TEHRAN – Stanford University, in collaboration with Elsevier, has placed a total of 2,772 Iranian researchers among the top two percent of the most-cited scientists’ annual list, based on career-long impact.

This version is based on the August 2025 snapshot from Scopus, updated to the end of citation year 2024. 

This work uses Scopus data. Calculations were performed using all Scopus author profiles as of August 1, 2025.

Scientists are classified into 22 scientific fields and 174 sub-fields according to the standard Science-Metrix classification. Field- and subfield-specific percentiles are also provided for all scientists with at least 5 papers. 

Career-long data are updated to end-of-2024, and single recent year data pertain to citations received during calendar year 2024. 

The selection is based on the top 100,000 scientists by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2 percent or above in the sub-field.

The career-long assessment captures the cumulative research influence of a scientist over their entire career up to the end of the previous calendar year (the end of 2024).

The ranking uses a composite citation indicator (c-score), which combines several bibliometric criteria to provide a comprehensive measure of a scientist’s sustained impact, focusing on quality and significance over mere publication volume.

The criteria used to calculate the c-score include total number of citations (NC), H-index (H), Co-authorship-adjusted hm-index, Citations to single-author papers (NCS), Citations to single or first-author papers (NCSF), Citations to single, first, or last-author papers (NCFSL).

The latest international data shows that the presence of Iranian researchers in the top two percent list of the world based on citation indicators continues to trend upward, indicating an improvement in the quality of the country’s scientific production.

The reputable “updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators”, which provides updated versions of scientist rankings based on standardized indicators, reported on September 19 that Iran has experienced an unprecedented growth in both one-year performance and scientific career-long indicators, IRNA quoted Peyman Salehi, deputy science minister, as saying.

Based on the report, the number of highly cited Iranian researchers in the one-year performance index has increased from 2,326 in the Iranian year 1403 (2024-2025) to 2,533 in 1404 (2025-2026).

This figure represents an increase of 207 persons compared to the previous year and clearly demonstrates the improvement in the quality and impact of the country’s scientific production in 2024, he explained.

In one-year performance, the medical field (with 853 researchers), and in career-long performance, the engineering field (with 287 researchers) has the highest number of Iranian most-cited researchers.

Also, the number of highly cited Iranian researchers in the career-long index has grown significantly from 1,018 in 1403 to 1,021 in 1404. A five-year trend analysis shows that Iran has achieved this remarkable achievement from 433 in 1399.

The single-year index focuses on the citations received by articles in a specific year. 

In the recent report, citations received in 2024 were the basis for the ranking, which indicates the current scientific impact and the ability of the researcher to produce new knowledge, he concluded.

The 2024 edition of the Nature Index Research Leaders report has placed Iran 32nd among Research Leaders globally. 

The report is based on Nature Index data from January 1 to December 31, 2023.

Institute for Fundamental Sciences (IPM), University of Tehran, and Sharif University of Technology are ranked first to third in the country.

The country is ranked second in Physical Sciences, third in Chemistry, as well as Health Sciences, fourth in Earth and Environmental Sciences, and fifth in Biological Sciences in the region.

Iran’s best global ranking is in Physical Sciences with the rank of 27.

The Nature Index is an open database of author affiliations and institutional relationships. 

The Index tracks contributions to research articles published in high-quality natural science and health science journals, chosen based on reputation by an independent group of researchers.

The Nature Index provides absolute Count and fractional share counts of article publications at the institutional and national levels and, as such, is an indicator of global high-quality research output and collaboration.

Data in the Nature Index are updated regularly, with the most recent 12 months. The database is compiled by Nature Research Intelligence, part of Springer Nature.

In 2024, a total of 1056 Iranian researchers were recognized among the world’s top one percent most-cited researchers, indicating a 12 percent increase compared to 938 identified researchers in 2023, the head of the Islamic World Science Citation (ISC) Institute said.

“The Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (with 427 researchers) represents 40.44 percent, and the Ministry of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education (with 518 researchers) accounts for 49.05 percent of the most-cited Iranian researchers,” IRNA quoted Ahmad Fazelzadeh as saying.

Clinical medicine with 22.54 percent, Multidisciplinary with 21.78 percent, Engineering with 17.05 percent, Pharmacology and Toxicology with 9.66 percent, Chemistry with 8.43 percent, and Agricultural sciences with 7.01 percent held the highest shares of the most-cited researchers, respectively.

Iran targets world’s 12th spot by 2027

Despite ongoing sanctions, Iran is planning to elevate the country’s ranking for scientific productions from its current 17 to 12 by 2027.

Due to sanctions, economic restrictions, and the limitations on publishing papers by Iranian scholars, particularly during the last three years, Iran’s ranking in scientific productions has lowered from 15 to 17, Shahin Akhoundzadeh, an official with the health ministry, has said.

The country’s advancement in science production requires compensating for the regression in research and technology through providing funds, facilitating research, and promoting meritocracy, which will reduce young elites’ migration, as well, the health ministry’s website quoted Akhoundzadeh as saying.

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