Iran Leadership in World Science Quality

Surveys conducted at Scopus show that the growth of citations received by researchers in 2019 compared to 2018 reached about 5%, and based on this, Iran became a leader in science quality and effectiveness growth among world scientific powers. This is a fact that has been achieved by normalizing citations in Scopus in 2019, comparing it with 2018.

Studies show that even with the elimination of self-citation, Iran still holds the leading position in world qualitative growth. Further results of scientometric analysis show that Iran has risen from 23rd place in the world in 2011 to 12th place in 2020 in terms of normalized citation index. In 2019, Iran was ranked 14th in the world. This is while Iran was ranked 15th in the world in terms of volume and quantity of scientific publications in Scopus, as a Citation Database in 2019. This indicates the emphasis and attention of researchers on the effectiveness and quality of publishing research findings.

Citations indicate the use of science produced by other researchers and are therefore considered as an indicator to evaluate the effectiveness of the science which has produced. Impact comes in many forms. The science produced can affect industry, the economy, and society, which is the ultimate goal of science. But how much of the produced science is used internationally among other researchers is also considered as a scientific influence. This index is widely used in scientific evaluations, so that it is widely used in promoting researchers or examining their status to take advantage of a job opportunity.