Bibliometrics in Practice in Developing Nations: A Study on the Development of Scientometrics and Bibliometrics Careers in Iran

JISTaP http://www.jistap.org Research Paper eISSN : 2287-4577 pISSN : 2287-9099 J Inf Sci Theory Pract 6(2): 24-35, 2018 https://doi.org/10.1633/JISTaP.2018.6.2.2 Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice Bibliometrics in Practice in Developing Nations: A Study on the Development of Scientometrics and Bibliometrics Careers in Iran Saeid Asadi* Fatemeh Atash Deligani Department of Information Science, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran E-mail: Freelance Researcher, Isfahan, Iran E-mail: Behrooz Rasuli Majid Shaian Majd Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran E-mail: AQR Library, Mashhad, Iran E-mail: ABSTRACT Developing countries may pay attention to bibliometric indicators in accordance with their scientific development plans. Bibliometrics research topics and bibliometric indicators have grown dramatically in Iran since 2000 as a part of the post-war reconstruction programs. This paper aims to highlight how scientometrics may attract attention in developing countries such as Iran in response to national movements in education and science. An in-depth review on available guidelines for promotion of innovation, science, and technology in Iran was done followed by a review on previous research in this topic. Further data were gathered from Scopus and other sources. The findings show a considerable growth in research output of Iran in recent years and expansion of bibliometrics studies and jobs accordingly. Combined with research output measures, more attention was found in academia about cross-section development of science and technology in Iran. The demand in society has led to the foundation of scientometrics programs in Iranian universities as well as scientometrics departments in central libraries and research deputies in major academic institutions. The changing image of science and research in Iran has a relation with the growth of scientometrics academic and professional departments. The lessons taught from this mutual collaboration can be used in other developing nations. Keywords: scientometrics, bibliometrics, academic programs, Iran, research and practice Open Access Accepted date: March 11, 2018 Received date: December 13, 2017 *Corresponding Author: Saeid Asadi Assistant Professor Department of Information Science, Shahed University, Persian Gulf Freeway, Postcode 3319118651, Tehran, Iran E-mail: All JISTaP content is Open Access, meaning it is accessible online to everyone, without fee and authors’ permission. All JISTaP content is published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Under this license, authors reserve the copyright for their content; however, they permit anyone to unrestrictedly use, distribute, and reproduce the content in any medium as far as the original authors and source are cited. For any reuse, redistribution, or reproduction of a work, users must clarify the license terms under which the work was produced. © Saeid Asadi, Fatemeh Atash Deligani, Behrooz Rasuli, Majid Shaian Majd, 2018 Bibliometrics in Practice in Developing Nations 1. INTRODUCTION However, in recent decades, scientometrics has found an important place in science and technology (S&T) policymaking; in particular, it plays a vital role in providing quantitative indicators to measure scientific activities and evaluate the successfulness of programs and plans to improve S&T (Feller, 2011). In fact, the bibliometric indicators are meaningless unless they are used in practice (Leydesdorff, Wouters, & Bornmann, 2016). Probably in countries with more emphasis on scientific activities and outputs, bibliometrics and its related indicators are widely used and have a significant impact on S&T policy-making. In such countries, policy-makers need quantitative indicators to compare their scientific outputs with others in a certain area. Therefore, bibliometric indicators are the main tools in evidence-based policymaking in the current science ecosystem (Marburger III, 2015). Although, sometimes individuals with different responsibilities at different levels, from a researcher to a research administrative, may abuse quantitative indicators, either intentionally or unintentionally (Gingras, 2016). In spite of its young age, the scientometrics domain has received a significant attention in practice, in particular in some developing countries with important achievements in scientific areas. The use of bibliometric indicators in these countries is common and various research institutions or research think tanks are attempting to establish their own scientometrics units as well as indicators to monitor research activities. As Archambault (2010) believes, scientific progress in the Middle East has been remarkable since 1980, led by Iran and Turkey, especially Iran. After the Iranian Revolution of 1978-1979 (also called the Islamic Revolution), the Cultural Revolution Movement had an important role in planning for scientific activities and progress in Iran (Khosrokhavar & Ghaneirad, 2006). Based on this radical program, the whole higher education system was suspended for about three years and the universities were opened after a deep review in the missions and visions of the scholar programs in the country. Two decades later, in the beginning of the 2000s, as Economist (2014) reported, Iran’s scientific output had increased dramatically and the number of educated people had grown intensely. In addition, during the past three decades, Iran has created and expanded its own research infrastructure (Moed, 2016). According to major indexing databases such as Scopus and Web of Science (WoS), Iran has been among the 30 top countries with the largest number of publications in recent years. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (2015) emphasized the enormous growth in Iranian publications in According to Robert Merton, the key aim of science is producing and communicating scientific knowledge. Therefore, knowledge is scientific when it is socially shared and validated (Small, 2015). This idea has resulted in the development and spread of various (new) information channels including academic journals, books, etc. Very soon, with the increase in the number of scientific publications, researchers, research administrators, and governments look for certain tools and techniques to evaluate these publications. According to Gingras (2016), this demand has its roots in the ideology of the “new public management” of the 1980s that resulted in the development of several quantitative indicators for assessing scientific knowledge. Extensive use of advanced quantitative indicators by different sectors (i.e., researchers, research administrators, governments, etc.) at different levels (i.e., individual, institutional, national, and global) resulted in the emergence of Bibliometrics in the 1990s (Gingras, 2016). Pritchard (1969) define (...truncated)