Iran’s Research Institutes in Global Science: a Scientometrics Study

Purpose- For the purpose of considering the quality as well as increasing the quantity of scientific work, the present study attempts to compare and evaluate the scientific productions of Iran’s research institutes in the ISI database using qualitative and quantitative criteria for three categories of research institutes (1) those under the authority of the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology, (2) those under the authority of the Ministry of Public Health, and (3) other research institutes. In addition the study will assess the meaningfulness of the differences of these categories based on the four indexes considered in the study.
Design/methodology/approach- The study was conducted as a survey. The statistical universe being all research institutes in Iran which have had their scientific productions published in the ISI database from 1997 to 2006. Sampling was performed based on Garfield’s research (1993) in an evaluative and non-random method. The data was analyzed by means of the advanced search tools of the said database. The data was then analyzed in four categories (production, citation, citation impact, and cited document percentage) using descriptive and inferential statistics and with the SPSS13 software package.
Findings- The findings of the study indicate that the research center for basic sciences is the superior research institute among the ones under the authority of the Ministry of Science, Research, & Technology based on three factors. Iran’s Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands is the superior research institute among the rest based on all four factors. Research institutes in Iran working on basic sciences as well as chemistry and chemical engineering are the superior ones among all research institutes of this country based on all four factors. Based on the qualitative and quantitative indexes considered in the study, the results revealed no meaningful difference between the research institutes under the authority of the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology and other research institutes.
Conclusion- This qualitative and quantitative evaluation of Iran’s research institutes based on all four factors, as well as the considerable degree of overlapping of the higher research institutes chosen, are indicative of the fact that both the quality and quantity of the scientific productions in research institutes have been considered together and at the same time. Such consideration is more visible in research institutes associated with interdisciplinary sciences including basic sciences research institutes, and those associated with the field of chemistry.