ISC and PASTIC Hold E-meeting

A joint e-meeting between ISC and Pakistan’s Scientific and Technological Information Center (PASTIC) was held on 13 May 2024 acknowledging the presence of Prof. Dr. Azhar Ali Shah, the ISC’s EC Member from West Asia. 

     Dr. Seyed Rashid Fallah Shamsi, ISC’s Vice-President of Research Affairs and Dr. Mohammad Reza Falahati Qadimi Fumani, the Head of International Affairs Advancement Division jointly hosted this e-meeting to introduce ISC’s services and products to the Pakistani delegation including Prof. Dr. Muhammad Akram Shaikh, the Director General, Dr. Maryum Ibrar Shinwari, the Additional Director (STI), and Mr. Saifullah Azim, the Principal System Analyst, all from Pakistan’s Scientific and Technological Information Center (PASTIC). Discussing in detail, both parties sought common grounds to boost bilateral ties and promote mutual cooperation.     

     Following Prof. Dr. Azhar Ali Shah’s visits as the EC Member from the West Asia, ISC has been holding a series of e-meetings with various scientific and research institutions in the aforementioned region to introduce its services and products, disseminate such services to the Islamic countries, and assist in bridging the gap between the developed and Islamic countries in terms of science, research, technology and innovation through both monitoring activities and measuring their performance.                  

     At the beginning of this e-meeting, Dr. Fallah Shamsi heartily extended his welcome to ISC’s EC Member from the West Asia and other participants in this meeting and provided a brief history of the establishment, services and activities of the ISC and its outstanding position at both national and international levels.

     Afterwards, Dr. Falahati Qadimi Fumani introduced the scientific products and thematic reports of the ISC including the Challenges and Solutions Platform (CSP), the Portal for Getting to Know Elites and Future Makers (DANA), the digital library system, the ranking system of Iranian universities and research institutions, journal metrics database and ISC’s national and international ranking systems. “Internationally, the ISC has held multiple face-to-face meetings with top universities in Türkiye and elsewhere, and organizations like D8 which have led to signing of scientific MoUs or promoting mutual cooperation”, ISC’s Head of International Affairs Advancement Division further posited.

     Moreover, during the past year, ISC has hosted multiple meetings with Pakistan’s higher education and research institutions such as the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), Science Foundation (SF), and other top universities to further boost the number of Pakistan’s scholarly journals in ISC’s Journal Metrics Database and increase their visibility.     

     Dr. Falahati Qadimi Fumani added: “Monitoring science and technology performance of the Islamic countries is amongst ISC’s missions. In this regard, Pakistan ranked 5th based on WoS report in 2023, and secured 7th position among Islamic countries according to Scopus reports”.

     Given the performance of Pakistan’s journals in ISC’s database and the significant role of Pakistan’s Scientific and Technological Information Center (PASTIC) in scholarly journal indexing, ISC’s Head of International Affairs Advancement Division demanded PASTIC’s further cooperation with ISC to assist in the indexation process and accordingly the promotion of the position of this country's journals among Islamic countries.     

     Expressing his satisfaction with this e-meeting, Dr. Muhammad Akram Sheikh, the director of Pakistan’s Science and Technology Information Center introduced PASTIC as a research support and premier national organization of the government of Pakistan with prime focus on scientific academic principles and research and the dissemination of scientific sources and information technology. “PASTIC is principally focused on providing academic assistance to scientists, researchers, academicians, industrialists, entrepreneurs, planners, and policymakers among others. It also contains information in science, engineering and technology for research and development of technology in Pakistan”, he added.

     The director of PASTIC said: “this center helps journal publishers in providing digital services, interaction in the field of data transfer and support for capacity building among scientific communities and journals in Pakistan. Currently, more than 100 Pakistani journals are indexed in this center, and according to this country’s mega plans, this process will speed up to index other prestigious scientific journals”.

     Eventually, Dr. Seyed Rashid Fallah Shamsi, ISC’s Vice-President of Research Affairs suggested that both ISC and PASTIC hold joint technical meetings considering the cooperation capacities of both parties, which was agreed upon.

Last but not least, the following agreements were also reached at this meeting:

• • It was decided to conclude a joint cooperation memorandum in the first step.
  • Due to the availability of ISC’s Journal Metrics Database, it was decided to provide the basis for the indexing, evaluating, and ranking of more scientific journals from Pakistan through establishing communication between technical working groups.
  • It was decided to arrange and hold educational workshops on ”how to index scientific journals in ISC?” for experts of Pakistan’s scientific journals.