Jointly published by Akad��miai Kiad , Budapest Scientometrics, and Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht Vol. 61, No. 1 (2004) 79 88 Received April 2, 2004 Address for correspondence: MORTEZA MEHRDAD Department of Phytochemistry, Shahid Beheshti University P. O. Box 19835-389, Tehran, Iran E-mail: m-mehrdad@sbu.ir 0138 9130/2004/US $ 20.00 Copyright ' 2004 Akad��miai Kiad , Budapest All rights reserved Basic science in the Islamic Republic of Iran MORTEZA MEHRDAD,a,b AKBAR HEYDARI,a,c MOHAMMAD NABI SARBOLOUKI,a,d SHAPOUR ETEMADa a Scientometry Group, Ministry of Science Research and Technology, Tehran (Iran) b Department of Phytochemistry, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran (Iran) c Chemistry Department, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran (Iran) d Institute of Biochemistry & Biophysics, Tehran University, Tehran (Iran) The population of Iran has nearly doubled in less than 25 years, while the number of university students has increased more than 10 times and 720 Ph. D. degrees have been awarded in basic science in the past 10 years. Despite the great difficulties that the Iranian scientists have been facing for more than two decades (as a consequence of a social revolution, 8 years of a destructive war imposed by Iraq, excessive brain drain, discriminatory practices by some international journals in publishing the Iranian articles, and unfair sanctions imposed by the industrialized countries) Iran s science is still thriving and the current number of yearly scientific publications exceeds 1500. When normalized with respect to the number of researchers and the research budget, the Iranian scientists seem to outperform most of their counterparts in the advanced industrialized nations. Main reason: total engagement in truncated research activities (basic or applied) leading solely to pure publications lack of infrastructure for developmental research activities leading to new technologies. The average impact factor of the papers in various fields of basic science seems quite satisfactory considering the difficult conditions the Iranian scientists are working under. Should the research budgets and conditions improve and the unfair sanctions currently imposed by the world politics be eliminated, a far better contribution to the world science can be expected. Introduction The oil producing ancient country of Iran (current population over 69 millions 65% under the age of 25) has been on the world news headlines for the past two decades because of her popular Islamic revolution, break up of the diplomatic relation with the U. S., the 8 year (1981 1989) defensive war against the Iraqi invasion, her non-aligned uncompromising political stance, and her continued political discourse with the advanced industrialized nations (especially the U. S.). Under these circumstances most of other important aspects of the Iranian society including her scientific status have remained enigmatic to the outside world, leading to all sorts of speculative

M. MEHRDAD et al.: Basic science in Iran 80 Scientometrics 61 (2004) announcements ranging from marvelous to disastrous . We, hereby wish to present a first hand scientometric appraisal of the country s science status in light of her actual realities. The first Western style university (Tehran University) was established in 1934 and by 1979 prior to the revolution there were about 30 universities and higher educational institutions throughout the country, most of them being in Tehran and other major cities. Revolution took place in 1979 and the universities were practically closed for nearly 2 years (1980 1982, during revolution and the period of the so called Cultural Revolution). The destructive 8 year war imposed by the Iraqi inversion lasted from 1980 to 1988. Naturally these conditions caused a severe brain drain with severe negative impacts on the nation s future development. Extension and expansion of universities and research institutions occurred mostly after the war. Currently there are more than 50 state universities, and nearly 150 non- private technical undergraduate schools that enroll about 750,000 students. There are also about 60 research institutions throughout the country making their contribution to the nation s science output. Since 1984 there has started an extensive private university system (mostly undergraduate) throughout the country that enrolls an approximately equal number of full time students. Altogether these make a student body that is almost 10 times the pre-revolution period (while the population has nearly doubled since). The present article deals only with the status of basic science in the state universities and research institutions which operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (MSRT). Medical science universities and medical research centers are under the auspices of the Health, Education and Welfare Ministry, while some other state research institutions and a group of mostly undergraduate technical/ professional schools are funded and managed by other ministries in order to train their own specialists. Table 1 summarizes some of the relevant information regarding the current state of affair in basic science in universities under the MSRT. Offering of the Ph.D. programs started first in 1985 at the chemistry department of Shiraz University (formerly Pahlavi). The current research budget is at best estimated to be about 0.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP). Table 1. Some basic information regarding the state of basic science in universities under the MSRT Staff members holding Ph. D. degree 13,750 Total number of Ph. D. graduates in past 10 years 720 Chemistry Physics Mathematics Biosciences Geosciences 242 109 258 73 38