Inst Res Fundamental Sci IPM, Tehran; Sharif Univ Technol, Tehran, Iran.

8.

High-Performance and Stable Gel-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Using Anodic TiO2 Nanotube Arrays and Polymer-Based Gel Electrolytes, 2015, ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES (7.145), 14.

Tarbiat Modares Univ, Atom & Mol Grp, Tehran, Iran.

9.

New Physical Deposition Approach for Low Cost Inorganic Hole Transport Layer in Normal Architecture of Durable Perovskite Solar Cells, 2015, ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES (7.145), 15.

Tarbiat Modares Univ, Tehran ; Tarbiat Modares Univ, Tehran, Iran.

10.

High-Performance and Stable Gel-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Using Anodic TiO2 Nanotube Arrays and Polymer-Based Gel Electrolytes, 2015, ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES (7.145), 14.

Tarbiat Modares Univ, Tehran, Iran.


The Iranian institutions contributing to these top impact papers are, Res. Inst. Petroleum

Industry, Isfahan Univ. Technol, Shahid Beheshti Univ., Inst Res Fundamental Sci (IPM),

Shahed Univ., Shahid Chamran Univ, Malayer Univ, Malayer; Bu Ali Sina Univ; Sharif

University of Technology; Tarbiat Modares Univ, (Table 1.3.4).

With regard to the distribution of publications in terms of received citations, we find 1775

or almost 29% with zero citations up till the time of our search (May 2017). There are

almost 43.4% papers with citations between 1 and 5; 8.5% with citations between 10 and

20, and 2.5% with citations between 20 and 40. Six papers have citations that lie in the

range 70 and 250 (Figure 1.3.4).

Average citation per paper is 4.04 which is comparatively high.


papers published in 2016 (2381) that may not have received citations as yet. It is however

noticeable that even in this short span of time (2014-16) most of the publications have

received a number of citations with about 11% receiving ten or more.


In terms of the institutions publishing the largest number of papers (Figure 1.3.5), Islamic

Azad University appears at the top with 1321 or 21% of the total publications. Tehran

University (10.5%), Isfahan (10%), Amir Kabir (9%), Sharif Univesity and Iran Univ of

S&T (9%) are the remaining top publishers.


In international collaborations in this field Iran has the largest number of publications

with USA and Malaysia, followed by Canada, Germany and South Korea (Figure 1.3.6, Left).

2677

1013

524

160 16 6

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

1≤n< 5 5≤n<10 10≤n<20 20≤n<40 40<n<70 70<n<250

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns


1321

648 614 571 426

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Islamic Azad Univ Univ Tehran Isfahan Univ Tech Amirkabir Univ Techn

Sharif Univ Tech

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Institutions


With regard to Iran’s collaborations within OIC countries the top ranked is Malaysia

followed by Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt (Figure 1.3.6, Right).

It is noticeable that in this field Iran overall has a smaller extent of international

collaborations as measured by the number of non-Iran institutes appearing in the

publications. This feature has also been noted in other studies e.g. by Statnano© and may

be interpreted as a greater reliance on its s own scientific resources.

Figure 1.3.6: International Collaboration (Left) and OIC States (right)

Discussion:

- Our analysis selects only those publications that appear in journals categorized by WoS as

belonging to Materials Sciences or Nanoscience and Technology. As such it does not give the

complete picture of the contribution of Iran to this field. E.g. according to Statnano data base

and their methodology (that includes all WoS publications where the Nanoscience category

appears), Iran contributed 5.52% of all articles relating to nanoscience, internationally. (In our

scheme many of these are distributed in their primary classification areas e.g. physics,

chemistry, biology etc). According to the same source almost 23% of all publications in S&T

from Iran are in the areas related to Nanoscience and Technology and there are a large number

of nanoscience related companies (50) and products (98). This clearly shows the emphasis

that Iran is according to this area.

- An overwhelming majority (64%) of publications have a medium impact factor (between 1 and

3), while a significant number of publications (16%) in higher impact journals indicates an

effort that is finding a place in the more competitive journals.

- The published work is being referred to in a significant way with about 11% of the

publications acquiring a high number of citations (ten and above). This is commendable

considering the relatively short span of time considered (2014-2016). These publications

emanate from different institutions and suggest that higher impact work is not limited to any

particular institution.

232 202

150

103 103

0

50

100

150

200

250

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Countries

202

50 27 25 19

0

50

100

150

200

250

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

n

Countries


IV. Physics

The scheme for identifying the publications analysed as falling in the heading of physics is defined

in Scheme 1.4.1. Searching in the Web of Science (WoS) we find a total of 11,347 publications from

Iran in the period 2014-2016 that are listed under physics, irrespective of the position where

physics appears in its categorization of a particular paper. Using our criterion of assigning a

publication to the 1st listed category, in the case of multiple categories for a given paper, we find a

total of 5,947 publications that are identified as belonging to physics and its allied disciplines. The

remaining 5,400 publications have physics and allied disciplines in a lower category and are

counted and analysed against their respective WoS categories.

Scheme 1.4.1: Scheme for Identifying the Publications in the Field of Physics


There is a steady growth in the total number of publications in physics in the given period,

increasing from 1,851 to 2,127, exhibiting a good overall increase of about 15%

(Figure1.4.1).

Figure 1.4.1: Year wise Trend of Publications in Physics

The largest share of publications is in “Multidisciplinary physics” (1394) with 23%

followed closely by “Optics” (1201) or 20%, and “Astronomy and Astrophysics” with 14%

of total publications at 3rd place (Figure 1.4.2).

1851

1969

2127

1500

2000

2500

2014 2015 2016

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Years

Total Publications in Physics

(11,347)

Distinct publications in Physics at 1st Place in WC

(5,947)


Publications in Physics lower than 1st place in WC

(5,400)


1st place


The publications from “Astronomy and Astrophysics” are often part of a large

collaboration in an area of High Energy Physics.

Figure 1.4.2: Research Area wise Publications in Physics

The average impact factor for physics publications is calculated to be 2.1 which is

comparatively on the lower side.

There are a significant number of publications (277), about 5% of the total, that were

published in the top range with impact factors lying between 5 and 17. The highest number

of publications are coming from the Impact Factor ranging from 1 to 2, which shows a lot

of work in this area being published in low to medium Impact journals (Figure 1.4.3).


Table 1.4.1 shows the distribution of publications in various areas with respect to Impact

Factor. We see that the high impact publications are mostly emanating from the areas

“particles and fields” and “astronomy and astrophysics”. The areas with largest number of

publications e.g. multidisciplinary physics and optics have most of their publications in

low and medium impact (1<n<2) journals.

Table 1.4.1: Publications w.r.t Sub-fields and Impact Factor (n)

Sub-fields 0<n≤1 1<n<2 2<n<3 3<n<5 5<n<12

Physics, Multidisciplinary 433 856 42 12 35

1394 1201

857

586 499

399 246

353 307

78 27 0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600 N

o. o

f P

ub

licat

ion

s

Research Areas

1266

2306

1186

829

277

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

0 <n≤ 1 1 <n< 2 2<n< 3 3 <n< 5 5 <n< 17

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns




Optics 419 579 154 45 -

Astronomy & Astrophysics 15 273 25 428 113

Physics, Applied 188 158 159 35 -

Physics, Condensed Matter 10 182 211 94 -

Physics, Fluids & Plasmas 91 16 279 - -

Physics, Nuclear 19 140 35 61 -

Physics, Particles & Fields 3 66 - 153 129

Spectroscopy 27 5 270 1 -

Physics, Mathematical 49 27 1 - -

Physics, Atomic, Molecular & Chemical 13 4 10 - -

Considering the data for number of publications appearing in various journals Table 1.4.2

the largest numbers are in the journals of Optics, Applied Spectroscopy, High Energy

Physics, Condensed matter physics, and Plasma Physics respectively and with a

significantly high number in the area of Theoretical Physics as well.

Table 1.4.2: Top Ten Journals w.r.t. Number of Published Item


1 Optik 0.742 319

2 Spectrochimica Acta Part A-Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy

2.653 270

3 Physical Review D 4.506 230

4 Superlattices and Microstructures 2.117 190

5 Physics of Plasmas 2.207 188

6 International Journal of Theoretical Physics 1.041 148

7 European Physical Journal Plus 1.521 141

8 Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism 1.100 130

9 Journal of High Energy Physics 6.023 129

10 Physics Letters B 4.787 129

With regard to publications in the highest impact journals, largest number of papers

appear in the fields of Astronomy & Astrophysics, High Energy Physics and

Multidisciplinary Physics (Table 1.4.3).

Table 1.4.3: Top Ten Journals w.r.t. Impact Factor


1 Physics Reports-Review Section of Physics Letters 16.240 4

2 Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 11.257 1

3 Physical Review Letters 7.645 31

4 Journal of High Energy Physics 6.023 129

5 Astrophysical Journal 5.909 31

6 Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 5.634 56

7 Astrophysical Journal Letters 5.487 1

8 Physics of the Dark Universe 5.222 5

9 Astronomy & Astrophysics 5.185 19

10 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 4.952 60


The top ten papers in terms of impact factor of publications are listed in Table 1.4.4. These

are in the fields of percolation theory, chaos theory, nanostructrure modelling and theory,

followed by Astronomy and astrophysics and high energy physics, respectively. IPM is

most prominent in this list of publishers while Sharif University is also very noticeable

amongst others.



1. Recent advances in percolation theory and its

applications, 2015, PHYSICS REPORTS-

REVIEW SECTION OF PHYSICS LETTERS

(16.240), 44.

Univ Tehran, Dept Phys, Tehran;

Inst Res Fundamental Sci IPM, Sch

Particles & Accelerators, Tehran, Iran.

2. Hidden attractors in dynamical systems, 2016,

PHYSICS REPORTS-REVIEW SECTION OF

PHYSICS LETTERS (16.24), 23.

Amirkabir Univ Technol, Dept Biomed

Engn, Tehran, Iran.

3. Nonlocal continuum-based modeling of

mechanical characteristics of nanoscopic

structures, 2016, PHYSICS REPORTS-REVIEW

SECTION OF PHYSICS LETTERS (16.240), 5.

Shahid Beheshti Univ Med Sci, Tehran;

Shiraz Univ, School of Mechanical

Engineering, Shiraz, Iran.

4. Collision partner selection schemes in DSMC:

From micro/nano flows to hypersonic flows,

2016, PHYSICS REPORTS-REVIEW SECTION

OF PHYSICS LETTERS (16.24), 1.

Ferdowsi Univ Mashhad, High

Performance Comp HPC Lab, Mashhad,

Iran.

5. Probing the local bubble with diffuse

interstellar bands. III. The Northern

Hemisphere Data And Catalog, 2015,

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT

SERIES (11.257), 4.

Inst Res Fundamental Sci IPM, Sch

Astron, Tehran, Iran.

Sharif Univ Technol, Dept Phys,

Tehran, Iran.

6. Combined Measurement of the Higgs Boson

Mass in pp Collisions at root s=7 and 8 TeV

with the ATLAS and CMS Experiments, 2015,

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS (7.645), 187.

Inst Res Fundamental Sci IPM, Tehran,

Iran, Univ Technol, Esfahan, Iran;

Univ Tehran, Dept Engn Sci.;

Islamic Azad Univ, Sci & Res Branch,

Plasma Phys Res Ctr, Tehran, Iran.

7. Search for Top-Quark Partners with Charge

5/3 in the Same-Sign Dilepton Final State,

2014, PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS (7.645),

52.

Inst Res Fundamental Sci IPM, Tehran;

Isfahan Univ Technol, Esfahan;

Sharif Univ Technol, Tehran;

Islamic Azad Univ, Tehran, Iran.

8. Search for Flavor-Changing Neutral Currents

in Top-Quark Decays t -> Zq in pp Collisions at

root s=8 TeV, 2014, PHYSICAL REVIEW

LETTERS (7.645), 45.





9. Quantum Metrology in Open Systems:

Dissipative Cramer-Rao Bound, 2014,

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS (7.645), 42.

Sharif Univ Techno, Tehran, Iran.

10. Search for Top Squark and Higgsino

Production Using Diphoton Higgs Boson

Decays, 2014, PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

(7.645), 41.






With regard to the distribution of publications in terms of citations received, we find

2,236 or almost 37% with zero citations up till the time of our search (May 2017). There

are almost similar number of publications that have received between 1 and 3 citations.

About 18% publications have received between 3 and 10 citations, while the remaining

6% have received between 10 and 40 citations. (Since our data base includes 2,127

papers published in 2016, the large number of publications with zero citations till this

time is not surprising) (Figure 1.4.4).

Average citation per paper is 3.38 which is on the low side as compared to other OIC

countries.

Figure 1.4.4: Distribution of Publications w.r.t Number of Citations Received

In terms of the institutions publishing the largest number of papers (Figure 1.4.5.) Islamic

Azad Universities appear at the top with 1375 or 23% of the total publications. The

Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM) is next with 553 or almost 9%

publications, followed by University of Tehran and Sharif University with about 7% each.

Isfahan University Technology is the fifth in the list with about 6.3% share of the total.

We note that the contribution listed under Islamic Azad Universities is from a very large

number of campuses (44) that are counted together. The contributions from individual

campuses is much lower. As such the IPM, followed by Tehran University and Shiraz

University are the leading individual contributors to physics publications from Iran.


In terms of international collaborations in physics Iran has the largest number (478) in

collaboration with the US. (This number and all others will include those publications that

are part of a large international collaboration such as in CERN). The US is followed by

Germany, Italy, China and UK (Figure 1.4.6, Left).

2220

1068

276 100 40 7

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

1 <n≤ 3 3 <n≤ 10 10 <n≤ 20 20 <n≤ 40 40 <n≤ 100 100 <n< 300

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns


1375

553 406 402 376 336 331 256

0 200 400 600 800

1000 1200 1400 1600

No

. of

Pu

bli

cati

on

s

Institutions


With regard to collaborations within OIC countries Iran’s main partners in physics are

Turkey, Malaysia, Qatar, Egypt and Pakistan, in this order (Figure 1.4.6, Right).


Discussion with regard to Nature Science Index:

The methodology of the Nature Science Index considers publications in a very limited set of

journals with a very high peer prestige as determined by leading experts. When considering the

following discussion, it may be remembered that according to the Nature Science methodology, the

field of physical sciences will include, besides physics and astronomy and other categories that we

have included above, publications in materials science and nanotechnology, and any other

publications that may have physics in any position in the listed categories. As such the following

picture emerges for Iran’s Nature Science Index (2016).

Table 1.4.5: Iran: Nature Science Index – Physics (2016)

Iran Article Count (AC) Fractional Count (FC) Weighted FC

(WFC)

Physical Sciences 195 93.39 72.85

Top Institutions contributing to Nature Science Index

Institute for Research in

Fundamental Sciences (IPM)

82 16.29 14.01

Shiraz University 19 11.25 9.9

Tarbiat Modares University 11 7.23 7.23

Sharif University of Technology 30 9.93 6.87

Shahid Beheshti University 22 5.7 5.3 Source: https://www.natureindex.com/

Considering the data for Physical Sciences (Table 1.4.5) it is noticeable from Iran’s FC/AC ratio of

almost 0.5, that Iran’s own scientists are contributing a high proportion of about 50% share in these

elite publications. The table also shows that the IPM is contributing the highest number of these

high quality publications even taking into account the contributions of its collaborators. It is

apparent from the consideration of AC and FC of IPM that a large part of its high quality work is in

collaborative ventures, most likely in high energy physics, while that of the other institutions is

generally more local in its contributions. However in physics the prominence of these three

institutions, viz. IPM, Shiraz University and Sharif University, is evident both in terms of quality and

quantity.

Patents Granted:

Iran has a total of 6 patents awarded between 2013-2016 in fields of direct relevance to Physics viz.

Semiconductors and Optics. There appears to be little impact of its extensive work in Physics on

product development.

478 390 364 338 331

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Countries

330 270 266 258 249

0 50

100 150 200 250 300 350

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Countries



V. Mathematics


mathematics is defined in scheme 1.5.1. Searching in the Web of Science (WoS) we find a total of

5,405 publications from Iran in the period 2014-2016 that are listed under mathematics,

irrespective of the position where mathematics appears in the categorization of a particular paper.

Using our criterion of assigning a publication to the 1st listed category, in the case of multiple WoS

categories for a given publication, we find a total of 4,128 publications that are identified as

belonging to mathematics and its allied areas. The remaining 1,277 publications have mathematics

and areas in a lower category and are counted and analysed against their respective WoS categories

(WC).

Scheme 1.5.1: Scheme for Identifying the Publications in the Field of Mathematics


There is a steady growth in the total number of publications in mathematics in the given

period, increasing from 1,203 to 1,555, exhibiting a high growth rate of about 29% for this

period (Figure 1.5.1).

Figure 1.5.1: Year wise Trend of Publications in Mathematics

The largest share of publications is in the category “Applied Mathematics” (1942) which

accounts for about 47% of all publications. This is followed by the category Mathematics

with a 40% share of the total publications. (This is the category that encompasses work in

various areas of pure mathematics). Statistics and Probability account for about 9% of the

publications (Figure 1.5.2).

Total Publications in Mathematics (5,405)

Publications in Mathematics at 1st place in WC (4,128)


Publications in Mathematics lower than 1st place in WC

(1,277)


1st place

1,203 1,370

1,555

-

400

800

1,200

1,600

2,000

2014 2015 2016

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Years


Figure 1.5.2: Research Area wise Publications in Mathematics

Of the 4,128 total publications, 2,801 or almost 68% were published in journals with impact

factor lying between 0-1, while 13.7% publications lie between 1-2 and there are 74

publications published in journals with I.F. between 2 and 3.

There are 634 publications were published in journals with no available impact factor.

Although a small but significant number 54 (1.3%) are in the range 3 to 5 (Figure 1.5.3).

The average impact factor for all mathematics publications is calculated to be 0.72 which is

comparable to that for most of other OIC countries.


Table 1.5.1 illustrates impact factor wise distribution of publications in various areas of

mathematics. The largest number of publications in the I.F. range 3 to 5 is contributed by

interdisciplinary. While large number of publications in Applied Mathematics & Probability

are in low and medium ranges of I.F.

Table 1.5.1: Publications w.r.t Sub-fields and Impact Factor (n)

Sub-fields 0<n<1 1≤n<2 2<n<3 3<n<5

Mathematics, Applied 1176 488 68 - Mathematics 1200 8 1 - Statistics & Probability 386 6 - 2 Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Applications 25 63 5 52

Mathematics; Logic 14 - - -

1942 1648

374 150

14 0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Mathematics, Applied

Mathematics Statistics & Probability

Mathematics, Interdisciplinary

Applications

Mathematics; Logic

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Research Areas

2801

565

74 54 0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

0<n<1 1≤n<2 2<n<3 3<n<5

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns




Considering the data for the number of publications appearing in various journals the

largest numbers (170 with I.F. 0.283) appear in the Bulletin of Iranian Mathematical Society,

Applied Mathematics and Computations (136 with an I.F. of 1.345) while the third highest

number (107 with I.F. 0.365) appear in University Politehnica of Bucharest Scientific bulletin-

series a-Applied mathematics and Physics (Table 1.5.2).

Lower down this list we find a number of publications in various journals, international and

local, of pure mathematics, algebra and analysis, albeit with low impact factors.

Table 1.5.2: Top Ten Journals w.r.t no. of Published Items


1 Bulletin of the Iranian Mathematical Society 0.283 170

2 Applied Mathematics and Computation 1.345 136

3 University Politehnica of Bucharest Scientific

Bulletin-Series A-Applied Mathematics and Physics 0.365 107

4 Communications in Statistics-Theory and Methods 0.300 102

5 Communications in Algebra 0.368 101

6 Filomat 0.603 85

7 Journal of Algebra and its Applications 0.365 79

8 Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 1.328 73

9 Iranian Journal of Fuzzy Systems 0.381 66

10 Numerical Algorithms 1.366 57

The top ten journals in terms of impact factor of publications, are in the fields of Statistics (2

with I.F.4.22); Complexity (52 with I.F.3.5) and Non-linear science and numerical simulation

(39 with I.F. 2.834); optimization (3) and computational mechanics (5), respectively (Table

1.5.3).


# Journals I.F Articles

1 Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B-

Statistical Methodology 4.222 2

2 Complexity 3.514 52

3 Communications in Nonlinear Science and

Numerical Simulation 2.834 39

4 Siam Journal on Optimization 2.659 3

5 Computational Mechanics 2.639 5

6 Duke Mathematical Journal 2.350 1

7 Fractional Calculus and Applied Analysis 2.246 9

8 Nonlinear Analysis-Real World Applications 2.238 3

9 Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 2.175 8

10 Chaos 2.049 6

The top ten impact factor papers in Mathematics have contributions from the following:

Razi University, Mashad University, Urmia University, Sharood University, Iran University of

Science and Technology, Payam-e Noor University, Islamic Azad University and University

of Zanjan. Most of these papers also have international collaborators (Table 1.5.4).




1. Quasi-likelihood for spatial point processes, 2015,

JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY

SERIES B-STATISTICAL METHODOLOGY (4.222), 2.

Razi Univ, Kermanshah, Iran.

2.

Making a non-parametric density estimator more

attractive, and more accurate, by data perturbation,

2016, JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL

SOCIETY SERIES B-STATISTICAL METHODOLOGY

(4.222), 2.

Mashhad Univ Med Sci, Mashhad,

Iran

3. Chaotic Fractional-Order Model for Muscular Blood

Vessel and its Control via Fractional Control Scheme,

2014, COMPLEXITY (3.514), 20.

Urmia Univ Technol, Dept Elect

Engn, Orumiyeh, Iran.

4.

A New Multiobjective Allocator of Capacitor Banks

and Distributed Generations using a New

Investigated Differential Evolution, 2014,

COMPLEXITY (3.514), 19.

Shahrood Univ Tech, Shahrood.

Iran Univ Sci & Technol, Tehran.

Payame Noor Univ, Tehran.

Islamic Azad Univ,

Young Researchers Club, Ardebil.

5.

Design of LMI-based Global Sliding Mode Controller

for Uncertain Nonlinear Systems with Application to

Genesio's Chaotic System, 2015, COMPLEXITY

(3.514), 18.

Univ Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran.

6. Fast terminal sliding mode controller design for

nonlinear second-order systems with time-varying

uncertainties, 2015, COMPLEXITY (3.514), 15.

Univ Zanjan, Dept Elect Engn,

Zanjan, Iran.

7.

Robust adaptive synchronization of uncertain

complex networks with multiple time-varying

coupled delays, 2015, COMPLEXITY (3.514), 13.

Islamic Azad Univ, Neyshabur

Branch, Young Researchers &

Elite Club, Neyshabur, Iran.

8.

Finite-Time Stabilization of a Class of Chaotic

Systems with Matched and Unmatched

Uncertainties: An LMI Approach, 2016,


Univ Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran.

9. Switching adaptive controllers to control fractional-

order complex systems with unknown structure and

input nonlinearities, 2015, COMPLEXITY (3.514), 11.

Urmia Univ Technol, Dept Math,

Dept Engn, Orumiyeh, Iran.

10.

A New Hybrid Algorithm Based on Optimal Fuzzy

Controller in Multimachine Power System, 2015,


Islamic Azad Univ, Ardabil

Branch, Young Researchers &

Elite Club, Ardebil, Iran.

With regard to the distribution of publications in terms of received citations, we find 2469

or almost 60% with zero citations up till the time of our search (May 2017). There are 751

(18%) papers with a single citation, 613 (15%) with citations between 2 and 4, while 214

(5%) have citations between 4 and 10, and 81 papers with publications between 10 and 50.

Average citation per paper is found to be 1.23 which is relatively on the medium side

compared to other OIC countries.


We note that the large number of zero citations can be partly attributed to many of the

papers published in 2016 (1555) while there must certainly be a large number of papers

published earlier that still have still to be cited (Figure 1.5.4).

Figure 1.5.4: Distribution of Publications w.r.t. Number of Citations Received.

In terms of the institutions publishing the largest number of papers, Islamic Azad University

appears at the top with 796 or 19% of the total publications. The Institute for Research in

Fundamental Sciences (IPM) is second with 393 or almost 10% publications followed by

Ferdous University (6%) and Amir Kabir University with (5.8%) publications. University of

Isfahan is fifth in this list with 165 publications (Figure 1.5.5).

Figure 1.5.5: Institutions with Largest Number of Publications.

In terms of international collaborations, in mathematics Iran has the largest number of

publications with Saudi Arabia (156). This is followed by USA, Turkey, China and Germany

(Figure 1.5.6, Left).

With regard to Iran’s collaborations within OIC countries the top ranked is Turkey (85)

followed by Malaysia (44), Pakistan (21) and Egypt (13) (Figure 1.5.6, Right).

751

613

214

66 15

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

n = 1 2 ≤n≤ 4 4 <n≤ 10 10 <n≤ 20 20 <n≤ 50

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns


796

393

246 240 165 155 141 137 132 129

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Institutions



Discussion:

While considering the distribution of mathematics publications with respect to impact

factors and citations we must keep in mind that both the average Impact factor and average

number of citations per paper in mathematics are low internationally, as compared to other

disciplines. This is obviously an outcome of the relatively small community of

mathematicians, internationally. This scarcity is particularly so in the areas of pure

mathematics. While the major effort in Iran appears is concentrated in various areas of

applied mathematics there is still a very significant effort (40%) in the area of pure

mathematics which testifies to continuing effort to contribute to this most fundamental

discipline. We note that the largest number of Iran’s mathematics publications is in a local

journal, followed by those in an international journal in an area of applied mathematics. It is

however noted that there is still a very significant number of publications in international

journals of pure mathematics even if they, are as explained above, in journals with lower

impact factors. The continued effort by Iranian mathematicians to publish in the more

challenging areas of pure mathematics, algebra and analysis is to be noted.

156 132

85 78 75

0 20 40 60 80

100 120 140 160 180

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Countries

156

85

44 21 13

0 20 40 60 80

100 120 140 160 180

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Countries


VI. Engineering


Engineering and its various sub divisions is defined in Scheme 1.6.1. Searching in the Web of

Science (WoS) we find a total of 30,255 ppublications from Iran in the period 2014-2016 that are

listed under the various categories of Engineering, irrespective of the position where these

categories appears in the classification of a particular paper. Using our criterion of assigning a

publication to the 1st listed category, in the case of multiple WoS categories for a given publication,

we find a total of 25,444 distinct publications that are identified as belonging to any of the fields of

Engineering, as outlined in Scheme 1.6.1. The remaining 4,781 publications are counted and

analysed against their respective 1st position WoS categories. Details of the publications are

available in the following pages.

Scheme 1.6.1: Scheme for Identifying the Publications in the Field of Engineering


There is a strong growth in the total number of publications in Engineering in the given period,

increasing from 7,243 to 10,029, exhibiting an overall average increase of almost 38.4% for this

period (Figure 1.6.1).

Figure 1.6.1: Year wise Trend of Publications in Engineering

The largest share of publications is in the category “Mechanical Engineering” (8,037) which

accounts for about 31.6% of all publications (Figure 1.6.2).

The next most active areas are those of Electrical Engineering (5,561) and Computer Sciences

(4,055) that constitute 22% and 16% share of total publications, respectively. If considered as

one field, as is done sometimes, this would constitute the most active area of research in

Engineering.

7,243 8,172 10,029

0

3,000

6,000

9,000

12,000

2014 2015 2016

No

. of

Pu

bli

cati

on

s

Years

Total Publications in Engineering

(30,225)

Distinct publications in Engineering (25,444)


Publications in Engineering lower than 1st place in WC

(4,781)


1st place


Civil and Chemical Engineering are almost equally active areas, contributing 9.6% and 9.1%

respectively.

Figure 1.6.2: Research Area wise of Publications in Engineering

The journals in which publications have appeared have impact factors lying between zero and

seven. There are 1,278 publications in journals for which impact factor (I.F.) is not available. Of

the remaining, 16,020 (63%) were published in journals with impact factor lying between 0 and

2; 6,814 or about 27% were published in journals with I.F. between 2 and 4, while 6% were in

journals with I.F. between 4 and 7, and 2 papers have I.F. between 7 and 10 (Figure 1.6.3).


Considering the preceding data on distribution of publications w.r.t I.F. it is evident that on the

average publications in Engineering are appearing in medium impact journals and a significant

number (6%) in the high impact (I.F > 4) journal of Engineering.

The average impact factor for all Engineering publications is calculated to be 1.74 which is on

the medium side compared to other OIC countries.

Table 1.6.1 illustrate the distribution of publications in various categories of Engineering with

respect to Impact Factor. The publications in the highest ranges are mainly contributed by

Green Technologies, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Computer Science, and Mechanical

Engineering, respectively.


Sub-fields 0<n≤1 1<n≤2 2<n≤3 3<n≤4 4<n≤5 5<n≤6 n>6

Mechanical Engr. 2128 2316 1603 454 629 601 1

Electrical/Electronics Engr. 1716 2279 1067 152 58 5 87

8,037

5,561

4,055

2,447 2,334

655 516 1,839

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Research Areas

7,302 8,718

5,488

1,326 949 117 482 2

0

2,500

5,000

7,500

10,000

0 <n≤1 1 <n≤2 2 <n≤3 3 <n≤4 4 <n≤5 5 <n≤6 6 <n≤7 7 <n≤10 No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Impact Factor (n)


1278 Publications belong to Journals having no Impact Factor


Computer Sciences 1249 1543 803 162 38 7 17

Civil Engr. 956 697 628 87 - - -

Chemical Engr. 187 1051 862 81 73 42 -

Green Tech 59 129 5 132 125 - 161

Petroleum Engr. 53 170 158 35 - - -

Multidisciplinary Engr. 768 347 262 207 - - -

The maximum number of papers for Mechanical, Electrical/Electronics Engineering and

Computer Science respectively are in the I.F. range of 1 to 2.

Considering the data for the number of publications appearing in various journals (Table 1.6.2)

the largest number appear in the journal Desalination and Water Treatment with an I.F. of 1.27

in the field of Mechanical Engineering, while the next higher appears in a local journal Scientica

Iranica with impact factor 0.679. The next largest numbers of publications are in journals with

I.F.s of 1.568, 2.045 and 1.798 in the fields of Mechanical, Petroleum and Electronics

Engineering, respectively.

Table 1.6.2: Top Ten Journals w.r.t. to Published Items


1 Desalination and Water Treatment 1.272 579

2 Scientica Iranica 0.679 520

3 International Journal of Advance Manufacturing Technology 1.568 358

4 Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 2.045 355

5 Journal of Materials Science-Materials in Electronics 1.798 351

6 Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems 1.004 345

7 Energy Conversion and Management 4.801 326

8 Energy 4.292 307

9 Petroleum Science and Technology 0.418 267

10 International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems 2.587 255

With regard to publications in the ten highest impact journals, largest numbers of papers

appear in the field of Green Technologies, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Computer

Sciences and Chemical Engineering (Table 1.6.3).

Table 1.6.3: Top Ten Journals w.r.t. to Impact Factor


1 IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials 9.220 1

2 Progress in Photovoltaics 7.365 1

3 Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews 6.798 161

4 IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems 6.701 12

5 IEEE Signal Processing Magazine 6.671 3

6 IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics 6.383 84

7 International Journal of Neural Systems 6.085 3

8 IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 6.077 1

9 Applied Energy 5.746 63

10 Journal of Membrane Science 5.557 42


Most of the top impact factor papers are in the fields of Electrical and Electronics, and a very

large number (161) in Green Technologies. Details of the contributing institutions can be seen

in Table 1.6.4 & 1.6.5.

With regard to the distribution of publications in terms of received citations, we find almost

37% with zero citations up till the time of our search (May 2017); 18.6% with citations between

1 and 2; 23.5% with citations between 2 and 5; 12.2% with citations between 5 and 10; and

8.3% with citations between 10 and 50. There are 67 papers with citations that exceed 50

(Figure 1.6.4).

Average citation per paper is found to be 3.27 which is at a medium level compared to other OIC

countries.



papers published in 2016 (10,029) that may not have received citations as yet. There is a

significant number (~4.4%) that have been cited over 10 times and that does indicate a

significant acknowledgement and impact of the Iranian work in Engineering.

The top ten highest impact papers are on the theme of Electrical/ Electronics Engineering and

Green Technologies.

Table 1.6.4: List of High Impact Papers (Showing Iranian Institutions Only)

# Title Journal Name Impact Factor

Institutions Citations

1

Trust-Distortion Resistant Trust Management Frameworks on Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: A Survey

IEEE Communications Surveys And Tutorials

9.220

Iran Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Comp Engn, Tehran, Iran.

1

2

A PSO-based maximum power point tracking for photovoltaic systems under environmental and partially shaded conditions

Progress In Photovoltaics

7.365 Imam Khomeini Int Univ, Fac Tech & Engn, Qazvin, Iran.

11

At the next lower level of I.F. (6.798) there are 161 publications, all in the same journal. All

these 161 publications are from the field of ‘Green Technologies’ and their contributing

institutes are mentioned in Table 1.6.5.

4737

2837

1847 1314

1693 1428 1524

579 67

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

1 ≤n<2 2 ≤n<3 3 ≤n<4 4 ≤n<5 5 ≤n<7 7 ≤n<10 10 ≤n<20 20 ≤n≤50 n>50

No

. of

pu

blic

atio

ns



Table 1.6.5: Summary of High Impact Publications

161 Publications with Impact Factor 6.798

Journal Name University/Institute Articles

RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY

REVIEWS

Islamic Azad University 40 University Of Tehran 27 Tarbiat Modares University 15 Amirkabir University Of Technology 13 Univ Kashan 8 University Of Tabriz 7

In terms of the institutions publishing the largest number of papers (Figure 1.6.5), Islamic Azad

University appears at the top with 20.5% of the total publications. Tehran University (10.8%),

Amir Kabir (10.5%) and Sharif Univesity (8.6%) and Iran Univ. of S&T (8%) are the remaining

top publishers.


In international collaborations in this field Iran has the largest number of publications with

USA, followed by Canada, Malaysia, Australia and England (Figure 1.6.6, Left).

With regard to Iran’s collaborations within OIC countries the top ranked is Malaysia followed by

Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt (Figure 1.6.6, Right).


In addition to the articles and review papers, conference and proceeding papers are often cited

in engineering. The trend of these publications is shown in Figure 1.6.7.

5,213

2,757 2,673 2,191 2,033

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Institutions

1,345

893 699

522 369

0

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

1,400

1,600

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Countries

699

265

132 60 58

0

200

400

600

800

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Countries


Figure 1.6.7: Conference & Proceeding Papers in the Field of Engineering

Discussion: The most active areas in Engineering research are clearly Mechanical followed by Electrical

Engineering, and Computer Sciences. It is also evident that publications in these fields are

appearing in medium as well as high impact journals. Iran’s publications are being cited to a good

extent with a significant percentage (4.4%) receiving very high number of citations (n ≥ 10).

Considering the importance of the oil industry for Iran’s economy the number of publications in the

field of petroleum engineering is rather small. It is possible that some of the 2,334 publications in

Chemical Engineering are addressing this area.

It is noticed that Iran’s collaborative work with other countries is on the smaller side with the

largest share being that with the US, which is about 5% of all the publications. Within OIC countries

the major collaborator is Malaysia which shares in about 3% of the total publications.

While Islamic Azad University appears as top in terms of publications it is noted that it is an

umbrella under which a number of campuses operate in different cities. As a single University,

Tehran University appears to be the most productive in Engineering.

Iran’s research publications in the various areas of engineering are reflected in its efforts to

commercialize the S&T activity via acquisition of patents (Table 1.6.6). We note that there are

significant number of patents that have been granted to these fields with the highest being in the

area relevant to mechanical & electrical/electronics engineering respectively. These are the two

most active areas of publications in Iran in engineering. Hence it does appear that the research

efforts in these areas is having an impact on local efforts on commercialization.

Table 1.6.6 Iran, List Patents Granted by Technology (Source: https://www3.wipo.int/ipstats/)

Fields Technology 2013 2014 2015 Sum

Chemical Engr.

Chemical engineering 1 1 5

Environmental technology 1 1 1

Civil Engr. Transport 3 1 1

8 Civil engineering

3

CS&IT Computer technology 3 1

6 IT methods for management 1 1

Electrical/ Electronics

Engr.

Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy 2

1

19

Audio-visual technology

1

Telecommunications 1 1 2 Digital communication 2

2

Semiconductors 1 1 2 Control 2 1

Mechanical Engr.

Measurement 2 1 1

34

Materials, metallurgy 3 1 2 Machine tools 3

Engines, pumps, turbines 2 2 4 Textile and paper machines 1

1

Other special machines 1 1 1 Thermal processes and apparatus

1 2

Mechanical elements 1 3 1

2,291 2,950

2,040

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

2014 2015 2016

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Publication Year

https://www3.wipo.int/ipstats/


VII. Earth Sciences

The scheme for identifying the publications that are selected as belonging to the domain of Earth

Sciences and its various sub divisions is defined in Scheme 1.7.1. There are a total of 2,494

publications with Earth Sciences as one of its assigned WoS categories. Of these 1,650 have Earth

Sciences as the first assigned category and these have been selected for analysis.

Scheme 1.7.1: Scheme for Identifying the Publications in the Field of Earth Sciences


There are a relatively small number of publications in this field as compared to other science

disciplines. The total number per year shows a peak in 2015 followed by a decline in 2016.

Between 2014 and 2016 there is still a good overall increase of about 29% (Figure 1.7.1).

Figure 1.7.1: Year wise Trend of Publications in Earth Sciences

• With regard to publications in various sub-categories we find the largest number published

in Geosciences Multidisciplinary followed by Geochemistry and Geology (Figure 1.7.2).

Figure 1.7.2: Research Areas wise Publications in Earth Sciences

451

615 584

0

200

400

600

800

2014 2015 2016 No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Years

905

426

139 92 57 18 13

0

200

400

600

800

1000

Geosci. Multidisp.

Geochem. /Geophy.

Geology Physical Geography

Paleontology Mineralogy Geography

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Research Areas

Total Publications in Earth Sciences

(2,494)

Distinct publications in Earth Sciences (1,650)


Publications in Earth Sciences lower than 1st

place in WC

(844)

Analyzed under respective field

at 1st place


There are 450 or about 27% publications in journals for which I.F. was not available. About 19%

with I.F. between 0 and 1, while the maximum number of publications are almost equally

distributed between the I.F. ranges of 1-2, and 2-3, respectively. Together these two ranges

account for about 46% of all publications. About 8.5% have I.F .values between 3 and 9, as shown

in Figure 1.7.3. Average I.F. is calculated to be 1.8 which is on the lower side as compared to other

leading OIC countries.


• In the category with largest publications (Multidisciplinary) the maximum numbers are in

the I.F. range 1 to 2 with significant numbers in higher ranges as well (Table 1.7.1). It is

noticeable that the category of Geochemistry and Geophysics contributes the largest share

in the high I.F. range of 1-2. In the highest I.F. range (4-9) the contributions are from

Physical Geography in addition to the afore mentioned two categories.

Table 1.7.1: Publications w.r.t. Sub-fields and Impact Factor (n) Sub-fields 0 <n≤ 1 1 <n≤ 2 2 <n≤ 3 3 <n≤ 4 4 <n≤ 9

Geography, Physical 4 25 48 6 8

Geography 2 8 1 - -

Geosciences Multidisciplinary

85 215 129 13 22

Paleontology 36 17 3 - -

Mineralogy 13 4 1 - -

Geochemistry & Geophysics 120 81 166 50 4

Geology - - - - -

Iran’s more frequent publications are in international journals with good Impact Factors lying in the range 1.3 to 3.8. (Figure 1.7.2).

Table 1.7.2: Top Ten Journals w.r.t. to Published Items


1 Natural Hazards 1.746 68

2 Journal of African Earth Sciences 1.326 37

3 Ore Geology Reviews 3.819 36

4 Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 2.647 35

5 Journal of Applied Geophysics 1.355 34

6 Journal of Geochemical Exploration 2.147 33

7 Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie-Abhandlungen

0.719 25

8 Acta Geophysica 0.945 24

307

381 373

105

34

0

100

200

300

400

500

0 <n≤ 1 1 <n≤ 2 2 <n≤ 3 3 <n≤ 4 4 <n≤ 9

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

450 Publications belong to Journals having no Impact Factor Impact Factor(n)

Avg. Impact Factor: 1.8 Avg. Impact Factor: 1.8


9 Carbonates and Evaporites 0.44 24

10 Journal of Geophysics and Engineering 0.736 23

Table 1.7.3 shows the number of papers published in the journals with high IF. These are mostly in the areas of Multidisciplinary earth sciences, ore geology, tectonics, geophysics etc.

Table 1.7.3: Top Ten Journals w.r.t. to Impact Factor

# Journal I.F. Articles

1 Gondwana Research 8.743 12

2 Earth-Science Reviews 6.991 5

3 Quaternary Science Reviews 4.521 2

4 Geological Society of America Bulletin 4.332 3

5 Earth and Planetary Science Letters 4.326 4

6 Geophysical Research Letters 4.212 2

7 ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 4.188 6

8 Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 3.99 9

9 Ore Geology Reviews 3.819 36

10 Tectonics 3.75 5

The highest impact publications (Table 1.7.4) are mainly contributed by Damghan University,

Geological Survey of Iran and University of Zanjan. The papers are in various fields such as

tectonics, petrology, geochemistry, hydrology, and metallic mineral deposits etc.



1 The deep structure of the Iranian Plateau, 2015, GONDWANA RESEARCH (8.743), 4.

Inst Adv Studies Basic Sci, Zanjan; Int Inst Earthquake Engn & Seismol, Tehran, Iran.

2 Evidence for ca. 560 Ma Ediacaran glaciation in the Kahar Formation, central Alborz Mountains, northern Iran, 2016, GONDWANA RESEARCH (8.743), 4.

Shahid Beheshti Univ, Tehran; Pars Kani Mineral Ind Res & Dev, Tehran, Iran.

3

The Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone in the Neo-Tethyan suture, western Iran: Zircon U-Pb evidence of late Palaeozoic rifting of northern Gondwana and mid-Jurassic orogenesis, 2016, GONDWANA RESEARCH (8.743), 0.

Univ Tarbiat Modares, Tehran, Iran.

4

Arc-related harzburgite-dunite-chromitite complexes in the mantle section of the Sabzevar ophiolite, Iran: A model for formation of podiform chromitites, 2015, GONDWANA RESEARCH (8.743), 6.

Damghan Univ, Sch Earth Sci, Damghan, Iran.

5 Biogeochemical formation of calyx-shaped carbonate crystal fans in the subsurface of the Early Triassic seafloor, 2015, GONDWANA RESEARCH (8.743), 6.

Geol Survey Iran, Tehran, Iran.

6

U-Pb zircon ages, field geology and geochemistry of the Kermanshah ophiolite (Iran): From continental rifting at 79 Ma to oceanic core complex at ca. 36 Ma in the southern Neo-Tethys. 2016, GONDWANA RESEARCH (8.743), 4.

Geol Survey Iran, Res Inst Earth Sci, Tehran, Iran.

7 Devonian to Permian evolution of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean: New evidence from U-Pb zircon dating and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopes of the Darrehanjir-Mashhad

Damghan Univ, Sch Earth Sci, Damghan, Iran.


"ophiolites", NE Iran, 2015, GONDWANA RESEARCH (8.743), 5.

8

Late Miocene K-rich volcanism in the Eslamieh Peninsula (Saray), NW Iran: Implications for geodynamic evolution of the Turkish-Iranian High Plateau, 2014, GONDWANA RESEARCH (8.743), 11.

Damghan Univ, Sch Earth Sci, Damghan; Urumieh Univ, Urumieh, Iran.

9

Neoproterozoic-Early Cambrian tectono-magmatic evolution of the Central Iranian terrane, northern margin of Gondwana: Constraints from detrital zircon U-Pb and Hf-O isotope studies, 2016, GONDWANA RESEARCH (8.743), 0.

Inst Adv Studies Basic Sci, Zanjan; Univ Zanjan, Fac Sci, Zanjan, Iran.

10 Oblique convergence during the Cimmerian collision: Evidence from the Triassic Aghdarband Basin, NE Iran, 2016, GONDWANA RESEARCH (8.743), 0.

Geol Survey Iran, Res Inst Earth Sci, Tehran, Iran.

• A large fraction, about 41% received no citations in this period and may be partly attributed to

the publications from 2016. About 21% of the publications have a single citation while the

distribution for higher levels of citations are as shown Figure 1.7.4. It is noticeable that a

significant number (76) have citations in excess of 10 in this brief period (2014-2016).

• Average citation per paper is found 2.25 which is comparatively at a medium level with respect

other leading OIC countries.

• The most highly cited papers are contributed mostly by Tarbiat Modares University.


• The largest number of publications in this field is from University of Tehran (520) followed by

the Islamic Azad University and Tarbiat Modares and Amirkabir University of Technology. Since

Islamic Azad is not a single university but a large group, the domination of University of Tehran

is very evident (Figure 1.7.5).


339

191

118 87

154

76

0

100

200

300

400

1 2 3 4 5 to 9 10 to 57

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns


520 415

181 175 148

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Univ Tehran Islamic Azad Univ Tarbiat Modares Univ

Amirkabir Univ. of Tech

Ferdowsi Univ Mashhad

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Universities


The US with 188 or about 11.3% share of co-authored publications is Iran’s main partner,

followed by Germany, Australia, Malaysia and Canada (Figure 1.7.6, Left).

Iran’s main OIC partners in the field of Earth Sciences are Malaysia, and Turkey as shown in

(Figure 1.7.6, Right).



According to Nature Index, Iran has an Article Count (AC) of 6 and a Fractional Count (FC) of 1.48.

This shows that Iran has participated in a few publications in the most elite set of journals. The

share of its own scientists to these 6 publications, estimated from the ratio FC/AC 0.248, is about

25% of the total. Tehran University contributes to 2 of these 5 publications further consolidating

its positions as a leading institute in Earth Sciences in Iran.

Discussion:

Iran’s publications in this field are relatively small and do not show a consistently increasing

trend for the considered period. However, between 2014 and 2016 there is still a significant

increase. A large fraction of papers remains uncited till the time of our analysis. Publications are

distributed over a range of impact factors 0<IF< 9 with almost 45% publications being in the

range of 1-3, with another 8% or so in the range 3-9. This is an indicator that work in this field is

finding place in more competitive and cited journals. On the average, researchers are making an

effort to publish in better I.F. journals, with an average I.F. of 1.89 which is moderately good for

earth sciences. Tehran University appears as a leading institution with regards to number of

publications while more of the highly cited papers are contributed by Tarbiat Modares University.

188

111 106 102 91

0

50

100

150

200

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Countries

102

39

11 8 7

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

No

. of

Pu

blic

atio

ns

Countries

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