Abstract:
In most countries, internationally indexed scientific publications provide the
possibility for the scientometric experts to study their scientific progress. In Iran,
the number of scientific productions indexed in ISI was 323 in 1993 and rose to
14832 in 2008 showing about 46 manifolds. The main aim of this research is to
illustrate the dynamic structure of scientific productions of Iranian biotechnologists
and applied microbiologists in WOS database during 2000–2008. The data was
gathered through searching WOS database of ISI. The field of search was country
(CU=IRAN). 681 scientific products were reported to be indexed in ISI. Iranians'
international collaboration has been mainly with Canadian, Swedish and Australian
coauthors. Compared to other Iranian universities, University of Tehran, Tarbiat
Modares University and Tehran University of Medical Sciences have contributed
mostly to ISI. Iranian biotechnologists’ and microbiologists’ intercontinental
collaboration is generally in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Engineering and
chemical and Biochemical research. There has been an increase in the fundamental
research activities in Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology research projects
which have triggered motivation for higher contribution to ISI.
Machine summary:
Also, in Biomedical Sciences, the quantity of papers indexed in journals raised (Etemad & Emami, 2003; King, 2004; Malekzadeh, Mokri & Azarmina, 2001; Mehrdad, Heydari, Sarbolouki & Etemad, 2004; Moin, Mahmoudi & Rezaei, 2005).
Moreover, it is maintained that Iran has experienced a great rise in the number of scientific outputs reported by the Science Citation Index (SCI) (Jowkar & Ebrahimi, 2008) with 23.
Other factors relevant to this rise are collaboration of Iranian scientists with the international scientists and the emergence of scientific communities (Osareh & Wilson, 2000 and 2001; Noroozi Chakoli, Hassanzadeh & Nourmohammadi, 2008; Asnafi, Pakdaman Naeeni & Toosi 2008; Shojaosadati, 2001; Afsharnia & Vaez-zadeh, 2005).
The rise of scientific productions in Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology in Iran, Turkey and Egypt shown in Figures 4 and 5 are in agreement with a previous paper reporting the number of published articles in journals listed in the ISI for Turkey, Iran and Egypt as the most scientificly productive countries in the region (Noroozi Chakoli, Nourmohammadi, Vaziri & Etemadifar, 2007).
This has triggered an acceleration of knowledge development (Habibzadeh & Vessal, 2006; Rezaei-Ghaaleh & Azizi, 2007; EMBO reports, 2004; Osareh & McCain, 2008; Moreno-Borchart, 2003; Osareh & McCain, 2008; Wagner, Brahmakulam, Jackson, Wong & Yoda, 2001).
Wagner, Brahmakulam, Jackson, Wong & Yoda (2001) categorized Iran as one of 24 scientifically developing countries in terms of research funding put on science and technology.
Percentage of ISI papers published during 9 years of study in Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology in top 15 Iranian universities and institutions.