Factors Affecting the Quantitative Growth of Iran’s Scientific Production after the Islamic Revolution of Iran

Abstract

The number of papers and scientific productions published in journals indexed in indexing/abstracting databases is used as a measure of the growth of science. One of the reasons for the ability of the Islamic Republic of Iran in various fields can be attributed to the scientific growth of Iran in recent years. This survey used scientometric approaches for measuring the scientometric indicators at hand. The research population included all papers authored by Iranians indexed in Web of Science (WOS) from 1980-2021. Accordingly, in this research, the quantitative growth of Iranian science during the four decades after the Islamic Revolution of Iran (by counting the number of indexed papers in the Web of Science) and the factors affecting the growth of Iranian science are examined. Factors such as the growth in the number of faculty members, the growth in the number of graduate students, the promotion regulations of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (MSRT) and the Ministry of Health, and Medical Education (MHME) along with encouraging policies for scientific production in Iran and the comprehensive scientific map of the country, Scientific research towards the needs and priorities of the country, the graduation regulations of graduate students, other social, political, cultural and international factors analyzed. The results of the four decades of Iran's science production showed that the highest amount of Iran's science production, i.e., more than 75% of Iran's science production, occurred in the fourth decade (2011-2021). In general, in the second period (2001-2021), the relationship between academic degrees and science production is significantly higher than in the first period (1980-2000). In 2023, Iran will be the fourth largest producer of nanoscience in the world with 7.30 percent of the world's science production in the field of nanoscience, and countries such as Japan, South Korea, Germany, France, England, and Italy are after Iran. The results of analysis and investigation of the research also showed that the number of graduates at both master's and doctorate levels, as well as the population of full-time faculty members of the universities, were proportional with the production of Iranian science in these years There has been an increasing trend from 1980 to 2021. Despite the ups and downs of the share of research in the gross national product in Iran, which has always decreased and was less than one percent, the growth of science in Iran has been on an upward trend. According to the number of Iranian scientific publications in the WOS database at the end of 2021, which has reached 56,000, it seems that due to the growth of Iran's scientific productions, we can hope that the number of Iranian scientific publications will reach 2026 (1404) by the end of the Horizon program has arrived.

Keywords

• science growth
• iran
• science production